Movie 9- Fight Club
Plot:
Courtesy of rottentomatoes.com---
FIGHT CLUB is narrated by a lonely, unfulfilled young man (Edward Norton) who finds his only comfort in feigning terminal illness and attending disease support groups. Hopping from group to group, he encounters another pretender, or "tourist," the morose Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), who immediately gets under his skin. However, while returning from a business trip, he meets a more intriguing character--the subversive Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). They become fast friends, bonding over a mutual disgust for corporate consumer-culture hypocrisy. Eventually, the two start Fight Club, which convenes in a bar basement where angry men get to vent their frustrations in brutal, bare-knuckle bouts. Fight Club soon becomes the men's only real priority; when the club starts a cross-country expansion, things start getting really crazy. Like Tyler Durden himself, director David Fincher's FIGHT CLUB, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, is startlingly aggressive and gleefully mischievous as it skewers the superficiality of American pop culture. Outstanding performances by Norton and Pitt are supported by a razor-sharp script and an arsenal of stunning visual effects that include computer animation and sleight-of-hand editing. One of the most unique films of the late 20th century, FIGHT CLUB is a pitch-black comedy of striking intensity.
Commentary:
Before I can begin with more in-depth critique I have to say this. Fight Club is probably the first film I would put on a list of “Movies to Watch Before You Die.” If you haven’t seen this yet, you’re seriously missing out on what I find to be one of the best (though perhaps a little hypocritical) pieces of cinema to come out of the last 100 years. That being said, GO WATCH IT!
Now, I will move forward. First, I will say that I can’t expect everyone to agree with me, and you won’t find me very apologetic for feeling this way.
In order to understand the overall goal of the project you need to fully understand the development of both main characters. Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) is the definition of raw passion. He’s random, impulsive, wild, untamed, yet determined and set to achieve what he sees as a revolutionary break from the restriction that is modern bureaucratic/capitalist structure. The very structure of the film fortifies his anarchist ideals with its anomalous method by incorporating all sorts of stylistic variants (freeze frames, jump cuts, bizarre sex scenes, and even the humorous inclusion of ‘cigarette burns’ throughout).
The narrator (Edward Norton) is quite unlike Tyler for obvious reasons. He’s jaded, sardonic, a cog in the overall structure of society performing his duties. He works to earn a wage to collect possessions which he recognizes as meaningless but still clings to. That is, until he meets Tyler. The quote below should exemplify perfectly:
"Like everyone else, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct. If I saw something like clever coffee tables in the shape of a yin and yang, I had to have it. I would flip through catalogs and wonder, "What kind of dining set defines me as a person?" We used to read pornography. Now it was the Horchow Collection. I had it all. Even the glass dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections, proof they were crafted by the honest, simple, hard-working indigenous peoples of wherever." --Narrator
In looking at these 2 characters we define the fundamental purpose of the film: a critique of capitalism. Through the satirical expression, the film is clearly defining what the original book’s author deems the problem with our society. We are slaves to the system, kept silent and made busy by the very consumerism which defines us.
Write to you soon (and please comment!),
Kendra
