Movies

Synopsis
A movie by director, David Fincher, Fight Club has established a solid cult following after over a decade of its release in 1999. Starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, the movies tackles several issues like stereotypical concepts of masculinity, American consumerism and the corporate prison.

A regular guy with a job he hated, Jack lived in a phoney apartment with phoney furniture. Just like any yuppie, he was caffeine drunk and sugar driven, thanks to Starbucks and Krispy Kreme. No family. No friends. No life. He thinks hell die of insomnia and his temporary fix was attending dying peoples support groups. It seemed alright until he found a girl (Elena Bonham Carter), which is just like him, touring weeknight meetings for free coffee. Suddenly, he wasnt able to sleep again. Everything seemed so unreal, again. He lived in a condominium, a filing cabinet for yuppies and widows. He worked in a car manufacturing company ran by the Grimm Reaper. He sometimes lived in a suitcase, flying from one city to another, used to single-serving sugar, single-serving Q-tips and single-serving friends.

Thats how he met Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), the smartest single-serving friend he ever had. Tyler Durden was free in all ways that he wasnt. He made soap out of rich womens fat, edited films, those and a dozen more havoc-wreaking jobs.  Tyler also happens to be Nortons characters alter ego.

Symbolisms
When Jack joined his support groups, pretending to be dying, he met Bob. Bob was dying of testosterone cancer and because of his medications, he grew breasts. On the night Jack attended the testosterone cancer support group, he was paired up with Bob and both cried on each other, Bob on Jacks shoulders, Jack on Bobs breast. That night Jack fell sound asleep. Crying was his release. The image of Bob with his breast and Jack finding comfort in crying was the opposite of societys image of masculinity. It was the complete opposite of Tylers Fight Club.

Tyler Durden said, How much do you know about yourself if youve never been in a fight Fight Club was formed at the back of a pub when Tyler and Jack started a brawl between themselves. From there, the all-men club grew and was attended by blue-collared workers. They were waiters, gas boys and janitors. The club meet at the basement of an abandoned house. There members paired up and start fight sessions.
Somehow fighting gave men a certain satisfaction from the bruises and the cuts they get. In fighting they found themselves which they lost in their jobs waiting tables and pumping gas to the wealthy.  The movie presents us with two images of men fat, crying Bob with his breasts and ripped Tyler with his cracked lips from fighting. But both Bob and Tyler were after the same emotional fulfilment. Somehow crying and fighting both serves their needs for emotional release.

The film also tackled the social and economic issue of consumerism. Jack, despite the job he hated, found satisfaction in his Ikea furniture in his cosmopolitan apartment. He identified himself with the material things he can afford. But despite this, he was not happy. He sought the comfort of support groups. These groups provided him human warmth and attention that he yearned. Later on, he joined fight club which, again, provides him release. He released his anger, frustrations and disappointments in his life, his job and his boss. His situation is very prevalent in todays society. People purchase products that provide them identity and social acceptance. They want goods that will fulfil higher needs of personal gratification. But people, instead of defining themselves and taking control of their relationships and lives, are busy finding themselves on material goods. Tyler said it perfectly, Youre not your job, youre not the car you drive, youre not the contents of your wallet...

People work jobs they hate to buy things that they do not need. They become slaves of society. They let the materialism rule their lives. They fail to realize that society has turned them into corporate robots that work to feed the system of capitalism.

The film challenges people to free themselves from the system that has ruled their lives. When was the last time you were truly free Can one be truly free We live in a society. We have institutions that make sure we fall in line and do what we are supposed to do, even if we dont want to. It is like we are saluting an invisible dictator. We run on tracks.

Near the end of the film, Nortons character shot himself. That was the only moment he was free, he was fearless. He was free from fight club. He was free from Tyler. Fight Club is a call to fight the system, not necessarily to start an underground anarchist club, but it tells us to free ourselves from slavery. Let us not become prisoners of money and material pleasure. People should think and choose for themselves. We should fight for our very own existence. To exist means taking control of ones life. To be free means to be fearless. Freedom is choosing who you want to be, what you want to be. Freedom is existing for what you believe and fighting for what you believe.  Existing means being your own self and being own boss. Existence is freedom.