Fight Club

Fight Club (1999), directed by David Fincher, plays with the idea of personal perception versus societal expectations.  It is a story, narrated by a nameless character, played by Edward Norton, who battles with the idea of life versus living a life.  This timeless inner struggle that most people deal with everyday acts as the foundation and uprising of Norton's character but also the degradation of his character.  As many people discover through growth and acceptance of  life's battles, individual doubt and insecurity can be the greatest downfall to human kind.  Meanwhile, confidence and acceptance is where human kind can be at their strongest. This film brilliantly explores both ends of the spectrum through the journey two men take together leading them to both success and failure.  By the end we discover these two men are actually one and only he has the power to choose what life he wants to lead.  Using multiple examples of inner struggles and constant testing, the film delicately takes the audience on a journey to discover a balance between the two and what happens when either extreme becomes to much.  The dystopian theme of this story is actually an inner perception Norton's character and Tyler Durden have of the world.

A strong hint to Norton's character's split personality disorder is when he attends the group meetings in which time he meditates.  Within this meditation, or daydream, he walks through an icy cave of his subconscious.  The woman's voice who is leading the meeting floats within this daydream as a distant echo.  Norton's character appears out of place within the cold, isolated cave and thus out of place within his own mind. 

It becomes clear that Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, acts as the narrators conscious at times leading him to success but also going too far.   However, one's consciousness can be tamed by knowing right from wrong.  However, clues to an unstructured abusive past leads the narrator questioning his every decision and thus paving a path of destruction. Within Durden, Norton's character finds strength and confidence but when he refuses to take responsibility for decisions and conscious due to insecurities and doubt, Durden runs wild leading to detrimental consequences.

Marla, though appearing to be strong and confident at first, is realized to act as a direct correlation between the narator's reality versus his perception of reality.  Her character does not evolve much beyond constant confusion between the narrators irrational thinking.  As he looses his mind, unable to comprehend larger decisions she too falls prey and remains weak, unable to pull her own life together.  The final scene shows the narator and Marla standing before windows overlooking watching as the surround skyscrapers crash to the ground.  This creepily foreshadows what could happen, and did happen in 2001, when people do not have a strong foundation as individuals and are incapable of making smart choices.  Furthermore, the film does an excellent job of showing that the power of choice ultimately comes from within and the way one sees the world is entirely up to his own perception of it and reality.