Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Going back three years ago, a month or two after September 11th, I was a late beginner at Media Studies A-Level at College in suburban Lancashire. It was a study course that changed the way I looked at films and society, and in many ways it gave me the confidence and the film theory insight to begin reviewing for Epinions in the first place.

The film we were watching when I first arrived, whilst they were already several weeks into the course, was "Enter the Dragon". I only managed to catch the final fifteen minutes of it, and I'm ashamed to say that to this day I have still never watched it properly. Anyhow, our Media teacher then showed us the film "Fight Club", and we were meant to compare the two films for our assignment. Although the film had already been out three years I had never seen it before (though someone had already given away the twist to me). It was a small class of about seven and only two of the people there had seen it and raved about it. Naturally they were young alternative goth/indie/skater/stoner types and they took the movie as their milestone of anti-consumerism, surrealism, anarchy, murky visuals and black comedy.

Our teacher stuck the video in, fast forwarded through the trailers and got us to the title sequence where we see a CGI representation of the human brain within its body. It's dark, electric and fast and furious, like something out of a Nu-Metal music video. Basically it depicts an adrenaline rush. The camera back-follows a bead of sweat as it perspires through the inner glands and out of the forehead and pulls back to reveal the first scene.

The film begins with our narrator character Jack, played by Ed Norton inside a high rise office at midnight, being held hostage with a gun barrel in his mouth. He is the first character we see, and he is viewed in a close-up. He grabs our attention as he is sweating and his eyes are wide open even though it is night-time. We are only just introduced to the character and already his life is in danger. His captor is an anarchist named Tyler Durdan, played by Brad Pitt. (During the watching of this film it became apparent that our teacher, who had the unfortunate name of Richard Reid, actually quite fancied himself as a Tyler Durdan type). Tyler Durdan is about to blow up the financial buildings for reasons that will become clear later. In the middle of the confrontation we immediately leap into a flashback as our narrator Jack, prepares to tell us of how he met Tyler Durdan.

We are taken back to one year ago where Jack is a white collar insurance office worker and he is heavily suffering from work stress and insomnia. We see the film from his point of view, the overcast office lighting contrasting harshly with the previous scene, the sleep deprived hallucinations and daydreams. There's a scene where Jack is peering into the contents of a wastepaper bin- a coca cola can, a silver packet and we hear a pager beeping in the background and the close-up image is shot in such a way that we briefly see it like he does as a collection of space station satellites and rockets in orbit. I saw that scene and thought- That is brilliant! This must be a film that really plugs you in to how people think and how they view the world, their habits of cloud watching and daydreaming. This must be the new age of authentic cinema. I didn't know what the words 'Avant Guarde' meant back then, but if I had I would have used them. It was a brief time when it seemd that CGI effects would compliment, rather than wreck the 90's approach to authentic characterisation that Scorsese and Tarantino had pioneered and populised.

Anyhow he roots through various forms of therapy. He goes to meetings of the sick and the dying and people who've had body organs removed. At each group he gives a different false name and pretends to also be a sufferer, and goes through their therapies- in some groups people take turns to cry in each others arms, in others they meditate and try to find their "power animal". At the end of the night Jack mis finally able to sleep like a baby. Jack reasons to himself that ethically its all fair since "When people think you're dying, they really listen to you!" But complications arise in the form of another phony member- an obnoxious and suicidal pauper woman called Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), and Jack has to go elsewhere for therapy. The thing is Jack is out of touch with his true self and true nature and when he sees someone who's deceitful behaviour reflects his own, he gets very uncomfortable and feels trapped and emotionally repressed.

On a return home from one of his business trips (where he inspected a car accident which made his partner car firm liable), Jack shares a flight cabin seat with Tyler Durdan, a salesman who manufactures and sells soap, and introduces himself and gives him a calling card. Jack always enjoys the brief interactions with fellow passengers, but Tyler is something very unique, with a lot of character and knowledge. Tyler is a very rough, confident, working class type with a lot of prowess and naturally middle class young men are always curious about how the other class lives.

Jack returns to his Condo apartment to find that an electrical fire has destroyed his home, however the police gradually come to suspect arson. Jack has precious few contacts and decides to make use of Tyler's calling card. Tyler is only too happy to meet Jack in the local bar and help him drown his sorrows in a few rounds of beer. Jack is worried if his insurance will cover his home and all the belongings and ornaments he had there, most of which he bought from the IKEA catalogue. Tyler offers the opinion that all these goods are useless in the long run, and all part of the shallow and unfulfilling consumerism of society "The things you own, end up owning you".

