Fight Club- a Post Modern Marxist Masterpiece

I think it is one of those films a lot of people get something out of.

But I think it really struck a chord with some of us more than others.

The people it spoke to.
Because it understood what a whole generation of males must live with and face.

The challenge of being male in our lifetime.
And it dealt with that in terms which showed, you can only understand the tragedy of the twenty first century male, IF you understand Marx.

I watch that film, time and time again, and I feel it speaks to me.
I am Jack. And I'm Tyler. And the girl I'm looking for, is Marla.

The film explains the dichotomy that a man of high testosterone coupled with high cognitive abilities faces.

For the record, I'm not so screwed up I totally divide my persona into two separate lives.
But that's what the system asks of us.
And this film is about how sick of it males like me are.

This film is a fantasy, a fantasy where males like me bond together and say 'Fuck you'.
And yes, it cops out at the end.
But at least it tackles WHY we're so bloody pissed off.

Here's the dichotomy an intelligent, liberally minded male such as myself faces.

I HATE war. I HATE mililtarism. I HATE the exploitation of my fellow human beings in the third world for the commercial gains of the capitalist system.

But I have to serve this system every day of my life to live. And it will never amount to anything. I will die with a balance sheet reading 'nada'.

Not only that, the dynamics of human interaction in this system of ours mean that in spite of my lofty ideals, my male hormones mean that barely a day goes by, I don't want to punch someone.

Because I'm a fucking man. Because I have those hormones. Because this system we have cages us up, it pushes our frustration to the limit and then forces us to bottle all that up. There are millions of us out there, frustrated males, taunted like Tantalus, told that we are NOTHING if we cannot buy a a kitchen for the woman of our dreams.



THAT'S the lie the spin us. THAT'S the bait they give the testosterone driven male.

And this film is about that bait and what it does to us, the anger we truly feel inside.

I support Feminism wholeheartedly. For many reasons. Many of those have appeared many times on this blog. But not least of all is a belief that when women TRULY are allowed to be women without men telling them how men think they should be, men will truly be allowed to be themselves too.

I don't WANT to be a gentleman. What's so great about a gentleman?
Does being a gentleman make you trustworthy? Honest? A good person? In my experience, no.

I'm a man. That means I make decisions based on Testosterone and Adrenalin. It means there is a part of my chemical makeup geared up to throw pointed rocks at antelopes and tear the flesh from them in a frenzy of adrenalin.

And I'm sick and tired of that drive being used for someone else's gain. Harnessed and exploited into the creation of corporate letterheads.

This film tells it like it is- it's a message of what this society REALLY does to manhood.
And what that turns men into.

Jack loves Marla. At the end, he realises that. But he only realises that, when he comes to terms with his suppressed manhood. Marla, in spite of her flaws, is a real woman. But then again, doesn't this film have a lot to say about the suppression of womanhood?



My take on this film, is there is nothing wrong with Marla at all. She THINKS there is, because she feels she has to live up to a false expectation of womanhood. But Marla is a real woman all the way. But it takes the events in Jack's life to show her that.
It is Jack who does not know how to be a man, because he has not come to terms with the man inside him. And this film is about the real Jack coming out.

Jack, who suppresses all emotion to live out the life doled out to him by social expectation. Jack, who because of his brain, should push that pen without question. Jack, living alone soullessly in his Condo.

When all along he secretly despises the system that makes him do it.

Because his heart wants him to make passionate love to Marla, bond physically to other males and blow the system sky high.

So he creates Tyler Durden, the alternate persona to carry his desires to extreme positions.

There is a whole generation of us out there, overeducated, oversexed and underpaid. And we LOVED this film.

And we vote Tory, because they are the bastards out of the list of bastards who will ensure that our pay packets look rosiest.

But we hate you. We hate the way you make us feel. We hate the way you tread on our very masculinity. We hate the way you pervert our relations with the opposite sex, because you make us stand on the only dignity we have left, to the point we wrongly call rank on an entire gender we have no right to call rank on.

You, our paymasters make us bottle up our emotions, our testosterone, our drives, you dress us in capitalist dog collars you call ties, you browbeat us down to placing computer print outs on your desks and what you give us in return is enough tokens to impress the women by according to the standards YOUR marketing dictates they should be impressed by.
And you wonder why, when we can't turn round and kick you in the face like you deserve, that we vent our frustration in the only places we can.

You take away our dignity. And we pass that on.

This film is about the ordinary white collar male of the western world being sick of being treated like dirt.
You could get away with it when it was just the working man you fucked over. Or to be more honest, when it was only the working man that clocked it.

But you educated us. You gave us degrees. We keep the cogs going, so you can fly from London to Tokyo to sign that contract.
And you make us feel like serving girls.

And now, we're asking the big question.
You brought us up to believe we'd be in on it. Because you needed us. You needed our white collar skills. and you followed the same old divide and rules tactics you always have. Keep the workers down by kidding the white collar workers you're on their side.
Problem was, you had to give us some knowledge.
And knowledge is power.



And that's what this film is all about.

The realisation by the white collar, heterosexual male that he's just one more exploited group and not the sole exalted group of the capitalist system.
In fact, he's not exalted at all. He's the most downtrodden of the lot.

And more importantly, the realisation by the white collar, heterosexual male that the key to his freedom ISN'T by oppressing other groups- that's part of the problem, they play on that, they make him vent his anger on other groups.

It's about the white collar male turning round and joining with every other exploited group and joining them as equals and saying 'Let's say goodbye to these groups. Let's all change the world'.

Let's create a world in which we can all be who we were MEANT to be.

Jack and Marla are meant to be together in a perfect world.

That's the real point of the film.

That both of them are beautiful human beings who belong together. Because they are. Watch the film. Work out the real Jack and the real Marla, they are amazing people.

But the world around them is screwed up.

The film is about how beautiful people, not strong people, not courageous people, but BEAUTIFUL people find themselves, find eachother and find love in SPITE of a cold, dark and malicious world outside.

Oh, Marla, Marla...