1. Fight Club Close Study

2. Context: Fight Club as ‘Anti-Capitalist’ & ‘Anti-Consumerist’

4. Themes & Meanings CAPITALISM & THE CORPORATE AGENDA:
Capitalism: The social system in which we live -
The means for producing and distributing goods (the land, factories, technology, transport system etc) are owned by capitalist corporations.
The working class are paid to produce goods and services which are then sold for a profit. Goods and services are exchanged for profit. The profit is gained by the capitalist corporation.
A corporation is an institution/business whose sole interest is to create great wealth
Corporate claims/myths that they are responsible for world progress
PROBLEMS:
A corporation has HUMAN RIGHTS
Profit motivation leads to exploitation (i.e. Sweatshops Slavery, Child Labour, Sexual Abuse)
No moral responsibilities – resulting in harm to human health; animals; the environment
Increasing PRIVATIZATION of PUBLIC SERVICES (i.e. Education, Health Services) – the private ownership of public services that should be free/low cost

5. What do these images suggest the effects of Capitalism are?

6. Themes
Globalization
Dehumanization
Consumerism
Capitalism
The Corporate World
Anti – Establishment

7. Themes & Meanings GLOBALIZATION:
The growth of large corporations & their integration into other countries
PROBLEMS:
No diversity, no individualism – nothing is unique
Brands are seen as meaningful (giving rise to consumerism)
Growth of exploitation (i.e. workers)

8. Themes & Meanings CONSUMERISM & MATERIALISM:
A way of corporations maximizing profits – designed to mould people into desired consumers
The equating of personal happiness with consumption & purchase of material possessions
Purchasing goods in excess of basic needs
ANTI-CONSUMERISM/PROBLEMS:
Condemns the ethics of modern corporations whose sole interest is in economic profit
People start to identify with commercial brand names & use possessions as status symbols
Substitutes products for healthy human relationships & life experiences
Assumes consumers are ‘mindless’ purchasers of goods they don’t want/need
Manipulated by the Advertising Industry

9. Fight Club Recap Quiz What do the following terms mean:
Capitalism & The Corporate World
Globalization
Consumerism
De-Humanization
List 3 problems with:
Capitalism
C) Consumerism
What point of view does an anti-consumerist take?
‘Fight Club takes an anti-establishment stance’ – What does this mean?
Provide 3 Quotes from Fight Club related to it’s themes
List 3 Killer points of analysis from Fight Clubs opening sequence

10. Fight Club Recap Quiz
Write down a short definition for the following terms:
Globalization
Capitalism & The Corporate World
Consumerism
De-Humanization
List 3 problems with:
Capitalism
What point of view does an anti-consumerist take?
‘Fight Club takes an anti-establishment stance’ – Give 3 examples of this

11. What is a ‘Critical Approach’?
Looking at a film from a critical or theoretical perspective
A Gender Approach – an analysis of representation within the film

12. Analysing the Themes of Fight Club
“You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. ” - Tyler Durden

13. Fight Club Themes – A Summary
Repressed male rage – Frustration about:
Corporate America & the collapse of the ‘American Dream’
Male Isolation; Alienation (A Fincher signature)
Lack of effective Leadership/Government; Economic Despair
Oppression – Being ‘oppressed’ - Having to conform to established power relations within society
The Feminization of Man and Repressed ‘Raw’ Masculinity
Impact of Feminism on men
The dehumanizing effects of corporate consumer culture

14. Fight Club as ‘Populist Resentment’
ABOVE L - R (Marylin, Soup Can by Warhol;
Floor Burger by Claus Oldenburg)
Populist Resentment – To express disgust/dissatisfaction with contemporary popular culture & collapse of society
Addresses the mediocrity of modern life
Sometimes expressed as ‘slacker entertainment’ – taking stupidity to extremes as a social comment (i.e. JACKASS )

