NHTV Breda

International Media and Entertainment Management

Study Year: 2007/08 – Block C

CO2 Movie Analysis

Lecturer: Robin Terwindt

A Film Analysis about “Fight Club”

Maria Pepelanova

ID: 071265

Class: 1ME-06b

Dario Zaeck

ID: 071570

Class: 1ME-06b

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 3

2. Narrative Structure ................................................................................................... 4

2.1 The Story ............................................................................................................ 4

2.2 Plot ..................................................................................................................... 5

2.3 Plot Structure...................................................................................................... 8

2.4 Conflict lines ...................................................................................................... 9

2.4.1 Illusion vs. Reality....................................................................................... 9

2.4.2 Order vs. Chaos / Human vs. Society........................................................ 10

2.4.3 Human vs. God / Religion......................................................................... 10

2.4.4 Past vs. Future ........................................................................................... 11

2.4.5 Culture vs. Nature ..................................................................................... 13

2.5 Conflict Triangles............................................................................................. 14

3 Characterisation....................................................................................................... 15

3.1 Jack................................................................................................................... 15

3.2 Tyler Durden .................................................................................................... 16

3.3 Marla ................................................................................................................ 16

3.4 Boss .................................................................................................................. 17

4.1 Editing .................................................................................................................. 18

4.1.1 Spatial coherence: 180°-system .................................................................... 18

4.1.2 Gimmick........................................................................................................ 18

4.1.3 Tyler’s appearances before Jack meets him.................................................. 19

4.2 Mise en scène ....................................................................................................... 23

5. Cultural Frame of Reference .................................................................................. 24

5.1 Director............................................................................................................. 24

5.2 Novel ................................................................................................................ 24

5.3 Film influences, parallels and references ......................................................... 26

5.4 Generation X .................................................................................................... 26

5.5 References to Historical Figures ...................................................................... 27

5.6 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde................................................................................... 28

5.7 Themes ............................................................................................................. 29

5.7.1 Lack of Meaning in Modern Life .............................................................. 29

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5.7.2 Selling and/or buying of identity............................................................... 30

5.7.3 Self-improvement versus self-destruction................................................. 32

6. Conclusion.............................................................................................................. 33

7. List of works cited.................................................................................................. 34

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1. Introduction

Simply by writing this report we are breaking the first two rules of Fight Club. If you

don’t know what we’re referring to, then you’ve been missing out on one of the best

films of the last decade.

Our task in writing this report is to analyse the 1999 film FIGHT CLUB directed by

David Fincher. Our analysis is roughly divided in three parts.

The first part deals with Fight Club's narrative structure, the conflict lines and its

characters, the second one with the cinematic apparatus and the third with its cultural

frame of reference.

We have viewed the film extensively and have furnished our comments and

conclusions with examples and quotes. The tools for this analysis have been given us

through two blocks of film analysis lectures at the International Media and

Entertainment Management course, as well as having been derived from a number of

printed and online sources. The sources that have been most relevant to us in our

research were Looking at Movies by Richard Barsam.....

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2. Narrative Structure

2.1 The Story

While the plot of Fight Club only covers a period of a number of months, the story in

fact covers a much longer period of time, citing events in the protagonist (we will

refer to him as Jack) ‘s life that shaped him into the character we meet at the

beginning of the film. It can therefore be said that its beginning is in Jack’s

childhood, when his father leaves the family and returns to his life only at decisive

stages, but proves unable to provide the answers to life that his son is looking for.

The story then leaps forward to Jack’s adult life, at an unnamed point in his late

twenties or early thirties. He has a job with a major car company, investigating car

accident sites. Despite having the job, apartment and lifestyle that are supposed to

make him happy, he feels dejected and unsatisfied with his life. After suffering from

insomnia for six months, he finds relief when he starts to attend support groups. The

genuine concern shown by the people there, and his ability to find release through

crying, allows him to sleep soundly again. This new balance is upset by the

appearance of Marla Singer, another imposter who attends the groups for her own

purposes. Her presence there reflects Jack’s own lie, and he begins to suffer from

insomnia again.

His continuing sleepless misery pushes him to create a split personality, called Tyler

Durden, who he “meets” at one of his business trip flights. After returning home to

find his apartment blown up, the protagonist calls Tyler and is invited to stay over at

his place, on the condition that they first have a fist fight. The fight seems to be a

new kind of therapy, and they continue doing it regularly, soon attracting many other

people. This eventually becomes an organised ‘fight club’ with its own rules and

branches across the country.

Jack is satisfied with his new life until one day Marla Singer reappears. She calls him

on the phone saying she overdosed on pills. Jack’s alter ego rescues her and develops

a sexual relationship with her. Under Tyler’s initiative, ‘Fight club’ evolves into a

highly-organised vandalist anti-capitalist organisation called ‘Project Mayhem’. Jack

begins to feel estranged from the new direction Tyler is taking the organisation in,

and feels deeply jealous of the relationship Marla has with Tyler. After having a fight

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with alter ego, Jack stops seeing him. When a project member, a friend of Jack’s

from one of the support groups, is shot on a mission, Jack is outraged at how

inhumane ‘Project Mayhem’ has become, and attempts to sabotage it. In his attempts

to do so, a participant reveals to him that he is in fact Tyler Durden – and the founder

himself.

