“Fight Club” is the kind of film that can make you squirm, belly laugh, and think, “That’s profound!” in the space of a few minutes.
Starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, this is, on a superficial level, a flick about underground boxing, or if you prefer, brawling clubs.
No money changes hands, no betting occurs, and the pugilists’ only compensation is the thrill they get from kicking butts.
A cult develops that externalizes violence to the surrounding society, targeting various “establishment” symbols, such as TV and electronics stores, public officials, and office buildings.
Just when you think, “Now, they’ve gone too far,” the plot twists to make you question nearly everything you’ve seen to that point. The real and unreal start to unravel, and you wonder if you’ve been played for a chump.
Here are a few of the points that I draw from this movie that are of special interest to the martial artist:
(1) You can prevail if you decide to take a battle, a disagreement, or a cause to the extreme. Even certified tough guys, including the mobsters you see in the film, can be intimidated and will back down if they believe their adversaries are crazy enough to do anything.
(2) Men are seeking gender clarity and reaffirmation of their core instincts. The forced feminization of males during the past several decades has created role confusion and dissatisfaction among males as well as females. “Fighting,” however you construe this term, provides a forum for men to be tested and to learn who they are on a deep, primitive level.
(3) Men were not minted for the purpose of wearing neckties and performing nerdy roles inside of sterile office buildings. Our most natural inclination is to be hunters, not custodians.
(4) Women will tolerate a great deal from men who are in touch with their basic instincts, and they’ll relentlessly toy with or destroy those who aren’t.
(5) To borrow a phase from General Stonewall Jackson: “One courageous man makes a majority.”
You might like this movie simply because of its unpredictability.
I like it because its characters are onto something.
Take the exchange between Pitt and Norton on the plane, where Norton hands Pitt an obscure compliment that Pitt decodes on the spot, and then Pitt incisively asks:
“How’s that working out for you?”
“What?” Norton responds, puzzled.
“Cleverness. Is that working for you?”
With this brief exchange, Pitt implies, “You’re a wimp.”
Cleverness, indirection, and cute word play don’t make you a man, so cut the crap and don’t fool yourself.
Men, whether they realize it or not, are attracted to the martial arts partly because modern society provides few opportunities to be completely nonverbal, to escape the endless symbolism and etiquette that informs professional and personal lives.
With a fist headed toward your teeth, there’s no time to talk; only to act.
Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations from Santa Monica to South Africa. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.
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