Fight club Ideology Explained
Fight Club is a 1999 American Physcological Thriller Dark Comedy film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It is based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk.Initially it was panned by the critics and failed to meet the expectation at box office.Fight Club failed to meet the studio's expectations at the box office, and received polarized reactions from critics. It was cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999. The film later found commercial success with its DVD release, establishing Fight Club as a cult classic and causing media to revisit the film. On the tenth anniversary of the film's release, The New York Times dubbed it the "defining cult movie of our time."It has become now a cult classic movie.
Brief description and Synopsis of movie:-
The Narrator, an automobile recall specialist, is unfulfilled by his job and possessions and suffers from chronic insomnia. To cure this he attends support groups, posing as a sufferer of diseases. His bliss is disturbed when another impostor, Marla Singer, begins attending the same groups. The two agree to split which groups they attend.
On a flight home from a business trip, the Narrator meets soap salesman Tyler Durden. The Narrator returns home to find his apartment and all his belongings have been destroyed by an explosion. Disheartened by his material loss, he calls Tyler and they meet at a bar. Tyler tells him he is trapped by consumerism. In the parking lot, he asks the Narrator to hit him, and they have a fistfight.
The Narrator moves into Tyler's home, a large dilapidated house in an industrial area. They have further fights outside the bar, which attract growing crowds of men. The fights move to the bar's basement where the men form Fight Club, which routinely meets.
Marla overdoses on pills and telephones the Narrator for help; he ignores her, but Tyler goes to her apartment to save her. They begin a sexual relationship, much to the Narrator's irritation. Tyler warns the Narrator never to talk to Marla about him. The Narrator blackmails his boss for his company's assets to support Fight Club and quits his job.
More new members join Fight Club, including Robert "Bob" Paulson, a man with testicular cancer whom the Narrator had met in a support group. Tyler then recruits their members to a new anti-materialist and anti-corporate organization, Project Mayhem, without the Narrator's involvement. The group engages in subversive acts of vandalism, increasingly troubling the Narrator. After the Narrator complains that Tyler has excluded him, Tyler reveals that he was the one who caused the explosion at the Narrator's condo.
When Paulson is killed by the police during a botched sabotage operation, the Narrator tries to halt the project. He follows a paper trail to cities Tyler had visited, discovering Project Mayhem has spread throughout the country. In one city, a project member addresses the Narrator as "Mr. Durden." Confused, the Narrator calls Marla and discovers that she also believes he is Tyler. Tyler appears in his hotel room and reveals that they are dissociated personalities; the Narrator assumed the personality of Tyler when he believed he was sleeping.
The Narrator blacks out. When he returns to the house, he uncovers Tyler's plans to erase debt by destroying buildings that contain credit card records. He apologizes to Marla and warns her that she is in danger, but she is tired of his contradictory behavior and refuses to listen. He tries to warn the police, but the officers are members of the Project. He attempts to disarm the explosives in one building, but Tyler subdues him.
With Tyler holding him at gunpoint on the top floor, the Narrator realizes that, as he and Tyler are the same person, the Narrator is holding the gun. He fires it into his own mouth, shooting through his cheek. Tyler dies, and the Narrator ceases mentally projecting him. Project Mayhem members bring a kidnapped Marla to the building. Holding hands, the Narrator and Marla watch as the explosives detonate, collapsing buildings around them.
The Narrator
Tyler Durden
Marla Singer
Rober 'Bob' Paulson
Why Fight Club is a Cult Classic film:-
The Acts:-
Fight Club, as with most stories, can ultimately be broken down into three main acts or sections. For some stories, this allows the writer to break down each part in order to fulfill a specific purpose. Fight Club works in a similar manner. For the purposes of showing the role that each act plays,it's broken down one at a time.Fight Club is somewhat similar to a religion. Not in the sense of worshiping its character but rather each person taking away a slightly different message.
Act 1: This is your life, and it’s ending one second at a time!
Fight Club opens with Edward Norton playing a rather bleak, downtrodden character with insomnia. This character goes by many names such as Cornelius, Rupert and Jack.
There are two main reasons why his true name is left up in the air. One of these reasons is the message of the movie. This character is supposed to be anyone. He has no name, he isn’t special, he’s you, he’s me, he’s anyone. That’s the point. He’s just an average man with an average job, living in an average flat, and ultimately living an average existence.
The first act of the movie really drives this point home to audiences. Norton’s character discusses his general lack of purpose and his lack of control over his own life. When we see his apartment for the first time, he discusses his obsession with IKEA furniture. When we see him work his lack of empathy and humanity towards victims of car crashes and the general lack of interest he has for his job shines through. Even traveling from one place to the next offers us insight into his faux interest in the lives of fellow plane passengers. “Single-serving friends” as he calls them.
The real nail in the coffin is watching the character attend meetings for various emotional support groups. His first attendance at a group for men with testicular cancer leads to him crying (and sleeping) like a baby. It’s an area where he can shed a tear about his miserable existence, despite everyone around him having it much worse. The purpose of act 1 is crystal clear: why does this character need someone like Tyler Durden in his life?
Act 2: The things you own end up owning you!
Nothing opens your eyes to the world quite like your IKEA furniture being blasted out of your apartment window by a seemingly random explosion. With no friends, apparently no family, and only two numbers he can phone, the main character calls his single-serving friend: Tyler Durden. Tyler offers him a place to stay but only on one condition: “I want you to hit me as hard as you can!”
This one sentence ultimately leads to the creation of a group which gives the film its title: Fight Club. The movie calls into question the nature of masculinity: We can cry about our problems, we can talk to others or…we can punch each other in the face in order to release pent-up tension and aggression. Tyler proposes that this generation has been raised to believe that it can accomplish anything, only to find that all the available jobs are pumping gas or waiting tables. Dreams of being rock stars, movie Gods, and millionaires have all been based on lies. As a result, this generation is angry and has nowhere to direct it.
