Why You Should Study Fight Club

hey i wanted to let you know that i've launched a podcast called the writer's mind this podcast is not about story theory it's about philosophy psychology and worldview building so that you can become a critical thinker and a stronger writer click the first link below to watch on youtube or listen on apple podcasts and spotify fight club is one of those films that keeps hanging around in the cultural psyche even though it was released more than two decades ago the reason it stayed with us is because of the philosophical ideas the film deals with so what are those ideas how did fight club come to be such a memorable impactful story and how can you apply the same ideas to create your own story today we're taking a look at this concept as i break down fight club's core philosophical conflict and explain why the film became a cult classic let's begin when we enter the world of fight club we are quickly given the world view of the main character when deep space exploration ramps up it'll be the corporations that name everything this world is one of numbness where nothing happens where nothing is important and everything is fake life is simply passing by with no purpose and no reason what kind of dining set defines me as a person the modern capitalist american system has created a world where we all work jobs for mega corporations that are completely unfulfilling this is your life and it's ending one minute at a time the narrator has an especially depressing job he is constantly traveling because of his job which means his life is a constant state of shallow events single serving sugar single serving cream single path of butter the people i meet on each flight their single serving friends the film starts here and gives us its basic presuppositions that we exist within an artificial culture built by us where everything is shallow and nothing we do holds any meaning this is our starting point then our narrator meets a character that takes his world view to the next level tyler durden philosophically tyler is a complete rejection of the world that the narrator lives in while the narrator feels out of sync with culture but remains in it tyler takes action tyler sees the shallow world then takes action against it consumers right we are consumers we are byproducts of a lifestyle obsession murder crime poverty these things don't concern me what concerns me are celebrity magazines television with 500 channels some guy's name on my underwear and it is here that the entrance into the new world takes place these two characters decide to take action together they will begin to break down the world that has been built for them and how will they do this they will do it through violence i don't know why i don't know never been to fight you no but that that's a good thing no it is not how much can you know about yourself you've never been a fight they fight for the first time but why fighting we exist within a society where everything has become totally safe clean and docile and human beings aren't built for that world so these characters turn to a natural physical experience the act of fighting fighting helps them feel alive it helps them break out of the clean systemized world they've been born into but the fighting isn't just about breaking society the film's viewpoint is that nothing matters it's not just about destroying society it's about destroying themselves self-improvement is masturbation self-destruction when the fight was over nothing was solved but nothing mattered what this film is presenting is a version of aggressive nihilism it is a view that the world is completely meaningless therefore we should act upon our internal desires to destroy our society and destroy ourselves the basic assumption of civilization especially the importance of material possession now this is the first layer of the film what's interesting is that you find a second layer to this viewpoint and that is that the film presents fatherlessness as one of the causations for this viewpoint we're generation of men raised by women i'm wondering if another woman is really the answer we need one of the reasons the men that join fight club join is because they are searching for masculine leadership and tyler durden becomes that masculine leader if our father's bailed what does that tell you about god listen to me i have to consider the possibility that god does not like you he never wanted you in all probability he hates you this is not the worst thing that can happen it isn't we don't need him we don't agree [ __ ] damnation man [ __ ] redemption we are god's unwanted children so be it through tyler the film presents the idea that the philosophical viewpoint of these characters are in part built by the absence of fathers without clear direction they point themselves toward destruction chuck pelanik the author of the fight club novel elaborated on this idea in a podcast with joe rogan my classic thing is that there are so few social model novels or stories for men and if you're a man you've got either fight club or you have the dead poet society fight club spends the first half of the story building our understanding of this aggressive nihilistic viewpoint and now we move on to the next level project mayhem the narrator in tyler took the initial action based upon their philosophical beliefs they created fight clubs now it's time to up the stakes they take their ideology even further they build project mayhem a cult-like group built to destroy the modern world and create chaos to free people from the prison they have built for themselves i believe the plan is to blow up the headquarters of these credit card companies and the trw building why these buildings why credit card companies if you erase the debt record then we all go back to zero