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.