Crisis Of Masculinity Within Fight Club

- How Useful Has A Particular Critical Approach Been In Gaining A Deeper Understanding And Appriciation Of Your Chosen Film?

Crisis Of Masculinity is applied within 'Fight Club' this has helped me gain a better knowledge of the character Jack and how is sexuality is shown throughout the film not only is his character not in the right zone the film portrays a crisis of masculinity within Jack. This is shown at the beginning of the film as Jack approaches the help group centre a male character is moping; cleaning is classed as a females job ,  we are introduced to the help groups that Jack attends ; one of these groups particular is 'testicular cancer' this suggests a group only for the male gender to attend in order to speak there mind, escaping from the female form , hiding away in shame to talk as a group to get over the issues and to help one another by keeping this as group mixed in with the other groups which both sex's attend 'testicular cancer' is only for the males which is the first time Jack has been able to cry and sleep in this group. The gathering is in a sports gym in which you would associate the sport with athletics and strong male personas , muscular  this is contrasted with the males sat in a circle crying and speaking there emotions as they aren't playing the sport this shows Jacks feminism side as females are associated with being emotional and talking about there emotions. A 360 degree turn is used around Bob and Jack when they are cuddling showing this state of mind and confusion into Jack's sexuality portraying the issues in which circle his mind as Jack leaves Bob's cheats a christ / cross tear imprint reminds Jack that he is commenting a sin to his religion if he becomes a homosexual. Bob is referred to as 'bitch tits' from Jack this enlightens the crisis of masculinity as Bob was a strong male body builder who now has put on weight has testicular cancer and has been given oestrogen to help him recover giving him breasts ; Jacks head is forced into Bob's breasts as this is the first time he cries to another male giving a sense of relief / belonging i.e being homosexual. When Marla begins to join the groups a change in pattern happens as Jack begins to become paranoid and agitated by Marla which is an anagram from ALARM which is a reoccurring motif showing the reality/ fantasy of Jack being conscious/unconscious the alarm bells ring when Marla enters the situation demonstrating a Femme Fatal in which in film noir uses there sexuality and body to manipulate others.

By taking a critical response towards fight club associating with having a crisis of masculinity homage is played to the experimental film 'fireworks' which expresses sexuality. Fight Club highlights the issues of being homosexual as the approach given to Jack's character makes him confused and finds it hard to express his sexuality within groups. By keeping this theory in mind i have discovered how sexuality can effect the find of one and confuse them for Jack's sake he creates Tyler ; a fragment of his mind a imaginary friend who expresses the masculinity within Jack's character he has everything that Jack doesn't, the looks , women , attitude and confidence everything Jack lacks in is shown through this character . Within the beginning sequence Tyler appears four times in flashes portraying his masculinity escaping allowing Jack to be a homosexual in the groups the flashes are used to show Jack's state of mind.