When I tried to think of how religion is treated by the medium of film, I couldn’t think of any positive portrales of religion. Religion is always cast in such a negative light. It is portrayed as either false or just a crutch for those who can’t think for themselves. My thoughts went to the movie Fight Club. On the surface it is an anti-establishment and anti-religion film. With lines like, “if our fathers are our models for God and our fathers failed, what does that say about God,” and “we are God’s unwanted children,” it is easy to think that fight club would have you believe that religion has failed you.
But, I recently came across an article that changed my opinion. Fight Club is not anti-religion. It is pro-religion, just not a judeo-christian religion.The article I found at Fight Club Buddhism points out the connections between the plot line of this film and Zen Buddhism. Whether the filmmakers intended to make these connections or merely just to expose people to a supposedly non-conventional way of thinking, Fight Club the film has many features that would link it to Buddhism.
The overview of the journal article I read said this:
However, if one looks beyond the surface, issues like fighting against capitalism, saving people from themselves, creating a world-wide equilibrium, and suffering to gain enlightenment are all present in Fight Club. This alone may not be enough to prove an air-tight connection between Zen Buddhism and Fight Club but the film’s characters, structure and storyline can also be linked to key aspects of the Zen Buddhist doctrine.
The Movie follows the narrator as he goes from a man who seeks to fill his condo with meaningless, expensive, worldly possessions to having nothing, after his condo is destroyed by an explosion. The narrator points out how empty his life is when he walks past his fridge, that is now outside his large apartment building, and says, “How embarrassing, a fridge full of condiments and no food.”
The narrator finds happiness with his new simple life and his new friend/teacher, Tyler Deurden. Duerden teaches the narrator how his possesions actually owned him and uses the pain of fighting to free him from the imasculating effects of his capitalist lifestyle.
Eventually they invite others to be free and fight with them, to gain enlightenment through suffering.
Eventually they start to destroy business through random terrorist-like actions.
Finally they seek to create a world-wide equilibrium by blowing up all the buildings of credit card companies. This will put everyones debt back to zero.
Fight Club is not an anti-religion film. It is a pro-buddhism and eastern philosophy film.
Not all films are purely antagonistic toward religion. Some just want to pull you out of your comfort zone and get you to think outside your Judeo-Christian ethic.
But, I recently came across an article that changed my opinion. Fight Club is not anti-religion. It is pro-religion, just not a judeo-christian religion.The article I found at Fight Club Buddhism points out the connections between the plot line of this film and Zen Buddhism. Whether the filmmakers intended to make these connections or merely just to expose people to a supposedly non-conventional way of thinking, Fight Club the film has many features that would link it to Buddhism.
The overview of the journal article I read said this:However, if one looks beyond the surface, issues like fighting against capitalism, saving people from themselves, creating a world-wide equilibrium, and suffering to gain enlightenment are all present in Fight Club. This alone may not be enough to prove an air-tight connection between Zen Buddhism and Fight Club but the film’s characters, structure and storyline can also be linked to key aspects of the Zen Buddhist doctrine.
The Movie follows the narrator as he goes from a man who seeks to fill his condo with meaningless, expensive, worldly possessions to having nothing, after his condo is destroyed by an explosion. The narrator points out how empty his life is when he walks past his fridge, that is now outside his large apartment building, and says, “How embarrassing, a fridge full of condiments and no food.”
The narrator finds happiness with his new simple life and his new friend/teacher, Tyler Deurden. Duerden teaches the narrator how his possesions actually owned him and uses the pain of fighting to free him from the imasculating effects of his capitalist lifestyle.
Eventually they invite others to be free and fight with them, to gain enlightenment through suffering.
Eventually they start to destroy business through random terrorist-like actions.
Finally they seek to create a world-wide equilibrium by blowing up all the buildings of credit card companies. This will put everyones debt back to zero.
Fight Club is not an anti-religion film. It is a pro-buddhism and eastern philosophy film.
Not all films are purely antagonistic toward religion. Some just want to pull you out of your comfort zone and get you to think outside your Judeo-Christian ethic.
I understand that this is an R-rated film. Now, you know the whole plot line, so you never have to see the movie.
I just made a long comment, and then my browser died before I could post it. I'll try again.
ReplyDeleteThe connection here could be made (and clearly has) but I think the tie is tenuous at best. Eastern Philosophies are, to my understanding, largely pacifist. Any faith can be twisted toward violent ends, from the Christian Crusades, to modern Muslim terrorism, and even in Buddhism with the 1995 Sarin gas attack in Tokyo.
Of course, my views on Eastern Philosophy are mediated and formed from popular culture, from Gandhi to Ravi Shankar instructing the Beatles. So I can hardly claim expertise or objectivity.
All the same, I think a stronger argument could be made that Fight Club operates from a philosophically modern Nihilist perspective, or, if we want to be more optimistic, Existentialist.
As an addendum, I suppose my comment asserts that Fight Club is Anti Religion, in that Existentialism and Nihilism are necessarily atheist. That is, unless we want to define religion without mentioning God, at which point I will leave the conversation.
ReplyDelete