Jack discovers plans of ‘Project Mayhem’ to blow up credit card company

headquarters, but no one pays attention to him at the police, where many officers are

also club members. In the end, he tries to diffuse the bombs in one of the buildings

himself, but in this futile race against his second self, is confronted by Tyler. Jack is

held at gun point by Tyler at the top floor of an adjacent building, but once he

realises that they both share the same body, he kills Tyler by shooting himself. At

this point ‘Mayhem’ members bring Marla to the same place, and are ordered by

Jack to leave them alone. Jack begins to reassure Marla that everything is alright,

while outside the windows the entire block of financial buildings collapses when the

bombs detonate, signalling the beginning of a ‘new era’.

2.2 Plot

The plot has a summary relationship to the events that unfold in the story, showing

us key moments in several months of the life of Jack - from the moment in which he

starts searching for a cure for his insomnia till the moment he kills his alter-ego

Tyler.

The main premise for the effectiveness of the plot is the withholding of information

from the spectator. The information that is concealed from the start is that Jack and

Tyler are in fact one and the same person. This makes the revelation towards the end

of the film a strong surprise moment for the viewer, who then tries to reassemble the

story information with the new discovery. Like THE SIXTH SENSE and THE

USUAL SUSPECTS, FIGHT CLUB is a highly successful experiment with plot

order. We as viewers are encouraged to watch the film again – this time paying close

attention to the details of the plot and putting the pieces of the puzzle together. The

puzzle is actually remarkably well-constructed, consistently portraying the responses

of the characters around the protagonist is such a way that they show their awareness

of Jack’s identity as Tyler, yet never give away this fact to the unsuspecting viewer.

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In fact, much of the pleasure of the film is derived from being shown the crucial

information right in the opening sequence of the film – which starts in the

protagonist’s brain – as well as in the opening line “I know this because Tyler knows

this”, but never realising its significance until the end. Details like Jack and Tyler

having the same suitcase, Tyler always knowing what Jack is thinking, Jack

demonstrating his solo-fighting skills in front of his boss, and Jack being able to

work night jobs because of his insomnia, are hints that create a build-up for the

revelation and make the twist credible.

Although the flow of the film sometimes appears to be a stream of consciousness of

the narrator, the plot is actually chronologically presented, except for a plot frame

that consists of the final gun point scene. The film thus begins and ends with the

same scene, though bringing it to conclusion the second time. The plot also makes

essential use of flashbacks, through which the protagonist relives parts of Tyler’s role

when he realises his split personality.

The plot makes use of repetition to establish the ringing telephone as a signifier that

a turning point or revelation is about to happen. We can see this at several points in

the film. The first is after Jack decides to call Tyler on the phone to ask him to stay at

his place – it is from this point that the two become more than ‘single-serving

friends’. Another is when Marla calls Jack during his idyllic phase of living together

with Tyler, to announce that she is attempting suicide. From this point on Jack’s

relationship with his house mate is strained by jealousy over a woman. Yet another

phone call reveals to the protagonist the extent of the permeation of Project Mayhem

into all levels of public life. Perhaps most importantly, Jack finally confirms his

suspicions about his identity by calling Marla on the telephone.

The plot also holds non-diegetic elements in addition to the story. Aside from the

opening and closing titles, an important feature for setting the atmosphere of the plot

is the musical score, created by the Dust Brothers. The producer duo created a post-

modernist soundtrack that includes drum loops, electronic scratches, and

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computerized samples because ‘Fincher wanted to break new ground with everything

about the movie, and a nontraditional score helped achieve that.’1

What holds the fabric of the film together is the off-screen first-person narration. It

is Jack that tells us his own story, and we can not only see but also hear his

weariness. On his odyssey from a lonely office worker to a carefree anarchist, his

voice shows how his point of view changes from despair to conviction to confusion

and rejection. Furthermore, it is this subjective narration that provides most of the

humour of the film, through Jack’s ironic and cynical descriptions of himself and the

people he interacts with. In the scenes where Tyler is shown working his night jobs,

the narrator even breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience directly.

This moment, as well as other diegetic and non-diegetic elements, define FIGHT

CLUB‘s self-awareness as a film. It reminds the viewers tongue in cheek that they

are watching a movie through such details as Tyler showing the “cigarette burns”

visible when a film reel is being changed in a cinema. Similarly, pornographic

frames edited into FIGHT CLUB itself never let the audience forget that it is also a

film that can be tampered with – like the “Little Mermaid” Tyler edits. Another

example is the use of flashback humour. When the film chronology catches up with

the scene shown in the point of attack, the protagonist says “I still don’t know what

to say”, which is an obvious reference that we’ve seen this before. However, rather

than break the suspension of disbelief, these references seem to create a sort of

unspoken bond with the audience, a self-irony, and a rebelliousness towards the

confines of the film’s own fictional nature. The message somehow seems to be that

even the conventions and the restrictions of the medium will not be abided by, that

all systems and rules can be mocked.

1 SCHURR, AMANDA, Score one for musicians turned film composers, in: Sarasota

Herald-Tribune, 1999-11-19

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2.3 Plot Structure

The inciting moment of the plot is 20 minutes after the beginning - the moment when

Jack meets Tyler. This catapults the story into action, as Tyler challenges all of

Jack’s perceptions about life and introduces him to a new way of living.

The key scene is in the 66th

minute – the second fight club scene. While it can be

argued that the first fight club gathering is the key scene, it is in the second gathering

that Tyler delivers the speech that ends with: ‘We've all been raised on television to

believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we

won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.’ His

words sound defining for the film’s spirit and message.

