Why Fight Club is So Important to Me

365 Days of Creativity

day twenty two

Fight Club

"I want you to hit me, as hard as you can." A viscous proposition made from a dangerous man; Tyler Durden, Fight Club. While there is no doubt that movies are powerful, nothing has done as Tyler said, and hit me as hard as this one. Very few films have ever changed my opinion on something, let alone stop me dead in my tracks. Fight Club did this and more. I was halted, spun, and shoved in a completely new direction. There are a plethora of things in this movie that rang true with me, but most of all was the idea of taking control while letting go.

Life is a slippery thing. It bounces all over the place and if you're not quick, it'll slide right past you. I always thought of myself as a spontaneous person, someone who would take a risk. Until I watched Fight Club, I never knew how much I was missing. What I thought was surprise and opportunity was always a safe bet. The jobs, the friends, the relationships. I never did anything that I wanted to unless there was some sort of reasoning behind it. I was quickly being molded into the consumer sheep that all of society is doomed to be. Then, like a kick to the throat, Fight Club was there. The film justified every adrenaline crazed action that I wanted to take, it urged me to get those tattoos, it supported my most feral impulses. The world made sense as soon as I heard one line;

"I don't want to die without any scars"

-Narrator, Fight Club

Poof, my worries were gone. My nerves, my apprehensions, all erased. I knew in that moment that I could do anything. I might fall, I might break, I might make a complete ass out of myself, but at least when I die I'll know that I've lived. That I took every crazy, risky opportunity that came my way, and didn't let anyone shit on me.

Fight Club has the kind of story that rings true in one way or another with almost every one. Whether it be that your possessions own you, or that you’re in a relationship where half the time you don’t know if your friend has been replaced with a completely different person. Most of the time I feel that I myself have been switched with someone else. Actions, words and self-destructive tendencies that seem to come from some alternate personality. Fight Club helped me realize that, like the Narrator, I kept projecting my problems onto someone else instead of realizing that I was merely manifesting my own issues.

Seldom is it that an action film is one to change lives, but Fight Club is a rare breed of storytelling and moral shaking. For me it was a wake up call, a reminder that living while you’re young is not a sin. This movie is what I think of every time I get nervous, every moment that I falter before taking a leap. Now I don’t hesitate to live past my boundaries, to take control, by letting my inhibitions go. This movie is the law of my life. I will never back down, never give up, and never play it safe, because I don’t want to die without any scars.