Monday, December 25, 2006

Fight Club - A tribute


Why does the movie Fight Club mean so much to so many? Yet why did it not fare well at the box office? Its an established fact that the DVD sales of the movie more than made up for the movie's lacklustre performance at the theatres, but why was it a failure in the first place? Many concepts and ideas are ahead of its times, and thereby take the general public by surprise. They often don't understand what to make of it. Often, people tend to place things within brackets, classifying things into genres that they know, genres they comprehend. When presented with something absolutely new, the people tend to get confused as this new upstart object doesn't fall under any existing genre. The perplexity is quickly changed to a feeling of anger and denial. Anything that cannot be easily broken down into something that they already know is something bad. This has been happening for a long time now. Nowadays, films, people, ideas and any concept that is ahead of its times may get rejected initially, but once people realize the meaning and the significance, these contributions often get second chances and the maker/creator of the piece is vindicated and gets to celebrate its triumph, but in olden times, this was definitely not the case. Case in point in poor Copernicus who was burnt at a stake for going against the church by proclaiming that it was the sun, and not the earth that was at the centre of the universe.



Coming back to the original topic, what makes Fight Club as special as it is? Is it because all of us or most of us have a Tyler Durden stifled inside us, waiting for an opportunity to get out and show whatever it is that matters to be shown? Are we all just cowards who don't have the guts to go out and do our own thing? A lot of people may feel a twitch or two, reading this, remembering all the dreams that they cherished, the things that they always wanted to do, the things that got sacrificed for a couple of stable meals a day and a solid roof over the head. Anything more? A Porsche? A Lamborghini? A house with a mini golf course? Many who read this will already be frustrated as they would have given up their dreams for much lesser than the wish-list that I have mentioned. Porsche or not, will all the possessions that you have put together ever amount to all that you dreamed of doing? Has it been a good swap, you swapping your dreams for these things? I'm no smug guy having been born with a silver spoon in my mouth, getting to do things that matter to me without having to work for anything. If anything, I'm as frustrated as any of you who are reading this, but there is a difference. I know that I have the courage to chase my dreams. Money or not, success or not. All I'm waiting for is for the weather to clear, a little bit of sunshine to peek out from behind the clouds to signal that my time has come. Am I a blessed person who will get to chase his dreams one day, getting out of this humdrum existence or am I just another fly that's headed for the flame? Guess that's just another thing that only time will tell.