College classics: Fight Club (with a Tao twist)

Here's another film that I think most college students are familar with, especially guys: Fight Club. The 1999 David Fincher dark-comedy-actioner has been a pretty strong hit with 19 year old males, but women and adults should take a look at it as well. Here, I compared it with Tao philosophy. Hopefully, this will show students how to take a new spin on popular movies.

Philosophical lessons do not usually saturate Hollywood action movies. Most of the time, a movie about people kicking and punching each other is not going to amount to much more than that. Sometimes, however, great ideas are hidden underneath layers of flash and advertising. Much like The Matrix, Fight Club is an action movie geared for younger audiences that also has deep philosophical teachings that audiences (and perhaps even the filmmakers) missed. Fight Club is a work of social criticism and contains many teachings of the Tao, which we have learned in this class. More importantly, I have recognized these lessons and they have changed my life. The Taoist teachings reflected in this movie show how modern American society can make people ill.
The story begins with a young man, age 30, who works for a major automobile manufacturer. His job is to investigate crash sites where the vehicle’s safety features may have malfunctioned. Basically, he checks to make sure that his product does not kill enough people to issue a costly recall. This relates to recent exposures of corporate greed and deception, most notably the Firestone Tires scandal. Like the chiefs of that company, he knows his product can kill but his job states that he must try to report it in other ways as to save his corporation money.
He is, like many of his generation, a nameless face: a person working in a huge office building, trying to make some money. In fact, one of the quirks of this movie is that he does not have a name (the credits call him “the Narrator”). He is not a smashing hero or exceptional individual, and he spends his free time shopping for furniture and name brand items that will spruce up his apartment. In all, he leads a pointless existence and knows it. He does not go out often, and his job takes up his life.
His boring life and his pursuit of empty possessions lead him to insomnia. He is so bored and apathetic that he cannot sleep, and he tries various methods to cease his monotony. His real problem is that he has tried to make himself happy with brand names and possessions. As the Tao Te Ching states, “Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench”(9). He talks about the imported Swedish tables and handcrafted dishware he bought and wonders sarcastically why they do not please him. His life has become completely useless because he has not filled it with anything real.
A doctor, upon hearing his pleas for help, tells him that real pain comes with real problems, and suggests he try seeing cancer patients in pain before deciding that his life is horrible. This piece of advice leads the insomniac to various support groups. He visits with cancer patients, pretending that he is afflicted, and sees true pain. “If you open yourself to loss,” the Tao Te Ching states, “you are at one with loss and you can accept it completely”(23). Of course, the movie presents his visits in a dry humor, which can be offending to anyone who has gone through cancer. The point is that he realizes he has less to worry about than he originally thought, and begins to “sleep” better.
For his work, he travels across the country to check out claims. During these flights, he makes a terrific point about American business and hospitality, which he calls “the single-serving life”. He describes the single-serving meals on the plane; the single-serving coffee at offices; the single-serving shampoo bottles in the hotel bathrooms; the single-serving packets of condiments at these bland, uninteresting places; and the “single-serving friends,” who are the people he meets during flights and has brief conversations with. His annoyance is with America’s tendency to be convenient and quick without establishing any quality, which sounds much like Robert Pirsig’s grievances in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about quality and the people in a hurry. The Narrator knows that he cannot create a serious conversation with someone he will likely never see again, and thus his life is full of business terms and idle small talk, while completely lacking any depth.
This changes on one flight home when he meets Tyler Durden. Tyler is outgoing and completely unreserved in his mannerisms. He is nearly the opposite of the Narrator, and from their brief conversation he learns that they live near each other. The Narrator then returns home to find his apartment in ruins. An explosion completely wiped out his apartment and destroyed everything he owned. He has relied on these possessions, as I have mentioned, and so he is heartbroken and unsure of what to do next. He has no friends, so he calls up Tyler, who lets him stay at his place.
Tyler and the Narrator go out often and discuss the problems that they face. The Narrator is so unhappy because all of the things that he has worked for are gone, and how he almost had enough stuff. Tyler begins to shed light on his new friend. He explains that the important thing is no one died, and urges the Narrator to forget about his clothes and furniture and other items. “The things you own,” Tyler says, “end up owning you.” This is a very Tao statement, much like “If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich”(33). I will note the relation to Christian teaching in this, as Jesus taught this idea many times. It makes his friend realize even more the pathetic nature of his life.
