August

ARCHETYPAL VIDEO PICK OF THE ISSUE
    Reviewed by Mark Greene
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fight Club. 1999. 

Directed by David Fincher.  Based upon the novel by Chuck Palahniuk.  Screenplay by Jim Uhls.  Starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter.  

 

     “Our great war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives.”

     So says Tyler Durden on behalf of the disenfranchised in one of the many moving and disturbing speeches found in the compelling film, Fight Club.  Who are the disenfranchised?  It is we, the masses, listlessly tending to jobs we don’t like so that we can pay for products we don’t need.  

     The deeply contrasted heroic duo who proclaim and suffer the implications of this message is comprised of the Narrator (Edward Norton) and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt).  Together they embody an ancient mythological motif that Howard Teich calls the The Solar/Lunar Twin-Ego, “a universal theme that is documented in nearly all cultural histories.  Rivalrous pairs, such as Romulus and Remus, Jacob and Esau, may be most familiar to us, but examples of amicable solar/lunar Twins abound as well.  It is, for example, seldom recalled that even our superhero Hercules was born with a twin named Iphicles.  Together the Twins represent a balanced, complete energetic principle of the masculine, partaking of both light and dark influences.”  Fight Club indeed delivers both light and dark imagery through its two principle characters, but, perhaps, leans on the dark side so as to dispel images of ‘sunny and happy’ that advertisers use to keep us in their hypnotic grip.

     Fight Club would have us believe that our suffering as consumers is greater than we could ever fathom.  In this deeply psychological film, Joseph Campbell’s maxim, ‘Follow your bliss,’ seems to come through loud and clear but only, the filmmakers suggest, after you have confronted the depths of your own madness.  It is only then that you can truly appreciate the pathological despair that runs as a leitmotif throughout the consumerist empire that is the United States; only after hitting bottom will you find out who you are, and, perhaps, see some light.  

     The violence of Fight Club is not gratuitous, as many feared it would be while watching the trailers that heralded this film in the early autumn of 1999.  If anything, this brilliant adaptation from the novel by Chuck Palahniuk asks that we notice how violent our lives already are.  What more militaristic circumstances other than those brought to us by the corporate-sponsored ‘American Dream’ could prevent each of us from answering our life’s calling while we wait for trickle-down economics to toss us a bone?

     Although fighting does plays a large part in this film, not a punch is landed for the first 35 minutes.  Helena Bohnam Carter, Edward Norton and Brad Pitt each deliver stellar performances.  In addition, Fight Club addresses psychological truths throughout.  If, as the film suggests, one discovers that being ‘split-off’ from one’s calling is necessary in order to survive, then why exactly are we trying to survive?  The film asks us to come to terms with the inevitability of our death so that we can re-evaluate what has meaning in our lives and take action based upon those insights.

     Guerilla Terrorism?  Psychological Terrorism?  Yes.  But not this movie; consider it an act of counter-terrorism and perhaps the best film of 1999.  Rent it.

Have a “near-life” experience.

 

Mark Greene
August 2000

 

In quotes, Howard Teich, “Homovision: The Solar/Lunar Twin-Ego.”  Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1993.


COPYRIGHT 2000 by Mark Greene. 

 

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Excellent

(HeadlineMuse rating system)