Ironic Anti-Corporate Message

Rating: 6/10 (4 October 2017)

The 90s were a time that focused on anti-corporate propaganda, where movies were openly mocking the corporate American life style where people were drones that worked their 9-to-5 job looking for an escape from the repetitiveness of their lives. Movies such as the Fight Club depicted their main protagonists in dull business attire, bland colors to drive the point home of the bland lives that these characters were living until their opportunity for release came along. Camera movement in these scenes were particularly slow and the camera would only zoom into Norton's face to emphasize the daily struggle he was experiencing in his life. After an explosion at his apartment, Norton is given the opportunity to escape the norm of everyday life as everything he has done in his life thus far is now gone. Fight Club mocks this scene as the first part of its anti-corporate message where Norton's entire collection Ikea furniture is now destroyed. However, Norton was lucky he recently met Tyler Durden, a man who encompasses all the traits that Norton wishes he also encompassed, a man who actively destroys the social norms such as splicing pornographic content into a family film and peeing in soup containers at a high-class restaurant. With nowhere else to turn, Norton seeks out Durden in an attempt to chase a life away from corporate structure. The house, is run down and decrepit, with a basement that floods anytime it rains, sketchy electrical connections and one that barely provides shelter, one that most Americans would choose not to live in. It is when he moves in with Durden that Norton learns of Fight Club, an organization that allows men to free themselves and express their masculinity by fighting one another until the other taps out. In the fight scenes themselves, the lighting stages the fights as being the focal point of the images, but blacks out along the first row of the ring of other fighters symbolizing that these fights are salvation for these men who are done with their mundane lives. The lighting in these scenes also tie into the movies anti-corporate message saying that nothing matters to these men in the outside world, the only thing that matters are these fights. As the movie progresses more subtle changes occur. As Norton chases his more perfect life, we see Durden become a more prominent character in the film, taking up more screen time and Norton seeming to suffer from his insomnia more severely than ever. Durden pushes Norton to become more daring in his actions to chase a high of living that Fight Club itself can no longer satisfy. This manifests itself as Project Mayhem which becomes the physical destruction of corporate life in the movie as the Fight Club evolves and becomes a terrorist group focused on destroying shops and statues that worship the corporate life. The ultimate goal is the destruction of ten skyscrapers among the city, but steps are taken to ensure that only the corporations are attack and innocent civilians are not caught up in the destruction. To emphasize the actual destruction, multiple camera angles are used which and at the point of impact, slow motion is used. The destruction also sees the lighting transition from dark before the terroristic act begin to the scenes being lit up by the explosions to show a relief on corporate America from the chains that Norton and Durden feel as though they are unshackling for the common corporate worker. However, some of the anti-corporate messages are lost when product placement sees the movie ironically being endorsed by the corporations that it is trying to portray as destroying the American dream. The thrill ride and twist ending make Fight Club an enjoyable movie, if not one that almost was lost in how ironic it could become.