Posted by
TheBean on Saturday, January 03, 2009 3:06:41 PM
Fight Club presents an idea very much like that of American Beauty to start with--a desk jockey finds his way out of his office-maze world (though this time through fistfights and terrorism.) What many people miss about Fight Club is that the philosophy espoused throughout most of the movie is intended to fall apart at the end--Fight Club ends with exploding buildings and unnecessary death, not personal freedom.
There's a long-forgotten Soundgarden song that runs,
I woke the same as any other day
Except a voice was in my head
It said seize the day, pull the trigger
Drop the blade, and watch the rolling heads
The day I tried to live
I stole a thousand beggars' change
And gave it to the rich
The day I tried to live
I wallowed in the blood and mud with
All the other pigs
And I learned that I was a liar
Just like you.
Maturity has been famously defined as the ability to delay rewards. The kind of hippie freedom that American Beauty offers skirts very close to a definition of immaturity.