Fight Club

"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything. "

A naive vehicle safety inspector (Edward Norton) can't find satisfaction in his life; not in money, not in objects, not in his apartment. He can't find happiness in material objects, but rather in his involvement in support groups... That is until he meets Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), another poser who also finds happiness in the midst of other's pain.

The Narrator's life makes a complete 180 when he meets a soap salesman (Brad Pitt), who explains to him that the world we live in is nothing more than a passage of lies meant to fulfill us by trivial things. When his apartment explodes, The Narrator calls up Tyler and unknowingly starts to wind down the road to losing everything. The two of them start an underground fighting ring known as "Fight Club" in which grown men fight each other for fun to release energy from the dull-drums of everyday life. Progressively, Fight Club evolves from the basements of night clubs into an all-out destruction gang known as "Project Mayhem", much to the horror of the Narrator. "Project Mayhem" moves out of the basements and starts to vandalize the city. When a friend of his is killed in a vandal attempt, The Narrator realizes that "Project Mayhem" has gone too far and needs to stop. The Narrator also learns of Tyler's master plan to blow up credit card companies (and set the debt deficit back to zero). The Narrator goes to the police to try and get them to find and stop Tyler, but to his horror the police are also members of "Project Mayhem". The Narrator attempts to find Tyler himself, but comes to the shocking realization that HE IS TYLER. In an attempt to stop the credit card companies from exploding, The Narrator destroys Tyler (himself? he shoots himself through the side of the cheek and inevitably kills Tyler in the process), and watches in awe as he holds Marla's hand as the buildings come crashing down around him.

Tyler: You don't know which wire to pull.
The Narrator: I know everything you do, so if you know I know.
Tyler: Or maybe, since I knew you'd know I spent all days thinking about the wrong wires.

That is just what the movie is on it's first layer.

The movie really delves into what the modern man is perceived to be. The film tells us that men shouldn't find happiness in objects, beauty, or money, but rather men should find fulfillment is accomplishment and break-away from everything material. Life is something that one builds from scratch, something that can't be attained unless one has hit rock bottom. Men are not meant to be contained in office buildings, but rather to let loose on testosterone, to be free from the world and to not let anyone else tell you otherwise. Men need something to live for, a purpose, something to strive for and be remembered by. The world is full of lies, and the only way anyone can break from this is by losing everything and building yourself back up from scratch.

Of course, whether the film speaks the real truth is debateable. What are men really? What do we live for and try to be remembered by? You could watch this film 20 times, and find something new in the subtext that you could relate to men and society as a whole, each time. A fantastical multi-layered story that speaks volume to society as a whole.

**********
10 out of 10 stars