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9.2/10
FilmFascination Rating
Fight Club is the type of movie- you either love it or hate it. Fight Club is directed by David Fincher and is based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film starts with the unnamed narrator (Edward Norton) telling us about his dully life of empty fondness for material things. “I flipped through catalogs and wondered: What kind of dining set defines me as a person” he says. He has been driven to the edge of sanity by his white-collar job and is suffering from insomnia. “When you have insomnia, you’re never really asleep and you’re never really awake”.
The only relief he finds is in going to meetings of different self-groups for problems he does not have. May it be alcoholism or testicular cancer. He goes there just to cry and let go of his emotions, for people start to be more attentive when their time on the planet is known to them. He finally seems to have a solution to his insomnia problem until Marla Singer, another imposter starts attending these meetings. Once again he is cursed with insomnia and his encounter with another ‘faker’ ruins everything. The graphics of the movie with phenomenal editing are quite successful in giving you the actual experience of what it would actually feel to be an insomniac.
He describes her as “the little scratch on the roof of your mouth that would heal if only you could stop tonguing it — but you can’t”. Eventually while traveling for one of his business trips he meets a handsome and charismatic soap salesman, Tyler Durden played with immense masculinity by Brad Pitt. His conversation impresses the narrator. It depicts the life he always wanted to live- true freedom from consumerism.
The narrator returns home to find out that an explosion occurred at his apartment and the only person whom he could ask for help was Tyler Durden. He takes him in only on one condition – “hit him as hard as you can”. Slowly this interaction blossoms into a Fight Club. The narrator now no longer needs those shitty interactions with people who are dying. In fact, the Fight Club is the only place where he feels more alive than ever. Tyler brands Ed Norton’s arm with a “kiss” mark in acid, laying down a riff about how it is only in pain that you can forget about the fatuity of God and become yourself. This underground club slowly turns into a secret society.
From then after the movie is completely testosterone-fueled. There is no better way of saying it, the movie is fucked up in a hypnotizing way. The cinematography, camera angles, visual effects and especially the amazing narration by Ed Norton make sure you are always pulled into the film. Fincher finally finds subject matter audacious enough to suit his lightning-fast visual sophistication and puts that style to stunningly effective use. Fincher said Fight Club was a coming of age film but for the people in their 30s.
Something in me kind of gets excited everytime I watch this movie. You get that kick whenever you start it. According to Durden, Fight Club is all about freeing yourself from the shackles of modern life, which imprisons and emasculates men. Be what you want to be. We’re so concerned with failure and success- like these two things are all that’s going to sum you up at the end. Fighting strips away the ‘fear of pain’ and ‘reliance on material signifiers of their self-worth’, leaving the people to experience something valuable.
I am holding back so bad from not giving any spoilers right now. The fight club in a way is a cinematic masterpiece. Some of the things, the tricks used in the film, might be theory from a film institute but it is still very effective and unique. Fight Club is not an ordinary movie. A fact it proves within a few minutes of runtime.
But still Fight Club was ranked as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of the 1990s. The film later grew to be a cult classic. The reason behind it is simple- it was just way ahead of its time.
One of my favourites scenes is when Tyler puts a gun on a shopkeeper’s head and asks him what he really wanted to be in life. He threatens him that if he does not become what he wanted to be in 6 months he would hunt him down. While the shopkeeper sobs and runs for his life Tyler says,” Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hessel’s life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.” Cause ‘Losing all hope is freedom’. You must have noticed, I am quoting a lot of lines from the movie but I just can’t help it. I have so many favorite lines from the movie.
But I am still pretty sure that many people are going to hate the movie, thinking that some of it does not make any sense. But the thing is, everything does not have to make sense all the time. I agree the movie gets so twisted sometimes especially the end that you are thinking- Am I seeing what I’m seeing, and if I am, what the hell can it mean? In all the nasty, underground, blood dripping fights I am afraid that the majority viewers will forget to look at the bigger picture of what the film truly means.
One of the comments by a critic which best describes the movie states,” The movie is a telling point about the bestial nature of man and what can happen when the numbing effects of day-to-day drudgery cause people to go a little crazy.”
People need to understand there is no right or wrong in the movie that has to be determined on the basis of which you decide if it is a good movie or not. It is plane depiction of men shackled by the constraints put on them by modern society. Is the movie giving any solution to this. Probably not. But is there anything you can anything you can take from the movie? For sure if you see through the distractions Fincher has created.
~I hope Tyler will excuse me for breaking the first rule.
Favourite Quotes
Tyler Durden: The things you own end up owning you.
Narrator: I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.
Tyler Durden: It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.
Narrator: When you have insomnia, you’re never really asleep… and you’re never really awake.
Narrator: When people think you’re dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just…
Marla Singer: – instead of just waiting for their turn to speak?
Tyler Durden: We’re a generation of men raised by women. I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer we need.
Tyler Durden: Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let… lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.
Narrator: A guy who came to Fight Club for the first time, his ass was a wad of cookie dough. After a few weeks, he was carved out of wood.
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