Review of Fight Club (1999) by Thomas B — 30 Jan 2015

"The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club." .

When one of my friends gave me a synopsis of this film, they told me that it's about these guys who fight each other underground and there's a big twist. What they left out was the fact that, after watching this film, you can never look at the world the same way again. Everything seems different. People seem more transparent, nightmares don't seem as scary, the very fabric of the universe seems a little bit less overwhelming. .

Ok, I may be exaggerating on that last one, but seriously. This film will blow your mind then come back and make brain soup inside your skull, it's that life changing. From the opening credits, with a rough, dirty song from The Dust Brothers and a CG tracking shot starting from a brain neuron and ending on the gun jammed inside Edward Norton's mouth, the atmosphere is one of slight bewilderment. Everything is just a little different from the norm. Our main character is in a dressing gown and boxers and the unseen antagonist is talking cryptically with the narrator tells us about the difficulty with talking while a gun is stuck between your lips. .

And that's just the start. .

From there, the film goes backwards, back to Bob's 'bitch tits.' The fact that the viewer is always aware of where the film is going to means that everything is viewed differently. Friendships are questioned and motives are analysed from the get-go. This keeps the audience on edge the entire time, even though they know the ending. But no matter how much analysing you do, you're gonna get smacked in the face by the twist. Unless you've been told about it already by some fool who didn't pay attention to the first rule. .

The violence in this is fantastically apalling. Whether it's punching someone in the ear or slamming someone's face into the ground, every single punch is felt, thanks to Fincher's incredible direction, utilising cringeworthy slo-mos and even more cringeworthy close-ups, with every detail highlighted by the perfect lighting. This, coupled with Norton's almost bored narration, makes for a very involved, very disturbing experience. The foley artist, too, deserves a mention. The sounds during the fights, like two steaks smacking together, heightens the experience to even greater levels. .

Performance-wise, everyone is pitch perfect in this, whether it's Norton's bleak fascination or Brad Pitt's all-kowing persona, or even Helena Bonham Carter's disengaged psycho-babble, they are spot on, on all counts. The stand out is, of course, Pitt's Tyler Durden, a revolutionary deviant whose personality is almost as stunning as his philosophies and a character who has been talked about since his initiation. He really is a revelation. His joking moments give way almost instantaneously to furious anger or deadly seriousness, a very dangerous individual. He is played stunningly by Brad Pitt who has a complete grasp of the character he is playing. Nothing that Tyler does surprises him, he knows exactly what to do in each scene. It is a towering performance. .

However, the performances, brilliant one-and-all, play second fiddle to the movie itself, more specifically the ideas and philosophies imbedded in it. The theory that consumerism is killing every one of us, that we are losing touch with reality is, in itself, confronting. But Fight Club goes beyond the initial diagnosis, it presents a cure; destruction. It presents destruction as the key to being alive, not perfect, but in touch with one's self, more alive than one could ever be through the needless consumption of goods or the endless improvement of one's apartment. The fighting is a way to return to a state long forgotten; the primal man, where only survival is important and sofa units are the refuge of the weak. .

Sounds daunting? It is. .

After Fight Club, it is physically impossible to go back to the way you were. You will be changed, if only a little. Unless you are too dull to see the actual message of the film of course. .

Defining Scene: .

Tough call between the chemical burn and Tyler Durden negotiating the keeping of their fight basement with Lou.