“I felt like destroying something beautiful”
“Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.”
I’ll continue blurbing from the viewing point of a Stan, after all, I am the one in charge of the writing. And as a natural development, seeing as we already did music, today’s subject must consequently revolve around the realm of movies. Those of you culturally inclined in the matter of cinematic masterpieces should recognize the words recited, and those of you who don’t, I hopefully can persuade into dedicating a few hours to witness one of the greatest assemblies of pictures, sound and over-dramatics man has yet been able to conjure. The movie pick of today is “Fight Club”, directed by David Fincher, who summoned it forth from the blueprints of author Chuck Palahniuk, one of modern literatures most colourful and talented writers. Palahniuk is known for being quite the individual, something that is clearly portrayed in both movie and book, as he is provoking, obscure and an open supporter of anarchism, something he lives out through “Cacaphony Society”, a band of “free spirits pursuing experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society”. What an inspiration. Palahniuk aside, the man is a genius and all, but having read both the book and seen the movie (can’t flame me for that, no), I feel like dedicating this blurb to the movie, and rather save the literature-post for something different.
Straight of the bat, you need to see this movie at least once on your own, with no distractions. It’s fine if you see it with your friends, but you’ll miss so much of the little things that make this movie an immense amount of awesome. There are subliminal images, little hints, interesting twists and incredibly clever scenes that demand your full attention, and at least a couple of revisits. The movie follows a main character that functions as the story’s narrator, and his battle against almost everything around him. He struggles with a severe case of insomnia, no evident will to live, and the usual unconscious-fetishist approach to materialism most of us have, the things we own, end up owning us. Besides the fact that maybe one of the greatest casts ever were assembled to create this film (Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Jared Leto, Helena Bonham Carter and so on), everything about this movie is incredibly on point. The soundtrack is revered as one of the best ever made, the manuscript is marvellous, and the acting is impeccable. But these are just mere word trying to sum up a masterpiece, something that’s obviously a poor excuse for duly appointed praise.
One of the main points that makes this movie deserve each spot on every top 10-list it’s ever been featured on, is the amount of issues it addresses, and the concept of the dystopian society with close parallel ties to our own that is weaved with such realism. The main point of the movie couldn’t be summed up in ten pages, but I can dissolve it into some parts of the essence, it revolves around the modern mans fight, as we have no great war and no great depression, we live in a historical equilibrium, where globalization has made us more connected, and yet strangely more oblivious to the things around us. The issues are raised on an individual and societal level, and bear obvious references to anarchism and free-spirit thinking, dazzled with a hint of questionable glorification of relationship between men. This is however put in perspective in an interesting manner, where the two main characters discuss the impact of the changes in upbringing from ye olde days, until now. “We’re a generation of men raised by women. I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.” Palahniuk stirred some pretty taboo concepts with this book, but when defending his arguments as well as he does, he can certainly be excused.
Ultimately, most of the people who either read the book or watch the movie become changed in some way or another. Some people, myself included will never be able to conjure a train of thought in the same way again, while others probably find the cinematic experience intriguing, never putting much thought in the concepts underlying the main themes present. It proved quite hard writing about this movie without selling away anything, as I feel everyone deserve to experience this masterpiece without preconceived notions. I did my very best to both pick your interest, and not selling out the twists, turns and sensational dialogue, and now it’s up to you to see it if you haven’t done it already. A fair warning, this is not a movie to consume alcohol with (given you’re a bad drinker, which most Norwegians are), and not something to watch with your friends if they’re of the can’t-shut-the-fuck-up-persuasion, I cannot stress how imperative it is that you bring your a-game when watching it. But everything else aside, it’s a movie to be enjoyed, with ideas to be explored, concepts to be understood and hopefully a thing or two to be learned as well. I’ll end this one with a quote from my childhood hero, Mr. Tyler Durden;
“You are not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.”
Sensei Rydis idolizes Tyler Durden, maybe you should too?
