In 1999, based on the novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk , the film “Fight Club” was shot. The actors who starred in the film are Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. The film was ambiguously criticized, almost failed at the box office. But ten years later they started talking about the painting again. What is the meaning of the movie “Fight Club”?
Cult picture
Perhaps this film was created too early. At the turn of the century, the meaning of the movie Fight Club turned out to be difficult for viewers and critics to understand. In 2009, one of the most influential American newspapers published an article by prominent film critic Dennis Lim. In it, the film adaptation of the work of Chuck Palahniuk was called a cult film of our time. What is the movie “Fight Club” about?
The plot (tie)
The director of the film is David Fincher. This filmmaker is known for such films as “Seven”, “Game”, “Alien”. The film “Fight Club” (1999), the author of the book of the same name called the monument the end of the century, when the AIDS epidemic became an everyday reality, and the words “sex” and “death” are almost synonymous. The creator of the film adaptation believes that this work is "a serious picture taken by frivolous people." So what is the picture about?
A young wealthy man is the hero of the Fight Club. Fincher’s film is about a man who has everything for a comfortable existence, but despite this, he suffers from psychological disorders. The hero of Norton works in a serious company, spends leisure time as it should be to the people of his circle. Namely, it acquires another new technology or piece of furniture.
He made a successful career, but for some reason he suffers from insomnia, and sometimes he can not even distinguish reality from his own imagination. The hero of the movie “Fight Club” visits a psychotherapist who offers him, in order to relieve stress, to start attending a gym or an anonymous meeting of men suffering from an incurable disease. The hero of Norton follows the second recommendation of the doctor, who, incidentally, gave his patient not without a share of irony. Seeing the true suffering of the terminally ill, the young man temporarily gets rid of the blues.
Once the hero of the picture meets a certain Tyler. By occupation, this person is a soap seller. In human terms - the opposite of the main character. After meeting Tyler, the manager returns home and, to his horror, discovers that all of his property was destroyed in an explosion, the cause of which remains undetermined. For some reason, he decides that in this situation he should definitely call a new friend. He is coming. And here it turns out that Tyler is completely alien to dependence on material values. He is not able to share the feelings of his friend, which he experiences when he sees the terrible destruction in his own house. From this moment, the main events of the movie “Fight Club” begin.
Actors who performed the main roles created two diametrically opposite characters on the screen. It is noteworthy that before the start of filming, Norton and Pitt agreed that the first will lose weight in the process of working on the film. The second, on the contrary, gain muscle mass. Why actors entered into such an agreement can be understood by understanding what the philosophical meaning of the film “Fight Club” is.
Denouement, climax
Tyler has an inexplicable effect on the hero of Norton. Throughout the story, the soap seller is trying to rebuild it: to get rid of thingism, to instill primary male instincts. A successful middle-aged manager, led by a soap seller, creates an underground organization, namely a fight club. The main character - a man of calm disposition - from time to time wakes up a desire to destroy everything that catches his eye. And at the end of the film, it turns out that Tyler is the dark side of the personality of the hero himself. In reality, it does not exist. He is an illusion, the embodiment of hidden desires. In order to get rid of Tyler, the hero tries to commit suicide. He does not succeed. Instead, he kills the soap seller. And so, gets rid of the dark sides of his soul.
So, what is the meaning of the movie “Fight Club”? For most ordinary people, this picture is nothing more than an interesting story about how an ordinary guy is gradually losing his mind. Professionals in the field of cinema see a certain subtext in the plot of the film.
The impact of globalization on male psychology
In 2009, an article appeared in the American press whose author interpreted the plot of Fincher’s painting as an example of the negative influence of consumerism on male psychology. Most critics agree with this point of view.
One of the prominent American feminists called the Fight Club a belated awareness of a man of his role in modern society. In the conditions of the western economy it is not easy. It is difficult for a man to adapt in a world in which a woman is no longer economically dependent on him. Therefore, in his soul there is a discord, which is shown by the example of the hero of Norton.
Superman
Some critics saw fascist motifs in the plot of the movie Fight Club. The young manager of the middle hand is disappointed in the "American dream", which gives rise to the demonic image of Tyler in him. The soap seller can be called in some way a superman criticizing the meaninglessness of the life of modern Americans. Tyler’s recipes for happiness are extremely simple and therefore extremely attractive. He proposes to destroy the value system that the hero of Norton absorbed throughout his life. In the words of the seller of soap, critics saw the motive of the works of Nietzsche, the favorite philosopher of the Nazis.
Director Opinion
Fincher claims that his picture is extremely far from propaganda. Whatever - political or philosophical. The plot of the film does not indicate the way to get rid of one or another drawback of modern society. This is just an attempt to talk about what globalization can lead to. In addition, the hero of the film ultimately gets rid of Tyler. And this means that in it there is a victory of secondary instincts over animals.
Controversy continues around the Fight Club picture today, but most critics agree that the idea of ​​the film is based on a depiction of a person's protest against the values ​​imposed by society.
Quotes
The premiere of the picture did not live up to the expectations of its creators. But today, the Fincher film is considered an important event in the world of cinema of the nineties. And, as it happens with cult paintings, phrases from the movie “Fight Club” became famous. It is worth recalling some of them.
- "We used to read pornographic magazines with rapture, now Horchow catalogs."
- "Do you suffer? Attend a meeting of people suffering from cancer and you will realize that you don’t know anything about real pain."
- "Freedom is the loss of all hope."
- "Over a long period of time, everyone's chances of survival are nil."