The turning point is 100 minutes into the film, when Project Mayhem member Bob

gets shot in the head. Although according to film theory the turning point should

upset an apparently re-established balance within the story, which isn’t the case with

this scene, the death of Bob can be considered the turning point as it pushes the

narrator from discontent apathy in the middle of Project Mayhem, to actively fighting

the movement that has spiralled out of control and into fascist dogma. Jack’s ensuing

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search for the truth and for the missing leader of the clubs marks his final break with

Tyler’s philosophy.

The climax is 6 minutes before the end, when Tyler threatens Jack with a gun on the

top floor of a building, which ends in Jack shooting himself in the head. Until the last

moment the audience does not know if Jack will survive, and also feels regret for the

death of Tyler – who despite everything remains an extremely likeable screen

character.

2.4 Conflict lines

Without a conflict there would be no story. Furthermore, Fight Club’s story criticizes

today’s society, especially in people’s way of working, buying, identifying and living

their life, to such an extent that there are several conflict lines in Fight Club.

2.4.1 Illusion vs. Reality

Illusion is a highly used image of Fight Club. The buying of identity and defining

oneself with materialistic objects is an illusion in itself and is only made up by the

consumers.

In fact, Jack identified himself through materialism as well as he experiences his

schizophrenia afterwards so that he jumps from one illusion right into the next.

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2.4.2 Order vs. Chaos / Human vs. Society

These two conflicts lines can be put together because they reflect each other.

“Chaos” stands symbolically for Project Mayhem and in other words: Everything

Jack and Taylor set up.

Even though Tyler is just the other part of Jack’s schizophrenia, the two together

with their nationwide-recruited Fight Club army, as humans, rebel and fight against

society, wanting to leave their mark on it and improve it, even if their methods are

radical, violent and, consequently, against the law.

Fight Club’s end is the chaos’ climax where the actions that were necessary in order

to realize Project Mayhem, are carried out. Although the film suggests that a new

world order is coming with the financial collapse, hence the Adam and Eve

reference, this is hardly to be considered seriously.

2.4.3 Human vs. God / Religion

While burning the Narrator's hand with lye, Tyler Durden says:

“Listen to me! You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He

never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that

can happen.”

Narrator: “It isn't?”

Tyler Durden: “We don't need him!”

The dialogue, above, indicates that Tyler, the Narrator’s other personality, is partial

to anti-God behaviour, which he always tries to teach Jack about. During the course

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of Fight Club, many other hints make reference to being against religious faith. (“We

are God’s unwanted children” and others.)

2.4.4 Past vs. Future

An important conflict line that is dealt within Fight Club and that is crucial to

understanding Jack’s character as a whole, especially his psychological problems, is

the conflict between his past and his future. Until the movie’s very last spoken line

David Fincher reveals secrets about him and gives the viewer the chance to deduce

what happens to Jack and, in this respect, Tyler as well.

Just when the destructive power of Project Mayhem is shown, Jack implies a clear

break with the events we have witnessed in the film, by saying to Marla:

“I'm sorry... you met me at a very strange time in my life.”

However, the conflict between Jack’s past and future does not only refer to his

psychological circumstances (i.e. – his insanity turning to realisation), but also to his

mental change. He shows progress concerning the overcoming of the loss of his

condo, thus changing from a capitalist to an anti-capitalist. Jack’s characteristics

represented the typical capitalistic behaviour in the western hemisphere. Meeting

Tyler, who is a complete anti-capitalist, Jack grows to be the same in the course of

the movie.

Therefore, in one scene Jack ponders whereas the viewers can hear his thoughts:

“I should have been looking for a new condo. I should have been haggling with my

insurance company. I should have been upset about my nice, neat, flaming little shit.

But I wasn't.”

In addition to that Jack illustrates in self-explanatory words what happened to him:

“Look, nobody takes this more seriously than me. That condo was my life, okay? I

loved every stick of furniture in that place. That was not just a bunch of stuff that got

destroyed, it was ME!”

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Additionally, the course of the story uncovers information about the Narrator’s past

with regard to his parents, their life and the fact that his dad left when he was six

years old. Then, he married another woman, had kids with her and the circle started

all over again. Every six years, he went to a new city and started a new family.

In this respect, it looks like the Narrator’s father always was very unhappy and lived

an unfulfilled life.

Concluding the above, firstly, David Fincher included another example, perhaps

unnoticed, within the story, which totally underlines Tyler’s theory about the

depressed, sorrowful and dysphoric men.

Secondly, it might be a hint for the possibility that Jack’s psychological problems

may be formed in early childhood.

Nevertheless, it is a fact that Jack’s current psychological confusion is based on his

past very much. On the one hand, there is Jack’s life and the way he used to live and,

on the other hand, there are the memories of his childhood. Until now he just did not

realize how he experienced and how he suffered in the bygone times of being a child.

Due to his Jack’s unsolved past and his fear about the future he occasionally thinks

about it:

“Except for their humping, Tyler and Marla were never in the same room. My

parents pulled this exact same act for years.”

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2.4.5 Culture vs. Nature

The Fight Club movement founded by Jack and Tyler and the organisation of Project

Mayhem is the movie’s symbol for nature. They fight and rebel against the system,

against society and therewith against culture. All the values and norms that

internalize mainstream culture are refused and rejected by the Fight Club. Their

thoughts and opinions stand up against the culture’s capitalistic behaviour. The

frustrated nation of men participating in Fight Club cannot identify with the cultural

hegemony of today. They feel lost and misunderstood. All their life, while growing

up they have been told that they will achieve something, that they can move the

world with the jobs they will have. The system has overshadowed their lives from the

very beginning.

