What is life?

Fight Club (1999)

This cult film did not really hit it when it first hit the cinemas. It, however, had a resurrection of sorts after it was released on DVD. In fact, there was fear that this film may initiate copycat activities from youth just like they had in Kubrik's 'Clockwork Orange'.

The cult following is probably from connoisseurs and students of philosophy, anthropology and existentialism. The subject matter involves things which are difficult for an average Joe to grasp. It questions the futile depressive nature of our modern living through the eyes of the narrator and main character of the movie. Incidentally, we will eventually discover the real meaning of his actions with a twist at the end.

 The narrator (Ed Norton) is a disillusioned car insurance man who suffers from insomnia. His therapist suggests stints at various support groups to ease his pain. Nothing changes except his meeting with an equally individual, a Marla Singer. Along his daily duties, he develops a relationship with a stranger, a soap salesman, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) on-flight.
One after another things fall apart for the narrator. His luggage on the flight is retained by the airport, his apartment is bombed and his performance at work takes a dive.

Left without a place to stay, he lives with Tyler and hence begin a bizarre lifestyle with mind boggling dialogue philosophy and ideas. In fact, that is the greatest selling point of the movie. Together, they start a fighting club to release their tension and pretty soon it develops into something beyond control. They and the club members, led by Tyler, indulge in various anarchic and destructive activities with special vendetta against big corporate companies. They find destroying thing cathartic. Fighting and releasing all that suppressed energy to them are therapeutic. They justify their actions by rationalising that the human design is for hunting. Now, there is nothing to kill for, nothing to overcome and explore. We are all in our comfort zone, satisfying our inner desires by consuming and overindulging. But then, that is the real reason why rules, regulations and religion came about - to give the downtrodden and outcast a chance to savour the beauty of life!

We're designed to be hunters and we're in a society of shopping. There's nothing to kill anymore, there's nothing to fight, nothing to overcome, nothing to explore. In that societal emasculation this everyman [the narrator] is created. —David Fincher

We're consumers. We are the byproducts of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.
Listen up, maggots! You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

These boots are made for walking...

The Wild Angels (1966)

This movie is the prelude to the 1969 'Easy Rider' about counterculture movement. Honestly, there is nothing great to say about this one. It is about a bunch of young adults of the Hell's Angels just riding and riding being chased by cop, beating up people, breaking up things and getting high.

The thing that struck me was the two main actors - Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra, both offspring of great legends of showbiz, namely Henry Fonda and Frank Sinatra. Peter Fonda had his own successes and so did Nancy Sinatra. Nancy, famous with her signature tune 'These boots are made for walking', did not do so well in the silver screen as she did on the music front.
It made me uneasy whilst watching this movie is to see how offspring of a generation who had strived hard to make it big, never have the tenacity to scale great heights as the generation before them did. The story also reminds me of how the younger ones in any society at any time of history tend to be weaker and less resilient physically and mentally than their predecessors. The younger one also yearn for 'freedom' and the need to avert difficulty and sufferings. The living example around us is the ability to withstand labour pains. Our grandmothers and mothers just embraced childbirth with all its anxieties and uncertainties with the stride of life and the off loading their worries at the altar or at the lotus feet of the Divine.
The newer generation are not going to leave the moment of their joy to the hands of others without giving a fight. They want to know exactly goes on with them. within them and they will just not take the discomforts of childbirth lying down. They cannot accept the old grandma's tale of the pain of childbirth is nothing compared to pain of dying on a cross. Times change.

You are made to think that you are free!

Easy Rider (1969)

This classic of the late 60s glorifies the counterculture spirit of that era. Even though it seem to showcase a decadent lifestyle with hedonistic desires away from the usual requirements of society like working and following the law, herein lies the philosophical outlook on life. The message is imparted via the travelogues of two hippie bikers as the they span the USA from Los Angeles to St Louis to attend Mardi Gras before they retire in style in Florida with the ill-gotten stash of cash obtain by drug trafficking big time.

The riders (Wyatt@Captain America, Peter Fonda, the producer; Billy, Dennis Hopper, the director) pick up a hitchhiker and spend a night in a commune. In the 60s, people who were disillusioned with the way the capitalistic industrial world was heading, with war and nuclear threat, decide to give it all up to live the simple life with simple desires with lots of love and hallucinogens. The riders could see that the members of the commune, even though they think they are free, they are actually having a very hard time trying to grow their own grain in a hostile environment, bad soil, bad weather without the proper tools and know how. They seem to get detachment from their troubles through the performing arts. So, they are close to nature and away from modernity but are they truly happy and free?

