Ryan McNeil
Editor’s Note: Greetings from Kansas City! Who needs jaunts to sandy beaches and swaying palm trees, when one can soak up the greatness that is exotic Missouri? Meanwhile, as I go in search of exquisite barbecue and Royals baseball, The Matinee marches on. Today, it’s Courtney Small’s turn, and he came up with a selection near and dear to my heart…so I’m certainly glad he eventually reconsidered it. – RM
I Am Jack’s Trip Down Memory Lane.
Two years ago I got into a heated conversation with a co-worker regarding cinematic art and our interpretation of it. She was appalled with the way the young men in her screening of Django Unchained joyously clung to every use of the “N-word”. Her argument was that audiences often miss the real message when a director overly stylizes a film. I could see her point. Frankly, I was her back in 1999 after watching Fight Club.
David Fincher’s sleek commentary on modern masculinity and consumerism left me frustrated and angry upon first viewing. Fight Club establishes a world where men free themselves by devolving back to primal archetypes and women are nothing more than a “tumor” eating away at men. That is of course, when women are not being wowed by the men’s sexual prowess. While many marveled at the film’s anti-corporation stance, I found it down right insulting. I felt nothing for the plight of the nameless narrator (Edward Norton) whose biggest problems were that he was dissatisfied by his white-collar job, and spent his disposable income on furnishing his condo at IKEA.
As a struggling university student at the time, and growing up in a single-parent household where the term “disposable income” was a pipe dream, Norton’s problems seemed insignificant to say the least. Sitting in a packed theatre on opening night, all I remember thinking when the narrator breaks in his numerous “I Am Jack…” sayings was “I Am Jack’s indifference”.
Furthermore, the anti-establishment ideologies spouted by Brad Pitt’s chiseled Tyler Durden, felt more like the pseudo-intellectual jargon offered at drunken frat parties. It is no wonder that the major cultural impact of the film at the time of its release was not the mass rebellion against consumerism, but rather the rise of underground fight clubs on college campuses. Fight Club was the film that, outside of The Matrix, all the guys seemed to want to talk about at school that year. It seemed that many were trying to mimic the cool masculinity portrayed in the film. Roger Ebert famously dubbed the film “macho porn” and, at the time, I agreed with him.
I Am Jack’s Open Eyes
My views on Fight Club slowly changed once I started to revisit the film. While there are moments I have issues with, the last twenty minutes still irk me to this day, my love for the film grew with each subsequent viewings. Once I got pass the slickness of its presentation, boy is it ever well-constructed from a technical standpoint, it slowly dawned on me that Fincher was not asking the audience to wake-up, but rather his characters.
Fight Club is not a film about those who are “slaves with white collars,” but rather men who are reluctant to face adulthood. Fincher is satirizing all those men whose image of masculinity are guys like Tyler Durden. A point I missed upon first viewing. He is taking aim at those who think childish acts of vandalism and destruction are profound statements against society.
It was only when I approached Fight Club from this new perspective that my understanding of Pitt’s Durden’s, especially in relation to the consumerism slant, became clearer. He is the smelling salts that wakes-up the narrator from the self-imposed IKEA prison. Although it can be argued that this awaking comes far too late in the film, we get the sense that the narrator is finally ready to take responsibility for his actions. He is ready to face the chaos and emotions that come with being an adult.
Having watched it several times over the years, I can honestly say that it is a film that gets better with age. It actually feels more relevant now in this self-obsessed “hey, look at me” world we currently live in. A time where, like the narrator laments, people are simply waiting for their turn to talk instead of truly listening. While I can fully understand those who still hate Fight Club with a passion, revisiting the film immensely changed my entire outlook on it. It is one I now look at with fondness instead of disdain.
I Am Jack’s Euphoria.
Courtney’s writing can be found at Cinema Axis
Great post! I love the line “we’re a generation of men who were raised by women”. This is revealing in many ways. It suggests father’s abandoned their families/kids and therefore were never affirmed. It suggests that a single mother is a failure at raising kids without a man. It suggests that men need a war to verify their manhood. It suggests that the problems of society are because men are not “real” but passive sheep doing whatever the culture tells them to do, asleep, but desperate and suffocating inside. What a powerful statement! David did an incredible job setting up a philosophical situation and then let the chaos begin. I think it’s not just a good film or testosterone cult classic, I think it’s a great film. Like you said, you have to view it from different angle.
The film raises several thought-provoking questions regarding the ramifications of women raising a generation of men on their own. Your point about war in relation to manhood is a good one as well. For years war was seen as the ultimate expression of “tough men”. The whole notion of masculinity, in relation to modern day cinema, is now in a state of flux. More and more films nowadays are starting to question man’s role in modern day society. I like to think that Fight Club was one of the films that helped to spark this introspective movement.
I still have issues with the idea that it’s cool for guys to pummel each other to work through their issues. The film makes that point whether Fincher means to do so or not. I do agree that it’s a brilliant technical film and has plenty to recommend from it. Even so, I don’t connect with it nearly on the level of Seven, Zodiac, or even The Social Network. It’s an interesting film that deserves serious attention, but I still don’t place it as high as many who consider it a favorite.
As I much I enjoy Fight Club, I agree with you that Zodiac and Seven are stronger films. I need to revisit The Social Network again before I can honestly say if it holds up better than this film. Funny enough, for all those who deemed it as one of the most important films of this generation, I do not hear too many people talking about The Social Network much anymore.