Fight Club Essay
Fight Club: A formal review
Tarrin Duerr
WGST 250
March 4th, 2014
Prof. Walters
Fight club is the fictional story of an unnamed man who has recently been suffering from episodes of insomnia. It is based off the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk; it was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter as the three main characters. The film was released in Canada October 15, 1999, a month and a half before the WTO protests. In order to combat his condition Jack (Norton) seeks out various therapy groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Cancer survivors. Through these groups he indirectly meets Marla Singer (Carter). Their chance encounter sends …show more content…
our protagonist on a journey that started before it began.
The story is told through a narration of the main character (referred to as “Jack” or “the narrator” from herein).
The movie starts out with the camera hurtling, at a microscopic level, out from Jack’s brain; the camera continues to pan out until it focuses on a single hair continuing until the viewer notices a gun shoved into the hero’s mouth (Inside Out. (n.d.). Film Comment.). The epic cinematic effects do not stop there, later on in the film a lengthy scene exploring how Jack’s apartment and life exploded in a blaze of glory; the pan-out style of cinematography used in the title sequence is also utilized in this scene as well.
One of the more interesting aspects of this film, that many critics have failed to point out is the timeline of Fight club the novel, Fight Club the film, The WTO protests and the 9/11 tragedy. Fight club the novel was published in 1996, presented were ideas of anti-capitalism, anti-media and undertones of intolerance for religion. FOX picked up the rights to make the book into a movie in 1997 …show more content…
and produced the film in two short years, releasing it in October of 1999, much of the same ideas and themes in the book were present in the film, and the medium of film was better able to explore the aesthetic critiques of contemporary society. In the book and film the scenario of destroying major credit card headquarters are present, the idea behind this is to set every American citizens debt to zero making everyone equal and reducing American civilization to a hunter-gatherer state. The WTO protests hold their roots around the time Fight club the novel was published; proponents of this group challenged the international organizations such as the IMF, WTO and the World Bank on the basis that these organizations promoted and reinforced various inequalities throughout the world. Less than two years after the release of fight club the film and the WTO protests the events of 9/11 unfold. If one watches the video of the 9/11 towers’ collapsing it bears a striking resemblance to the destruction of the credit card companies’ headquarters in Fight Club. The message behind Fight Club and the WTO protests were soon lost in the ensuing media frenzy of “The War on Terror” which still rages on to this day. The unfolding of these events in such a short timeline deserve more attention than has been received; the message of Fight Club and the WTO protests might be better understood if they were held in comparison to the major disaster of 9/11.
The portrayal of masculinity is a heavy topic in Fight Club and will need to be looked at in two ways. The first is how homosexuality is portrayed throughout the movie, to understand this we must look at the possible romantic relationships the narrator has before him. First, we must assume that because of the strong attraction to Tyler as well as the attraction to Marla the narrator has, he must have a bisexual orientation leaving the open the possibility to many kinds of relationships. The first relationship is developed with Bob or “Bitch Tits”; this can be seen as the narrator’s first foray into challenging hegemonic masculinity. The narrator meets Bob at a therapy group for men with testicular cancer. Bob is the perfect stepping stone for the narrator between Heterosexuality and Homosexuality as he is the bridge between the two; Bob used to be a champion body-builder and even made a fortune off selling home gym equipment (A very “Normal” American dream) but because of the testicular cancer, Bob has now grown large breasts and has a softer, more feminine voice making him a perfect example of feminized masculinity. The narrator is able to open up to Bob and tears openly gush into Bob’s chest, leaving an impression of his face on Bob’s shirt. This relationship continues-although it is on the backburner for the majority of the film- and culminates with the narrator crying profusely over Bob’s death after a Project Mayhem escapade.