you'll create total chaos and it's here where we as the audience really get to see the conclusion of this viewpoint and this forces us to question the ideology is this truly the way to live if it means actively destroying the society we have built should the society be torn down to build something better what is the best way to live in the modern world let's analyze what this film is saying at its core fight club is a film about how the society we live in isn't built for us it's not our natural state we have made the world too safe we have removed meaning from our lives we have removed our own ability to make meaningful choices and we have removed any real leadership or system of belief from our lives therefore we must destroy the world we exist within so why did this film catch on so heavily what made this film live on as a cult classic for two decades because these ideas resonated with some people who watched it it raises ideas that legitimately must be thought about it makes us question this artificial world we've built for ourselves it makes us realize that every single thing we interact with in our day-to-day lives are built by humans none of it is natural we sit in offices built by people to do some job invented by some person to be done on this computer machine that we created for ourselves while we wear a uniform that arbitrarily became the clothing we wore to work then we go home riding in a car a totally unnatural machine to a home that we didn't build full of junk we didn't actually want to buy clearly there is a level of truth to these ideas then it's important to look at the conclusions the film draws the film says that our lives are meaningless now and maybe they've always been meaningless and because of this we should tear everything to the ground even our own bodies this conclusion is where you as the critical thinking viewer must analyze and decide what you think what do you think about the ideas the film presents and the conclusions it makes do you agree do you disagree is this the correct way to live or is there another way this legitimate challenge to the beliefs you hold is why the film resonated it has a clear real philosophical conflict something that few films actually have so how did it build this philosophical conflict clearly into the film by using characters the characters in the story hold beliefs in regards to the central philosophy of the film and then they take action based upon their beliefs the narrator realizes that his world is fake shallow and totally meaningless it's here that he meets tyler durden tyler believes our culture is totally shallow and meaningless so he takes action to destroy himself and destroy society tyler believes you only become free when you hit rock bottom so he tries to pull people to their rock bottom marla also holds similar beliefs that life is meaningless and that she is ready to die at any moment marla's philosophy of life is that she might die at any moment the tragedy she said was that she didn't marla creates chaos just like tyler does and the chaos they create is to show the narrator and you the viewer that the system we live in is devoid of any meaning the entire plot is built upon tyler continuing to challenge the narrator's beliefs and to take him further into this nihilistic viewpoint this is how the film ties the philosophical ideas to the actual external action the different plot points of the story all relate to the core philosophical conflict and this is what you want to create in your own story the external conflicts the characters face aren't simply external obstacles they are also philosophical challenges to what the characters believe and the actions the characters take reveal their world view to us the audience fight club is a great example of how strong philosophical conflict can actually save a film if you look at the structure of fight club you will find a story that's actually pretty disjointed a few of the major turning points simply just happen in the story without any real cause and effect there are scenes and sequences that probably should have been cut and the film's run time sits at around two and a half hours and you really feel the film's length when you watch it so if structure and story momentum is supposedly extremely important why does this film continue to stay with us decades after its release because the story has a clear interesting philosophical conflict structure is not the most important part of your story the most important elements are the philosophical ideas that are in conflict this film presents a world view and it presented ideas that some people resonated with making the film a cult classic what fight club teaches us is that you can make mistakes in the structure and momentum of your story yet still have a deeply impactful film if you are clear and focused on the philosophical conflict so as a writer what should you take away from this film analyze the film's philosophical conflict realize that the philosophical conflict is what made this a film that impacted people and that great stories don't have to be perfect there really isn't any such thing as a perfect story if you can keep your philosophical conflict at the clear center of your story then everything else will fall into place hey i hope you enjoyed the video if you did leave a like and subscribe and check out the podcast linked in the description thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: Tyler Mowery

Views: 656,644

Keywords: film analysis, movie review, tyler mowery, nerdwriter, lessons from the screenplay, every frame a painting, screenwriting, script breakdown, writing, workshop, writing course, teach screenwriting, oscar best screenplay, film school

Id: MWFZsYGeaP8

Length: 12min 54sec (774 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021