The most conclusive quote in Fight Club which reflects the confrontation of culture

versus nature, is the one where Tyler Durden and all the other Fight Club members

are down in the basement and he says:

“Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all

this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping

gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and

clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle

children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great

Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives.

We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires,

and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact.

And we're very, very pissed off.”

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2.5 Conflict Triangles

The film centres around the narrator – so he is definitely the protagonist. His main

conflict can be considered to be with “the system”, represented in the film by Jack’s

boss. In this conflict, Tyler is Jack’s teacher and helper, showing him new

perspectives in life and encouraging him to be ever more radical. In this triangle

Marla occupies the centre as the wanted person.

On the other hand, we can clearly see a conflict in the film between Jack and Tyler,

which is in a way an internal conflict as they are both the same person. Jack stands

for being respectable, hard-working, obedient to one’s place in society, and

successful; while Tyler stands for being free, careless, real, and scorning society’s

expectations. In this conflict, Marla is the helper that helps Jack realise who he is and

what he wants, and it is out of concern for her safety that he opposes Project

Mayhem so strongly at the end of the film.

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3 Characterisation

3.1 Jack

“You met me at a very strange time in my life”

The protagonist of the film and the nameless narrator we refer to as Jack, is a young

professional who spends his days working a job he hates and his nights devouring

mail order catalogues in order to buy himself the perfect life, all the while enduring

severe insomnia. It is suggested that it is from early childhood that he begins to feel a

disappointment with authority and dissatisfaction with the values of society, as

represented by his father. He feels alienated from the system, finding an almost

compulsive need to meet society’s demands and indulging in consumerism, while

simultaneously remaining unfulfilled.

The emptiness Jack feels inside is symbolized in the film by the icy cave that

represents his inner world when he meditates. This is combined with a desperate

desire for something real, anything real that will break the bleakness and banality of

his yuppie life. His frustration and his need for emotional stimulus in a barren

modern world are expressed in sporadic fantasies of destruction – from fictional

plane crashes to mauling the face of a handsome young man.

The reason that support groups initially help Jack sleep is that they offer emotional

release. He is able to cry and is listened to genuinely – “When people think you are

dying, they really, really listen to you instead of just waiting for their turn to speak.”

Because of the hardship they are going through, the group members are honest and

intense in their interactions in a way that is completely absent in the alienated

relationships in the rest of society.

Jack starts of as a man striving for success and self-perfection, as is expected of him

by society. He minds his health by not smoking, wears clean, ironed suits with a tie,

cleans his condo obsessively and brushes his teeth devotedly. However, in the course

of his relationship with Tyler, this changes. As he embraces the concept of self-

destruction, he begins to smoke, to neglect his appearance, and to ignore all kinds of

public opinion of him. However, as soon as he feels threatened – such as during

Marla’s affair with Tyler – he slips back to grooming and cleaning as a psychological

attempt to regain control of a situation he feels insecure in.

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Jack is a round character, because he is a complex and three-dimensional figure,

possessing differing and often contradictory traits.

3.2 Tyler Durden

‘All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck

like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the

ways that you are not.’

Handsome, eccentric, rebellious, confident - Tyler was indeed born out of all the

unfulfilled wishes of the narrator. In popular culture perceptions of schizophrenia (at

times disputed by actual medicine), whenever a psychologically unstable person

faces a situation they cannot face, they invent a double personality to handle it for

them. Typically, this personality is bold, aggressive and outspoken. Similarly, Tyler

represents a way for Jack to break free from his cocoon and do all the things he could

never imagine himself doing, such as saying socially inappropriate responses in a

conversation (‘What do you do for a living?/ ‘Why? So you can pretend you are

interested?’).

Tyler is mainly defined through his opposition to things. He is anti-consumerism,

anti-society, anti-self-improvement, anti-compliance, anti-mass-culture, anti-God.

His character is so reactionary that he might at times be taken as a flat character.

When Tyler transforms the fight clubs into a revolutionary army, the protagonist only

half-accepts this, as this brings an aspect of fascism and callousness that go beyond

the borders of the quest for happiness.

3.3 Marla

“Somehow, I realize all of this – the gun, the bombs, the revolution -- is really about

Marla Singer.”

Chain-smoking femme fatale Marla both attracts and repulses Jack. The conflict

between Jack’s desire for Marla and his hatred of her actually pushes him to create

Tyler, once she takes away his relief from the therapy groups. In a way, she acts as

the woman that brings discord, as she ‘ruins’ Jack’s peace whenever she appears –

whether in the support groups or the home he shares with Tyler. She is a round

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character in that she is simultaneously the ultimate cynic and nihilist, but also a

romantic – hoping for a loving relationship with Jack.

3.4 Boss

‘It must've been Tuesday. He was wearing his cornflower-blue tie.’

Jack’s boss is a flat, minor character. His main purpose in the film is to represent the

system – which Jack initially secretly despises, but conforms to (as evidenced by his

putting up with his boss’ orders), while later ignores (hardly hearing his boss at all)

and finally completely overpowers with aggressive behaviour (when he blackmails

his boss into giving him a salary without ever having to work again).

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4.1 Editing

4.1.1 Spatial coherence: 180°-system

The scene where Tyler pours lye on Jack’s hand, stands exemplary for the spatial

coherence and its use of the 180° degree rule.

