Fight Club:
Review
"Fight Club" is one of the most intriguing, controversial, stylish, powerful - and best - movies of the 1990's. When I first saw it, I was blown away by its sheer energy, by the performances, its black and rotten humour and its amazing visual perfection. Since then, I've seen it another five times [we're talking January 2001] and finally feel able to write an extended review with spoilers. You can find my old review (in German) by clicking here.
It's difficult to exactly nail what "Fight Club" wants to tell the viewer. For some, it's a cry for personal freedom, even anarchism. For some it's a critique of consumerism or capitalism. For others it's a satire on western society in general. And then again, it's just a film about males, boxing the shit out of each other to exhale all the frustration and limitation, and enjoy the sheer emotion of being alive.
It's about so much and still it's presented in such an easy-going way. It's a dark movie, don't be fooled, but the story is presented in a comedic approach via a laconic voice-over brilliantly done by Edward Norton. Norton gives a wonderful performance as the nameless narrator (mosty referred to as Jack). After his powerhouse portrail of a skinhead in "American History X", it's amazing seeing him as the tied-up loser, somehow looking feeble and pale, constantly suffering from insomnia and other sicknesses. His state of being demands for a counterpart, so he invents a alter-ego. The ideal man. The guy who looks like he wants to look, acts like he wants to act and fucks like he wants to fuck - who'd be better in portraying that illusion than Brad Pitt?
Pitt has always been one of my favorite actors and it annoys me that after almost every movie he does, reviewers try to argue that now he wants to go serious and get away from the pretty-boy image. Well, in almost half of his films he doesn't portray a heartthrob - just take "Kalifornia", "True Romance", "Seven" (well, he is gorgeous there), "Twelve Monkeys" or "Snatch". That easily measures up with "Legends of the Fall", "Meet Joe Black" or "Thelma and Louise". To get back to the topic, Pitt has an extreme aura as Tyler Durden. He commands every scene he's in, his body is pure energy and power in the fight scenes, his freaky monologues and ideas nail the topic of the movie without losing their ironic edge. He has the less demanding role of just being cool, sexy and kinetic, whereas Norton, who plays the exact opposite, has the slightly harder job and does it equally well. Behind the two leads, there are some wonderful performances by Meat Loaf, Jared Leto or Helena Bonham-Carter. The latter is famous for her roles in boring costume dramas and it really comes as a shock when we hear her say "I haven't been fucked like this since grade school". Well, ok, everybody would be floating on some sort of euphoric drug after being fucked by Brad Pitt ... or Edward Norton, well... whoever it actually is.
The director, of
course, is David Fincher, the highly highly talented genius behind "Seven",
"The Game"
and "Alien 3". His visual style is unique, always dark and gothic. Always flashy - and
Fight Club is his masterpiece in that account. Its story might be not as straightforward
as the one of "Seven" (as of now his second-best work) but the style just carries you away - from the
masterful opening sequence to the end. Fincher uses a couple of really cool ideas
-Voice over. Done a lot, but seldomly this well. Norton comments the scenes, explains - and makes fun of characters etc. It's just great.
-Backjumps: Within the movie, the film sometimes
just stops for Pitt / Norton to explain something. Like this: Picture stops - "let me
tell you something about Tyler Durden".
-Freaky inserts: we see Brad Pitt for just one frame
about 4 times in the movie. Blink and miss. Same for a penis by the way.
-Special Effects. Some neat effects like a penguin,
collapsing buildings, the interior of a brain, a plane crash - and Ed Norton inside an
Ikea-catalogue.
The list goes on. His camera is never resting,
there's always action within the frame. It's amazing.
Also, Fincher tells a lot in one movie. It's probably some sort of three-act-piece with the first one being Norton and his fight against insomnia and his addiction to the support groups. The second, being the longest, the start of "Fight Club" and preparation for Project Mayhem. The third (and probably weakest) act starts with Brad Pitts disappearence and Project Mayhem actually happening. Within that, there's a lot: There's the conclusion, that most people didn't forsee, there's the whole Marla-story, there's homo-eroticism, anarchism, fighting, philosophy - I could go on, there's so much. Let's focus on something I haven't yet: the violence.
No doubt about it: The film is very violent. Some of the violence is comic-style, some is in-your-face - enhanced with sound effects, some is controversial since it's not discussed or dealt with. It's just there. But the violence has its place here. It's a story, after all, about men who are stuck in a world where they cannot breathe and have to express their arousing emotions by fighting each other. Notice that the fights are done in some sort of friendly fashion, however brutal they are. Those men have agreed to rules in order to kick the shit out of each other. It's not violence commited against an innocent, it's violence amongst friends, a sport, if you like - it just happens to be a brutal one. Other violence is there to purely shock, like the death of Meat Loaf's character or the mutilation of Jared Letos' face. I'd say that the violence is definitely not the point to discredit "Fight Club". There are other points, like condemning style and fashion-driven lives while using style and fasion to tell the story. Something in that direction (I do not agree though) - but the violence has to be here. "Fight Club" without violence wouldn't make sense. Those men couldn't play chess to expose their caged souls, could they?
Now, what really is Finchers masterstroke is to put irony into the civilisation-fed-men-have-to-fight-in-order-to-express-their-emotions-theme, because at its heart, "Fight Club" is primarily a double edged satire. Just take Tyler's wisdoms throughout the movie. Example: "Self-improvement is masturbation" he utters while looking like an Greek God! What does this tell us? Either that Tylor masturbates a hell of a lot or (more likely) that Tyler's messages cannot be taken serious. Look at them, they all sound good and simple - but by making them so quotable and easy to agree with, Fincher is making fun of them and the people who start to live by the Tyler-rules. Fincher mocks people who take Tyler's words as a religion! So the whole second part, where people do excactly that (make philosophy and politics out of Tyler's words), looks completely different if you view it with that perspective in mind: Fincher makes fun of those space monkeys as he mocks the viewers who don't get the themes of the movie. Satire at its best - and most clever. In a way, "Fight Club" works in three stages, and some not all vieewers get the highest "enlightment" from it:
I) Fight Club rocks.
The fights are bloody and energetic, the acting is great, the sex hot, the speed
amazing.
II) Fight Club is a satire. It attacks the IKEA-world we live in, the
advertisement-driven consumerism, the lack of love, emotion and life.
III) Fight Club mocks those who believe in point number II, meaning it mocks those who take
Tyler's words literally and think, a fight club or Project Mayhem or anarchy is
the answer to anything. Those who do will eventually become space monkeys and
follow some charismatic leader like Tyler. Or Hitler. Or some evangelic priest
who promises salvation. Those who do believe that they are instrumentalized (by
elites, by corporations) are
being instrumentalized again by those who promise to de-instrumentalize them.
It's satire on satire and in the end makes it hard to really know what Fincher
or author Chuck Palahniuk really believe in. I'd say, it's basically this: Live life and
think for yourself.
Finally, I want to discuss certain points very very briefly.
Music: Hits it right there. The Dust Brothers made a very fitting, energetic score.
Performances: All great. Norton being best, followed by Pitt, Carter and Meat Loaf. All
great.
Camera: Very inventive. Great visual style. Grabs you by the balls and never lets go.
Brad Pitt: I have to mention him again. He's great in "Fight Club", perhaps even
better than in his Oscar-nominated role in 12 Monkeys and it's a shame this
performance didn't get more recognition.
That was my second review of "Fight Club" for now. Perhaps I'll add more later. We'll see. If you want to read my old review - check it out right here. It's in German.