Act 2 begins to demonstrate that Norton’s character doesn’t need television, he doesn’t need luxurious items or IKEA furniture, he doesn’t need to worry about his appearance at work or following societies rules on how to think, feel or act. Ultimately, the character develops and begins to learn that having faith in people or society is silly. “Our fathers were our models for God. If our fathers bailed, what does that tell you about God?” What sounds like an existential crisis behaves more like a revelation or epiphany. The character becomes content, he becomes happy, he becomes driven and begins to feel like he has control over his life and the lives of others.
Act 3: It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything!
The reason these acts are mentioned isn’t to simply summarize the story, although that is a bonus feature. Rather, it’s to mention all the important factors involved in the movie. To say that Fight Club is about a fight club would be misrepresenting the message of the movie. It would be like saying that Star Wars is a movie series about religion.
Absence of a villain:-
Another interesting aspect to Fight Club that adds to its allure is the lack of a clear villain. Who is the villain in the movie? The narrator who determines whether to recall faulty, even fatal products based solely on how much a recall would cost in comparison to a court settlement? Tyler, who strives to erase all bank debt without harming a soul? What about the members of Project Mayhem? Are immoral acts justified if the aim is for a moral outcome?
Fight Club steers clear of traditional hero vs villain roles. Nobody wants to conquer the world, nobody wants to enslave others, and nobody wants to blow planets up with a giant Death Star or kill Harry Potter! You could describe Tyler as an anti-villain but what does that make the narrator? Fight Club proposes that in this situation, we, the average Joes of the world, are in fact the villains. We are happy to turn off our minds in order to fill our lives with materialistic happiness. Ultimately, our strive consume is an addiction and only through going cold turkey can we begin to truly feel happiness. We are the enemy but not to society, not to a cape-wearing hero…no, we are the enemy to ourselves!
Fight Club steers clear of traditional hero vs villain roles. Nobody wants to conquer the world, nobody wants to enslave others, and nobody wants to blow planets up with a giant Death Star or kill Harry Potter! You could describe Tyler as an anti-villain but what does that make the narrator? Fight Club proposes that in this situation, we, the average Joes of the world, are in fact the villains. We are happy to turn off our minds in order to fill our lives with materialistic happiness. Ultimately, our strive consume is an addiction and only through going cold turkey can we begin to truly feel happiness. We are the enemy but not to society, not to a cape-wearing hero…no, we are the enemy to ourselves!
The Twist in Fight Club:-
Another fun moment takes place just after the narrator’s flat explodes. When he phones Tyler, to no response, there is a notice inside the phone booth that quite clearly states “no incoming calls”. This of course hints very early on that Tyler is nothing more than a product of a tired and disturbed mind. Fast forward slightly to the arrival of Lou in Lou’s Tavern. When Lou punches Tyler, I’d imagine that your eyes were fixated on the punch itself. However, if you watch Norton’s character, you can see him wince and double over slightly in reaction to the punch.
Theme of the film:-
1. Consumerism, Perfection, and Modernity
2. Masculinity in Modern Society
3. Death, Pain, and the “Real”
4.Rebellion and Sacrifice
5.Repression and the Unconscious Mind
2. Masculinity in Modern Society
3. Death, Pain, and the “Real”
4.Rebellion and Sacrifice
5.Repression and the Unconscious Mind
1.Anti consumerism:-
Tyler finds consumerism to be really sad and unnatural. So he pleads the narrator to pull himself and Tyler into something that could connect them to their natural selves. The most natural thing he could think of as a man was fighting. That is the only reason they started a Fight Club- as an escape from consumerism and artificiality.
2. Sacrifice:-
Tyler talks about how soap was made from the sacrifice of people in the rivers an ancient times. He believes strongly that a great sacrifice is necessary for a great gain to humanity. The making of soap is symbolical of that.
3. Extreme measures for motivation:-
What was the one thing that you have wanted to do all your life but haven't yet? Why have you not quit your job and traveled the world? Why have you not asked the girl you've known for quite a few years now out? It is fear? What if I told you that if you don't do any of these in the next 2 days, I would kill you? Imagining that I am holding a gun to your head helps. This idea of extreme punishment as a source of motivation has been the most intriguing part of the movie for me.
4.Violent Masculinity:-
Men in Fight Club rebel against their dull service-industry jobs by engaging in violent tests of their will and strength. Their jobs require politeness and subservience, and no cunning or physical strength. They're stuck "pumping gas and waiting tables" or, like the narrator, in mind-numbing office jobs. Fight club gives them what their work lives deny them. Within fight club there is a lack of competition. Score is not kept, and no one advances through a bracket to a championship. Instead the violence gives them a wordless bond and an ecstatic experience the narrator compares to speaking in tongues. Outside fight club when members come into conflict with nonmembers, the man unwilling to be violent loses. The bosses back down; the store clerk weeps and pleads; the police commissioner begs not to be castrated. The readiness to turn violent trumps all other forms of status, as the space monkeys get the better of mayors and bosses and officials.
The space monkeys understand their violence as masculine. Women are not admitted to fight club; instead fight club is the antidote for "a generation of men raised by their mothers."
5. Degradation:-
The word degradation refers to the process of sinking to a lower or more abject state. When the space monkeys refer to themselves as "the crap of the world," they see themselves as degraded. A theme of Fight Club is men can take advantage of their own degradation. Tyler and the narrator have routine, boring jobs. But they willingly undergo further degradation; they weaponize their low status to use against their bosses. When the narrator's boss calls him in to discuss his unprofessional appearance, the narrator makes his appearance even worse. He punches his own face until his lips split and he is covered in blood. Then he uses his degraded appearance against his boss, embarrassing him in front of the security guards. When Tyler's boss tries to fire him, Tyler tells him, "Yes, I am stupid and bored and weak, but I am still your responsibility." Tyler takes on an even lower status than the boss assigned him; the boss had told him only that he was not needed.
