Month: November 2023

Fight Club is certainly a unique movie and one that is quite a bit weird when you first watch it for what it is. However, it has a deep message about modern culture and society that it conveys throughout the movie and once this is realized it becomes an extremely powerful and impactful film. 

The narrator and main character of the film is a man who is a slave to the corporate and consumer society. He lives a mundane life that features daily repetitions of the same unfulfilling tasks. He feels meaningless, depressed, and most of all emasculated. Then he meets Tyler Durden who is the complete opposite of a man. He has no attachment to materialistic things, works for himself, lives a life of constant adventure and excitement, and represents supreme masculinity. Together they form a deep bond and start “Fight Club”, a club where members fight each other in order to become more attached to their masculine roots and feel present. This club becomes revered with seemingly a large portion of the male population around them joining for its benefits. Eventually, it becomes extreme with their “Project Mayhem” in which members perform tasks to ultimately dismantle modern civilization and the system in which we all live under. 

At the end of the film it is revealed that Tyler Durden is nothing but a figure of the narrator’s imagination. A physical depiction of the man he could be and wants to be. The narrator purposely has no name as he is meant to represent any man – or person for that matter. This film wonderfully showcases how so many people have become slaves to the system we live in. People work mundane jobs they hate in order to buy a new product so that they will be better perceived by their peers. Purpose and meaning has deteriorated. People are depressed. They take drugs and party to temporarily escape this reality before repeating once again the next day or week. Men have become weaker and testosterone levels are at all time lows. The average person is seemingly worse and worse off as time passes. Fight Club puts these deep societal problems on full display and warns its viewers against falling into this trap. 

That being said, the extremism displayed at the end represents its own message. While it is obviously not good to be a slave to your job or consumerism, you also have to learn to control and regulate yourself to an extent. The exaggerated actions shown towards the end of the movie offer an opposite warning of how letting extremism and unconformity run loose will tear apart many of the good aspects of our civilization we have worked so hard to build. This is just as scary a reality as being a slave to the system. Thus, it is all about finding this balance in which we can live more freely and be stronger individuals while also not letting these emotions overrule us. This is an extremely powerful message that was needed in 1999 when the film came out, and I would argue is even more needed now. 

This film is a great example of how movies can use storytelling coupled with amazing visuals to portray a powerful message that can reach large audiences and have immense impact. Over this series, I have covered movies that are purely entertaining and comforting to movies like Fight Club that preach against comfort. This versatility is why I love movies and I enjoyed being able to share some of my favorites and most meaningful through this series of blog posts. If you’ve been reading, I appreciate your time and again encourage you to watch all of them I covered in these blog posts.

The movie Whiplash offers a dramatic and exaggerated portrayal of an experience that many go through and gives an insightful perspective on how the characters really feel over the course of the movie. In the movie, Andrew Neiman is a dedicated young drummer at Shaffer Conservatory, one of the most prestigious music schools in the world. His instructor Terence Fletcher is known for being extremely harsh and demanding with his students. He’s aggressive, he screams at his students for little mistakes, he curses them out, you name it. That being said, his reputation goes both ways. He draws the best out of his students and therefore has one countless jazz competitions with his groups. 

Neimen initially is spotted out by Fletcher and comes on as an alternate in his band. He gets his opportunity to showcase his skills and seems to impress Fletcher at first. However, Fletcher pushes Neimen hard and it seems that the more Neimen improves, the more he is challenged, yelled at, and pushed. Neimenn doesn’t back down though as he is totally invested in being the best. The movie features an impactful scene where Neimen eventually gets himself into a car crash trying to retrieve his drumsticks before a competition and gets dropped from the band when he subsequently messes up. Fletcher is also dropped from Shaffer due to complaints about him as an instructor. Him and Neimen eventually reconnect later where Fletcher shares that his challenging of Neimen and harshness was because he knew how great Neimen was and that he wouldn’t give up no matter how hard he was pushed.

While, yes, it is exaggerated and dramatic like I said from the beginning, this movie has a meaningful and impactful message on top of being a great film. For starters, it inspires one to be the best. The movie shows just how far we can go when we truly push ourselves to the fullest of our abilities. It was a great message that I try to remember because in a lot of moments in life people give up far before they reach their limit or they never give full effort from the beginning and thus achieve mediocrity. This film  shows what it takes to be the best, but it also does show a limit. We see Neimen practically drive himself to insanity over his obsession for drumming and impressing Fletcher. While anyone can look at Neiman getting into a car crash and still focusing on getting to the show as utterly insane, it shows his dedication and is inspiring in a way for me to see that if he can go that far I can definitely push myself a little harder. 

Additionally, the movie shows an interesting perspective that is not always considered from the external pushing forces in our life. Most people have had someone in their life that is very harsh and intense that is constantly yelling to be better it seems. Maybe it’s a coach, a boss, or even a parent. The movie shows an important perspective that often these types of people are doing so out of belief or love. They see more potential in us than we even do in ourselves and that is why they are harsh and constantly push us. I think this is a good perspective to have. It makes you think if those people that we might feel hatred towards for their intensity, if we should instead be grateful.