The next relationship encountered is with a female named Marla Singer, the only notable female character in the film. Their relationship is formed after a chance encounter. The Narrator has been attending group therapy meetings (Like the one with Bob) and eventually notices the presence of another “Tourist”, Marla. The narrator is no longer able to receive the relief of attending the therapy meetings with another faker present. Instead of realising that his frustrations with this woman might actually stem from his attraction to her he confronts her and splits up the different group therapy meetings with her so they will not interfere with one another, at the end of this confrontation they exchange phone numbers because as the narrator states “We might want to switch nights”. Marla is not heard of until she contacts the narrator (who is by now living with Tyler) with a half-hearted suicide attempt; the narrator ignores her call for attention and puts down the phone. Jack wakes up in the morning only to find that Marla has stayed the night (Apparently with Tyler) and is angered (At this point, it is unsure of whether the jealousy is directed at Marla for taking Tyler away, or at Tyler for taking Marla away, I prefer the former), Jack mistakes Marla for Tyler and ends up asking her “What are you doing here?” to which she replies “Fuck you” and leaves. Tyler walks in and describes the night he had with Marla. This relationships continues with Tyler having sex with Marla and Jack being confused at the entire scenario, it continues this way until the end of the movie where Jack finally realises his love for Marla and they watch together as the credit card buildings blow up.
The next relationship is the most complex, the relationship between Jack and Tyler. To understand this relationship one must remember that Jack and Tyler are the same person but only Tyler realises this. Jack creates the alternative personality of Tyler in order to combat everything he hates about himself; the hatred towards himself is shown in the first fight scene where Tyler asks Jack to punch him as hard as he can. Jack- hating himself and the qualities he possesses must use Tyler in order to act out this aggression towards himself. Every time Jack and Tyler fight, it is the two sides of the narrator’s personality warring for control over his body. Jack does not realise the duality of his consciousness until the final half hour of the film. Tyler also possesses all the qualities and characteristics that Jack wish he possessed himself, in the novel it is stated that Jack “Loves everything about Tyler” and then describes the various aspects of Tyler in which he enjoys. Throughout the movie the audience can sense a romantic relationship developing between the two dualities of the narrators conscious. These two characters become increasingly close with one another over the course of the film, grooming each other, bathing in the same room and are together in almost every scene of the movie until the end however. The true nature of Jack’s homosexual attraction to Tyler isn’t revealed until mid-way through the movie. Tyler shows affection towards another member of Project Mayhem -Angel Face –after a stellar performance in a Project Mayhem operation, the camera cuts to Jack and a look of extreme jealousy crosses over his face. In the next scene Jack is pitted against Angel Face in the next round of Fight Club. Jack allows his rage and jealousy to take over and he savagely beats Angel Face, leaving the once beautiful face disfigured and destroyed. When Tyler asks Jack why he did this he responds “I wanted to destroy something beautiful”, this line could also be an allusion to Project Mayhem destroying “Something Beautiful” (I.E. Destroying something as beautiful as the American dream by destroying capitalism). This example of how men hide their true emotions; Jack did not want to admit to Tyler that he massacred Angel Face because of his jealousy; it also possible that Jack did not want to show his true feelings because of the stigmatization of homosexual relationships in contemporary America.
The relationship between Tyler and Jack takes a nosedive unexpectedly when Tyler skips town. This occurs shortly after Tyler takes Jack on a life changing car ride in which Tyler informs him that Jack needs to forget about what he thinks he knows about everything, about everyone, about their relationship. During this car ride Tyler allows the car to drift onto the other side of the road, Jack grabs for the wheel each time and attempt to stop the impending disaster. Tyler tells Jack that “He must let go”, this is a direct reference to letting go of the steering wheel as well as a metaphorical reference to Jack letting go of everything in his life that he perceives to be in his control. After “Letting go” the car careens into an idling vehicle and Jack is left in a state of unconsciousness. Jack drifts in and out of consciousness as Tyler explains to him his perfect world. When Jack finally awakens and is recovered from the crash he finds out Tyler has gone missing he quickly enters a state of depression, drinking heavily. The narrator “I’m all alone, “My father dumped me, Tyler dumped me. I am Jacks broken heart”. This quote shows two things first, it shows the Jack truly did love Tyler and second, it shows us that Jack has abandonment issues from his father. If we relate this to Freud understands of the oedipal complex, Jack never had a father and was therefore never able to be envious of his fathers “Penis”; Jack felt inadequate with his own Penis and created Tyler in order to combat his own feelings of inadequacy towards his Penis.
Religion is one of the oldest institutions to exist within contemporary society.