In all the scene’s frames, the 180°-axis is never crossed so that the viewer’s

viewpoint on the occurrence is always from the A-side. Even at the time when Jack’s

struggle with the chemical burn gets more hectic, the viewer’s point of view stays on

the same side.

Therewith, the purpose of the 180°-system is the consistency of Jack and Tyler,

regarding their positions within the frame, the their eye lines, its match and the

consistency of the screen direction during the whole in order to have a logical

continuity.

4.1.2 Gimmick

Frame 195973/200194 - Time: 02:16:13.707/02:19:09.799

There is a penis that lasts for three frames which should allude to Tyler’s job in the

cinema.

Frame 47270/200194 - Time: 00:32:51.678/02:19:09.799

As an addition to the previous gimmick a cigarette burn has been added in upper

right hand corner which occurs by switching the film roles.

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4.1.3 Tyler’s appearances before Jack meets him

There are a couple of appearances of Tyler before Jack meets him in the airplane and

he is introduced to the viewer. As a proof that with creating Fight Club, the director,

David Fincher, kept to the commercial narrative structure, Tyler’s appearances

happen in the movie’s Set up (Act 1) which takes place in the film’s first 20 minutes.

Tyler’s first flash appearance occurs in the fourth and the last one in the 19th

minute.

Attentive viewers might already realize in the Set up that Tyler is a part of the

Narrator’s imagination because it is noticeable that Tyler only appears where the

Narrator’s eyes look.

This theory can be applied for every premature appearance of Tyler but the fifth one

on the airport. Tough, as a contrast to the other scenes, Tyler appears as a real person

in that scene whereas the other ones are flashes.

In fact, Tyler’s appearances are perceived unconscientiously by Jack but still they

picturize Jack’s upcoming schizophrenia for the viewer.

Frame 5894/200194 - Time: 00:04:05.828/02:19:09.799

The first time Tyler appears in Fight Club and moreover, obviously, to the Narrator

is when he is in the Office, standing in front of the copier and suffering from

insomnia. Tyler flashes on the screen’s left whereas he has a quite bewildered faces.

Jack’s schizophrenia begins here.

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Frame: 9063/200194 - Time: 00:06:18.002/02:19:09.799

Some minutes ago, the doctor refuses to give the Narrator medicine against his

insomnia whereas the Narrator complains about his decision and begs him for mercy.

If he wants to see real pain, he should swing by First Methodist Tuesday nights and

see the guys with testicular cancer, the doctor replies, and retorts: "That's pain".

Precisely at the time the doctor says “pain” it is the second time the Narrator sees

Tyler. He stands smiling behind the doctor’s left shoulder and looks very self-

confident. It can be assumed that at this point Tyler laughs about him because in the

first place the Narrator does not receive any medicine and in the second place Tyler

knows he is going to break into the Narrator’s life.

Frame 10861/200194 - Time: 00:07:32.994/02:19:09.799

In the following scene takes place in the support group the doctor advised the

Narrator to drop by. In the frame Tyler flashes, he has his left arm around the

lecturer, glasses on and stands with poise right next to him.

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Frame 18114/200194 - Time: 00:12:35.504/02:19:09.799

Tyler’s fourth flash occurs right after Jack’s visit at another support group. This

example serves good for clarifying that it’s Jack who sees Tyler in his mind.

Tyler comes accurately into view in what direction Jack’s line of sight is.

Frame 208351-28461/200194 - Time: 00:19:42.472-00:19:47.060/02:19:09.799

Right at the moment when Jack is on the airport and asks himself if he could wake up

as a different person if he wakes up at a different time in a different place Tyler

walks by behind Jack.

In this scene Tyler’s act of coming into view is still mysteriously but the first one

where Tyler appears as a visible character, even although he is in the scene’s

background.

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Frame 29187-29133/200194 time: 00:20:17.341-00:20:19.259/02:19:09.799

The fifth and last appearance of Tyler, before he meets Jack in the airplane on his

return trip, happens during the period Jack watches TV in a hotel. Jack switches it on

whereby the hotel’s TV commercial is automatically played.

Tyler is the waiter on in the bottem right of the TV screen.

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4.2 Mise en scène

Fight Club’s set up in terms of the mise en scene helps creating atmosphere, brining

and supporting the director’s intention and message.

On the one hand, it is exagerrated contrast with a hyper-real design and degrading

with Tyler and on the other hand, there is flourescent lighting bland and which is

realistic without Tyler.

Desaturated colours and mostly night-time form the image and appearance of Fight

Club. During the whole movie, the setting is torn-down and deconstructive with Dim

Yellow Lighting.

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5. Cultural Frame of Reference

5.1 Director

David Fincher began his career doing special effects for Richard Marquand’s

RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983) and Steven Spielberg’s INDIANA JONES AND

THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984), later doing music videos for artists like Madonna

and the Rolling Stones. He went on to direct SE7EN (1995), PANIC ROOM (2002)

and ZODIAC (2007) aside from FIGHT CLUB (1999).