Degradation has other uses in Fight Club. It can be sexual; the narrator overhears Tyler and Marla in their bedroom, calling each other "human butt wipe." Tyler uses degradation as a technique of training the new recruits in Project Mayhem. He teaches them to think of themselves as "the toxic waste by-product of God's creation." Rejected by society and even by God, the recruits have no choice but to "trust Tyler."
The word degradation refers to the process of sinking to a lower or more abject state. When the space monkeys refer to themselves as "the crap of the world," they see themselves as degraded. A theme of Fight Club is men can take advantage of their own degradation. Tyler and the narrator have routine, boring jobs. But they willingly undergo further degradation; they weaponize their low status to use against their bosses. When the narrator's boss calls him in to discuss his unprofessional appearance, the narrator makes his appearance even worse. He punches his own face until his lips split and he is covered in blood. Then he uses his degraded appearance against his boss, embarrassing him in front of the security guards. When Tyler's boss tries to fire him, Tyler tells him, "Yes, I am stupid and bored and weak, but I am still your responsibility." Tyler takes on an even lower status than the boss assigned him; the boss had told him only that he was not needed.
Degradation has other uses in Fight Club. It can be sexual; the narrator overhears Tyler and Marla in their bedroom, calling each other "human butt wipe." Tyler uses degradation as a technique of training the new recruits in Project Mayhem. He teaches them to think of themselves as "the toxic waste by-product of God's creation." Rejected by society and even by God, the recruits have no choice but to "trust Tyler."
6. Absent Father Figures:-
Tyler and the Narrator bond over their recollections about their fathers. Both men state that their fathers were not a major part of their lives. The Narrator says that his father left when he was young. Tyler describes his father as a distant figure who he would speak to on the phone roughly once a year. With no distinct male role-models in their lives the Narrator and Tyler have largely accepted the role of men in society as it has been presented to them by advertising. The aim is to secure a good job with a good salary, get married, and have children. The men of fight club have seen an emptiness in this model and reject it.
Tyler and the Narrator bond over their recollections about their fathers. Both men state that their fathers were not a major part of their lives. The Narrator says that his father left when he was young. Tyler describes his father as a distant figure who he would speak to on the phone roughly once a year. With no distinct male role-models in their lives the Narrator and Tyler have largely accepted the role of men in society as it has been presented to them by advertising. The aim is to secure a good job with a good salary, get married, and have children. The men of fight club have seen an emptiness in this model and reject it.
7. Chaos & Societal Breakdown:-
Tyler believes that the use of chaos as perpetrated by Project Mayhem will lead to a better world. Tyler plans to reset civilization to a more agrarian or hunter-gatherer phase, allowing the planet to recover from all the damage done by human beings.
Tyler asks the Narrator which is worse: God's hate or His indifference? Tyler feels it is better to be hated than to be ignored. Here, God also represents the absent fathers that were missing in his and the Narrator's lives. To strike out, to create chaos, would at least have gotten some attention. Without it, the two men feel they have no identities. They do not have a war or any other great historical challenge to overcome. They have no purpose.
If they are given a purpose the world can be changed. The world runs on the backs of these men and others like them. If they were to suddenly disappear as a service class, the economy would halt. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Tyler envisions a world where people are not defined by their jobs or income bracket but by who they really are. If the shackles of self-regard placed on these men by society can be removed, they can be truly free to be whoever they really are.
Tyler believes that the use of chaos as perpetrated by Project Mayhem will lead to a better world. Tyler plans to reset civilization to a more agrarian or hunter-gatherer phase, allowing the planet to recover from all the damage done by human beings.
Tyler asks the Narrator which is worse: God's hate or His indifference? Tyler feels it is better to be hated than to be ignored. Here, God also represents the absent fathers that were missing in his and the Narrator's lives. To strike out, to create chaos, would at least have gotten some attention. Without it, the two men feel they have no identities. They do not have a war or any other great historical challenge to overcome. They have no purpose.
If they are given a purpose the world can be changed. The world runs on the backs of these men and others like them. If they were to suddenly disappear as a service class, the economy would halt. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Tyler envisions a world where people are not defined by their jobs or income bracket but by who they really are. If the shackles of self-regard placed on these men by society can be removed, they can be truly free to be whoever they really are.
8. Isolation:-
The Narrator and Marla Singer both seek out some sort of contact to save themselves from their mundane lives. The Narrator repeatedly complains about the empty trappings of his consumer lifestyle. Tyler is depicted here as a liberator, able to free the Narrator from his life of material attachments. This, Tyler argues, will allow him to achieve the potential of his true self and discover the greater power of his spirit.
9. Violence:-
The fighting in the novel is not presented as a solution to the character's problems, but is a means of achieving a spiritual reawakening. The fighting itself reminds the men that they are alive. As part of Tyler's philosophy, it also reminds them that they will die. Fighting is used as a path to reach the core of who they are. While the fighting can be seen as an attempt by the men to reassert their masculinity, it is more of a rejection of what they have been told masculinity is by prior generations, their jobs, and mass media.
The fighting in the novel is not presented as a solution to the character's problems, but is a means of achieving a spiritual reawakening. The fighting itself reminds the men that they are alive. As part of Tyler's philosophy, it also reminds them that they will die. Fighting is used as a path to reach the core of who they are. While the fighting can be seen as an attempt by the men to reassert their masculinity, it is more of a rejection of what they have been told masculinity is by prior generations, their jobs, and mass media.
10. Emasculation:-
Fight Club presents the argument that men in today's society have been reduced to a generation of men that do nothing themselves, but have become anesthetized with watching others do things instead. Masculinity becomes a brand, a means to sell products to men. "Being a man" then becomes owning the right watch or car instead of knowing who you are and what your values really are.
As a result the Narrator, Tyler, and the other members of Fight Club reject this spoon-fed approach to living and try to find themselves. By putting themselves through the experience of fighting and facing fear and pain, they hope to strip away the unnecessary parts of their lives and discover their true selves.
