NO TALKING ABOUT FIGHT CLUB

 

Our character is an insurance clerk who is struggling with depression and has been having trouble sleeping for a long time. He is not satisfied with his life. He is someone who constantly does the same things and feels the need for consumption. He participates in many group therapies to get rid of psychological problems. The character's sleep problem has now been solved. Meanwhile, he meets Marla, who attends every therapy, although she is not sick like him. Later, our character goes on business trips and makes disposable friends. Tyler Durden, who will change his life, is one of them. Tyler is a soap merchant. At the end of the trip, our character's house and the things he values very much are burned down. He was relieved of a burden. Later, the character begins to live with Tyler Durden. Unlike the character, Tyler is a free person who knows what he wants and is against the capitalist system. Later, Tyler and the character form an organization called 'Fight Club' and this organization grows. Then the Chaos Project arises. They attack many places with this project. Just as he is about to make the last big attack, Tyler disappears and our character starts looking for him. Meanwhile, he realizes that Tyler is actually himself.  (Hatipoğlu, 2023)

There are many criticisms against consumption and consumer society in this film. The character says in the entrance scene that everything is a copy of a copy. Here he criticizes the fact that everything and everyone is the same, which, in fact, is a consequence of consumer society. Many people buy a product to raise their status, as a result of which everyone becomes a copy. In the same way, in the film, our character meets a character named Bob during therapies. Due to the perception of beauty that developed with this society, Bob tried many ways and eventually lost his health. One of these ways is plastic surgeries. People do these surgeries to conform to the perception of beauty. Thanks to this, they either lose their health, or, as the character says, become a copy of the copy. Or they were crammed into gyms to become tall, muscular, thin. It is also effective for expensive brands to .advertise here with the perception of beauty, At the beginning of the film, the character says that IKEA, like everyone else, is a slave to the nest-building instinct.  when karkater sees a beautiful product, he wants to buy it . Thanks to this, he thinks that everything is complete. But the urge to buy never ends. we keep buying every time we see a nice product. Advertising has an impact on this. Because in the ads they say that the only thing we are missing is that product and that it is the best, and they convince us. The character thinks that everything is expendable during his travels. Including friendships. The system imposed consumption on us. We're not going to wear what we're wearing. We change our phones every year. We throw out the old ones of the newly released products. We are consuming even our relationships very fast now. Tyler criticizes the consumer society with these words in the bar scene. “We are by-products of lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty... these things don't interest me. What interests me are celebrity magazines, televisions with 500 channels, the fact that a man's name is written on my panties...” Now people are indifferent to the events happening around them. Their only concern is to determine their status with the clothes they buy, or to follow celebrities and influencers and become a copy of them. Again, as Tyler says, “The things you have will eventually have you.” After the character's house burns down, the luxury houses brought by capitalism get rid of expensive items. Now he is movies to a house where he has only basic needs. As time goes by, he gets used to this situation. He gives up earthly products and returns to himself. “Tyler again criticizes with these words. “I reject civilization. Especially buying property.” In the film, he says that only if we lose everything will we be free to do everything. In other words, if a person moves away from consumer society, he can do what he wants. Because this society that we are connected to forces us to consume and be like them. And we can't move freely to avoid being judged. In the scenes when fight club starts to be established, he says that people are using their potential for nothing and that we are slaves of the system just for the cars and clothes we see in commercials. But the ads that promise us that we will become millionaires, movie gods or rock stars are lies. He talks about the fact that the capitalist system manipulates us for consumption. It also emphasizes in the fight scenes how bored white-collar people who have a good status in society are actually and are looking for an escape. They see that the only activity they do now is not to consume and they relax by fighting. In the film, they organize movements aimed at destroying everything that has entered our lives with consumerism. They called it the Chaos Project. In the scenes where Tyler is organizing the Fight Club, he asks if the candidate has two black T-shirts, two black pants, a black jacket, black boots, black socks and $300 for the burial. Here he explains that a person's needs actually consist of only a few things. Buying excess products just because they are beautiful or for other reasons is a habit that the consumer society has given us. As they say in commercials, it says that man is not actually a special, beautiful and unique snowflake, and we are a decaying organic matter, like everything else in the world. Everyone is equal to each other. The clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the houses we live in don't change that. In the last scene of the film, the character realizes that Tyler is now himself and surrenders to the police.  He tells the police about the Chaos Project and says that blowing up credit card companies is the real plan. In the ongoing scenes, the plan takes place. The reason they want to blow up these companies is because people get into a lot of debt with consumerism and these debts bankrupt them. It is thought that if the debt records are deleted, everything will start over. In these scenes of the film, there is a criticism of the banks. 

As it was previously stated, the movie Fight Club makes heavy criticisms against consumerism, consumer society and capitalism. I think people have become slaves of the consumer society. Only if they move away from this society can they be free. Now we see that most people are tired of consuming and are looking for different alternatives to get rid of it.  I think the Fight Club movie is important because it makes us understand these reasons.

 REFERANCE

Fincher, D. (Yöneten). (1999). Fight Club [Sinema Filmi]

Hatipoğlu, B. (2023, Ocak 18). beyazperde.com. Dövüş Kulübü: https://www.beyazperde.com/filmler/film-21189/ adresinden alındı