The film Se7en shares with Fight Club the appearance of Brad Pitt in a leading role,

while all of Fincher’s films offer a pessimistic view of the human condition, through

dark, stylish design. Even though he is a Hollywood director, he is a real auteur and

realises a vision in each of his movies. 2

5.2 Novel

Fight Club was adapted from the novel of the same name, written in 1996 by Chuck

Palahniuk. The screenplay was very faithfully adapted from the book, with an

amazing amount of lines directly quoting it, and the characters completely faithful to

the original. The only difference is the ending, from the point where Jack realises he

has invented Tyler. In the book, Project Mayhem attempts to destroy the national

museum by bombing the office skyscraper next to it, and Tyler intends to die as a

martyr inside the office building. Jack is held at gunpoint by Tyler at the roof of the

building, but his aggressor disappears the moment Marla walks in with support group

members, as “Tyler was [Jack’s] hallucination, not hers”.3 The bombs expected to

detonate do not do so, as Tyler has gotten the mixture wrong. Clear-headed for the

first time, the narrator shoots himself in the head, only to awake in a mental

institution. There, infiltrated members of Project Mayhem inform him that their

operations still continue and that everyone awaits the return of Tyler. In this sense,

the novel’s ending is much more pessimistic, and never lets Tyler disappear

completely, unlike the film. What David Fincher thought about this difference was

that he felt novel too obsessed with Tyler Durden and so he changed the film’s finale

2 DIXON, W. W., Film Talk- Directors at Work, (New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London: Rutgers

University Press: 2007) 3 PALAHNIUK, CHUCK, Fight Club, (W. W. Norton & Company: 1996)

25

to let him go - "I wanted people to love Tyler, but I also wanted them to be o.k. with

his vanquishing." 4

Chuck Palahniuk was delighted at the accurate screen adaptation of his book. In an

interview he even said that he was “sort of embarrassed of the book, because the

movie had streamlined the plot and made it so much more effective and made

connections that [he] had never thought to make”.5

What is important to mention from a cultural point of view, is that most of the events

in the film are actually based on the author’s real life experiences. He goes as far as

to say that “Everything [in the movie was based on real things] except the clubs

themselves.”5

The inspiration for the film came from a particularly heavy fight

Palahniuk had at a camping trip, after which the Monday at work he discovered that

no one would look at his battered face or question him about it. This gave him the

thought that ‘that if you looked bad enough, you could do anything because nobody

will ever call you on it.’ The author frequently got involved in fights afterwards,

provoking them in bars and public places, mentioning that the exhilaration and

exhaustion of physical fights allowed him to sleep remarkably well afterwards (in

which we can see a parallel to Jack).6

The support groups in the film are recreated from the author’s experience as a

volunteer in a hospital, where he escorted terminally ill people to the groups and sat

with them for the duration. He recounts a feeling of guilt at being the only healthy

person there, and the idea came to him of someone who could actually fake a disease

just to access the intimacy and sincerity of the groups as a sort of emotional

catharsis.

Project Mayhem was based on the Portland Cacophony Society, which Chuck was a

member of. The activities of the society involve costumed pranks in public places

and quirky stunts, all meant to be guerrilla resistance towards cultural hegemony.

Meanwhile, antics like Tyler’s fooling with the five-star restaurant food, and quotes

like ‘We are the all singing all dancing crap of the universe’, were drawn directly

from Palahniuk’s friends and acquaintances.5

4 WISE, DAMON, Menace II Society, (Empire Magazine, December 1999)

5 A DVD Talk Interview, Interview With Fight Club Author Chuck Palahniuk, 2008

http://www.dvdtalk.com/fightclub.html, 28 March 2008 6 MORTON, MERRICK, Playboy.com - Arts & Entertainment -The Playboy.comversation - Chuck

Palahniuk, (20th Century Fox)

http://www.playboy.com/arts-entertainment/dotcomversation/palahniuk/07.html, 26 March 2008

26

The significance of the fact that the film’s roots lie in the author’s reality rather than

his imagination is that the themes of the film are thus less radical and far-fetched

than it may seem. Rather, they are a reflection of a part of society that already thinks

and feels this way. We are therefore closer to justifying a description of FIGHT

CLUB as a wake-up call for a disenchanted youth at a loss for meaningful values in a

commercialised world.

5.3 Film influences, parallels and references

David Fincher and actor Edward Norton have compared FIGHT CLUB to THE

GRADUATE (1967) and REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955). 7 In a sense, both

films were iconic for their respective generation, and tapped into the pulse of the

frustration the youth was experiencing at the time. Thematically speaking, the films

each featured a young man that does not have well-defined aims in life and feels lost

in his stage of life – whether high school or graduation from college. Edward Norton

also felt the end of FIGHT CLUB to be parallel to that of THE GRADUATE. He

says of the latter, ‘You don't know what [the protagonist] has accomplished exactly,

but you get the sense that he's reached some kind of middle ground between his old

self and this side of himself that he's been battling.’ This sounds very much like

resolution of Fincher’s film, where the narrator has grown to share many of Tyler

Durden’s qualities, but has defeated him in the final battle with himself.

When Jack refers to the ‘50s’ American sit-com ‘OZZIE AND HARRIET, he is

referring to the fact that his life with Tyler was so blissful that it was like the perfect

American family portrayed in the series.

FIGHT CLUB has been compared to Kubrick’s CLOCKWORK ORANGE, in

thematic relevance and also the tendency to be misunderstood. The film

BEAUTIFUL MIND also features a protagonist that is schizophrenic.

5.4 Generation X

Generation X is a term popularized in the nineties. It refers to the generation after the

Post-WWII baby boomers, also called the “baby bust generation”. The Baby

7 TEASDALL, B., Edward Norton Fights His Way to the Top, 2008

http://www.reel.com/reel.asp?node=features/interviews/norton, 20 March 2008

27

Boomers had been marked by a mentality of openness and prosperity, they were the

rock and roll generation. They had freed themselves from society's oppressive views

at Woodstock and had smoked their weed, until finally they settled down. Between

1964 and the 1980s, Generation X was born. The generation had little interest in

religion, turned away from their parents and established their own values. They

listened to punk music, with lyrics of general abandonment and rage against “the

establishment”. Generation X had trouble finding an enemy to fight, and so it seemed

everyone became the enemy.