Before inviting Jack home with him, Tyler insists that Jack join him in a brutal street boxing match. It becomes apparent that Tyler is a hardcore nihilist and a masochist. Jack is naturally taken aback by this having managed to avoid violence all his life but Tyler points out "How much do you really know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?" and so Jack reluctantly punches him, Tyler punches back and something about the pain, intensity and awakeing immediacy of the whole thing makes Jack eager to keep fighting.

After that bit of painful horseplay they go to Tyler's isolated and decaying home. No consumer goods, no media access, no tightly knit community or nosy neighbours, clearly this is where independant, activist minds are bred. They spend the rest of the year living together. Jack learns to see the world the same way Tyler sees it, and as a weekend thing they beat the crap out of each other outside their favourite bar. Despite which they remain completely at ease with each other. Soon other people are flocking to voluntarily brawl with them, and soon their Fight Club is born. From that develops the anarchist movement Project Mayhem, leading inevitably to the life and death confrontation the film begins on.

"Fight Club" for me brilliantly defined that time in my life. Like Tyler and Jack, we as Media students were learning to not simply glance at billboard posters but to look at them in depth. Everything within the image matters and is there for a reason- How is it trying to sell to us, how does it represent us.

At the time I guess TV just wasn't ruling my life as much which is why this one film stuck out in my memory of that time far more than any other. At the same time I had moved from the intimidating inner city to the peaceful suburbs, moving away from my mum, building a new collection of friends and emotional attachments in a safer and more comfortable environment and developing agressive socialising skills and self awareness. There was a feeling that I was free and that the world had no boundaries, and I honestly don't think I've ever felt so liberated or hopeful, before or since. Once you look at inner city youth violence from a distance, it seems less scary, and you can even come round to understanding it. It was when I first started meeting Americans online in this spirit of unity and love and compassion that had followed from the 9/11 attrocities, and I got swept away in it too.

In this film we witness Jack undergo a similar world view revolution- embracing violence, drawn with vivid interest towards the ruthless character and humour of Tyler. Jack is clearly a very competent man at making connections with new people, he's very articulate and communicative and can be incredibly honest and precise when he chooses to be, but it is Tyler he chooses to be with. Tyler offers him some kind of greater threshold to break through the tranquilising docility of consumerism and safe living. Though initially very mismatched, it is brilliant how they quickly adopt each other's mindscapes of perception and attitude.

I got right in everyone's hostile little face. Yes these are bruises from a fight. Yes I'm comfortable with that. I am enlightened.

Yes this is a violent film, very brutal- we see torture and vicious bodily damage and men vomiting blood. There's a lot of swearing, a lot of nudity and sex, and not only that but its ugly, noxious and dirty sex with the most sickening and degrading language, during and after. But this is not a negative film to my eyes. Tyler is a confident revolutionary who unites the working and middle classes. In a hilarious montage of scenes, he and his men go out to pick a fight with random strangers, which proves to be not as easy as it seems as they find that actually most people would do anything to avoid getting into a fight and would rather live in peace with one another.

As I've said before, for me this is one among the great trilogy of late 90's, early 2000 films along with "Bowling for Columbine" and "American History X" that really aimed itself at deconstructing our 'fear culture' and galvanising confidence and trust amongst our fellow people. The kind of films that said, 'lets get away from that cinematic cynicism that so dominated the 70's and 80's. Lets do films about going out into that big bad scary world and finding out that its not so scary after all. Lets reject these merchants of fear and xenophobia and lets meet these strangers that we're so afraid of meeting. Lets communicate and learn from each other, lets learn to think freely and get over our ignorant notions that violence solves everything.'

Media Assignment Analysis

For my assignment I had to look to Media theorists like Todorov; Levi-Strauss; Barthes; and Propp and implement their theories on film narrative here. Really I should have also compared this film with "Enter the Dragon" but I skipped that bit. The important components of cinematic narrative are: causality and time; camera angles; costume and props; locations and lighting. These elements combine: firstly to play on the expectations of the audience; secondly, to decide what the audience sees of the story and how they see it; and thirdly to what degree the audience feels a sense of participation in the events on film.