For the past millennia, religion has determined gender roles in many societies. Many religions offer men as being the dominator, aggressor, leader and just; whereas women are painted as emotional, caregivers, affectionate and often the temptress. A major theme in Fight Club is the critique of religion; one of the most famous Fight Club quotes is from Tyler Durden, “Our fathers were our models for God, if our fathers bailed what does that tell us about God? Consider the possibility that God does not like you, God doesn’t want you, and in all likelihood God does not like you”. This explains Tyler’s reasoning for his rejection of God, based off the simple God-Father principle. In this speech Tyler makes to Jack he refers to them as “Gods unwanted children”. The members of Project Mayhem are then referenced this throughout the rest of the film. Tyler can also be seen as a critical allegorical reference to a Jesus or God like figure. Tyler announces the rules of Fight Club and later on the rules of Project Mayhem. Tyler’s word eventually becomes law around Project Mayhem; even as Jack demands information on Project Mayhem he is constantly reminded of the rule he made earlier “Do not talk about Project Mayhem”. The members of project Mayhem obey the narrator’s rules over his direct orders. This a reference to the many Judaeo-Christian religions around the world in which the members have accepted The
Testaments, The Torah, and the Qur’an or other various religious texts as being the final word of God and that God can no longer speak to the human race until the final day of judgement. Through the loss of power experienced by the narrator we can see a critical reflection on some of the major world religions.
Fight Club is one of my favourite films. I have spent countless days watching and re-watching the film. The film is tightly jam-packed full of issues of the world at large and to fully understand the extent and grip of the film, one must watch it more than once. Many critics have argued that Fight Club fails to get its point across because of contradictions, such as the fact that even though the Project Mayhem members wish to take down Capitalism they use the exact values it promotes to take it down. I think the critics are not being critical enough. I believe Fight Club is a film that explores the possibility of how capitalism will end; it shows how Capitalism will self-destruct itself. Also present in Fight Club are themes of masculinity and homosexuality which need to viewed through multiple perspectives to grasp the full context of the situation.
Works Cited
Fincher, D. (Director). (2002). Fight club [Motion picture]. USA: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Inside Out. (n.d.). Film Comment. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from http://www.filmcomment.com/article/inside-out-david-fincher
Tarrin Duerr
WGST 250
March 4th, 2014
Prof. Walters
Fight club is the fictional story of an unnamed man who has recently been suffering from episodes of insomnia. It is based off the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk; it was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter as the three main characters. The film was released in Canada October 15, 1999, a month and a half before the WTO protests. In order to combat his condition Jack (Norton) seeks out various therapy groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Cancer survivors. Through these groups he indirectly meets Marla Singer (Carter). Their chance encounter sends …show more content…
our protagonist on a journey that started before it began.
The story is told through a narration of the main character (referred to as “Jack” or “the narrator” from herein).
The movie starts out with the camera hurtling, at a microscopic level, out from Jack’s brain; the camera continues to pan out until it focuses on a single hair continuing until the viewer notices a gun shoved into the hero’s mouth (Inside Out. (n.d.). Film Comment.). The epic cinematic effects do not stop there, later on in the film a lengthy scene exploring how Jack’s apartment and life exploded in a blaze of glory; the pan-out style of cinematography used in the title sequence is also utilized in this scene as well.
One of the more interesting aspects of this film, that many critics have failed to point out is the timeline of Fight club the novel, Fight Club the film, The WTO protests and the 9/11 tragedy. Fight club the novel was published in 1996, presented were ideas of anti-capitalism, anti-media and undertones of intolerance for religion. FOX picked up the rights to make the book into a movie in 1997 …show more content…
and produced the film in two short years, releasing it in October of 1999, much of the same ideas and themes in the book were present in the film, and the medium of film was better able to explore the aesthetic critiques of contemporary society. In the book and film the scenario of destroying major credit card headquarters are present, the idea behind this is to set every American citizens debt to zero making everyone equal and reducing American civilization to a hunter-gatherer state. The WTO protests hold their roots around the time Fight club the novel was published; proponents of this group challenged the international organizations such as the IMF, WTO and the World Bank on the basis that these organizations promoted and reinforced various inequalities throughout the world. Less than two years after the release of fight club the film and the WTO protests the events of 9/11 unfold. If one watches the video of the 9/11 towers’ collapsing it bears a striking resemblance to the destruction of the credit card companies’ headquarters in Fight Club. The message behind Fight Club and the WTO protests were soon lost in the ensuing media frenzy of “The War on Terror” which still rages on to this day. The unfolding of these events in such a short timeline deserve more attention than has been received; the message of Fight Club and the WTO protests might be better understood if they were held in comparison to the major disaster of 9/11.