Chuck Palahniuk, was himself born in 1964. Arguably, he's within the X Generation.

At any rate, it is apparent that there are great similarities between the themes in Fight

Club and the mentality of Generation X. The ‘Space Monkeys’ in the film want to let

go of the obsession with money, status and success, just like the disenchanted Gen

X-ers. They share the same socio-cultural background of divorced parents, distrust in

the government, birth control availability, mass media advertising and deeply-rooted

cynicism.

5.5 References to Historical Figures

Interspersed in the film are scenes where Tyler and Jack discuss important

personalities which they would like to fight. Their list starts with the authority

figures in their lives – the boss and the father – but goes on to include famous figures

such as : Gandhi (Indian politician and world-famous pacifist), Lincoln (American

president), Hemmingway (American writer), William Shatner (American actor : Star

Trek). One interpretation of this discussion could be that the two men would like to

rebel against their inherited culture as a whole – which for them encompasses

American literature, film and politics. The addition of Gandhi to the list could be

ironic, as he was the main world activist against violence. On the other hand, fighting

in the film stands for connection with other people and true feeling, rather than its

usual sense of violence and opposition. Therefore, the desire to fight these

individuals might be the wishful desire to get to know them on a personal, close

level, perhaps because the duo admire them.

28

5.6 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

“Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was a novella written by Robert Louis

Stevenson and published in 1886. The story tells of a British doctor by the name of

Henry Jekyll who goes on to discover a chemical potion that can separate the good

and evil inherent in all men into two separate personalities. In the end, his evil self -

acting by the name of Mr. Hyde - takes over and his malicious deeds can only be

stopped through suicide.

Treating the concept of the struggle between good and evil inside a man’s heart in an

allegorical way, and portraying vividly the phenomenon of a split personality, the

characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have become a classic element of popular

culture. In everyday use “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is used to refer to a person who

acts inconsistently and distinctly from one situation to the next.

This is certainly the way the narrator of Fight Club would have appeared to the

people around him, as his stepping in and out of Tyler’s personality would have

made for some very strange and confusing behaviour patterns on his part. At a point

in the film, Marla actually makes this direct comparison, telling Jack that he is ‘Dr.

Jekyll and Mr. Jackass’. Also, the idea of good and evil being embodied by each half

of the split personality is interesting to interpret in the context of the film. Jack and

Tyler are polar opposites, in that the former represents pacifism, the desire for self-

improvement and a concern for others, while the latter represents violence, self-

destruction and a recklessness that holds no regard for life, friendship or love.

It is interesting to note that the only escape from Tyler is similar to the demise of

Hyde – through suicide. In the case of the film however, the suicide is mostly

symbolical, as the narrator survives. In the end of the story he rejects the radical

outlook of Tyler and finds a balance by settling half way between his two personas –

still Jack, but greatly changed through his relationship with his eccentric and unruly

alter ego.

29

5.7 Themes

At first glance, Fight Club asserts some very primitive themes of anarchy in its plot.

It might be perceived to promote violence and civic disobedience for their own sake.

It sports a long list of subversive messages and terrorist dogma, and seems to find in

Tyler Durden its knight in shining armour - a man who is devoid of feelings of duty,

and who is free to the point of lacking human attachments. But beneath the layer of

humour and violence, the viewer cannot escape a more powerful feeling that what

the film really portrays is a deep sense of being lost existentially.

5.7.1 Lack of Meaning in Modern Life

Tyler tells us that the men of our time have no real wars to fight, and that our war is a

spiritual war. The people that are drawn to Fight Club are not criminals, nor are they

castaways. They are normal people, living normal every-day jobs, may even have a

wife and kids at home. But they are all unsatisfied, and feel turned down or neglected

by the system. They have spent their lives striving to get what everyone tells them

they are supposed to have. They are but consumers, yet materialism has failed to

make them truly happy. Their world is one where advertising dictates their goals and

corporations set the rules. The heartlessness of the corporate world is exposed in the

scene where Jack investigates a car crash at his job, later explaining the company

policy: ‘The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we

initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable

rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times

C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.’

In an inhumane system where they are but cogs, in a society obsessed with lifestyle

and overachievement, in relationships that are alienated – modern man is left helpless

and apathic.

Fight Club offers an answer. The answer is letting go. The answer is stripping the

brands off your body, stripping the social roles and expectations, putting away even

your identity – which the men do when taking off their clothes before starting a fight.

The answer is letting go of words and goals and fears – which the men do during the

fight. The answer is accepting that pain and death are inevitable – which the men do

when they end a fight feeling reborn. Overcoming the fear of pain and death holds

30

the deeper meaning that to experience life fully, in a real, meaningful way, one has to

embrace its imperfection, its transience and its ability to hurt you.

Tyler tries to teach this philosophy to Jack throughout the film, through statements

like: ‘Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be

complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... let’s evolve.’, ‘You are not special. You

are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as

everything else.’ Especially significant is the intense scene where Tyler burns Jack’s

hand with lye to teach him a lesson: ‘Stop [struggling]. This is your pain – your

burning hand. It's right here. Look at it. [..] First, you have to know that someday

you are going to die. Until you know that, you will be useless.’

