"Fight Club" Movie Review

Movie Review Essay Outline

Introduction

• Introduction of the movie "Fight Club" and its initial reception
• Mention of the movie's actual genre and surprise ending

Plot Summary

• Brief summary of the movie's plot, including the protagonist's transformation into Tyler Durden
• Description of Fight Club and its evolution into Project Mayhem
• Overview of the movie's dark humor and societal critique

Themes

• Discussion of the theme of masculinity in a modern society
• Discussion of the themes of Consumerism, perfection, and modernity

Consumerism and Materialism

• Examination of consumerism as a major aspect of modern American life
• Analysis of how the film portrays characters addicted to buying and material possessions
• Discussion of the endless cycle of consumerism depicted in the movie

Perfection and Beauty

• Exploration of society's emphasis on physical perfection and material wealth
• Analysis of how characters in the movie strive to meet societal standards of perfection
• Connection between consumerism and the pursuit of perfection

Symbolism

• Discussion of the symbolism of soap in the movie
• Explanation of how soap represents brutality, sacrifice, and hidden realities
• Interpretation of the deeper meaning behind the soap-making process

Conclusion

• Recap of the movie's clever delivery of messages and societal satire
• Emphasis on the enduring relevance of the movie's themes
• Recognition of "Fight Club" as a thought-provoking and psychologically engaging film

Movie Review Essay Example

When the movie “Fight Club” directed by David Fincher released on the 1st of January 1999 it opened to a somewhat disappointing business there was a widespread misjudgement that Fight Club was an action movie about underground bare-knuckle boxing contests Where in actuality, it’s a horror/thriller movie which literally begins in the fear-centre of its narrator’s brain and arguably stays there the long-blown surprise ending that two apparent antagonists are, in fact, the same person. the film follows a buttoned-down office worker (Edward Norton) who projects himself as flamboyant, anti-social, charismatic genius Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), in order to shake up his own life and, in the end, society as a whole. The splitting of one persona into “Jack” and “Tyler Durden”.

A chronic insomniac addicted to chatting and venting at self-help groups, Jack encounters goth chick Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), who has a similar interest, and is forced into a wilder circle when he hooks up with Durden, whom he seems to meet on an airplane. When his Ikea-outfitted condo is blown up in a mysterious explosion, Jack moves into a run down old house with him. The pair indulge in recreational fistfights in a bar parking lot, which expands into an underground club for alienated men to take out their frustrations on each other as a homosocial and homoerotic act.

Though Durden and Maria have a noisy affair, fantasised and actualised by Jack, women almost don’t have a negative effect on the world of Tyler Durden. It’s a plot feint about the attraction between the male leads, beautiful Tyler and wiry Jack, that winds in on itself with the revelation that Jack has been fighting himself. Durden turns Fight Club into Project Mayhem, a campaign of revolutionary pranks which extends so far into the infrastructure of society that when Jack catches on to his double life and confesses, most of the cops turn out to be in on it. There is a great deal of sick humour at the expense of masculinist ideals and white-collar society Durden’s bizarre pranks to the dizzying third act as Jack is astonished and shocked by the escalation of the project his followers know he has initiated, with his statements taken up as chanted slogans and seemingly every bruised man he meets in on the scheme. It culminates in real horror as Jack purges himself of Durden by shooting himself in the mouth, blowing out Durden’s brains but not his own, and embracing the puzzled Marla as the skyline of financial buildings explodes. There are many evident themes in the movie, but the most prominent two are Masculinity in a modern society and consumerism, perfection and modernity, Nearly all the characters in Fight Club are men (the one notable exception is Marla Singer), and the film examines the state of masculinity in modern times. And Overall, much of the film’s project involves satirizing modern American life, particularly what the film sees as the American obsession with consumerism and the mindless purchasing of products.

The film suggests that modern society emasculates men by forcing them to live consumerist lives centered around shopping, clothing, and physical beauty. The film further suggests that such traits are necessarily effeminate, and therefore that because American society prizes these things it represses the aspects of men that make men, men. In short, the film depicts the men it portrays as being so emasculated they’ve forgotten what being a “real man” means.

At first, the protagonist and Narrator in the movie is portrayed as a kind of slave to his society’s values; he describes himself as being addicted to buying sofas and other pieces of furniture. The Narrator is trapped in a society of rampant consumerism, in which people are pushed (both by advertisements and by a general culture of materialism) to spend their money on things they don’t need, until buying such things is their only source of pleasure. The richest characters in the film are so obsessed with buying things that they lavish fortunes on incredibly trivial items like perfume and mustard, while the poorest starve. As with any addiction, the characters’ consumerism is endless, no matter how many products they buy, they always feel an unquenchable thirst for more.

Another important aspect of modern American life, as the film portrays it, is the emphasis on beauty and perfection, whether in a human body or in something like an apartment. “These days,” the Narrator’s alter ego, Tyler Durden, says, everybody looks fit and healthy, because everybody goes to the gym. In contemporary American society, the “perfect man” is supposed to be well-off, well-dressed, fit, own lots of nice furniture, and have a pleasant attitude at all times, ensuring that he impresses everyone around him. The film suggests that America’s obsession with beauty and exercise and its obsession with consumer goods are one and the same: they’re both rooted in a desire to appear “perfect”essentially to “sell themselves.” The result is that human beings themselves become “products,” just like a sofa.

Symbols were also very evident throughout the movie, but the main symbol i found is the soap, like the soap that can be seen on the poster of the movie. Tyler Durden is an enthusiastic maker of soap; he renders fat (sometimes human fat) and converts it into luxurious, expensive soaps that he sells for a hefty profit. As Tyler explains, the process of making soap is incredibly brutal: animals have to be slaughtered, bodies have to be harvested, just to produce a state of cleanliness. Soap not just the object but the process of making it is a symbol of the brutality and violence of the “real world,” a world that most people would prefer to ignore. Furthermore, soap is a symbol of the pain and sacrifice needed to keep the world turning, and of the invisible dirtiness involved in the way that people keep themselves clean.

Fight Club is an exceptional movie that has a very clever way of delivering messages and satirizing modern american life and it’s prominent themes still apply today, at first it’s seen as a male appealing movie about underground fighting, but at a deeper glance you could see the bigger picture and read between the lines and see the full psychological warfare that jack faces throughout the movie.

Works Cited

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