First I had to think of film promotion. The friendship between Jack and Tyler Durdan transcends their different class backgrounds so the film speaks to both working class and middle class audiences. The film had a certain air of cult obscurity to it. The title "Fight Club", was vague enough, although it suggested something comical and very cult and homoerotic. The film appeals mainly to young male adults, student-types, who are impressed by the film’s use of intelligent psychological and sociological ideas and by its mind games. It was very much a word-of-mouth kind of film event, with a remarkable twist near the end which prompted people to see the film more than once to get the full gist. It was a gamble of course- you make a film too confusing and too unpredictable (read "unfamiliar") and no-one wants to see such a mess again.

When films use repetition and homages, its not necessarily out of a spirit of dumbing down or lacking originality. Its about keeping the audience on comfortable ground and surprising them in the journey but not surprising them too much. Give semiotic forewarnings (and in this case subliminal images as well) to keep the scenes connected. For instance we are less shocked and somewhat forewarn and prepared to endure the disturbing scene where Jack is tortured by Tyler with burning fat because we've already been peppered by many images of chain smoking, cancer groups, dirty yellow nicotine walls in the house. There's already a noxious and threatening air of cigarrette burns coupled with suicidal and masochistic characters.

Also I looked at the film's homages, roots and intertextuality. In describing Tyler Durdan's spontaneous, foolhardy behaviour and mood swings, one character describes him as "Dr. Jekyll & Mister Jackass". The Narrator describes a female cancer victim as looking like "Meryl Streep's sketeton". The opening scene, right down to the setting and clothes and hairstyles worn by the characters is a blatant nod to the action blockbuster "Die Hard". In some ways the Project Mayhem is a direct follow on from the adrenaline-junkie anarchists in the film "Point Break", right down to the split that breaks the group when innocent people get killed. In-fact come to think of it, both those latter films, like this one were also made by 20th Century Fox.

Most prominently, “Fight Club” has a strong similarity to the Tennesse William’s play “The Glass Menagerie”. Ed Norton's character is very similar to the play’s character of Tom. Like Jack, Tom is the narrator of the story as well as a character in it, and he is showing us an earlier time in his life when he worked in a lower middle-class job which he was very unhappy in. He feels unfairly dominated but unlike Ed, it is by his mother, rather than by his boss. He also comes from a broken home where the father ran out on the family, the play also has a surreal and subliminal atmosphere. Some of the themes of “The Glass Menagerie” are simmilar to those of “Fight Club” as well. Compare these two pieces of dialogue which talk about the frustrating effects of a media dominated society in peace-time on a population’s sense of purpose:

Spoken by Tom in “The Glass Menagerie”, Scene Six.
“Movies! Look at them- All those glamorous people- having adventures- hogging it all, gobbling the whole thing up! You know what happens? People go to the movies instead of moving! Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a dark room and watches them have them! Yes, until there’s a war. That’s when adventure becomes available to the masses! Everyone’s dish, not only Gable’s! Then the people in the dark room come out of the dark room to have some adventures themselves- goody goody! It’s our turn now to go to the South Sea Island- to make a safari- to be exotic, far-off! But I’m not patient. I don’t want to wait till then. I’m tired of the movies and I am about to move!”

Spoken by Tyler in “Fight Club”
“An entire generation waiting tables, pumping gas stations. The slaves and white collars. Advertising has us chasing jobs we hate, so we can buy sh*t we don't need! We’re the middle people of history, men. No purpose or place. We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual one, our great depression is our lives.We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won’t. We’re slowly learning that fact, and we’re very, very p*ssed off.”

The film is a blend of action, black comedy, coming of age and learning revolution film and living a double life and with a supernatural hallucinagenic overtone. I suppose overall I could accurately call it a grunge punk riot movie of the MTV soundbites generation. This kind of film has to be consistent. It might just be able to begin as an office drama and immediately leap into an action film but to introduce a supernatural twist to the film 30 minutes before the end would be just too scattery. But they manage to pull it together, particularly with the meditation scenes by giving the whole film an hallucinagenic look and atmosphere whilst still focusing on down to earth, self-knowing and focused characters.

Now there's the whole mise-en scene of the film which is largely of flashy and fast visual soundbites. In the first half hour we go very quickly from one location to another- the office, the airport, the cancer groups. (remember, the film has a year long timeframe) and we're flooded with soundbite images to get a sense of where we are and what goes on in a matter of seconds- With the cancer group, it's a group hug, a coffee machine and a tray of cups, the title on the blackboard, name tags. At the airport its ticking clocks and destination boards, a tray of online food, a file of paperwork.

