Movie Review: Fight Club

Dewhitte H. Davis

Daniels

ENG-1013

March 31, 2005

I Am Jack's Paper

The movie Fight Club shakes the foundations of our democratic nation, spits on our capitalist society, and makes all who watch it look at the American way of life differently. In a country driven by consumption, one can imagine the movie Fight Club rubs certain people the wrong way. When Edward Norton was asked why he decided to take the role as the main character in Fight Club, he replied, "to piss off America."

Each American since childhood has been told repeatedly that democracy equals freedom, but is this true? The only difference between capitalism and socialism is that corporations own everything in a capitalist society. In America "the things you own end up owning you." Corporate America gives Americans a television in every home, a car in every driveway, and a Wal-Mart in every town. They call this freedom and freedom shall rain. This new breed of social democracy, an evolution of democracy where private enterprise controls Big Brother, is spreading through the world, infesting and exploiting every country and every government, from the sweatshops of Central America to the oilfields of Iraq; corporate America is slowly choking the world, one McDonalds at a time.

Consumerism is the drive shaft of our generation, the fuel that pushes kids through college, and hope that one day we can have all the things seen in magazines and on TV. The dream of owning a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence and a SUV parked in the driveway. "Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit that we don't need," all the while making people we never met very rich. Tyler Durden wanted to change to this. He wanted to show everyone the truth, show everyone that we are slaves to our consumption. Advertisement shoves products and ideas down Americans' throats everyday, showing everyone how great a product is or why they need it, and people go buy this lie. What ever happened to the days when you grew your own food? Now you go to the supermarket, isle after isle packed full of strangers and canned goods, all of them consuming to their hearts desire. Now other people do the growing and killing for us. All we have to do is put it in the basket, and that's what's wrong with our society, we are not responsible for our own survival anymore.

The film shows how consumer culture plays an important part in the modern male's everyday life. When was the last time you bought something without subconsciously thinking, "which brand defines me as a person?"