Desperately seeking something

Rating: 7/10 (17 October 1999)

The movie fight club for me was summed up in by one line from Tyler Durden. Our image of God is our father and if our father's dumped us what does that say about God? (Roughly Paraphrased) This is a film where the main characters and those they influence are looking for some sort of meaning, any sort of meaning outside of Ikea furniture. Brutal violence and monkish asceticism provide one way out of the hellish reality the film portrays. In a strange way the violence in fight club almost becomes a fellowshipping between men. A forum to simply let it all go regardless of who you are fighting. The film directly relates the endless varieties of self-help groups to the idea of fight club. In a way they are the same. Both attempt to purge by sharing communal pain and letting go of inhibitions.
The fight clubs touch a chord and quickly swing wildly out of control spreading like a cancer throughout the nation. The members of fight club become like pods from invasion of the body snatchers - human in form, alien in nature. This film suggests that the masses are so desperate for meaning beyond popular entertainment and yuppie culture that they will do anything to find it. They will die to themselves and live only for the cause. Using the medium of film seems an odd choice to convey this message, since it is effectively incriminating itself. However, the film makers self-conscious style suggest that they are aware of the irony and perhaps the film itself is a comment on the impossibility of organizing a secret society dedicated against the all principles of society. It is just as useless as making a pop film about the emptiness of popular culture. The irony of hearing Brad Pitt say that not every one can be a movie god or a rock star hints at this paradox central to the film. Ultimately, the film is an entertaining vehicle that conveys the hopelessness that seems so widespread in society today. As Tyler Durden says this generation has no great war and we have no great depression. WE only have a spiritual war and our lives are a great depression. A generation with no more purpose, no more struggles, with peace without effort will create it's own struggle even if it's just a bunch of guys beating each other to near death. This film does not cop out. Even if you disagree violently with it, Fight Club forces you come up with your own position on the issues it raises and for that fact alone, you should see it.
Also, I think this movie could have a negative effect on liposuction and soap sales in the near future...