To what extent can films be said to offer an insight into the collective unconscious of their times? Using the films Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) and US (Jordan Peele, 2019).

David Fincher’s 1999 film Fight Club and Jordan Peele’s 2019 film Us are both films which offer clear allegories representing the suppression of the collective unconscious in American Society – although at evidently different eras. They are both arguably identifiable in modern film culture, from the A-list cast (including Brad Pitt and Edward Norton) and the iconic commentary on masculinity in Fight Club, to the culturally and critically acclaimed director (Jordan Peele) and the original take on the genre of horror in Us. These films have been chosen as they were made in contrasting contexts of American society, allowing the evolution of general attitudes towards the collective unconscious and its suppression to be seen. It could be argued that Us deals with similar moral and philosophical themes to Fight Club despite the twenty years which separate the two, as patterns of metaphorical representation as social commentary can be seen throughout both films. Fincher’s film follows (arguable) primary protagonist ‘The Narrator’ as his life as a consumer in 90s Delaware is taken out of his control, alongside Pitt’s character ‘Tyler’ who helps him regain his hold on his identity and purpose. However, rebellious societal chaos caused by Tyler leads him to become the antagonist, whom The Narrator eventually kills. It is revealed that ‘The Narrator’ and ‘Tyler’ are not two people but rather both aspects of the same personality, and that their lives were not ever truly separate, but one. Us also centres on warped narration and the idea of identity surrounding the collective unconscious, but in a physically different format, as a woman (Adelaide) and her family in 21st century Santa Cruz, return to Adelaide’s ‘hometown’ on holiday, only to eventually be pursued by their ‘clones’, who have lived underground and mirrored the behaviour of their counterparts in modern civilisation; and have started a revolution against those ‘above’ to reclaim the lives they were never given (led by the main antagonist ‘Red’ who is the genetic replica of Adelaide). The protagonists finally manage to kill their respective clones, only for it to be revealed that ‘Adelaide’ was from ‘below’ the whole time, and it was she who once stole Red’s life and identity as a human in American society. 

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