The rules were broken
By: Glenn Schulz
12 movie-goers broke a rule on Friday night. The first rule in the movie Fight Club is that fight club must never be discussed. However neither the harsh rain nor the threat of breaking a rule could stop the audience from engaging in a post-movie discussion. The discussion was focused on the philosophical themes found throughout the movie. The two main themes discussed by the audience were escalation of violence and the perception of pain.
“That is definitely a movie that benefits from being watched a second time“, stated Brian Leth. He also added his thoughts on the escalation of violence, “from the beginning where he [Tyler Durden, the main character] is basically punching himself in the parking lot…to shooting himself in the head, the whole movie he’s basically beating the crap out of himself.” One of the effects of the escalation of violence was the amount of pain the main character put himself through throughout the movie. Because of the escalation of violence the main character’s perception of pain was altered throughout the movie.
Darlene Hemerka paraphrased an example as to how the character’s perception of pain changed as the movie progressed. She stated that at the beginning of the movie the character asked his doctor for medicine because he was an insomniac. The doctor told him to go to the testicular cancer meeting if he wanted to see really pain. “I think that it shows there that pain is all about a matter of perception and what you have been through because at the beginning that was pain to him but then he could hurt his hand or shoot himself and he was ok.”
Although the movie was violent and somber, the audience was not. During the discussion there were moments of laughter. Professor Sean Landis even interrupted the discussion to ask whether the noise he heard was a cleaning machine out in the hallway. At the conclusion of the discussion, Sean Landis summed up the event as stating in a pleasant tone, “I think this was a fantastic discussion.” Sean also stated that the next movie night will be on Friday March 26th and the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest will be shown.