15. Fight Club & Anti-Consumerism/Globalization “Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. ” - Tyler
Signs of daily consumption scattered throughout mise-en-scene :
Big Corporation Brands - Starbucks/Pepsi/ McDonalds appear so frequently they become normality for viewer (as in life) RIGHT
Narrators apartment literally turns into an IKEA Catalogue
As the film was forced to take corporate cash from Pepsi, IKEA, and Vokswagen, Fincher organized product placement in a way that every single product appearance is accompanied by an act of violence and destruction

16. Fight Club & Anti-Consumerism/Globalization “Everything’s a copy of a copy of a copy” – The Narrator
Criticises how human relationships become just another product to consume – “Single Serving Sugar…Single Serving Friends”
Narrator’s POV shot (RIGHT) ‘Corn Flour Blue Tie – person is dismembered; defined by the product (De-humanization)
Norton uses consumer lifestyle as a substitute for fulfilment in his life
Fincher inserts a no-brand reference towards end of film (Direct Bus) – sticks out – a symbol of Narrators redemption from consumerism

17. Fight Club & Anti-Capitalism “You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake” - Tyler
Narrator is a ‘cog in the wheel’; a wage slave for a Global Car Corporation
Norton is an unnamed protagonist – a nameless narrator – a product in a story
Dehumanization in the modern world – Job is to measure corporate culpability against charred human remains
Critiques New Age Enlightenment thoughts as idiotic gibberish (i.e. Finding your Power Animal/Male Support Groups - RIGHT etc.) - Mocks with ironic humour.
The Fight Club - Violent Masculine Resistance to Capitalism
Final Sequence – the end of Capitalism: Norton and Marla watch the skyscrapers explode hand in hand – resembles a starry night sky; an alternative love story

18. Make a list of character traits (appearance/ behaviour/goals for: A) The Narrator B) Tyler Durden C) Marla Singer

19. Debates: Brad Pitt as Tyler
A ‘metrosexual’ icon
One of Hollywood’s most ‘Consumable’ Stars
Brad Pitt - made famous by his own body and position as object for female gaze - makes a comment on Gucci’s representation of men

20. Debates: The Consumable Brad Pitt
“There’s something more than ludicrous about sitting in a theatre while Brad Pitt preaches at you about the emptiness of materialism”
GIROUX 2006

21. 1980’s Action Man
1980’s Masculinity: Forceful intimidating depictions of masculinity which feature an obsession with the body and the power of the male
“Both actors (Stallone and Schwarzenegger) often resemble a phallus with muscles". (Creed 1990)
All feature the ‘hard body’ – an emblem of male power

22. “We’re designed to be hunters and we’re in a society of shopping”
MALE REPRESENTATION
“We’re designed to be hunters and we’re in a society of shopping”
- Tyler

23. ‘Typical’ Man
List the male stereotypes here (and any others you can think of)…

24. 1980’s Action Man

25. 1980’s Action Man

26. The ‘New’ Man

27. The ‘New Man’/Metrosexual
Appearance Obsessed
In touch with ‘feminine side’
Emotional/ Sensitive

28. Objects of the Female Gaze
Robert Pattison (Twilight)
Hugh Jackman (Worlds Sexiest Male)
Zac Efron (Homo-erotic Icon)

29. The ‘Female Gaze’
A number of recent texts can be seen to subvert (go against) Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’ theory
These texts see women actively desiring and looking at men
Audiences see from a desiring female perspective thus men view themselves being watched
Women also take up more lead ‘protagonist’ roles (i.e. Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich)

30. Masculinity: Social Context Feminism
Traditional male roles: Cowboy; Hunter; Defender; Achiever; Warrior; Breadwinner
Exposed as myths by Feminism
Feminism = A movement where women strived to have the same rights as man; equality
Men left without a clear identity after Feminism questioned the role of man
Traditional Male roles/unachievable images of strength ALSO imprisoned men