The Narrator also experiences emasculation in the face of Tyler's relationship with Marla. He feels like he has lost his place next to Tyler, who embodies a perfected sense of masculinity. Ironically, Tyler exists in the Narrator's mind as a prime male physical specimen. something that is reminiscent of how advertising says men have to look. Without Tyler's attention, the Narrator feels a rejection bordering on romantic jealousy.
The threat of castration exists throughout the book. First, the Narrator meets Bob at a support group for men who have lost their testicles to cancer. Later on, the threat of castration is used by Tyler and the space monkeys to get the police commissioner to call off his investigation. The Narrator, too, is threatened with castration for trying to shut down fight club. This loss of manhood is the worst possible fate these men can imagine, particularly because they feel they have just begun to appreciate their masculinity due to fight club and Project Mayhem.
11.Rebellion of Rejected Parts:-
In Fight Club, when characters reject a part of themselves, that part refuses to stay hidden. A theme of Fight Club is that a rejected part will rebel; it eventually comes out of hiding. Tyler is a rejected part of the narrator that takes on the qualities of a whole person. The split between them is not good versus evil; Tyler and the narrator initially want the same things: to rebel against the mothering they grew up with and to find solace in a rough, adventurous, all-male bond. They want to hunt elk rather than rest, content with "pain-free potlucks" and "the need to stop cruel product testing on animals" and other moral attitudes of middle-class life. The difference between them, at first, is that only Tyler has the nerve to start living the way the narrator wants to. They part ways for good later, when the narrator cannot bear to know people are being killed in the service of Project Mayhem.
The physical brutality fight club engages in has to be kept hidden, too, but it moves to a more visible position as the novel proceeds. Tyler's tests of courage are hidden in basements at first; by the end of the novel they take place on the rooftop of "the world's tallest building." Ultimately the narrator tries to banish Tyler; he tries to reject the Tyler part of himself by killing it. This attempt to destroy a rejected part also fails; Tyler's philosophy is already dispersed among the members of Project Mayhem.
Philosophy Number 2: Let Go of the Need to Control
‘Hitting bottom isn’t a weekend retreat. It isn’t a god damn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and let go. LET GO!’
- Tyler Durden
Do you find that attempts to control your life often backfire?
Whether a natural impulse, or inherited from growing up in such a demanding society (exams, deadlines, work targets etc.), the need to control is hard to resist. We struggle, push and strain, hoping that if we can exert enough effort, then we can achieve our goals.
But what if there was another way?
Throughout the film, Tyler urges Jack to let go of his need to control. This, he teaches him, is the only way to evolve and be free.
To prove his point, he lets go of the steering wheel while they’re driving on the freeway. Jack immediately urges Tyler to take control of the car. Tyler refuses. Jack’s been questioning him about the exact direction that Fight Club is taking as it transitions into Project Mayhem. He’s insisting that he’s kept informed of all developments.
Tyler doesn’t want to hear this. To him, it’s a sign that Jack hasn’t learned a thing since coming to Fight Club. He doesn’t realise that projects evolve and grow and can’t be micro managed. Sometimes, the destination isn’t clear, but if we’re open to where the journey might lead, we can still achieve the outcomes we desire.
Of course, without Tyler controlling the car, it crashes and careens off the road. It’s an extreme lesson and, for a moment, the viewer is left wondering what it’s about. However, Tyler, in his twistedly brilliant way reveals all, as says to Jack while scrambling from the wreckage, ‘God damn, we’ve just had a near life experience.’
He wants to show Jack what happens when you learn to let go of your need to control. You don’t die. Your world doesn’t fall apart. You don’t lose all motivation and you’re still able to function and perform important duties. However, what does happen, when you stop attempting to control every tiny detailed, is that you are opened to the adventure of life.
Defeats turn into opportunities. A blocked road alerts you to a more interesting path. Being injured or unable to do something, frees up time for you to explore other areas.
The message is that your subconscious mind is connected to a deeper wisdom than your conscious. We can’t possibly control all the millions of outcomes that need to go your way to be successful. It would take too long. At some point, we must let go and trust that everything that needs to happen will occur.
Philosophy Number 3: Do What Matters and Forget Everything Else
In one of the most powerful scenes of the film, Tyler holds a gun to a convenience store workers head. The worker (Raymond) is terrified. He thinks his store is being held up. However, his terror soon turns to confusion as Tyler starts questioning him about his life.
Raymond has been putting off becoming a vet because of all the obstacles he believes stand in his way.
Tyler views everything Raymond says as an excuse. So, he gives him an option. Either he can enrol in veterinary school and follow his dreams, or, Tyler can re-visit him in six weeks and blow his brains out.
Extreme and cruel?
Perhaps, but Tyler also makes a brilliant point. Far too many of us don’t follow through with the truly important things in our lives. We’re too willing to believe our own excuses and spend our lives focusing on the small stuff we think needs to be done.
The problem is that, unlike Raymond, none of us are faced with a life or death choice. When walking The System’s Path, our decline is slow. We don’t notice the loss of vitality and health until it’s too late. Looking back, we rue the wasted years and regret the dreams we didn’t follow but, at the time, we have no perspective.
When faced with a life and death situation, you see clearly. When threatened with the loss of everything, you realise you’re free to do anything. What else matters? Paying the rent on the crappy apartment you hate? Paying a mortgage to a bank who’s ripping you off? Turning up on time to a job that bores your brains out?
Are you really going to be thinking about these things on your death bed?
No, so why let them stop you going for the life you want?
The lesson here is that living our dreams is relatively simple. There’s nothing stopping you. If someone put a gun to your head and told you to follow through on that idea you have for a business, or pursue your dream to be an actor, you’d do it, and probably be successful too!
Philosophy number 4:-
Fight Club presents the argument that men in today's society have been reduced to a generation of men that do nothing themselves, but have become anesthetized with watching others do things instead. Masculinity becomes a brand, a means to sell products to men. "Being a man" then becomes owning the right watch or car instead of knowing who you are and what your values really are.