I also got to mentioning how there's a lot of images and props which serve to emphasise the themes. Since this is an anti-consumerism satire, there is naturally a lot of product placement for IKEA and Starbucks and the like. This is also a film about masculinity. Its about testicular cancer, muscle man builboards. It'sabout compromised masculinity and redefining that masculinity through deviant and violent subculture. So naturally there's a lot of phallic imagery, subliminal penises, sex aids in Marla Singer's bedroom which she always reassures her many suitors "Don't worry, it's not a threat to you!". Project Mayhem members threaten to castrate the law enforcement spokesman after he makes a speech. We also meet Bob (played by Meatloaf), a man at the cancer groups who by a hormonal impalance develops breasts after his cancered testicle is removed, and he is Jack's crying partner- his femininity is very overt.

The other main theme of the film is of mortality. Jack justifies his presence at the cancer groups by saying "In the Tibetan philosophy sense of the word, we're all dying." One of the members of the cancer groups says bluntly "I'm so near the end and all I want is to get laid for the last time!" Whilst in the same way the "Fight Club" is all about living to extremes, and carving a niche of non-conformist self knowledge through hitting rock bottom, because tomorrow you may be dead. Even in the mundane moments such as when Jack has a conscious nightmare on a plane flight about dying in a mid-air collision, or when Jack is talking about car crashes and casualties that his insurance firm has had to deal with, he's reminding us of explosions and death. This also for me somehow tapped into the post-9/11 mood of the time of awoken mortality.

Of course indie cinema is about breaking the rules too. Film theorist, Vladimir Propp describes how all films have set character roles which hark back to early 20th century Russian fairy tales. He lists the roles as the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess, her father. To apply the roles to "Fight Club" is difficult- Knowing that Jack is the protagonist and that Tyler is the antagonist/false hero, we are at first reassured that their characters are poles apart: Jack dresses in respectable white-collar whilst Tyler dresses in far darker shades as a pub dweller and a man of violent sports; Ed is a consumer and a professional who is working day-by-day towards a successful career, Tyler is a nihilist and an anarchist who lives for each moment in the knowledge that one day he will be dead.

Jack is not really heroic though. He's far from honourable, he participates in a lot of the villain's actions, even when it means taking to the streets and assaulting and threatening innocent passersby. He's something of a cad who infiltrates groups for the sick and dying and pretends to be one of them. He can be extremely callous and when Marla Singer phones him after she takes an overdose, he gladly leaves her to die. In-fact it is Tyler Durdan who saves her life instead. Tyler is such an ambiguous villain, somehow working to an admirable plan, somehow loyal and liberating towards all he meets, and no more is this evident than when his villainy is rendered insignificant by the appearance of a greater villain in the form of Lou the Gangster who beats up Tyler for holding events on his bar premises. Even more remarkable and admirable is that with a blend of reverse psychology and sado masochism, Tyler gets the better of Lou without using violence.

It's an authentic film about breaking character roles and presenting real people of spontaneous changes of heart and mixed motivations, noble and sinister. Its amazing how people can change- how you can take the example of a sensible young person, introduce them to a different social clique or a revolution in knowledge and just see the unprincipaled changes they undergo in character and the unethical extremes they might go to. For me that's true character authenticity when your leading character is someone who learns and makes drastic choices before your eyes. We somehow feel comfortable with Jack as he tears through constraining moores of society and we root him on when he lies to gain access to private and hidden corners of society and when he blackmails his boss into paying him off. And thus the film succeeds at drawing us into this strange and nihilistic world of voluntary violence without the emotional pretext of hate or antagonism. Its about getting lost in a new and exciting life and somehow not noticing that you left your principles behind somewhere and now you've got yourself and people you care about into a dire mess. Its about the enemy within, its about the violence within and more importantly its about self-deception.

Again it's the visual representation of these amoral acts that sucks us into going along with it, as the narrator does. The first we see of Tyler Durdan in the opening scene, he is holding Jack at gunpoint. But Tyler's face is rarely glimpsed in this scene, so when the movie launches us into breakneck speed into the comfortable, intimate friendship between Tyler and Jack, we are able to forget this and feel comfortable with Tyler's character. Even when Tyler later holds a convenience store owner at gunpoint during a sabotage operation, we don't immediately think back to that moment because it is shot and presented in such a different way to de-emphasise sympathy for the whimpering minor character and also de-emphasise the suspense, pre-indicating that in this scene Tyler's gun wasn't loaded all along.