The portrayal of masculinity is a heavy topic in Fight Club and will need to be looked at in two ways. The first is how homosexuality is portrayed throughout the movie, to understand this we must look at the possible romantic relationships the narrator has before him. First, we must assume that because of the strong attraction to Tyler as well as the attraction to Marla the narrator has, he must have a bisexual orientation leaving the open the possibility to many kinds of relationships. The first relationship is developed with Bob or “Bitch Tits”; this can be seen as the narrator’s first foray into challenging hegemonic masculinity. The narrator meets Bob at a therapy group for men with testicular cancer. Bob is the perfect stepping stone for the narrator between Heterosexuality and Homosexuality as he is the bridge between the two; Bob used to be a champion body-builder and even made a fortune off selling home gym equipment (A very “Normal” American dream) but because of the testicular cancer, Bob has now grown large breasts and has a softer, more feminine voice making him a perfect example of feminized masculinity. The narrator is able to open up to Bob and tears openly gush into Bob’s chest, leaving an impression of his face on Bob’s shirt. This relationship continues-although it is on the backburner for the majority of the film- and culminates with the narrator crying profusely over Bob’s death after a Project Mayhem escapade.
The next relationship encountered is with a female named Marla Singer, the only notable female character in the film. Their relationship is formed after a chance encounter. The Narrator has been attending group therapy meetings (Like the one with Bob) and eventually notices the presence of another “Tourist”, Marla. The narrator is no longer able to receive the relief of attending the therapy meetings with another faker present. Instead of realising that his frustrations with this woman might actually stem from his attraction to her he confronts her and splits up the different group therapy meetings with her so they will not interfere with one another, at the end of this confrontation they exchange phone numbers because as the narrator states “We might want to switch nights”. Marla is not heard of until she contacts the narrator (who is by now living with Tyler) with a half-hearted suicide attempt; the narrator ignores her call for attention and puts down the phone. Jack wakes up in the morning only to find that Marla has stayed the night (Apparently with Tyler) and is angered (At this point, it is unsure of whether the jealousy is directed at Marla for taking Tyler away, or at Tyler for taking Marla away, I prefer the former), Jack mistakes Marla for Tyler and ends up asking her “What are you doing here?” to which she replies “Fuck you” and leaves. Tyler walks in and describes the night he had with Marla. This relationships continues with Tyler having sex with Marla and Jack being confused at the entire scenario, it continues this way until the end of the movie where Jack finally realises his love for Marla and they watch together as the credit card buildings blow up.
The next relationship is the most complex, the relationship between Jack and Tyler. To understand this relationship one must remember that Jack and Tyler are the same person but only Tyler realises this. Jack creates the alternative personality of Tyler in order to combat everything he hates about himself; the hatred towards himself is shown in the first fight scene where Tyler asks Jack to punch him as hard as he can. Jack- hating himself and the qualities he possesses must use Tyler in order to act out this aggression towards himself. Every time Jack and Tyler fight, it is the two sides of the narrator’s personality warring for control over his body. Jack does not realise the duality of his consciousness until the final half hour of the film. Tyler also possesses all the qualities and characteristics that Jack wish he possessed himself, in the novel it is stated that Jack “Loves everything about Tyler” and then describes the various aspects of Tyler in which he enjoys. Throughout the movie the audience can sense a romantic relationship developing between the two dualities of the narrators conscious. These two characters become increasingly close with one another over the course of the film, grooming each other, bathing in the same room and are together in almost every scene of the movie until the end however. The true nature of Jack’s homosexual attraction to Tyler isn’t revealed until mid-way through the movie. Tyler shows affection towards another member of Project Mayhem -Angel Face –after a stellar performance in a Project Mayhem operation, the camera cuts to Jack and a look of extreme jealousy crosses over his face. In the next scene Jack is pitted against Angel Face in the next round of Fight Club. Jack allows his rage and jealousy to take over and he savagely beats Angel Face, leaving the once beautiful face disfigured and destroyed. When Tyler asks Jack why he did this he responds “I wanted to destroy something beautiful”, this line could also be an allusion to Project Mayhem destroying “Something Beautiful” (I.E. Destroying something as beautiful as the American dream by destroying capitalism). This example of how men hide their true emotions; Jack did not want to admit to Tyler that he massacred Angel Face because of his jealousy; it also possible that Jack did not want to show his true feelings because of the stigmatization of homosexual relationships in contemporary America.
