Critical Thinking Piece

Fight Club Movie Review

In the film Fight Club two main contrasting characters are shown juxtaposed to each other.  The rebellious Tyler Durden is in contrast to the button down conformist (and unnamed) Narrator of the story.  Durden is able to pull the Narrator into his lifestyle, and I as the viewer also found myself being pulled in.  The film challenged my perception of societies willingness to follow a non-conformist.

In the film Durden is shown as free and uncaring of societies rules.  In various scenes he is shown as a sort of urban terrorist, urinating (and worse) into peoples food before he serves them and splicing pornographic material into children's films.  Durden is the ultimate anti-society rebel.  He seems to be fed up with the blatant consumerism of that time period.  As he tells the Narrator "the things you own, end up owning you".  At this point in the film I began to identify with many of the things Durden was telling the narrator.  I agreed that many of us have become to dependent on material nonessentials.

The Narrator, having just lost all of his worldly possessions in an explosion, begins to identify with Durden as well.  The Narrator works in a cubicle in an office and never steps outside of the rules of society.  Durden seems to be uncaring, even in the way he speaks to people or his small routine activities.  For example when he calls the Narrator and he is eating while talking on the phone, the Narrator smiles as it is not something that one would consider polite.

As the film progresses more and more people come to follow Durden.  After the success of their underground fight clubs Durden starts a group known as Project Mayhem.  More and more young men begin to identify with his mentality and he is seen brain washing them as they work in his home.  He shouts at them through a megaphone (or a recording playing over a speaker, it isn't clear which) as they labor in his house.  These new recruits quickly adopt Durden's belief system.

As the film progress the director uses several techniques to help us identify with Durden.  Durden is shown as wearing nice, if not a little garish, clothes.  He is seemingly happy, where as the Narrator is almost always unhappy.  Durden also seems to get progressively fitter, and cleaner through out the movie, where as the Narrator seems to get skinnier and worse looking.  Even the fact that the Narrator remains unnamed throughout the story reflects the idea.  The Narrator is a "Joe Every-man" just another face in the crowd.  Where as Durden has an identity, he has a name and a personality.

As Durden tells the Narrator at the end of the film; "I am free in all the ways you are not".  Durden has the ability to do whatever he wants, be it good or bad.  He is not shackled with societies preconceptions and rules.  While Durden took the concept to far and created a lawless, anarchist reality for himself I still identified with him.  Durden was able to excel at what he wanted by stepping outside the boundaries of society and I wondered what else could be achieved by doing so.