Film Analysis #3 - Fight Club / The Handmaids Tale

     In the two films being analyzed this week, there isn't much in the way of similarity, but more in the way of contrast. In terms of contrast, the most apparent difference between them is that of gender roles. The Handmaid's Tale is full of strong feminist themes (or lack of feminism altogether), whereas Fight Club is concerned with a male's trip through dystopian society. The interesting connection to be drawn here is an idea mentioned in "Totalitarian Technocracies", in that utopias and dystopias can coexist. The surprisingly fine line between the two can be crossed by a simple switch of perspective. For example, in The Handmaid's Tale, the men would be very hard-pressed to call their current situation dystopian, whereas the women would have a much different opinion. 

     The story of A Handmaid's Tale takes places in the republic of Gilead, formerly the United States, in which warfare and pollution have left a majority of the population sterile, and reproduction rates at an alarmingly low level. This is the setting off point for the necessity of "Handmaids" to bear children for the elite. The main character, Kate, is captured after viewing her husbands violent death before her very eyes. She, like many women, is reduced to nothing more than a method of creating a child for her assigned commander. As stated in Totalitarian Technocracies, dystopian films often "project exaggerated models of current political and socioeconomic trends into the future, frequently in order to inform, warn, or advise readers". This came to mind in a scene where a woman spoke of how she was raped, and her peers proceeded to shame her, saying how it was solely her fault, how she led the men on, and how she is to be classified as a whore. I've heard this issue come up in political and debate settings over the past decade, and unfortunately, that type of thought is certainly a possible conclusion from the way things have been discussed recently. In this film, it doesn't matter that this demeaning coercion takes place, as women are treated as objects. The objectification is also not a new thing, but it comes to an absolute zenith in The Handmaid's Tale, as these women "objects" are even color coded according to their purpose.
 
The strange thing is, which sterility skyrocketing, and the ability to reproduce becoming more and more of a challenge, the importance of these women grows. At one point, they are even claimed to be the "most precious resource", although they are absolutely not treated as such. It seems strange, or even counterproductive, to strip all rights and even dignity away from the group of people who alone hold the ability to maintain the population and continuation of their society. 

     Fight Club, unlike any of the other dystopian films we've viewed this semester, does not begin in some alternate society foreign to our own. There is no thought police, no technologically superior ruling class, not even an apparent oppressive totalitarian elite. Fight Club begins in a world absolutely indistinguishable from our own, separating it right off the bat from other dystopian cinema. This film also sets itself apart from other films of the genre in the way it's story is fed to the viewer. It's not your typical narrative, as much of the content is convoluted by the mind of the narrator, who for most of the film in not ever named. This nameless narrator does not exist in a society where he is being force-fed pills to numb his senses, or where he is forbidden to read or think certain thoughts. He exists is a mundane world of commercialism and materialism. This is, of course, until he meets a man on a plane who will forever change his fate, Tyler Durden. In all of the dystopian films we have watched, the protagonist rebels against the ruling class, some successful, some not so much. The only thing they've all had in common thus far is that they've had to hide everything from everyone else, as they are always being watched, observed, monitored. Fight Club takes a beautifully creative route by letting the narrator manifest all of his rebellious attitude into an entirely new character. Tyler is a collection of all of our narrators true desires, and his ticket out of his boring monotony he finds himself in at the start of the film. 

This is because, as we find out, the narrator is Tyler Durden. It's not that Tyler Durden does not exist, which is commonly proclaimed in any discussion of this movie. Tyler Durden most certainly does exist, it's just that he exists within the mind of our narrator. All of the traits that Tyler has, all of the actions he is capable of committing (and does commit), all exist within our previously nameless narrator. As this dynamic "duo" proceeds to create the Fight Club, and subsequently Project Mayhem, we experience a lesser known side of dystopian cinema. The claim that this film is making can be interpreted as the world that we currently live in is a dystopia of sorts. People are held captive by their materialistic needs, and the "things" that rule their lives. In destroying the credit records buildings at the end of the movie, we see the death of this society, and the birth of a new beginning.