The relationship between Tyler and Jack takes a nosedive unexpectedly when Tyler skips town. This occurs shortly after Tyler takes Jack on a life changing car ride in which Tyler informs him that Jack needs to forget about what he thinks he knows about everything, about everyone, about their relationship. During this car ride Tyler allows the car to drift onto the other side of the road, Jack grabs for the wheel each time and attempt to stop the impending disaster. Tyler tells Jack that “He must let go”, this is a direct reference to letting go of the steering wheel as well as a metaphorical reference to Jack letting go of everything in his life that he perceives to be in his control. After “Letting go” the car careens into an idling vehicle and Jack is left in a state of unconsciousness. Jack drifts in and out of consciousness as Tyler explains to him his perfect world. When Jack finally awakens and is recovered from the crash he finds out Tyler has gone missing he quickly enters a state of depression, drinking heavily. The narrator “I’m all alone, “My father dumped me, Tyler dumped me. I am Jacks broken heart”. This quote shows two things first, it shows the Jack truly did love Tyler and second, it shows us that Jack has abandonment issues from his father. If we relate this to Freud understands of the oedipal complex, Jack never had a father and was therefore never able to be envious of his fathers “Penis”; Jack felt inadequate with his own Penis and created Tyler in order to combat his own feelings of inadequacy towards his Penis.
Religion is one of the oldest institutions to exist within contemporary society.
For the past millennia, religion has determined gender roles in many societies. Many religions offer men as being the dominator, aggressor, leader and just; whereas women are painted as emotional, caregivers, affectionate and often the temptress. A major theme in Fight Club is the critique of religion; one of the most famous Fight Club quotes is from Tyler Durden, “Our fathers were our models for God, if our fathers bailed what does that tell us about God? Consider the possibility that God does not like you, God doesn’t want you, and in all likelihood God does not like you”. This explains Tyler’s reasoning for his rejection of God, based off the simple God-Father principle. In this speech Tyler makes to Jack he refers to them as “Gods unwanted children”. The members of Project Mayhem are then referenced this throughout the rest of the film. Tyler can also be seen as a critical allegorical reference to a Jesus or God like figure. Tyler announces the rules of Fight Club and later on the rules of Project Mayhem. Tyler’s word eventually becomes law around Project Mayhem; even as Jack demands information on Project Mayhem he is constantly reminded of the rule he made earlier “Do not talk about Project Mayhem”. The members of project Mayhem obey the narrator’s rules over his direct orders. This a reference to the many Judaeo-Christian religions around the world in which the members have accepted The
Testaments, The Torah, and the Qur’an or other various religious texts as being the final word of God and that God can no longer speak to the human race until the final day of judgement. Through the loss of power experienced by the narrator we can see a critical reflection on some of the major world religions.
Fight Club is one of my favourite films. I have spent countless days watching and re-watching the film. The film is tightly jam-packed full of issues of the world at large and to fully understand the extent and grip of the film, one must watch it more than once. Many critics have argued that Fight Club fails to get its point across because of contradictions, such as the fact that even though the Project Mayhem members wish to take down Capitalism they use the exact values it promotes to take it down. I think the critics are not being critical enough. I believe Fight Club is a film that explores the possibility of how capitalism will end; it shows how Capitalism will self-destruct itself. Also present in Fight Club are themes of masculinity and homosexuality which need to viewed through multiple perspectives to grasp the full context of the situation.
Works Cited
Fincher, D. (Director). (2002). Fight club [Motion picture]. USA: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Inside Out. (n.d.). Film Comment. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from http://www.filmcomment.com/article/inside-out-david-fincher