Disturbing, Thought Provoking, Possibly Dangerous

"This movie is dangerous" were Anna-Maria’s first words after leaving the theater. And so it may be. At our Cineplex, the testosterone saturated, graphic fight scenes drew crowd cheers. This is, after all, a movie about young men bare knuckling each other into oblivion as a form of catharsis and recreation. The danger comes at the end when the film switches from cinematic wrestle mania on a personal level to loud applause accompanying the collapse of skyscrapers in explosive flames. Obviously, male aggression and discontent with corporate "dronism" have long been subjects of story telling, but when does a story cross the line from exploration of a theme to fomenting violence?

We all benefit from exploring and purging our darker impulses from the comfort of an imaginary exploit in a well wrought story. Movies often amass power from an exploration of tortured, mad psyches. They usually fascinate and often enlighten us about how it all works. However, when violence or sexual exploitation are presented without consequences or are too attractively packaged, some of us are susceptible to copying in real life that which we have experienced from the screen. We worry about Fight Club having opened the doors to the blood lust of the figurative Coliseum in the troubled psyches of some individuals.

As an exploration of the disturbed mental state of a late twenties, early thirties corporate drone who seeks over the edge experiences to give substance to his insomnia blighted, shopping network driven, isolated existence, the film has tremendous emotional punch and insight. Director David Fincher (Seven) has a special talent for shedding light on the dark aspects of the human experience. However, Fight Club disintegrates into mayhem and mania as the thrill seeking devolves into the rationale for nihilism and truly murderous vengeance against the amorphous corporate enemy.

After some pondering, Anna-Maria wondered if the makers of Fight Club wanted to suggest that whatever we originally cling to for a sense of inspiration and vitality ironically turns into a destructive fixation. If we only look at our ongoing thirst for "magic solutions", whether they are targeted at weight loss or spirituality or cultism, we can see how yesterday’s breath of fresh air might become today’s prison of obsession.

Edward Norton certainly fulfilled our expectation and showed us just how unglued a person can become. He plays Jack, the Narrator, a young man trapped by the meaningless daily grind of his life. His job is to evaluate whether it’s cheaper for a carmaker to make repairs or to pay for lawsuits after people die in accidents. Jack has a compulsion for amassing material comforts, no intimate connections, and chronic insomnia. 

Both of us love Edward Norton. He takes on roles that challenge our safe, comfortable notions about the world. His last movie, American History X, depicted a Neo-Nazi fanatic who transforms, but too late, for he loses all that is truly precious as just desserts for his racism and violence. 

We also praise to Brad Pitt for creating a powerful counterpoint to Jack. 

Jack first seeks connection by attending different support groups for people with deadly diseases. He weeps in the arms of the dying when they embrace him to assuage the pain they think is caused by his brotherhood in their condition. Indeed, he is weeping because he is withering spiritually. The relief and sleep Jack gains from these tender, if not bizarre, episodes soon proves insufficient.

His real transformation begins when he meets two eccentric characters. One is a fellow trespasser at the support groups, Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter). She hustles for a living, but has a kind of low down sexual appeal of the "bad girl" to the yuppie goody-goody side of Jack’s nature.

The other is his alter ego, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a wild, impulsive spouter of hostile though insightful one-liners about the sources of Jack’s (and our) discontent. They get drunk one night, and Tyler asks Jack to hit him. They end up beating each other up and achieving an ultimate high. The more bodily damage they inflict on each other, the more they give up control, the more freedom they gain, and less they have to lose.

Even when the fighting turns into a club, really a semi religion for more and more men with psychotic gazes, we still identify with their need to strip all layers of restrictive conventions. When we are unable to exercise those wild tendencies, they tend to erupt at great cost. So, if the only way for these men to get a sense of their soul and their life is to beat each other up, hey, all power to them.

Unfortunately, they do not limit their fight club fisticuffs to dealing with their personal issues of disconnection and lack of meaning. Jack and Tyler recruit the participants into a band of interracial urban commandos bent on destroying the corporate, financial power structure.

Certainly, many elements of our lives are dictated by the structure of our materialist, capitalist society that hinders us from being more complete beings. Certainly, we could invite a group of wise analysts who could use this movie as a good example to instruct about our societal ills. When we come back to Jack, though, we see no reason for him to be a slave to a boring life and the job he hates. The same society he blames for boxing him in, gives everyone ample freedom and opportunity for self-expression and search for meaning. On that level, we feel cheated by Jack’s fall into terrorism and dogma and leading other people out of one bondage (corporate "dronism") and into another (nihilistic cultism).

If this movie had stuck to the angles of exploring the dual psychology of Jack, his corporate side and his wild side, we might have distilled a greater vision out of the experience. Unfortunately, Fight Club takes a detour onto a much larger stage that it can’t really handle. Our world view is challenged, our weaknesses exposed, but a way out remains a mirage.

Fight Club’s message might unfortunately be misinterpreted as a call to uninhibited exploration and worship of our destructive nature. At times when teenagers resort to shooting rampages to salve their troubles, this is a dangerous message. We can only hope that the audience will use Fight Club as a framework for a dialogue that will lead to resolution rather than revolution.