As a result the Narrator, Tyler, and the other members of Fight Club reject this spoon-fed approach to living and try to find themselves. By putting themselves through the experience of fighting and facing fear and pain, they hope to strip away the unnecessary parts of their lives and discover their true selves.
The Narrator also experiences emasculation in the face of Tyler's relationship with Marla. He feels like he has lost his place next to Tyler, who embodies a perfected sense of masculinity. Ironically, Tyler exists in the Narrator's mind as a prime male physical specimen. something that is reminiscent of how advertising says men have to look. Without Tyler's attention, the Narrator feels a rejection bordering on romantic jealousy.
The threat of castration exists throughout the book. First, the Narrator meets Bob at a support group for men who have lost their testicles to cancer. Later on, the threat of castration is used by Tyler and the space monkeys to get the police commissioner to call off his investigation. The Narrator, too, is threatened with castration for trying to shut down fight club. This loss of manhood is the worst possible fate these men can imagine, particularly because they feel they have just begun to appreciate their masculinity due to fight club and Project Mayhem.
11.Rebellion of Rejected Parts:-
In Fight Club, when characters reject a part of themselves, that part refuses to stay hidden. A theme of Fight Club is that a rejected part will rebel; it eventually comes out of hiding. Tyler is a rejected part of the narrator that takes on the qualities of a whole person. The split between them is not good versus evil; Tyler and the narrator initially want the same things: to rebel against the mothering they grew up with and to find solace in a rough, adventurous, all-male bond. They want to hunt elk rather than rest, content with "pain-free potlucks" and "the need to stop cruel product testing on animals" and other moral attitudes of middle-class life. The difference between them, at first, is that only Tyler has the nerve to start living the way the narrator wants to. They part ways for good later, when the narrator cannot bear to know people are being killed in the service of Project Mayhem.
The physical brutality fight club engages in has to be kept hidden, too, but it moves to a more visible position as the novel proceeds. Tyler's tests of courage are hidden in basements at first; by the end of the novel they take place on the rooftop of "the world's tallest building." Ultimately the narrator tries to banish Tyler; he tries to reject the Tyler part of himself by killing it. This attempt to destroy a rejected part also fails; Tyler's philosophy is already dispersed among the members of Project Mayhem.
Genre of film:-
This film can 't be categorized into one genre .According to the novel the film is a sarcastic take on materialism and consumerism. It can be also categorized as a drama film.It is also a dark comedy on human nature.With the Twist unfolding in the story and screenplay and also due to physcological issues with the narrator who is main protagonist it can be also categorized as Physcological thriller.
The Eight Rules of Fight club:-
• Fight Club Rule 1 | You don’t talk about fight club.
• Outside Fight Club: You do not talk about your plans, your thoughts, or your feelings.
• Fight Club Rule 2 | YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.
• Outside Fight Club: Don’t talk about it. Be about it.
• Fight Club Rule 3 | Someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over.
• Outside Fight Club: You don’t need a break.
• Fight Club Rule 4 | Only two guys to a fight.
• Outside Fight Club: Diversification spreads you thin and gets nothing done.
• Fight Club Rule 5 | One Fight at a time Fellas.
• Outside Fight Club: One project at a time.
• Fight Club Rule 6 | No Shirts, No shoes.
• Outside Fight Club: You don’t need anything to get everything.
• Fight Club Rule 7 | Fights will go on as long as they have to.
• Outside Fight Club: It takes as long as it takes.
• Fight Club Rule 8 | If this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight.
• Outside Fight Club: Start now.
• Outside Fight Club: You do not talk about your plans, your thoughts, or your feelings.
• Fight Club Rule 2 | YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.
• Outside Fight Club: Don’t talk about it. Be about it.
• Fight Club Rule 3 | Someone yells stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over.
• Outside Fight Club: You don’t need a break.
• Fight Club Rule 4 | Only two guys to a fight.
• Outside Fight Club: Diversification spreads you thin and gets nothing done.
• Fight Club Rule 5 | One Fight at a time Fellas.
• Outside Fight Club: One project at a time.
• Fight Club Rule 6 | No Shirts, No shoes.
• Outside Fight Club: You don’t need anything to get everything.
• Fight Club Rule 7 | Fights will go on as long as they have to.
• Outside Fight Club: It takes as long as it takes.
• Fight Club Rule 8 | If this is your first night at fight club, you have to fight.
• Outside Fight Club: Start now.
Philosophy of Fight Club:-
Philosophy Number 1: Live a Life that Makes You Feel Alive
What was the fight club in Fight Club all about? A chance for some blue and white-collar workers to vent their aggression?
No, it was an opportunity for a group of men, totally disconnected from life, to feel alive.
The men in Fight Club were so numb from a life of pumping gas, waiting tables, working in offices and chasing the empty dream of consumerism, that they needed something as extreme as fighting to remind them they were alive.
Narrator 's insomniac behavior led to Tyler Durden and the creation of Fight Club.
creation of Fight Club. He was an insomniac. His life was so dull, he described himself as living in a state that was neither ‘asleep nor awake’.
What was the fight club in Fight Club all about? A chance for some blue and white-collar workers to vent their aggression?
No, it was an opportunity for a group of men, totally disconnected from life, to feel alive.
The men in Fight Club were so numb from a life of pumping gas, waiting tables, working in offices and chasing the empty dream of consumerism, that they needed something as extreme as fighting to remind them they were alive.
Narrator 's insomniac behavior led to Tyler Durden and the creation of Fight Club.
creation of Fight Club. He was an insomniac. His life was so dull, he described himself as living in a state that was neither ‘asleep nor awake’.
The lesson here is that without stimulation, our mind is prone to turning in on itself, shutting down or seeking other more destructive outlets such a drugs, emotional eating or gambling.Therefore, we must engage in, and with, the pursuits, people and activities that make us feel alive. This prevents mental illness, increases our happiness and unleashes our creativity.
‘Hitting bottom isn’t a weekend retreat. It isn’t a god damn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and let go. LET GO!’