5.7.2 Selling and/or buying of identity

One of Fight Club’s most famous and significant quotes is the following where, in

the film’s beginning, Jack says:

“I would flip through catalogs and wonder, "What kind of dining set defines me as a

person?" We used to read pornography. Now it was the Horchow Collection.“

In fact pornography, which in this quote stands for everyone’s basic need, exists for

the purpose of sexual arousal and sexual relief. It is a substitute essentially for sex

and is based on the 'Physiological needs' described by Abraham Harold Maslow in

his 'Maslow pyramid'. Therefore, pornography has its function in satisfaction of one's

sexual urge which is a fundamental basis in life.

In contrast to that Jack expresses that at the present time it is the 'Horchow

Collection' which has replaced pornography to satisfy one's needs. The latter is a

tremendous offence against the human instinct of self preservation and moreover

against the basics of humanity. Every human has the impulse to fulfil his primary

needs. It can not be exchanged with the purchase of unique furniture, lighting, decor

for every room, a valuable stereo or wardrobe. Luxury linens with a free monogram

for bed, bath, and tabletop, unique dinner sets or flatware do not make us happy.

31

Arriving at his hometown’s airport from his business trip, Jack’s baggage has been

displaced and in his thoughts, he sorrows:

“I had everything in that bag. My C.K. shirts... my D.K.N.Y. shoes...”

Even though, his loss only concerns inanimate objects, Jack is so very

materialistically-orientated that he grieves over them. His mourning increases when

he hears about his exploded condo.

In the film, Tayler Durden says: “The things you own, they end up owning you.” His

point can clearly be seen in the face of Jack – who has misdirected his efforts in life

from a spiritual struggle for self-actualisation, to the search and purchase of perfect

household furnishing. Tyler goes on to say that the true values in society are replaced

by an obsession with external facades and performance: ‘We're consumers. We are

by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't

concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500

channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.’

32

5.7.3 Self-improvement versus self-destruction

Before Jack develops insomnia and schizophrenia, he has a decent life. He has a well

paid job, a beautiful condo that defines him as a person. Self-improvement

determined his life. On that score, he started to tidy up his condo when he felt

frustrated or when he did not know how to spend his time in another useful way.

Marla is the movie’s true manifestation of self-destruction. She crosses the street

without looking out for cars, smokes, tries to commit suicide, does not have a job,

and steals clothes.

Tyler Durden: “Self improvement is masturbation. Now self destruction...”

During the course of the movie, Jack started to see his life differently. He distances

himself from self-improvement and starts adapting Tyler’s way of living. Through

the eyes of Tyler the answer to self-improvement is self-destruction. “Stop being

complete” and “Stop being perfect” are his complains towards society.

From Tyler’s point of view, the release from self-improvement leads to being free

and not afraid of death and pain.

33

6. Conclusion

Even though Fight Club addresses issues that are very predominant in our society

today, David Fincher was able to carry out these matters on screen with a great

devotion to black humour. 8 Aside from having a unique production design and a

decadent urban atmosphere, the movie is equipped with a variety of stylistic devices,

especially with the clever use of irony. If the viewer understands Fight Club and

furthermore that Jack has schizophrenia, then a lot of scenes seem blunt in a comical

kind of way, because the viewer notices what happens and moreover what the scenes

reflect. 9

Violent, controversial, thrilling, darkly comic; these are but some of the words that

can, and have been, used to describe Fight Club. Its exhilarating, genre-busting mix

of drama, action, satire and psychological thriller breathed new life into mainstream

cinema upon its release, and successfully proved that Hollywood can indeed make

great, original films after all. David Fincher’s direction is flawless, the acting is

universally excellent and the script will undoubtedly make an impact on you quite

unlike any other film you’ve ever seen.

8 CONARD, M. T., The Philosophy of Film Noir, (The University Press of Kentucky: 2006)

9 DIXON, W. W., Film Talk- Directors at Work, (New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London:Rutgers

University Press: 2007)

34

7. List of works cited

BARSAM, R. and GOCSIK, R., Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film:

Multimedia Package with Writing about Movies Booklet, Two DVDs and Access to

Looking at Movies Online, (Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.: 2006)

SCHURR, AMANDA, Score one for musicians turned film composers, in: Sarasota

Herald-Tribune, 1999-11-19

WISE, DAMON, Menace II Society, (Empire Magazine, December 1999)

A DVD Talk Interview, Interview With Fight Club Author Chuck Palahniuk, 2008

http://www.dvdtalk.com/fightclub.html, 28 March 2008

MORTON, MERRICK, Playboy.com - Arts & Entertainment -The

Playboy.comversation - Chuck Palahniuk, (20th Century Fox)

http://www.playboy.com/arts-entertainment/dotcomversation/palahniuk/07.html, 26

March 2008

DIXON, W. W., Film Talk- Directors at Work, (New Brunswick, New Jersey, and

London: Rutgers University Press: 2007)

PALAHNIUK, CHUCK, Fight Club, (W. W. Norton & Company: 1996)

TEASDALL, B., Edward Norton Fights His Way to the Top, 2008

http://www.reel.com/reel.asp?node=features/interviews/norton, 20 March 2008

CONARD, M. T., The Philosophy of Film Noir, (Kentucky: The University Press of

Kentucky: 2006)

BORDWELL, D. and THOMPSON, K., Film Art: An Introduction – Seventh

Edition, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004)

35

PRINCE, S., Movies and Meaning – An Introduction to Film – Third Edition,

(Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004)

NELMES, J., An Introduction to Film Studies – Third Edition, (New York:

Routledge, 2004)