Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Fight Club
In the movie Fight Club, we see concepts like the idea of masculinity and how does a grown man in this day and age (or at least the ideals a decade ago when the movie was made)are challenged. I found a great exert that really defines what the movie ment to me... "Fight Club parallels Rebel Without a Cause by probing into the frustrations of the people that live in the system. The characters, having undergone societal emasculation, are reduced to 'a generation of spectators',while a culture of advertising defines society's 'external signifiers of happiness' and causes an unnecessary chase for material objects that replaces the more essential pursuit of spiritual happiness" It's a shame that the movie Rebel Without a Cause was never a book (as far as I know...) because it would be the perfect film to watch in relation with Fight Club. It is so strange that men of this generation (our generation) are so confused, bored, stripped down of any moral value and replaced with only consumer need, it makes you feel hollow and terrified because the fact is soon that many of us will be raising a new generation unprepared. What will the men and women of tomorrow be like? I shudder to even think about it.
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2 comments:
I hadn't noticed the similarity to Rebel Without a Cause before, but now that you mention it I definitely see it. It really is kind of scary to think about the future when the priorities of people today are so off from where they should be. I'm pretty sure that life will be significantly different for most people within the next couple of generations, whether that be for good or bad is yet to be seen, but it doesn't look very promising at this point.
Interesting parallel between Rebel Without a Cause and Fight Club. I think you're right, but it isn't only emasculation that has been problematic--the female role in Fight Club is similarly plagued by gender confusions and is stripped of traditional identity. This could of course be a good thing if you look at it as an example of people living outside the system, but the consumer culture that replaced both gender roles in the film is interesting. I'll have to watch Rebel again and see what kinds of parallels emerge philosophically and culturally.
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