- Tyler Durden
Do you find that attempts to control your life often backfire?
Whether a natural impulse, or inherited from growing up in such a demanding society (exams, deadlines, work targets etc.), the need to control is hard to resist. We struggle, push and strain, hoping that if we can exert enough effort, then we can achieve our goals.
But what if there was another way?
Throughout the film, Tyler urges Jack to let go of his need to control. This, he teaches him, is the only way to evolve and be free.
To prove his point, he lets go of the steering wheel while they’re driving on the freeway. Jack immediately urges Tyler to take control of the car. Tyler refuses. Jack’s been questioning him about the exact direction that Fight Club is taking as it transitions into Project Mayhem. He’s insisting that he’s kept informed of all developments.
Tyler doesn’t want to hear this. To him, it’s a sign that Jack hasn’t learned a thing since coming to Fight Club. He doesn’t realise that projects evolve and grow and can’t be micro managed. Sometimes, the destination isn’t clear, but if we’re open to where the journey might lead, we can still achieve the outcomes we desire.
Of course, without Tyler controlling the car, it crashes and careens off the road. It’s an extreme lesson and, for a moment, the viewer is left wondering what it’s about. However, Tyler, in his twistedly brilliant way reveals all, as says to Jack while scrambling from the wreckage, ‘God damn, we’ve just had a near life experience.’
He wants to show Jack what happens when you learn to let go of your need to control. You don’t die. Your world doesn’t fall apart. You don’t lose all motivation and you’re still able to function and perform important duties. However, what does happen, when you stop attempting to control every tiny detailed, is that you are opened to the adventure of life.
Defeats turn into opportunities. A blocked road alerts you to a more interesting path. Being injured or unable to do something, frees up time for you to explore other areas.
The message is that your subconscious mind is connected to a deeper wisdom than your conscious. We can’t possibly control all the millions of outcomes that need to go your way to be successful. It would take too long. At some point, we must let go and trust that everything that needs to happen will occur.
Philosophy Number 3: Do What Matters and Forget Everything Else
In one of the most powerful scenes of the film, Tyler holds a gun to a convenience store workers head. The worker (Raymond) is terrified. He thinks his store is being held up. However, his terror soon turns to confusion as Tyler starts questioning him about his life.
Raymond has been putting off becoming a vet because of all the obstacles he believes stand in his way.
Tyler views everything Raymond says as an excuse. So, he gives him an option. Either he can enrol in veterinary school and follow his dreams, or, Tyler can re-visit him in six weeks and blow his brains out.
Extreme and cruel?
Perhaps, but Tyler also makes a brilliant point. Far too many of us don’t follow through with the truly important things in our lives. We’re too willing to believe our own excuses and spend our lives focusing on the small stuff we think needs to be done.
The problem is that, unlike Raymond, none of us are faced with a life or death choice. When walking The System’s Path, our decline is slow. We don’t notice the loss of vitality and health until it’s too late. Looking back, we rue the wasted years and regret the dreams we didn’t follow but, at the time, we have no perspective.
When faced with a life and death situation, you see clearly. When threatened with the loss of everything, you realise you’re free to do anything. What else matters? Paying the rent on the crappy apartment you hate? Paying a mortgage to a bank who’s ripping you off? Turning up on time to a job that bores your brains out?
Are you really going to be thinking about these things on your death bed?
No, so why let them stop you going for the life you want?
The lesson here is that living our dreams is relatively simple. There’s nothing stopping you. If someone put a gun to your head and told you to follow through on that idea you have for a business, or pursue your dream to be an actor, you’d do it, and probably be successful too!
Philosophy number 4:-
Fight Club is a story about rebellion against the status quo and a plea for the simple life. It criticizes the ways in which we are so hung up on security, and material possessions, and how people let social norms dictate their lives.
‘Stuff’ has become our religion. The idols we worship are Ikea and Starbucks. And the more we immerse ourselves in such an empty and unfulfilling existence, the more we start to resemble the things that we produce: manufactured products rather than authentic human beings.
Tyler shows us a way out. And even though his insights are profound, the execution is questionable. Fight Club, and its terrorist branch Project Mayhem, show us how easy it is to oppose one ideology, in order to fall into another, and how a cult-like echo chamber built on rigid beliefs could become very destructive.
At its deepest level, Fight Club is a film about finding meaning. Life seems pointless because we’ve been conditioned to value things that make us feel empty (accumulation of wealth and status). If we can reject this conditioning and, instead, win the ‘spiritual war’ of our soul (obey our inner voice, rather than societies, in all our major life decisions), then the sense of purpose that eludes so many of us, will be yours.
‘Stuff’ has become our religion. The idols we worship are Ikea and Starbucks. And the more we immerse ourselves in such an empty and unfulfilling existence, the more we start to resemble the things that we produce: manufactured products rather than authentic human beings.
Tyler shows us a way out. And even though his insights are profound, the execution is questionable. Fight Club, and its terrorist branch Project Mayhem, show us how easy it is to oppose one ideology, in order to fall into another, and how a cult-like echo chamber built on rigid beliefs could become very destructive.
At its deepest level, Fight Club is a film about finding meaning. Life seems pointless because we’ve been conditioned to value things that make us feel empty (accumulation of wealth and status). If we can reject this conditioning and, instead, win the ‘spiritual war’ of our soul (obey our inner voice, rather than societies, in all our major life decisions), then the sense of purpose that eludes so many of us, will be yours.
What the film is trying to say and portray and Ideology:-
A film that is so relatable yet so misunderstood, David Fincher’s Fight Club is brimming with theory and ideology of the modern man. The Narrator, for some he is known by as Jack, plays a very troubled business man who finds himself at the bottom of the corporate ladder. Insomnia and health issues were the by-product of the bourgeoisie, capitalism and consumerism, the ideological trap in which modern society falls into. The Narrator then comes into contact with his alternate personality, Tyler Durden, who is everyone’s inner self trying to set their bodies free from the world.
