Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Eng 281 Intro to Film- Fight Club


What’s your identity? Do you have one? This film to me was about finding out if you even have an identity. It touched bases on a world that is defined on what you wear, and materialistic values and views. Are we really happy, or are we happy because THEY told us were happy. Do we feel validated by name brand clothes? Do we like what we like because we were told we like it? There is a conflict in us today about our individuality. We live in a world where being a true individual is suppressed and looked down upon. The film shows that but there is a deeper underlying level of this. In the film people who are stuck in their lives searching for an identity. They find Tyler and follow him into project mayhem. Tyler to me effectively became like a Shepherd. The people searching for an identity became like lost sheep being herded by Tyler. They thought they found something concrete and real but in the end they were easily lead showing no sense of self awareness and or individualism. That is something we face today still. We are looking and trying to define ourselves in material possession. Tyler says in the film "it’s only when we've lost everything, are we free to do anything." That could hold true, except no one wants to lose everything. I believe people would rather, knowingly, live with conflicting identity issue rather than take a chance and truly find themselves. We are comfortable being similar to everyone, and why wouldn’t we be. You are criticized and outcast for going against the grain. We are taught to stay inside the lines and allow someone much smarter than us to do our thinking for us. There are images and advertisements all around us to tell us how we feel and what we should look like. The ethic behind this film is that of self identity and awareness. Whether or not we have it.

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