My Rating: 5/5 Stars
I thought “Fight Club” was an excellent movie, despite its mediocre revenue and mixed reviews. This excellent movie was based on the novel with the same name. The novel was written by Chuck Palahniuk. I never read the book. The movie was fundamentally another coming-of-age story or a mid-life crisis narrative, or about a person suffering with self-identity problems in a confusing and stressful world. What converted this trite story into a gem was how the common story was retold by the author as an hyperbolic adventure filled with sarcasm, wit, action, humor, psychotic perspectives, dichotomies or pedestrian eccentricity, teen angst blended with mid-life crises, a real person vs. an imaginary friend vs. an inflated self vs. a deflated self vs. an ideal hero vs. a flawed hero, schizophrenia and other literal interpretations vs. artistic allegories, and so forth.
Watch this movie if you value wackiness, but avoid it if you prefer everyday stuff. The whole movie was well performed.
Throughout the movie, the protagonist bounces back and forth between happiness and struggles with various relationships, time management or sacrifice, who he is according to himself and as defined by others, and so forth. In many ways, the protagonist is a very normal human being. He is your average male between 30 and 40 years old. He has a nice, white-collar job supporting his middle-class lifestyle. He has won the commonly advertised American dream, so he should have a predictably good life from now on, but he doesn’t. He feels both contentment and misery. He loves/hates his office job, he meets lots of wonderfully boring people, and he wishes he could be at two or more places at the same time. Thus, this average Joe reluctantly goes on a most unique, urban adventure to rebuild his life.
WARNING: MANY SPOILERS BELOW
“Fight Club” is a very wacky and unpredictable movie, but I’ll give you my very, very simple summary. At the start of the movie, he begins as an obedient, gullible citizen of his nation, of his corporation, of popular culture, and of consumerism. He finds this life meaningless and boring, and begins to search for new ways of living. He is too afraid to let go of his first life, but insists on trying out new lives, thus he has too much to do and too little time. In other words, he has poor time management, thus he suffers from insomnia and many other problems. In his second life, he seeks help from other people, but none of them have lasting solutions. His conundrum is exacerbated by an odd woman. His first life was a happy follower, and his second life was a sad follower.
He gradually attempts a third life as a rebellious, clandestine leader who rejects corporatism, mass culture, and consumerism. His underground movement quickly catches on with many other men of various ages, backgrounds, and careers. His third self takes great pride on being combative against EVERYONE, and exploits the previously mentioned woman. He eventually decides to subvert the entire status quo, and replace it with his own pecking order.
Then he discovers this third life is as incomplete as his initial two lives, so he attempts a fourth life. Now he now has major problems. He has one foot in his first life (job and happy follower), one arm attached with the woman from his second life and he is still an unhappy follower, and the rest of his body entrenched in his third life (Tyler Durden and co.). He realizes the more he tries to improve his life, the worst his life degenerates, but he is going to try his best, because he refuses to live an undesirable life.
By the end of the movie, he finally gains traction, because he understands the true meaning of balance, time management, resource management, or the importance of sacrifice: he has to eliminate or downsize a current activity in order to gain time, resources, and energy for a new activity; he has to leave behind old habits in order to acquire new habits; he has to get execute his current selves/personalities/aspects to make room for new lifestyles/behaviors/perspectives; or he has limited choices in a mortal life, thus he cannot be or have everything, and he must decide what to accept and what to ignore. Life is a dichotomy of searching for completion and enjoying imperfection. Enjoy your travels around world, but don’t be surprised if you find what you’ve been looking for right under your nose. This fractal, contrasting cycle of demolition and reconstruction, give and take, yin and yang, positive and negative, the self and everything else, freedom and responsibility, and so forth appears in so many different ways. It especially applies with how the protagonist values, respects, loves, and helps himself, people, and society, while he hates, attacks, shoots, and destroys himself, people, and society.
I’ll give a slightly more specific example. Everyone has that “positive” moment where s/he proudly believes, “I’m the greatest; I’m number one. It’s mine, mine, mine. Don’t take me, take him/her instead. I refuse to exit my comfort zone. I am going to do things the safe way.”
In contrast, everyone has that “negative” moment where s/he censures himself/herself, “Why I am such an idiot?! I hate myself. I wish I could die. I don’t deserve this; give it to somebody else. I don’t care anymore, so I’m going to trash myself. I have nothing else to lose, so give me your best shot!”
In addition, everyone experiences an accident that turns out be a hidden blessing, and a solution that’s truly a problem.
This happens to everyone, but watch “Fight Club” to see how cleverly the movie’s protagonist repeatedly spoils and shelters himself, while denying himself of his own amenities/needs/desires, and while he attacks himself. At the same time, the protagonist stumbles through failures and successes, but like no other person.
I know this is an all-too-common experience, but as the cliche goes, “What is important is not the journey, but your experience.” “Fight Club” follows the road often traveled, but it sees it in a whole new perspective.
The protagonist also learns to stop judging people on a linear hierarchy or some other simplistic measure. He figures out that each person is a lot more than just a disciple/tool or an alpha dog/puppeteer. Each person is a leader in certain ways, but a follower in some ways; a respectable human being for one moment, and a jackass the next moment; a friend or an equal in a few ways; a positive contributor, except when possessed with a dark heart; and, if you’re lucky enough, a confidant. It’s a common journey, but the experience from “Fight Club” is bizarre.
This male-oriented movie has one half of a pinch of romance. The protagonist unexpectedly meets a woman who gets too close to him, thus he fears and hates her (“Ahh, it’s an icky girl!” says the prepubescent boy). Then he unexpectedly becomes engorged with intensity, thus he obsesses over jackhammering the woman so hard, that he probably almost initiated nuclear fusion (“Ahh, my adolescence passed so long ago, yet it’ still vivid,” reminisces every man). In other words, first, the young male has a mixture of negative opinions towards the female newcomer: he hates her, he cautiously walks behind her, and he fearfully runs away from her. Then he insists on walking in front of her, because he objectifies her as a pleasure toy. Finally, he walks beside her, because he fully appreciates her as a multi-faceted confidant. “Gross, what is that? Oh no, I’m being invaded by an alien! No, that’s not an alien, it’s a fun ride! Actually, she’s not an alien nor a sex object. She is someone who is similar and complementary to me. We enhance and complete each other!” “Fight Club” has your typical boy-meets-girl story, but, at the same time, it’s also your not-so-typical dating experience.
The author of “Fight Club” cleverly avoids using water as a unifying metaphor, a key symbol, or an ubiquitous literary tool. Countless writers and artists have been using water to symbolize dichotomies such as destruction vs. renewal, cruelty vs. purity or innocence, a secret weapon vs. a necessary good, orderliness vs. chaos, and so forth. “Fight Club” cleverly displaces water with something very near, but still very original: soap. Another classic scene is how the protagonist defeats his boss by fighting fire with fire, converting his weakness into his strength, making a strategic retreat, or yielding to his opponent to unbalance his opponent. It may also be a controversial nod to frivolous lawsuits, or questionable prosecutions. All of these basic themes, underlying plots, or elemental stories are tedious, but observe how they are cleverly retold by “Fight Club.”