As promised, here is the paper I recently wrote about Fight Club for my Philosophy of Ethics class
;)
enjoy
NOTE: I replaced the dialogue is with the clip from the film discussed in the paper....and the damn format came out screwy since myspace does not like M.S. Word conversion :(
Ethical Analysis on the Film "Fight Club"
The movie "Fight Club" boomed on the Hollywood scene in 1999; directed by David Fincher and written by Jim Uhls, who adapted the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was highly controversial and not the type of feature most parents would feel comfortable allowing their children to watch. The core of this story hints around the conundrum of modern urban life. The main character and narrator of the film is an educated typical social construct named "Jack;" played by Edward Norton. Jack is a bachelor in his 30's whose biggest concern is how to decorate his apartment. Jack has reached a point in his life where he seems to be in doubt of his own existence, and simply going through the motions of life in a numb state. The beginning of the movie illustrates scene after scene of Jack boarding planes, and sitting at his desk at work. His entire life changes when he meets Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt – a witty, confident, and overall seemingly boundless personality.
Tyler Durden represents everything that Jack is not. Tyler is free from modern ritualistic routines and seems to have a mysterious and intriguing perspective on life – a keen ability to see through the social fabric of reality. After meeting the charismatic Tyler on the airplane, Jack comes home to find his apartment engulfed in flames. Not knowing what to do, or where to go from here, Jack calls his newly found friend Tyler. Together Jack and Tyler have a few beers at a bar where they discuss the mediocrity of the common consensus for the standard of living a modern lifestyle. Shortly thereafter, a scene in the film takes place behind the bar where Tyler asks Jack to hit him in the face, and shortly after, a small crowd gathers when they start fighting each other.
The two friends find refuge from their former mundane existence in this newfound therapy. Soon after, they form Fight Club, inspiring and drawing men from all walks of life. At the heart of the film is Tyler Durden's moral philosophy. Throughout the movie, Tyler discloses almost Zen-like wisdom. For example, the following are some quotes from Tyler Durden; revealing the nature of this character:
"Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."
"Only after disaster can we be resurrected. It's only after we've lost everything - that we're free to do anything."
"In the world I see -- you're stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You will wear leather clothes that last you the rest of your life. You will climb the wrist- thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. You will see tiny figures pounding corn and laying-strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of the ruins of a superhighway."
"You are not your job. You are not how much you have in the bank. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking Khakis. You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world."
"You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else."
"We are defined by the choices we make."
"Hitting bottom isn't a weekend retreat! It's not a seminar! You have to forget everything you know, everything you think you know -- about life, about friendship, about you and me."
"Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may."
"The things you own - end up owning you." (Fight Club)
These quotes are very revealing of Durden's philosophy, and are essential to note in order to examine one of the primary ethical dilemmas in the film. The scene for discussion takes place at a convenience store during the night. Tyler walks into a convenience store armed with a handgun and comes out the back with the clerk held at gunpoint. Please refer to movie clip for this scene of the film :)This scene of the film presents a curious predicament. This movie came as a shock to many, and was not absolutely embraced by all the film authorities in American culture due to the ethical questions, concerns, and/or implications the film had stimulated.
There are many people who would immediately dismiss this scene, and most likely the entire film, as unethical. One example is the famous film critic, Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun Times. In his review, Ebert caricatured "Fight Club" as "a celebration of violence in which the heroes write themselves a license to drink, smoke, screw and beat one another up." He followed that statement up with "It's macho porn -- the sex movie Hollywood has been moving toward for years, in which eroticism between the sexes is replaced by all-guy locker-room fights. Women, who have had a lifetime of practice at dealing with little-boy posturing, will instinctively see through it" (Ebert). There is more to the film than this, such as the store clerk scene, despite Ebert's simple approach to the moral implications of the film. The convenience clerk scene can be applied to many different moralphilosophies, yet it is unique to the character Tyler Durden. Was Jack right? Did Tyler have a plan – "to let that which does not matter truly slide" (Fight Club)? In this situation, did the ends call for the means? Was this a morally corrupt, or a morally honorable situation? To know the answer to this question pertaining to the subject, one would ultimately have to interview the fictional character of Raymond K. Hessel in roughly five years or so after the event had taken place.
"Only after disaster can we be resurrected. It's only after we've lost everything - that we're free to do anything." In a sense, Tyler gave the clerk a near death experience. That is, the clerk was convinced that he was going to die. Durden was threatening to take everything from him, and in that moment (when the gun cocked I imagine) had to face a fear that resides in every human and every animal – the fear of death.
While searching through the contents of the young clerk's wallet Tyler had found a clue (the old community college ID card) leading to one of the clerk's broken dreams. After a little interrogation and a rapping on the head, Raymond K. Hessel discloses that he wanted to be a Veterinarian. Is it the moment of death that brings a certain undeniably clarity?
According to Durden's philosophy, he was giving the Asian clerk an insight on life and the choices he has made – a realization that only a near death experience could deliver. Beyond that, Tyler was also making a sacrifice. He performed criminal act, putting his own liberty and possibly even his own life at risk to give Raymond K. Hessel this vision. How does this measure up against a few other moral philosophies?
Kantian:
This idea would not fit nicely into the Kantian categorical imperative because this would then require that every person whom is not living to their potential be confronted with the realization of death, possibly having negative psychological side effects. This is a difficult situation to evaluate morally because there are no studies to show the ramifications such an event would ultimately have on a person's life.
Egoism:
According to the ideals of egoism this event has no justification either. Raymond was terrified and apparently did not have any desire to be held at gunpoint on his knees in the middle of the night. Furthermore, taking the nature of Tyler's character into account, he was not performing the act to satisfy his own needs. In Tyler Durden's mind he was offering a service.
Utilitarian:
The Utilitarian is a difficult philosophy to gauge for this Fight Club scene as well. The situation could possibly be argued in both directions here since the Utilitarian philosophy operates on the "Greatest Happiness Principle." However, this is highly dependent on whether Durden's tactics had a successful outcome. The clerk could have suffered severe psychological trauma or was forced to come to the realization Durden had intended, and took the steps to pursue his college dream – thus, fulfilling the "Greatest Happiness Principle."
Ultimately, it is highly unlikely that Durden's modus operandi would be accepted in modern civilization. The primary reason being that Tyler Durden acted above a basic common law in most societies – threatening someone's life with lethal weapon. The weapon may have not been loaded, but it is the idea behind the act. Also, Tyler is not the average individual. Throughout the film and the book, his character carries himself with the charismatic qualities of a leader of men. He was always competent, confident, focused, and a self actualized individual. In this sense, Durden was enabled to operate by his own authority to have the vision to "know" what exactly it was he was doing. A common individual would probably not be able to remain as controlled and concise in such a situation.
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