Jack expresses no concern when the members are ordered by Tyler to go out and assault complete strangers except to say "This is not as easy as it sounds." The audience is encouraged to go along with this perception. We do not see the violence with which the members treat each other as a problematic because they all choose and give their own consent to be in this situation. The film-makers do however try to make the fights in the pit look intense, ugly and disturbing. The basement is dark and dirty, and in the casting of dim yellow light, the bleeding from contestants appears to be black, like tar, and almost seems to be part of the muck on the floor of the pit.

As such we don't see the way the violence becomes forced onto people on the street as a serious problematic, because these events are shot from a distance, whereas the fights in the pit are in close-up making the event seem less serious instead of more serious. And also because the scene is played for laughs and the incidental music is quiet and comical instead of dramatic. It seems a safe arena, free floating and expressive and voluntarily unified. But that wouldn't make an action film would it? There has to be an impasse and point of entrapment and no return where things must be violently and absolutely reckoned with. And that is indeed what happens as this pursuit of rock bottom, this downward spiral of violence eventually leads to tragedy and death and plots to murder the innocent and the Project Mayhem movement becomes an unstoppable machine and there is no longer the choice of walking out and casting off responsibility. This is emphasised in changes of dress and style of the members. At first they are in workmen and businessmen suits, carrying an air of mature responsibility. Gradually their look becomes more punk and tatty, conveying a sense of harmless and galvanising adolescence to the anarchy, then suddenly the people are wearing crewcuts and skinheads, looking more serious and sinister and intimidating- more paramilitary, or perhaps like Neo Nazis even.

It's hard to say whether the film follows a proper plot. It is easy to define the film's emotional story, but the plot is one that is confused, non-linear, unconventional and anarchic. The film deliberately plays with conventions. Instead of running on equilibrium, followed by problematic and then resolution, it runs on various problematics, going from one frying pan to another. Perhaps the promise of a peaceful equilibrium life when it is all over is only offered and conveyed through the sardonic calm of the narrator's voice. In-fact the film is one big mockery of our own personal consumerist luxury chasing equilibrium.

The success of 'Fight Club' depends on the fact that it compares the workable aspects of film with the unworkable to create a story which confuses the audience and yet is compelling enough to make them want to make sense of the story by seeing the film again. The film follows the rules of narrative structure only to break some of those same rules towards the end. The film runs on uneven jigsaw pieces and ends on loose points that are actually only further confused with repeated viewings. But a film doesn't have to be totally complete to be great, and "Fight Club" does indeed offer a fantastic, violent and spectacular climax.

The assignment I wrote on "Fight Club" was far more long winded than that and even went beyond my required word count x 3. Not surprisingly it was over two months late past my deadline, and I was amazed that I had read between the lines so much. The months passed quickly to Christmas, and we were still raving about the film. Everyone who saw the film was impressed, they laughed, they were in awe and they loved the character of Tyler Durdan and the adventure he took them on. A mother in her thirties was watching with us, and confessed she is usually alienated by masculine movies and yet she decided to buy a (then) latest thing, state of the art DVD player for Christmas and that the film would be her first DVD.

In our last Christmas lesson, which we usually devote to a class quiz or something, I brought with me a short, ten minute Adam and Joe Show spoof of "Fight Club" and we stuck it on, and the class exploded into fits of giggles once again. This is the exchanges we witnessed

Jack and Tyler are on the plane together. Tyler suddenly begins talking to Jack for the first time

Tyler: You're not your job! You're not the car you drive! You're not you're f*cking khakis!
Jack: (confused) "Come again!?"
Tyler: "Consumerism is Shallow! Advertising is Evil! George Michael is Gay!"

In a dream sequence we see a plane crashing into Jack's flight

Narrator: "I fantasised that there'd be a mid air collision....anything to shut him up!"

back to reality

Tyler: (deadpan) Do you know if you type five eight zero zero eight into a calculator and flip it, it spells 'boobs'!

Oh and not forgetting.....

Fight Club arena

Tyler: We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars, but we won't.

Member: Wait a minute! You're Brad Pitt! You are a millionaire moviegod!.... Let's get him!

The entire club pounces on and batters Tyler

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age