Confessions of a Film Junkie: A Review of “Fight Club”
By: Brian Cotnoir
Every man has two key moments in their life; their life before seeing “Fight Club” and their life after seeing “Fight Club”. Fight Club is not just a great film, but also it has led people to make radical changes to their lifestyles, and has a cult-like following. My life and my perspectives of it have changed so much since seeing this truly amazing movie. “Fight Club” was the first novel written by author Chuck Palahniuk in 1996 and it was made into a film in three years later by Fox Studios.
The synopsis of “Fight Club” is the following; the main character in the story is a nameless Narrator, played by Edward Norton, who is a lonely and depressed insomniac working for a Major Automotive Company. The Narrator’s job requires him to travel around the country frequently in order to fill out accident reports and inform his company if they need to make a major recall on one of their vehicles or not. One day the Narrator meets a man named Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, and his life changes forever. Tyler is a Soap salesmen and he takes in the Narrator after his apartment mysteriously explodes. The Narrator and Tyler quickly become good friends and eventually they start “Fight Club”, and illegal underground fight ring, where “hardworking-everymen” take out all of their frustrations and anger out in Fight Club. There are only 8 Rules to Fight Club and Tyler expects everyone to follow every one of those rules. Over time Fight Club grows into another one of Tyler’s projects, a project he calls “Project Mayhem”. Soon the secret of “Project Mayhem” moves into the house where the Narrator and Tyler live and everyone seems to know what’s going on everyone except the Narrator. Then one day the Narrator makes a startling discovery that rocks his world and it’s up to him to try and stop Tyler Durden and his “Project Mayhem”.
One thing that really appeals to me about “Fight Club” is that it is a wonderful black satire and I have a theory that everyone can relate their life to “Fight Club”. You see the “Narrator” is us; we spend our whole lives working jobs we don’t want to make money for stuff we don’t need because the belief that the corporations have instilled in our brain. “Tyler Durden” is everyone’s secret fantasy avatar; he looks the way you wish you looked, he talks the way you wish you talked, he even fucks the way you wish you fucked (though everyone has a different name and different idea of what their Tyler Durden-avatar is like). Then you have “Marla”; that one person in your life that ruins everything. Every time something goes wrong in your life you often associate or blame that person for it because you truly believe that “Marla” is responsible. Finally you have “Bob”. We all know a “Bob”; that one person that makes you say “OK no matter how bad my life gets at least it can’t get worst than Bob’s life”, which is also sad because “Bob” aspires to be just like you, even though you really don’t want “Bob” to be like you and wish they’d stop trying to be like you.
“Fight Club” has astounding visual effects and a wonderful story to go along with it. I know my life has changed so much since seeing this film. I’ve never looked at a bar of soap the same way since seeing it, and every time I sit in a movie theatre and I see the little “cigarette burns” at the top of the screen I pray that the projectionist has spliced in a single scene of pornography just like Tyler Durden did. Director David Fincher did a fantastic job making this movie, I simply cannot praise him enough for the wonderful job he did making this film. I especially like the subliminal Brad Pitt’s in the beginning of the film. My only complaint I have with this film is the ending. I must say that after reading the book, I like the ending in the book better than the movie, and I wish that Jim Uhls would have kept the ending from the book in his screen play. I won’t tell you what the ending in the book is, that you’re going to have to find out for yourself.
The synopsis of “Fight Club” is the following; the main character in the story is a nameless Narrator, played by Edward Norton, who is a lonely and depressed insomniac working for a Major Automotive Company. The Narrator’s job requires him to travel around the country frequently in order to fill out accident reports and inform his company if they need to make a major recall on one of their vehicles or not. One day the Narrator meets a man named Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, and his life changes forever. Tyler is a Soap salesmen and he takes in the Narrator after his apartment mysteriously explodes. The Narrator and Tyler quickly become good friends and eventually they start “Fight Club”, and illegal underground fight ring, where “hardworking-everymen” take out all of their frustrations and anger out in Fight Club. There are only 8 Rules to Fight Club and Tyler expects everyone to follow every one of those rules. Over time Fight Club grows into another one of Tyler’s projects, a project he calls “Project Mayhem”. Soon the secret of “Project Mayhem” moves into the house where the Narrator and Tyler live and everyone seems to know what’s going on everyone except the Narrator. Then one day the Narrator makes a startling discovery that rocks his world and it’s up to him to try and stop Tyler Durden and his “Project Mayhem”.
One thing that really appeals to me about “Fight Club” is that it is a wonderful black satire and I have a theory that everyone can relate their life to “Fight Club”. You see the “Narrator” is us; we spend our whole lives working jobs we don’t want to make money for stuff we don’t need because the belief that the corporations have instilled in our brain. “Tyler Durden” is everyone’s secret fantasy avatar; he looks the way you wish you looked, he talks the way you wish you talked, he even fucks the way you wish you fucked (though everyone has a different name and different idea of what their Tyler Durden-avatar is like). Then you have “Marla”; that one person in your life that ruins everything. Every time something goes wrong in your life you often associate or blame that person for it because you truly believe that “Marla” is responsible. Finally you have “Bob”. We all know a “Bob”; that one person that makes you say “OK no matter how bad my life gets at least it can’t get worst than Bob’s life”, which is also sad because “Bob” aspires to be just like you, even though you really don’t want “Bob” to be like you and wish they’d stop trying to be like you.
“Fight Club” has astounding visual effects and a wonderful story to go along with it. I know my life has changed so much since seeing this film. I’ve never looked at a bar of soap the same way since seeing it, and every time I sit in a movie theatre and I see the little “cigarette burns” at the top of the screen I pray that the projectionist has spliced in a single scene of pornography just like Tyler Durden did. Director David Fincher did a fantastic job making this movie, I simply cannot praise him enough for the wonderful job he did making this film. I especially like the subliminal Brad Pitt’s in the beginning of the film. My only complaint I have with this film is the ending. I must say that after reading the book, I like the ending in the book better than the movie, and I wish that Jim Uhls would have kept the ending from the book in his screen play. I won’t tell you what the ending in the book is, that you’re going to have to find out for yourself.
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