Thanks
centipede for posting this.
Since I suggested this one I guess I'm forced to give my personal official rating.
This is one is a solid 9.8/10
This 20 years old movie is without a doubt one of my favorite movies of all time, and one of the narratives I relate the most with.
Fight Club point of view is that men have lost their way in modern society. Which means that there are things of men of the past that modern men need to go back to, in order to reclaim their way.
What we have here is a film about how modern society has taken testicles away from men, and how men need to wake the fuck up, and gain some of that masculinity back to be free, and to have a purpose of their choosing.
In the 1999 movie our protagonist end ups defying the system, and in many ways he was reverting back to the ways of the old kind of men, the kind of men that would be free, and that will have a purpose of their own.
He was doing all of that by rejecting the ideas that didn't originated from him, but that instead were imposed by his society, by advertisement, publications, and everything else that wasn't him.
So what did he do with this newly found masculinity?
He inspired an army, and together, they blew Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. They took down the towers that were the center of that new conditioning, they attacked those ideas at its core.
The movie is all about how modern men aren't capable to free themselves from the system that oppress them, the politics, the norms, the correctness of society, and the reason why they aren't capable is simply because they don't have the balls.
So under that theory it means that if let's say, in real life, men still had the balls, the movie claims they would be capable of taking down those buildings which are allegoric to the rat race of society imposed principles.
Can we test that theory?
Guess what? We can.
Lucky for us we still have men that live like the old days, that still haven't fall under modern indoctrination, and behave purely old school.
Who? You may ask.
Well, what countries do we consider so retro, that even women rights feel outdated?
Yes, you know it, and guess what did they do two years after the movie came out?
I don't even have to say it, we already know what happened, but it is important to clarify, it is not something to admire, as it is very sad they killed so many innocent people.
In fact those men in Project Mayhem didn't have a soul, they were puppets before, and they were puppets after, and so were these guys from real life.
However the theory checks out.
Of course, these guys weren't doing this because they saw it on a movie. They did it because they were the old kind of men, and they were capable to do so without fear.
So if Fight Club was right about that? What else is Fight Club right about?
Well, there is an underlying point people often overlook, and that is the point that humans facing tragedy tend to look at the things that are important, the ones that really matter, and that can actually fulfill them.
At the end, what Durden represents was killed, defiance wasn't the answer on itself. After all, Durden was also a byproduct of reacting to society, Durden wasn't following it, but in many ways his persona was a reaction to go against it.
The answer was not to react to what's outside, but to what's inside, to accept yourself, to be happy with who you are because you are already everything you need to be, nothing else, you are complete, enough, sufficient, and there is no place you need to reach.
All you have to do is to give yourself permission to be that person, right now, but under your own control, and by being conscious of your own actions, not by deliberately rebel against society in reaction, but to rebel against your self inflicted limitations.
The fight is with yourself, and you are the only one that can champion it by following your dreams, your goals, and most importantly, the experiences you share with those you love.
It is not the goal that matters, it is the doing, it is the action, it is the grabbing society's pussy with your hands, becoming the man in charge, taking control of your own world, that even when everyone is against you, you are still the man.
Balder, I love Se7en too, it is also a beast, but Fight Club is on a league of its own.
