Fight Club (15 October 1999)
directed by David Fincher
starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf Aday, Zach Grenier, David Andrews, Thom Gossom Jr., Jared Leto, Lauren Sanchez
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MPAA rating: Studio: Art Linson Productions, Fox 2000 Pictures, Regency Enterprises, Taurus Films Script: Jim Uhls Based on the book by: Chuck Palahniuk Music: John King, Michael Simpson Running time: 139 minutes Tags: Drama; explosives; multiple personality disorder; novel adaptation; soap; terrorism Tactical strength: [6/10]
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for disturbing and graphic depiction of violent anti-social behavior, sexuality and language
In spite of the adage that a picture's worth a thousand words, usually when you hear people talking about movies adapted from novels, you hear statements like, "Oh, yeah, I liked the movie, but the book is better." Rarely, a movie comes along that captures the essence of a book so well, that it outshines the book. For me Fight Club the book had some interesting and unique plot ideas, but the execution bored me to death. Fight Club the movie takes the characters and the essential plot points from the novel and streamlines them into a cohesive, well-paced, and interesting movie.
The movie starts with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) holding a gun in the mouth of the narrator (Edward Norton). The narrator, who remains nameless throughout, decides we need to have some background material to understand the situation, and we flash back to just before the narrator met Tyler. The narrator describes how he met Tyler, how he came to live with Tyler, and how he and Tyler started Fight Club. In Fight Club, two men face off in a bare knuckles fistfight that lasts "as long as it takes." Tyler uses Fight Club to recruit members for Project Mayhem, a group that promotes social terrorism, such as urinating in the soup at benefit dinners attended by the rich and famous.
The narrator suffers from severe insomnia, and he found that he can get relief by visiting therapy groups for survivors of severe illnesses, such as testicular cancer and brain parasites. The narrator, in spite of not having any of the illnesses, could allow himself to cry at these meetings, and the release of crying allowed him to sleep. This process works so well for the narrator, until Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) starts showing up at all the same groups. Her presence prevents the narrator from crying and brings back his insomnia, so the narrator works out a deal with Marla to attend alternate groups. This seems to work until Tyler starts sleeping with Marla.
Tyler escalates his Project Mayhem activities and has recruits move in to his house. This army of black-clad mercenaries executes various acts of local terrorism, such as painting a smiley face on a local business building and setting fires in the appropriate offices to make the eyes of the face. Such acts of anarchy escalate back to the opening scene with Tyler holding a gun in the narrator's mouth, where the narrator has gone to another business building trying to stop Tyler's latest plan.
The real problems with Fight Club lie not in the execution, but with the morals espoused. The principle actors do an excellent job portraying the emotions of down-and-out characters looking for a change through either their own death or catharsis through the destruction of property. The movie plays to the adolescent desire to resolve all conflicts with fist fights, intimidation, and explosions. Tyler riles up his troops with rhetoric denouncing the middle-class ideals sold to the populace through television. At times, he talks about a process much like a phoenix, where you have to hit rock bottom in order to rise from the ashes. He also talks about his ideals of hunting deer through Rockefeller plaza or climbing the Sears tower by climbing the vines growing up the exterior. I certainly can understand dissatisfaction with middle-class life, but I really would rather sit in my middle-class air-conditioned home than living out of a tent and having to hunt deer for a living. So Fight Club makes itself appealing by catering to the crowd that likes violence, but itself argues against the lifestyle of the majority that it draws in to view.
--- S p o i l e r A l e r t ---
The movie changes the ending from the book. In the movie, we have the dramatic ending with all the buildings targeted by Project Mayhem blowing up and taking our principle cast along with the blast. In the book, the narrator has spilled his guts to the police, and the police manage to avert the destruction. Now I have to admit that watching ten buildings explode makes a much more dramatic ending than having the narrator arrested and confined to a psychiatric facility, but changing the ending also changes the message of the entire film. In the book, all the narrator's efforts come to naught. The police foil his big plans, and he doesn't even die from the gunshot wound to his own head. By showing an unsuccessful narrator, the book invalidates the motives and methods he used to propagate his belief system. The movie does kill off the narrator, but by allowing his plans to succeed, the movie validates his message and makes him a martyr. I find this shift in the ending unsatisfactory since I just don't agree that the narrator should win anything but receiving the treatment he deserves.
Related Review
Fight Club written by Chuck Palahniuk
