Fight Club is a classical movie produced in 1999 directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. When the movie was premiered at the 56th Venice International Film Festival, it immediately invoked lots of controversy. It was appreciated by many as being an extraordinary movie that delivered a fresh perspective of manhood. On the other hand it was also attacked fiercely by some critics for promoting violence and nihilism. 

For me, it is always an absolutely inspiring movie that is under-rated (even it's already rated 8.8 on IMDB). I first watched this movie 12 years ago, and was surprised and impressed by the all the hidden details and the thoughtful message that underpin the movie. For years I have watched this movies again and again, and I still find it inspiring every time I watched it.

As a Fox commercial movie, the 140-min plot of Fight Club is sufficiently entertaining and exciting for almost everyone. Apart from all the excitements, the movie will also surprise you on the depth of its reflection (and criticism) on our modern capitalistic society, which have really added a unique philosophical aspect to the film. Also as a result of its honest criticism on the way the modern society is running, the movie is sometimes described by mainstream media as Fascist (the use of this term is really being abused these days, and people are using it to describe anything not politically correct). 

In the movie, Edward Norton stars an average middle-class office worker called Jack. The repetitive and boring job and daily life have driven Jack to lose his feeling and interest on everything, which results in insomnia. We all know that working and living repetitively is against humanity. Ironically most of us have to live such repetitive and boring life, so that we can be rewarded by the society. Otherwise, no one will ever want to live such life. This is best described by what narrated by Jack in the movie:

"We are the middle children of history, with no purpose or place. We have no great war, no great depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives."

It reminds me of what Yuval Harari mentioned in his widely respected book "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind". Yuval told us that our ancient ancestors who lived in caves actually had much better quality of life than most people in the modern society. Hunting once a month was already more than enough to acquire all the foods they need, and this was all they need to do to "earn their living". When they are not hunting, they are free to do anything or pursue any goal that they may have. The are literally the "free men".

However everything changed when human learnt to farm. Although agriculture did provide additional foods that allowed human population to grow, it also deprived people from the freedom they previously enjoy. When people start to farm, they are effectively locked with the land where they farm. With agriculture, people need to work routinely and repetitively to grow the their plants. It has became almost impossible for people to travel away from their farms. Two hundred years ago, human society further evolved into an industrial and modern society. People are no longer locked by the farms, but instead locked by the factories and offices. Although the law says we are all "free men and women", we are all tied by the roles that the society imposed upon us.

One defining characteristics of our modern society is that we are all encouraged to pursue materialistic enjoyment, which is framed as a "freedom". This is also what Jack is interested most in the movie:

“I flipped through catalogs and wondered: What kind of dining set defines me as a person?”

“I had it all. Even the glass dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections, proof they were crafted by the honest, simple, hard-working indigenous peoples of… wherever.”

Everyone love expensive stuffs, and everyone enjoy it when they can afford the the most expensive dining set in the store... but why do we need them anyway? Do we really want them? Or are we just being told that we should want them?

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.”

“The things you own end up owning you.”

Unlike most people who have long accepted the boring and repetitive life that we are expected to live, Jack is reluctant to reconcile deep inside his mind. He still want to be different, and still want to take control over his life. That's why Tyler shows up in the movie.

“If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?”

Jack and Tyler want to take back the controls, and they want to destroy everything that our capitalistic society stands for. Just in case you haven't watched this movie before, I am not going to disclose too much about the plot here. But I can assure you that you will get really really surprised towards the end of this movie. I strongly recommend this movie to everyone.