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For years David Fincher has directed some of the most stylish and inventive
thrillers in American cinema. His credits include: Aliens 3, Seven, The Game and
Fight Club. Each of these films has been not only aesthetically pleasing and
fun to watch but each has commented on society, making the viewers think
outside norms and analyze their world. Fight Club is no exception; it is a
multi-layered film with many subplots and themes, but the primarily it a
surrealistically description of the status of the American male at the end of
the 20th century. David Flincher’s movie, Fight Club, depicts how consumerism
has caused the emasculatization of the modern male and tells a tale of
liberation from a corporate controlled society.
In the movie Brad Pitt comments on the new way of life, “We are products of
lifestyle obsession; murder, crime, poverty do not concern me. What concerns me
are celebrity magazines, television with five hundred cannels and a designer
name on my underwear.” The film, Fight Club illustrates the consumer culture in
which the 20th century male lives in and how it’s deconstruction of
individuality. The film gives numerous examples of this; the main character of
the film (Ed Norton) asks when looking through an IKEA catalog, “What kind of
plates define me as a person.” He not asking what personal characteristics and
attributes define him but what possession most accurately does. Furthermore, Ed
Norton’s character has no name; he is only referred to as the 90’s everyman,
the IKEA man. The film demonstrates the extensive emphases the consumer based
culture of the 20th century on individualism and values associated with being a
man. Corporations have replaced personal qualities with corporate logos; the
modern male cannot be anything unless he has certain products in his
possession. No longer does one own things, his things own him. The contemporary
male is a slave of the IKEA nesting instinct. The main character absence of a
name only exemplifies this; the buying of furniture from IKEA gives Ed Norton
his identity, without being a consumer the main character would remain
undefined and anonymous. In the movie, the two main characters, Ed Norton and
Brad Pitt, are staring at a Calvin Klein ad and ask each other is this what a
man is supposed to look like. Fight Club shows the extent of consumerism
controlling life; the consumer culture even defines how the modern male should
look and how he should aspire to look. The corporate ownership of the male
extends to how much his life is worth. Ed Norton works in a claims department
for a large car manufacture. His job is to decide what a manufacture does in
case of a design flaw. Take for example, if a carburetor runs a risk of
exploding after 100,000 miles; ED Norton’s job is to investigate the
probability of this happening. Then take the number of vehicles on the road and
multiply them it by the probable rate of failure and multiply the product again
with average price of a settlement. If the end result is less than the cost of
a recall, there is no recall.
Brad Pitt makes a statement that illustrates the society the modern male is
forced to live in, “We are a society of men raised by women.” The film portrays
the emasculation of the 20th century male, not only by our consumer-oriented
society but also by feminine standards of civilization. The best example of his
would be the support groups Ed Norton visits. In these support groups men are
told to gather power, strength and courage from each other; not from
themselves. At the end of the sessions men are told to hold each other and cry,
things that are very non-stereotypical of men. The 20th century society does
not want men to function independently and be able be emotional strong on their
own; it does not want men to be men. Society wants to take the vary ideals of
being a man, independence, strength and courage and only allow for men to
experience them at certain times. The castration and feminization of the male character
is exemplified through testicular cancer support group. The men in this group
have lost the very essence of their manhood, their testicles. They are a
representation of the 20th century males, castrated and without the male
essence. Society has taken the very fundamental aspect of being a man and taken
it away creating a more feminine and emasculated man. The character of Robert
Paulson best illustrates this point. Bob was a champion bodybuilder, an
independent and strong male, but had his testicles removed and the hormone
imbalance caused him to grow extremely large breasts and his voice to become
higher. Now Bob goes to a testicular cancer group so he could share his
feelings, have strength and courage, to cry. He was once a strong and independent
male, now he is a weak and dependent. Bob becomes more of a woman than a man
because of society.
Brad Pitt screams, “You are not how much money you have in the bank. You are
not your job. You are not the car you drive or the contents of your wallet. You
are not your fucking khakis! You are the all singing, all dancing crap of the
world.” This war cry of the consumer controlled male in his fight against
society and it’s views. The movie, Fight Club is a cinema graphic tale about
males breaking from the consumer culture and reclaiming their masculinity. Ed
Norton character represents all men, every IKEA man. He is suffering from sleep
deprivation and makes the comment, “When you have insomnia your never really
awake and your never really asleep.” It is a representation of 2oth century
life; the consumer culture does not really allow for males to live or to die,
life is a purgatory state that he cannot control. Later Norton becomes addicted
to self-help groups as an escape from his own life in order to sleep, this
works fine until he decides to stop running and reclaim his manhood. By blowing
up his IKEA catalog apartment and living in a dilapidated house without concern
for owning products and designer names, ED Norton character releases himself
his consumer controlled life and begins a journey to regain his manhood. He
does this by creating Fight Club, which is an underground boxing club for men.
Fight Club lets men live by liberating them; they are allowed to express their
primal nature, to be men and reclaim their independent strength, courage and
power. It was said, “When a man first enters Fight Club he was a wad of dough,
a couple weeks later he was carved of wood.”
The 20th century male’s struggle still continues today, the 21st century is
corporate controlled society, in a consumer culture that gives life value by
what is bought and owned, not by the individual. The modern male is emasculated
in this feminist culture. David Fincher does an excellent job of taking a
contemporary subject and putting it on film. Fight Club takes these themes,
consumerism, emasculation of the male and liberation and weaves them together
to make a cohesive narrative on the disenchanted, unfilled, castrated male who
desperately seeks to be free from societies control.