The idea of Fight Club is to supress the ‘clone’ life, to rid the ideology of having to be for someone else’s profit. Tyler makes this oppression clear by stating “You are not a unique snowflake, you are the same decaying matter as everything else. ” Fight Club brings the oppressed masculine community together to combat the bourgeoisie to ‘complete economic equality’, as is Karl Marx’s goal to achieve his theory of Marxism.
Through this theory of Marxism and his belief that “Man is his labour”, we are to see Fight Club as an artistic representation of the realistic problems with society. Marx once said “To each according to his contribution, to each according to his need…” meaning that if one were to truly reap the benefits of the materialistic needs of society, one must contribute according to his own needs. Marx makes it clear that one must run his own life instead of his life being ruled by a higher power. This theory applies to the capitalistic nature of the film and contrasts with Marx’s theory in ways that suggest that Marxism is not always the best option.
From the beginning, we struggle to come to terms with The Narrator’s true personality, at the same time we are taken on a journey of oppression though the Narrator’s point of view. The narrative takes us to alternate realities and puts us through those mind games we all think of in the corporate loop. To this is some extent of reality of ourselves as well as the characters in the film, suggesting that this is the ideological normality through capitalism. To fight this, Tyler teaches the Narrator that he can produce for himself, that he does not need materialistic values to be a better person. The idea of ‘Project Mayhem’ was for the oppressed members of fight club to come together to bring down corporate America through the destruction of capitalist ownerships such as banks, where everyone is thought to be ‘just a number’. The plot twist, however, reveals that by achieving the goal of being completely human and being free from the incomplete clone of the world, results in the destruction of capitalism but also the destruction of the collective; everyone is free yet everyone is now the same once more.
The idea of Fight Club is to supress the ‘clone’ life, to rid the ideology of having to be for someone else’s profit. Tyler makes this oppression clear by stating “You are not a unique snowflake, you are the same decaying matter as everything else. ” Fight Club brings the oppressed masculine community together to combat the bourgeoisie to ‘complete economic equality’, as is Karl Marx’s goal to achieve his theory of Marxism.
Through this theory of Marxism and his belief that “Man is his labour”, we are to see Fight Club as an artistic representation of the realistic problems with society. Marx once said “To each according to his contribution, to each according to his need…” meaning that if one were to truly reap the benefits of the materialistic needs of society, one must contribute according to his own needs. Marx makes it clear that one must run his own life instead of his life being ruled by a higher power. This theory applies to the capitalistic nature of the film and contrasts with Marx’s theory in ways that suggest that Marxism is not always the best option.
From the beginning, we struggle to come to terms with The Narrator’s true personality, at the same time we are taken on a journey of oppression though the Narrator’s point of view. The narrative takes us to alternate realities and puts us through those mind games we all think of in the corporate loop. To this is some extent of reality of ourselves as well as the characters in the film, suggesting that this is the ideological normality through capitalism. To fight this, Tyler teaches the Narrator that he can produce for himself, that he does not need materialistic values to be a better person. The idea of ‘Project Mayhem’ was for the oppressed members of fight club to come together to bring down corporate America through the destruction of capitalist ownerships such as banks, where everyone is thought to be ‘just a number’. The plot twist, however, reveals that by achieving the goal of being completely human and being free from the incomplete clone of the world, results in the destruction of capitalism but also the destruction of the collective; everyone is free yet everyone is now the same once more.
Some Memorable quotes of Fight Club and their meaning:-
- "This Is Your Life, And It’s Ending One Minute At A Time.”
The Narrator provides this timeless nugget of wisdom when he talks about traveling for work: “You wake up at SeaTac, SFO, LAX. You wake up at O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, BWI. Pacific, mountain, central. Lose an hour, gain an hour. This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.”
If You Aren’t On Your Way To Becoming A Vet In Six Weeks, You Will Be Dead.”
Tyler Durden wants people to stop procrastinating following their goals. He wants them to seize the day. He wants them to stop making excuses and start doing what they can to make their dreams come true.
But he goes about it in a more extreme way than most self-help gurus, telling an aspiring veterinarian, “If you aren’t on your way to becoming a vet in six weeks, you will be dead.”
- "I Want You To Hit Me As Hard As You Can.”
In the film, the ear punch is a surprise to Tyler. On the set, it was a surprise to Brad Pitt, too. He was expecting a pretend hit, but David Fincher told Edward Norton to hit him for real.
"It’s Only After We’ve Lost Everything That We’re Free To Do Anything.”
In Fight Club, the Narrator loses everything when his apartment is destroyed, and it frees him up to follow his heart and start an underground fight club.
- "First, You’ve Gotta Know – Not Fear, Know – That Someday, You’re Gonna Die.”
According to Tyler Durden, this is the key to living life to the full. If you’re afraid of death, then you won’t really experience life. You won’t do anything risky or dangerous or life-threatening or exhilarating if your main priority is not dying. When Tyler gets the Narrator to know, and not fear, that he is going to die one day, he starts setting up his ring of anarchism and rallying an army against the advertising industry. This isn’t necessarily the way to fully experience life, but it’s a start: “First, you’ve gotta know – not fear, know – that someday, you’re gonna die.”
- "When You Have Insomnia, You’re Never Really Asleep...And You’re Never Really Awake.”
The horrors of experiencing insomnia are summed up beautifully in one single line of voiceover narration: “When you have insomnia, you’re never really asleep...and you’re never really awake.” That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. It’s a nightmare.
- "I Am Jack’s Complete Lack Of Surprise.”
The phrase simply refers to the average man. He got it from a magazine. It’s just that the Narrator takes it one step further with dark twists on it, like “I am Jack’s wasted life,” and “I am Jack’s smirking revenge.”
- "You Are Not Special. You Are Not A Beautiful Or Unique Snowflake. You Are The Same Decaying Organic Matter As Everything Else.”