Another point that Tyler tries to make is that the Narrator should be himself and quit worrying about his appearance. As the Tao Te Ching states, “Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner”(9). Tyler knows how to let insults go, and thus has an extreme amount of confidence. This reflects on his friend, who is very uptight and unhappy when they first meet.
The two continue to live and talk, and the Narrator is very impressed with Tyler’s views on life. Both of them were raised without much help from their fathers and are stuck in a mid-life confused state; they are looking for the meaning to life and trying to convince themselves that they are special. Tyler, who makes soap in his basement and works odd jobs at night, is an interesting character. Without ever admitting it, he is quite a Taoist master.
He encourages the Narrator to have “near-life experiences,” which are random stunts designed to help him accept death and not fear it so much. “You’re one step closer to rock bottom,” he tells the frightened Narrator after he burns his hand and makes him miserable for one night. “It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything.” This relates to the Tao The Ching, which states several times that death is your wisest advisor. “He [the Master] knows that he is going to die, and he has nothing left to hold on to… He holds nothing back from life; therefore he is ready for death”(50). “If you want to be given everything, give everything up”(22). The Narrator has given up the comforts of home to live in a rundown house without all of his possessions. He accepts it, and then enjoys it because there is no pressure.
The two friends decide on one of their early nights out that they need to release some aggravation. This is where the namesake of the film comes in. They find it refreshing to engage in hand-to-hand battle, just for the rush. “All of them [athletes and others] embody the virtue of non-competition. Not that they don’t love to compete,” as the Tao Te Ching says, “but they do it in the spirit of play”(68). They create the Fight Club in a local bar’s basement, and its popularity grows because it is strictly a positive release from the modern world. It is a place where men can go and let out their pain. The point is no to hurt the other person or even to win, but to release bottled emotions. It becomes an absurd, alternative therapy session for men.
Tyler continues his odd teaching of the Tao. He uses his platform as the creator of the Fight Club to say a few words to its members about society. “Look at the guys in Fight Club,” he says. “The strongest and smartest men who have ever lived -- and they're pumping gas and waiting tables; or they're slaves with white collars.” Tyler is unhappy with modern American society. Many of the members come to release the stress they get from pointless jobs, and Tyler bemoans the system. This relates to the Tao Te Ching’s sections on society in general. “When the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible,” it says, “while the poor have nowhere to run-all this is robbery and chaos”(53). Tyler sympathizes with his working-class fellows, and voice this to them.
Tyler continues to describe America’s preoccupation with materialism, saying, “Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes. A whole generation working in jobs we hate, just so we can buy shit we don't need. We were raised by television to believe that someday we'll all be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars- but we won't.” He realizes the futility of his culture and wants to change it. He rejects our cultural traditions, which goes along with the Tao Te Ching passage reading, “Ritual is the husk of true faith, the beginning of chaos”(38).
Unfortunately, this platform creates problems. As the movie goes on, the Narrator realizes that Tyler’s great ideas are getting more and more radical. They are also getting more and more dangerous. He threatens a stranger working at a mini-mart to either die or change his useless life. The Narrator fears these changes and begins to see Tyler as a dangerous reactionary. Tyler continues to preach to the members of Fight Club and eventually recruits them into a sort of underground army. He does not encourage them to fight a traditional battle, but fight the facets of society that he finds useless. “We're the middle children of history,” he tells them, “with no special purpose or place. We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression. Our great depression is our lives. Our great war is a spiritual war.”
His spiritual war becomes a series of random pranks around the city. Each member has a certain prank to pull that mocks corporate America. Tyler contends that corporations are not even human anymore. His idea seems justified, as once again the Tao Te Ching backs him up, saying, “Throw away industry and profit, and there won’t be any thieves”(19). Eventually, however, these pranks increase from childish vandalism to major destruction of property, as stores are smashed and buildings set ablaze. Tyler again tries to justify his actions with the fact that no actual person is hurt, but the Narrator sets out to stop his actions before they get way out of control.
The Narrator’s search proves difficult. New clubs begin popping up all over the country, and Tyler is the official leader of all of them. The Narrator quits his job and trails Tyler all over the country, hoping to halt the spread of his messages. Tyler, however, stays a step ahead of the frustrated Narrator. To make matters worse, Tyler has been involved in a relationship with a weird lady whom the Narrator met at the self-help meetings (she, like him, was just going to observe). This girl, Marla, acts very strangely around the Narrator, as if he is the one having an affair with her. Eventually, after days of searching, he calls her up to ask for clues about Tyler’s whereabouts.
