The Fight-Club Manifesto

Rating: Null/10 (13 May 2003)

This is how `Fight Club' operates: through the emblematic `bar of soap' which decorates its marketing posters (and rather extensive ad campaign including fake office-equipment brochures), the presentation of a harmless icon gives way to a sweepingly critical exegesis of consumer capitalism. David Fincher's adaptation of the book by Chuck Palahniuk offers a quasi-postmodern view of Marxist themes as they apply to the culture of early twenty-first century capitalism. Fincher's `quasi-postmodernism' comes through in his presentation of the bi-level narrative within `Fight Club;' his Brechtian disregard for conventional aesthetic form is enacted by his consistent breaks `through the fourth wall' (i.e. narrative exegesis of plot details directed toward the audience). His use of `C.G.E.' (computer-graphical-effects) throughout the film are unobtrusive, and serve to visually heighten the suggested themes of technocratic, `corporatarchic' (ruled by corporate interests) fears which are implicit within the culture of late capitalism. Thus, while the film's narrative thread is presented in a chronologically linear fashion, the paroxysmal, disjointed presentation of its bi-leveled crescendo toward climax distances the audience in a manner similar to any non-linear film. Essentially, in postmodern terms, Fincher perfects the `verfremdung' (alienation) effect without having to resort to the manipulation of chronology. Not coincidentally, the term `verfremdung' has its roots in Marxist theory: `Capitalism is only second to slavery in its ability to alienate the worker' (Marx, Philosophical and Economic Manuscripts). This concept of `alienation' is at the root of the central tension within `Fight Club:' just as capitalism's exploitation of productive forces alienates the proletariat from the fruits of her/his labor, so does the culture of late capitalism's forced sublimation of impulsive action alienate the individual from her/his emotions. To put it plainly, the culture in which a Twinkie-factory-worker must purchase a Twinkie with a portion of her income is the same culture in which she is forced to find emotional catharsis in furtive forums of collective release. Tyler says: "we're an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; we're slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy sh*t we don't need. We are the middle children of history, with 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 were raised on television to believe that we'd all be millionaires, movie gods, rock stars, but we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very p***ed off." . . . And thus is summarized the `Fight Club' manifesto.