They continue their journey only to find themselves arrested for 'parading without a permit' when they rode through a street parade. In the lock-up, they get the good acquaintance of a drunken lawyer in the same cell, George Hanson (the most talented actor, Jack Nicholson) who got them out and followed them en route to attend the Mardi Gras. Another bashing at free American, people need to get a permit to parade in public!
Jack Nicholson's presence really livens up the whole movie after that.
They stop at a diner. Their presence in the squeaky clean town is not welcomed. The diners would not take their orders and the sheriff's men gave condescending looks on their gruffly unkempt appearances. The older townsfolk made disparaging remarks about their lifestyles and even sexual orientations. The young girls at the place are all starry eyed about them and would die to ride with them, so they say. To avert trouble, they leave. The message here is that, even though America is a free country, people are frowned upon for being different and vilified for that.

The hostility of the local men continued. They turned up at their camping site under the cloak of the darkness of the night to bash the living daylights out of the three bikers. George succumbed to his injuries.

Wyatt and Billy, obviously referring to Earp Wyatt and Billy the Kid of the Wild West, continue their journey. They symbolise the old America. Wyatt is dressed in a leather jacket emblazoned with the logo of American Eagle. Billy looks like he is draped in Indian garb, minus the headgear.

As they were riding along dreaming of their retirement in Florida, they passed by two farmers travelling in a pick up truck. Just for the heck of it, they shot both of them down! That is how the Old America was brought down. The New America and its inhabitants think they have the right formula to be free. Real freedom is a fallacy. The people is power, over time again and again, gave is the elusive idea that we are free while keeping us tight under their rein. By the way, what are we free from? Free from the evil that lurks around us? Free from the hardship of life? Free from our worldly obligations? Free from the cycle of Life? What are we free from?

NB. The film comes with an array of beautiful rock ballad from The Byrds, Steffanwolf, Bob Dylan and others. Film was shot exclusively outdoors depicting the picturesque landscape of the American wild.

Blurry haze of psychedelia

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1990)
Written by: Hunter S Thompson
This is a weird film which has a kind of cult following based on the book written by the eccentric but prolific journalist cum author, Hunter S Thompson. Rumour has it that he is related to the famed Scottish surgeon Dr James Hunter on his maternal side, hence his first name! Thompson has an illustrious life to boast. Serving in the US Air Force and honourably discharged, he wore many hats, leaving a trail of angry superiors - as a security officer, a journalist, an author and even as a member of the Hell's Angels for about a year. Even, the Hell's Angels were upset with him thinking that they thought that he was using their association to monetise their life through his book. They demanded a portion as his earnings.
Thompson is said to be the pioneer of the Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting as a first person rather than as a bystander. A member of the counter culture movement, he experimented with many hallucinogenic substances. Many of his books are based on his life experiences. He has no qualms about showing his opposition to the Vietnam War and his dislike to Nixon. He strongly believed in the 4th amendment to bear arms.  His addictions haunted him in his later stages of life. He missed the 1974 Ali-Frazier 'Rumble in Jungle' as he was intoxicated even though he was sent to write on the bout!
He shot himself intentionally at the age of 67 (Right to bear arm?).

Hunter S Thompson

Coming back to the movie, it is very difficult to follow. It is no joy watching two grown men waddling along throughout the whole show, hallucinating, puking, talking gibberish and displaying all the intoxicants known to man. There is no respect to human, private and public properties. The characters of the Raoul Duke, a reporter (Johnny Depp in another indistinguishable role) and Dr Gonzo, an attorney (Benicio Del Toro) seem to get away with anything as they arrived stashed in Las Vegas to cover a off road dirt bike race and a US attorney conference.
The ruckus they create in the hotel whilst under the influence of hallucinogens is the crux of the story. They continue doing meaningless acts in their state of drug induced paranoia. It seem meaningless to watch their actions on and on until you realise at the end of the movie when the main character explains in his soliloquy.
The gurus of the mid 60s who introduced mind altering drugs as a means of exploring the true inner self have showed a path of self destruction. It does not discover anything new and had let us nowhere. It was a failed experiment. Boy, it is a very torturous and tortuous way of driving the point across.

(N.B. Not to be confused with Jim Thompson, the wealthy businessman, an ex-CIA man who went missing in Cameron Highlands and never to be found till date. Just like MH370, his liaison with the CIA regenerated many conspiracy theories.)