Fight Club is a 1999 film directed by David Fincher. The plot was based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, a writer whose recognizable handwriting is a huge amount of shock content and pronounced non-conformism. Only when it was released, the film did not gain popularity among the general public. Too frank, too overthrowing everything that is dear to the average successful person, he was. It was only 10 years later that the film gained popularity when the New York Times, the most trusted cultural publication, published a laudatory review of the film, recognizing it as the defining work of cinema of the turn of the century. Recognized, talented actors (Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Edward Norton) starred in the main roles, gaining popularity at an amazing rate in the 2000s, which, with the assistance of the approval of a well-known publication, could not but arouse a new round of interest in the film. At the moment, it is in the top ten films according to many film ratings.
To understand the meaning of the movie “Fight Club”, it is best to start by considering its plot, because neither Fincher nor Palahniuk are prone to metaphorical veil. The entire semantic load of the work can be perfectly considered in the storyline and heard from the lips of the main characters. There are simply no unspoken thoughts in the film.
What is the movie Fight Club about?
The film begins with the insomnia of the protagonist, who is also the narrator (the narration in the film is in the first person). Moreover, his insomnia is not a one-time occurrence, but a serious disorder that haunts him: the narrator sleeps so little that he does not realize where reality is. He goes to the doctor, and the doctor, seeing a successful manager in his 30s, with apparently comfortable living conditions and no problems, refuses to prescribe potent drugs for him, and sends him to go in for sports or go to a support club for men with testicular cancer. Allegedly, there the hero will make sure that he has no problems, and sick people have real problems.
After going to one meeting, crying and getting support from people who think he is seriously ill, the narrator falls asleep peacefully for the first time. He begins to go to meetings of all seriously ill people, whether it’s cancer or infections. But he soon notices that at all the meetings he meets one girl, Marla Singer. She is also a simulator, a “tourist”. Faced with yet another liar, the narrator could no longer enjoy the satisfaction of the meetings, and the insomnia returned. He agrees with Marla to divide the meetings of sick people equally and never collide again.
Subconsciously, he is interested in an unusual girl, but in fact he perceives her as a competitor. Having gone on a business trip on the business of his company, the narrator gets acquainted on the plane with Tyler Durden, a soap seller, both in appearance and in his philosophy, which is the complete opposite of the protagonist. There is a clear sympathy between the characters, Tyler gives the narrator a business card and they part. Returning, the protagonist discovers that his apartment was damaged by a gas explosion, all his property was destroyed. He realizes that there is no one to call him, dials Marla’s number first, but, having changed his mind, calls Tyler. They meet in a pub, talk, and then Tyler asks him to hit. Heroes fight, but not in conflict, but for fun. A crowd of men looks at them in surprise. Tyler invites the narrator to stay with him.
Young people form a “fight club”, a rapidly growing organization where people gather just to fight. Under the leadership of Tyler, the club turns into a project “Mayhem”, aimed at destroying all the benefits of modern civilization. The narrator is frightened by this, he is trying to cancel the impending undermining of an entire area of skyscrapers, but he cannot. He learns that Tyler is his second self, he suffers from a split personality. After overcoming his overly aggressive side by shooting at her, the narrator, along with Marla (with whom he, it turns out, started an affair on behalf of Tyler), watches as skyscrapers are blown up and collapse.
The hidden meaning of the movie “Fight Club”
The meaning of the movie “Fight Club” is that people have become consumers, he was infuriated by the whole system, that fashion dictates how to be a man, that people attach much more importance to things that people did not live. For this reason, he blows up his apartment and everything valuable inside, which he greatly valued, leaves a good job because it makes him a slave of the system, he refuses the system, finds people tired of being part of this big system, where everything that is dictated is illusory and very difficult reachable and arranges chaos in order to get rid of the system to come to a primitive society without technology and authorities.
There is also another version of the meaning of the movie “Fight Club”. It can be seen in three layers:
The formation of personality according to Freud; Criticism of the consumer society; Genesis of fascism.
The formation of personality according to Freud in the film is quite simple to consider. The relationship between Marla and Tyler makes the narrator uncomfortable, he experiences an infantile feeling of jealousy, but the jealousy of a child. He subconsciously feels the relationship between Tyler and Marla, like the relationship of his mother and father. Since Tyler is a product of the mind of the narrator, then, in fact, the inner child is jealous, because an aggressively masculine, pronounced masculine part takes his place next to Marla. Tyler’s feelings here are the feelings of a child who is jealous of his mother for his father.
Absolutely Freudian understanding of the processes of the human soul. Having killed the aggressive masculinity and infantile child in himself with one shot in his own mouth, the main character becomes whole, and his relationship with Marla is finally healthy. The plan to criticize the consumer society is the first thing that catches the eye, because the characters constantly talk about it. The slogan of the film itself is a Buddhist postulate. “Only by losing everything to the end do we gain freedom.” Endless attempts to move up the career ladder, surround yourself with things and try to find happiness in them, is a disease of society.
Tyler fights this “disease” in the most primitive way – it is violence, the destruction of material goods, their substitution (soap from human fat sold to people from which this fat is taken). As for fascism, it is embodied in the radical Tyler. Tyler is a superhuman, he preaches a cult of violence, a cult of strength and ultimate masculinity. This hero is attractive, but he also loses in the end, because fascism is also a “disease”, and illness cannot be cured by illness.
The end of the film, with skyscrapers falling, is the only metaphor in the film, a metaphor for the collapse of the economy. The economy, which began to dominate all spheres, penetrating even the spiritual sphere, is a cancerous tumor, but a tumor can also be destroyed.
Write in the comments your meaning of the movie Fight Club. We look forward to waiting!