Mardi Gras film

David Fincher's 1999 cult classic Fight Club addresses consumer culture, alienation, rebellion, and society's ideas of masculinity . Adapted from author Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 novel, Fight Club been the target of both controversy and condemnation. The story involves an unnamed Narrator (Edward Norton), sick of crunching numbers from 9-to-5 for a major car company, meets the personification of the Alpha-male, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Tyler and the Narrator could not be more opposite: whereas the Narrator's salary depends on him merely doing equations, Tyler works multiple jobs and knows how to create discord at all of them (i.e. splicing frames of pornography into family films, urinating in soups served at an upscale hotel restaurant, selling soap made from human fat,etc.). However, the Narrator's life truly starts to change when Tyler creates an underground fight club, putting him in the middle of

A major part of both the book and film involves the link between masculinity and consumerism. Tyler believes that because Generation X has not really had a defining culture or war, its members have become apathetic, always following the latest trends and fads in order to achieve some form of "happiness". The lack of a defining figure also applies to men; since many members of the titular fight club were raised by single mothers, they lacked a father figure to guide them and teach them life lessons. As a result, they end up trying to fill that void by spending their money on essentially worthless material. But when Tyler starts up the fight club, these men now have a motivation to work out and live better.

Interestingly enough, Norton also portrayed nebbish scientist Bruce Banner in Zak Penn's 2008 film, The Incredible Hulk; in interviews, Penn has noted the similarities between the raging, savage green Hulk and the pure id of Tyler Durden.