Fight Club has typically been viewed as an
anti-capitalist film that challenges the constructs of a capitalist society and
tries to provide a solution to the issues it creates. An overview of the film
can show that Fight Club is anti-capitalist as it presents typical criticisms.
Such a mainstream film that uses experimental methods and challenges a society
that it is a product of can make Fight Club a radical film. Despite the fact
that Fight Club does criticise the issues created by capitalism, it does not
provide a long term or a coherent solution to these issues it presents and the
solutions it does present aren’t rational or destined to fail. For example,
Tyler ultimately plan to blow up all credit card companies to bring everyone
back to 0, in hindsight this makes sense as a solution to capitalism as it
brings everyone to the same level rather than having a huge gap between the
rich and the poor. But in the long run it will cause mayhem that will
ultimately create another capitalistic society. It does have an element of
mainstream film trying to deal with major themes
Fight Club presents the issues with capitalism
rather than provide some form of a solution. From a white, hetrosexual male
perspective we can see a few of the issues and effects caused by being a victim
of a capitalist society, specifically from Jack’s perspective. Jack is a young,
white collar worker. Having a protagonist with these characteristics and
surround that character with similar male individuals to challenge and convey
issues marjonalises the amount of people that are affected by the way society
works and therefore prevents the film from being as radical as it pretends to
be. Even in Jack’s office, there appears to be a majority of white males, with
a lack of women or a lack of any other ethnicity. Therefore this cuts out a lot
of problems in society that should be represented such as; inequality or a lack
of workers rights. The cinematography can present alienation that is an issue
for many working class individuals. There is a large focus on Jack in the shots
before he meets Tyler, which was when we are introduced to him when his life
was simpler and miserable. One shot in particular is when his boss comes into his office to speak to him about work. We do not see the boss's face for a majority of that scene and our focus is on Jack. This can be a representative of the alienation the typical white collar worker suffers from. Furthermore we are presented the effects caused by these typical white collar jobs.
