Fight Club

This movie, The Fight Club, was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter.  The main character is an unnamed narrator played by Norton and the story is about his fight with himself.  He suffers from insomnia and is stuck in a white-collar job that doesn’t make him happy.  He befriends a soap salesman, Tyler Durden, on a flight home from a business trip.  When Norton’s apartment is destroyed, he calls Tyler and they soon become good friends.  They form a fight club as a form of release, but Tyler starts to take it too far and is doing things that Norton isn’t too comfortable with.  Tyler slowly builds a cult type gang that has them believing that violence and destruction will solve their problems.  

The message of the film is about the mind, self control, and the struggle people face with themselves all of the time.  Norton was a loner who hated his job and was on the verge of a breakdown.  Without knowing it, he created a person in his mind who did things that Norton couldn’t see himself doing.  However, as things became more violent, Norton realized that his friend, Tyler, was a mental projection of himself and he didn’t really exist.  I think the message of the film may be overshadowed by the violence depending upon the viewer.  If you are the type of person who focuses on the violence or watches a particular movie for the violence you could easily miss the message.  If you view this movie with an open mind and are the type of person who looks for a deeper meaning in general you will easily see the message.

This movie is all about the mind.  The id and the ego in an internal battle.  The id does what it wants to get what it wants.  It doesn’t think any broader than that and just lives to satisfy an immediate need.  In this movie the id is symbolized by Tyler.  Tyler has a constant need to be satisfied instantly and does whatever is needed to achieve that.  When he wants something done he does it in anyway he sees fit and he just does it without any second thought.  The ego is symbolized by the unnamed narrator played by Norton.  The ego is the opposite of the id and slightly less powerful.  He does things in a normal fashion and adheres to the rules of society.  He’s more of a normal type person who wants to fit in and not upset the balance of things.  Not to be too crazy.  The conflict in this movie between the id and the ego is that it’s easier to go along with the id because it’s easier to just do what you want when you want with no fear of consequence.  It’s much harder to be the ego and to do things in the correct way.  Being the ego means working harder to achieve what you want. It is always more of a struggle to do things the right way instead of just following your instincts to do what you want.  
The conflict in this movie is resolved when Norton realizes that Tyler is a mental projection of himself and isn’t real.  He realizes that he has control over Tyler and the bad decisions that were being made.  He then puts an end to the violence that Tyler has created by shutting out the id and taking full control.  

Do the Right Thing

The film Do the Right Thing is a movie about love and hate.  It is great in showing racism from all different views and races.  The movie was written, produced and directed by Spike Lee, who also stars as the lead character, Mookie.  The movie takes place in the summer, during a heatwave in Brooklyn, New York.  The neighborhood consists mostly of Black, but is mixed in with some White, Italian, Asian and Hispanic.  It shows how nobody gets anything from it and everyone loses. 

I think this movie speaks volumes about racism in America.  Racism has been ingrained in our society for so long when people get angry the insults seem to go directly to skin color.  The movie shows how people’s anger can escalate quickly.  It may begin with any slight agitation, but when a mixed group of races is involved it can quickly turn into a race issue.  Each race acting out against the others.  This all causes more accusations, which causes more tension and escalates to heated anger.  In making this movie, Spike Lee didn’t focus on the perspective of one race.  He showed how hurtful it could be to all.  As Roger Ebert said in his review of the movie, “he made a movie about race in America that empathized with all the participants.” 

I think Spike Lee did a good job of showing how easily hate can escalate to racism.  He showed that it didn’t benefit anyone and only caused pain and sadness.  One character, Sal, played by Danny Aiello, is an Italian pizza shop owner who has been in this neighborhood for about twenty five years.  It’s a popular place for people to gather and Mookie also works here.  Sal has even said Mookie was like a son to him.  On this day however another character, Buggin Out, played by Giancarlo Esposito, had been giving Sal a hard time about not having any black people on his wall of fame.  Buggin later recruits Radio, played by Bill Nunn, to get Sal because he thought he was being prejudice.  This escalates to a riotous mob crowd who destroys Sal’s restaurant and in the end Radio is killed at the hands of the white cops.  I think that Mookie’s action of throwing a trash can through the window of Sal’s shop at the end of the movie was a very important move.  Although it may have seemed a very strange move because you may have thought this is what caused the destruction of the shop, I think Spike Lee had Mookie do this to take the crowd off of Sal, who he thought they were going to kill, and redirect it at the shop instead.  Also as stated in Roger Ebert’s review, “there are no heroes or villains in the film.”

Spike Lee shows just how stupid racism is throughout America and even within small communities.  Since he showed it from many viewpoints it was clear that no one benefits.  It really makes you see how much better things could be if people would communicate with each other better.  The movie didn’t even really start out from a racist point of view, but from hate and anger.  Stress and tension from the heat from what people perceived as racism grew and exploded into an all out race war.   

Boyz N the Hood

            In the movie “Boyz N the Hood” there were two characters that put on a tough guise including the main character, Tre, played by Cuba Gooding, Jr. and another character Doughboy, played by Ice Cube.  The movie is about a gang of boys growing up in a bad part of town who had to adapt to certain standards for living in that neighborhood. 

            Tre lived with his mother until he was ten.  She was concerned at problems he was having in school so she sent him to live with his father to hopefully learn some life lessons.  Throughout Tre’s time living with his father he saw things that bothered him.  Shootings and death seemed to be an everyday occurrence in this neighborhood.  It occasionally brought Tre to tears as he confessed to his girlfriend, Brandi, played by Nia Long, that he couldn’t stand it and didn’t want to be there.  However living in this neighborhood these were the things that caused him to have to act tough.  It was strictly for survival.  He wouldn’t be able to show his face with the other boys if he didn’t conform and go along with everything that was happening.  Tre struggled everyday with decisions that he knew could possibly change his future forever. 

            Unlike Tre, Doughboy found it easier to put on the tough guise.  He had grown up in this neighborhood his entire life.  He was more aware of shutting out emotion and putting up walls to seemingly not care.  He was well aware that this was his only way for survival.  There were small parts throughout the move that lead the viewer to believe that Doughboy wanted differently.  However, it was the end of the movie, after Doughboy killed three people in revenge for his half brother Ricky’s murder that you really know that Doughboy was putting on the tough guise.  He understood about decisions that Tre had made with regard to the retaliation.  He understood that his action would have consequences but feeling as though he had no brothers left he no longer cared. 

            One big difference between Tre and Doughboy was that Tre had a good male role model.  His father, Furious, played by Laurence Fishburne had often given him advise and tried to guide him in the right direction.  For both characters, I feel that putting on a tough guise was a detriment.  In Tre’s situation it was a detriment because he was never able to live up to his full potential.  He skipped a lot of school, he wasn’t able to just be himself, and he constantly had to make hard decisions on a daily basis.  This put a strain on him and his feelings and emotions were constantly bottled up inside him.  For Doughboy this life took away all his emotions and because of that he was cold and hard.  It took away his future and then took away his life.