The movie reaches its shocking climax here, because Marla tells the Narrator that he is Tyler Durden! Everything comes into focus for the Narrator, who realizes the truth. Tyler Durden is a fictional character; a split personality created by the Narrator to be everything that he was not. For the entire time, the Narrator has been the actual radical in charge of all the plans. He sometimes has imagined himself watching Tyler, but when Tyler has interacted with anyone else, it has just been the unconscious Narrator. He actually has not cured his insomnia; rather, when he believes he is asleep he really “becomes” Tyler. He blew up his own apartment because he hated it.
Armed with this revelation, the Narrator figures he can stop all the plans easily because it was actually himself who created them. His unconscious mind, however, is a step ahead of his conscious being. “Tyler” told his followers that nothing could change, even under direct orders from himself. Thus, the Narrator cannot undo the orders for Tyler’s final project, which turns out to be the complete bombing and destruction of several buildings. These buildings hold offices for major credit card magnates, as Tyler wants to eliminate all credit debt.
Exhausted, the Narrator turns himself in to the police in a final ploy to stop the destruction. Even the police officers, however, are under orders from Tyler. The Narrator makes it to one of the sites and tries to diffuse the bombs when his imaginary friend shows up and “stops” him from doing it. He cannot get over this mental block fast enough, and the explosions occur.
At the end of the movie, the Narrator approaches his problem directly. He overcomes his block and mentally “kills” Tyler, but it is too late. He realizes what has happened and he finally understands why he created this mess. He reaches his enlightenment, and then the film ends.
As I think about what really happened in the story, the Taoist teaching becomes clear to me: take the middle path. “Reach for the center,” as it says many times. The Narrator was an extremely boring person with a pointless life based upon useless items. He created this split personality that was the opposite of himself because he was in such an extremely dull state. This personality engaged him and made him think. Tyler, however, was not a good thing for him. He was too extreme. He placed too much emphasis on action and was far out of control. Therefore, both characters are lost because they are extremes. At the heart of one extreme, the Narrator, is another extreme, Tyler. They are the ying and yang. The Narrator needs to follow the middle path and destroy the extreme influences in his life on both sides.
Another common theme in the Tao Te Ching is “Know thyself,” and the Narrator did not. He did not realize that this was his own soul, crying out for action. He created this person because he was so ridiculously empty, and instead of fixing his life, he simply took it from one extreme to the other. At the end of the movie, he realizes this.
When I first saw this movie, I was amazed. The philosophy that Tyler showed spoke to me. Of course, I have no desire to attempt near-death stunts or blow up buildings because I realize that Tyler is not complete. I also, however, realize that the Narrator is far from complete. When you take the middle path, and look at the both of them as whole (because they are the same person), you see how sick this man has become.
I loved some of Tyler’s ideas about modern American society and our worship of useless things. It always amazes me how much the average person wishes to be rich and famous, as if that is all there is to life. We treat our celebrities like Gods, and then gasp when they fail and become human to us. His attitude about death also really made me think. Personally, I have always been very afraid of death, but I am now starting to understand how it can be a helpful tool for living. I can also see why he lived in a real shoddy house- he wanted to have nothing.
The Narrator’s experiences show how unsatisfying a career can be when it does not positively affect the community. He practiced non-being in a literal sense- he did nothing. As I have learned, that is not true non-being. He needed to take action to make his life worthwhile. He was calmer and more flowing than Tyler at most points, but he was not awake. He was not aware of his own true problems and did not seek them out until it was too late.
Many of the lessons that I enjoyed from this movie have been reflected in our class. We live in a spiritually unhealthy society, and we must realize that the teachings of the Tao can help us live better and see things more clearly. Fight Club serves as an unexpected source of life lessons. As Tyler told his disciples, “You are not your job. You are not your car. You’re not the clothes you wear.” We are human beings, and we are more important than the things we own or how much money we have. If only everyone in America could see this truth (this reality), we would be at peace.




Works Referenced

Fincher, David,Dir. Fight Club. 1998, Regency Films.
Mitchell, Stephen, and Lao-Tzu. Tao Te Ching. Harper: New York, 1988.
Pirsig, Robert. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Harper: New York, 1999.