There’s nothing particularly cool or noble about humanity. We’re actually the worst thing in the world, since we evolved into this beautiful, natural world and we’re destroying it, piece by piece. Tyler Durden knows this and he uses it to give his foot soldiers, the Space Monkeys, some real discipline. He lines them up and tells them, “Listen up, maggots! You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.” It’s something every human being needs to be told.
- "In Tyler We Trusted.”
There’s a sort of sly, double-edged message to the Narrator’s claim when he says, “Tyler built himself an army. Why was Tyler Durden building an army? To what purpose? For what greater good? In Tyler we trusted.” Tyler’s whole ethos is to go against what the corporations are telling us and go against what the government is telling us, but in doing so, he tells a bunch of people what they should be thinking and they continue to be mindless drones following what someone is telling them – they just swapped ads for Tyler Durden. The Narrator blindly follows Tyler – and trusts in him – without knowing his plan. Later in the movie, he realizes that Tyler is him, and he doesn’t know the purpose of his own army.
- "The First Rule Of Fight Club Is: You Do Not Talk About Fight Club. The Second Rule Of Fight Club Is: You Do Not Talk About Fight Club.”
The rule’s so nice, they named it twice. Many people have tried to analyze exactly why Tyler Durden felt the need to make the first two rules of Fight Club the same. Simply put, it’s because he wanted to really implant the idea in these guys’ heads that Fight Club is a very secretive organization. Don’t talk about it. Seriously, don’t talk about it. If he says it twice, it has more impact: “The first rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is: You do not talk about Fight Club.”
- "You Met Me At A Very Strange Time In My Life.”
This line should be included in every movie with a romantic subplot. Movies usually focus on the most interesting part of their lead character’s life, whether that is the time they became a superhero or the time they were pursued by a serial killer or the time they developed a split personality and rallied an army of Gen-Xers against the system.Usually, during this time, due to the three-act structure and time constraints and audience quadrants, the character will also fall in love, and all the other stuff that goes on gets in the way of it. The Narrator explains this to Marla in one sentence: “You met me at a very strange time in my life.”
- "The Things You Own End Up Owning You.”
The message of Fight Club is anti-consumerist. it’s a movie that critiques all the systems that are in place, like banks and corporations and products. But Tyler Durden is clearly posed as the villain. Everything he does is framed as the wrong thing to do, and at the end of the movie, as all the banks’ headquarters burn to the ground, there’s not a sense of hope, but rather a sense of dread. Still, early on in the movie, Tyler makes a very strong point about IKEA culture: “The things you own end up owning you.”
- "Advertising Has Us Chasing Cars And Clothes, Working Jobs We Hate So We Can Buy S**T We Don’t Need.”
This Tyler Durden monologue is simply iconic: “Man, I see in Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see it squandered. G**damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s**t we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very p****d off.”
Life Lessions from Fight Club and Some more memorable quotes:-
Fight Club Ending Explained:-
The "twist" of this movie isn't the climax or the denouement, it's a precursor that sets up the build toward a climax that we didn't realize we weren't moving toward before.
The feeling we get in the end is the feeling that the Narrator has reached a state of absolute serenity where he has conquered all his demons and lost all trace of his insecurities. He seems absolutely ready to be the leading man of a typical classic Hollywood movie complete with holding his scared woman's hand and conveying both love and reassurance in the face of challenges.
But of course he's horribly injured, he hasn't actually stopped Tyler's scheme and he'll probably get the blame for it, his woman is about the furthest thing from your typical damsel, and there's every reason to believe that if their relationship played out for 5 more minutes she'd tell him he's crazy and walk off.
Of course, all this could be true and the move still nothing more than a farce, except that we actually feel what the Narrator feels as a result of a masterfully crafted scene that evokes awe on a grand scale:
A man and a woman holding hands as the walls of Jericho come down.
Now a line can be drawn with the 9/11 incident which took place in 2001 September. The towers came down. In real life.The parallel is not exact of course, but without question it is close enough that that ending would not have been greenlit in 2002. Art foreshadowed life, and really it couldn't have been any other way.
The precise physical similarity is of course a coincidence, but the need for something profoundly concrete to wake us from our abstract ennui was very real, and the fact that the analogy in reality ended up so precise adds a spookiness that helps the ending become that much more iconic, even as we lose the visceral connection to Generation X as the years go by.
The feeling we get in the end is the feeling that the Narrator has reached a state of absolute serenity where he has conquered all his demons and lost all trace of his insecurities. He seems absolutely ready to be the leading man of a typical classic Hollywood movie complete with holding his scared woman's hand and conveying both love and reassurance in the face of challenges.
But of course he's horribly injured, he hasn't actually stopped Tyler's scheme and he'll probably get the blame for it, his woman is about the furthest thing from your typical damsel, and there's every reason to believe that if their relationship played out for 5 more minutes she'd tell him he's crazy and walk off.
Of course, all this could be true and the move still nothing more than a farce, except that we actually feel what the Narrator feels as a result of a masterfully crafted scene that evokes awe on a grand scale:
A man and a woman holding hands as the walls of Jericho come down.
Now a line can be drawn with the 9/11 incident which took place in 2001 September. The towers came down. In real life.The parallel is not exact of course, but without question it is close enough that that ending would not have been greenlit in 2002. Art foreshadowed life, and really it couldn't have been any other way.
The precise physical similarity is of course a coincidence, but the need for something profoundly concrete to wake us from our abstract ennui was very real, and the fact that the analogy in reality ended up so precise adds a spookiness that helps the ending become that much more iconic, even as we lose the visceral connection to Generation X as the years go by.
Hence Fight Club is a movie which can be represented through different interpretations. It touches the nerve of the audience and plays with their mind
Nice work...keep going.
ReplyDeletevery nyc dear
ReplyDeleteGood content and one of the most inspirational movie with lots of good quotes that you have mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThanks Neha for appreciating the blog yeah quotes of this movie are evergreen
Deletehey himanshu worth reading every word
ReplyDeleteU just expressed everything brilliantly