31. Male Representation Recap: Tyler & The Narrator

32. Fight Club: Men in Crisis
One of a number of texts depicting ‘Masculine Malaise’ (Happiness/American Beauty)
Criticises the ‘New Man’
Reasserts supposedly ‘obsolete’ Violent, Mindless Masculinity
Sees the ‘new man’ as a construct of consumerist society
Makes us buy products: Male cosmetics, Fast Cars, Fashion
OVERVIEW:
The ‘new man’ has lost touch with his masculine ‘core’
The ‘real man’ has been lost by consumerism and the media
Film depicts mens’ frustration at the media’s ‘feminisation’ of men
Mans obsession with consumerism has replaced traditional male symbols: strength, honour
Attacks lack of male role models – men raised by women due to men working

33. Bob: An On-Screen Representation of Men in Crisis
Bob’s character is seen through the eyes of the ‘Unreliable Narrator’ –
Norton’s unstable perspective: How he see’s contemporary man:
A muscleman with breasts (Traditional Masculinity V’s the New Man)
In trying to attain ideal male physique gets breasts!
Gives maternal, feminine care to Narrator
Lumberjack shirt – a link to ‘real man’

34. Marla as The ‘Femme Fatale’

35. Marla as The ‘Femme Fatale’
The Narrator’s Saviour ??
The Narrator???? (Another one of his ego’s?)
Introduced via her silhouette (Film Noir) and sound of high heels
Displays iconography of the ‘femme fatale’: Cigarette (Phallic Power), Black & White, Sunglasses
Seen through the eye’s of the ‘unreliable narrator’ – the woman as a phallus
A Free Spirited Risk Taker; a strong empowered representation
Makes obvious links between Bonham Carter’s work with auteur Tim Burton – associations with Gothicism & German Expressionism
Becomes narrators ‘Power Animal’ (LEFT) – inhabits his ‘cave’

36. Male Binary Opposites
Occupies corporate spaces: Offices, Planes, Hotels
The same as everybody else – just another grey suit (‘A copy of a copy of a copy’)
Occupies shadowy underworld
Outlandish, Flamboyant, Unique, Original – link to Anti Globalization themes

37. Norton (The narrator) Introduced by credits hurtling through his brain
The ‘Unreliable Narrator’ – gains audiences trust but is untrustworthy due to his mental state
The ‘new man’ character – he is ‘emasculated’
Consumerist: Job + Possessions + Clothes + Car = Happiness
His male status is an illusion – accumulation of possessions but no happiness
Traditional male role is lost – no male friends, no sexual partner, no libido, no ‘action’ job
Fantasises about dying
Creates Tyler from frustration and repressed rage
Norton (narrator) looks at Tyler – he is stronger & cooler

38. The Narrator’s ‘Power Animal’
What does the Narrator’s ‘Power Animal’ say about the state of contemporary masculinity?
Power Animals: Lion? Tiger? Shark? Penguin
Connotations of the Penguin:
Small; Incapable of Flight; Childish; Harmless; Tuxedo/wears a suit
Penguin is juxtaposed against Narrator’s dream of masculine empowerment

39. Mise en Scene & The Narrator
Mise en scene depicts the Narrator in a constricted, unsettled world
Spaces which constrain him/give a sense of confinement; Low ceilings cluttered sets; no colour (chiarascuro)
TRAPPED in his suit

40. Tyler
Played by Brad Pitt – the star most men would want to play them in a movie of their life
Male aspiration figure for the Narrator – his care-free, hot ideal alter ego: answers to nobody
Introduced wearing sunglasses, leather jacket, chiseled jaw, spiked hair, a colourful juxtaposition against the ‘grey’ suited Narrator
Everything the narrator isn’t:
Charismatic, Sexually Dominant
Aggressive, Powerful, in charge of his own destiny
Tyler rejects consumerism/ materialistic lifestyle

41. ‘Is this what a real man looks like?’ - Narrator

42. Debates: The Consumable Brad Pitt
“There’s something more than ludicrous about sitting in a theatre while Brad Pitt preaches at you about the emptiness of materialism”
GIROUX 2006

43. The ‘Fight Club’
Scenes of physical displays of violence in an attempt to find inner ‘man’
Degrees of maleness; not about inflicting pain but proving they can take it
Ability to endure pain makes you more of a man
Men resort back to a tribal, raw masculinity = another empty role