Nov 30 2008
Fight Club: A cult classic
“Gentlemen, welcome to Fight Club”
And when it is Brad Pitt saying it, you better listen.
To call ‘Fight Club’ a sexy and a bold masterpiece would be like confining it to limits. It is much more than that. You have to be completely involved with the characters to enjoy this one. It is a pure cult classic.
Movie is about an insurance agent Jack (played brilliantly by Edward Norton) who is an insomniac and is leading a dead boring life.
His job, his business trips, the brands that he uses, in short the whole material possession that defines him and his mundane life becomes dead and boring.
The movie is a narration by Jack. He narrates it without any complaints or any criticism. It is a simple narration with no emotions involved. And that actually help us to know how darned bored he is with his life. The materialism of everything causes him to do something that can make him feel that he is alive.
He thinks he is the most miserable person on the earth. His doctor advises him to go to testicular cancer group if he wants to see what real pain means. And that’s how his addiction of going to the support group and finding a solace there, begins. To find some sort of excitement and to feel that he is ‘alive’, he visits the support groups of cancer, alcoholism, testicular cancers etc. Looking at sad depressed people in these groups, he thinks that he is happier compared to them. However, he again starts feeling uncomfortable when he encounters a girl called Marla Singer who is faker like him. Now instead of getting peaceful sleep, he gets nightmares of Marla Singer.
Jack wonders, “if you wake up at different time, in a different place , could you wake up as a different person.?” And this is where his life takes an interesting turn. He meets Tyler Durden on plane. Jack finds Tyler ( a soap maker by profession) very interesting. Tyler looks cocky, mean and selfish and ‘alive’.
When Jack reaches home, he finds that his condo has been blown by an explosion. He finds himself calling Tyler durden and meets him in a bar. After some insightful talk, Tyler says that Jack can live with him on one condition.
Tyler: I want you to hit me as hard as you can
Jack: What? Why?
Tyler; How much can you know about yourself if you have never been I fight. Just like that. Hit me..
Jack: Where?
Tyler : Surprise me
And Jack hits him on the ear. That’s where the movie really starts. They start hitting each other. The perfect background music gives rhythm to the fight. From this point on, the movie captures you completely.
Tyler’s home is a deserted building with nothing working around. It is dirty, shabby with everything malfunctioning and everything as ugly as it could be. Jack gets shelter and enjoys the ugly lifestyle they live, enjoys the conversations and the fights that they conduct.
Slowly and steadily, the number of fight club members increase. Rules are set, they are declared and the clubs form throughout the city. The movie takes a look at the raw, violent, primal male mind. Along with the underground development of the fight clubs, Tyler starts a group Mayhem whose task is to destroy the corporate world, the big brands, their office , shops and products.
Aim is to show them that they don’t own people and they do not define the world. The ‘soldiers’ are trained, selected and prepared for the nocturnal activities. They start a rampage of destruction, all involving the destruction of brands and their display shops, cars, antennas and everything that can lead to a luxury or show that this makes you feel wealthy. And all these activities are just watched and enjoyed by Jack. He does not participate actively.
Things start going wrong for Jack when his close friend Bob dies in one of the police shootouts when they were trying to explode a company. He asks for explanation and everyone says that they are not supposed to answer that as one of the rules set by Tyler was not to talk about fight club.
This upsets Jack and he starts looking for Tyler. He goes to every place, every hotel and every other city where he thinks he has visited with Tyler. But instead of getting any information about him, he just gets a mum response. How he finds Tyler finally and what happens between them is a juice of the movie.
Movie is an absolute brilliant look at the male mind, its rawness, the inclination for wild behavior and the neuro-association with violence as pleasure. The graphics in the beginning show the nervous system. And when you watch the whole movie, you realize how appropriate they are to this movie. The fights shown are deliberate. They are fights for the sake of fight, no personal rivalry, no relationship with the other, a fight taken just to let out the frustration and anger, a fight to make you primal and alive, a fight to bring you out of the social hypnotism and remind you that you are still an animal and only that can give you satisfaction. It is taken as a need of the body to feel alive.
The external things become dead. As Tyler declares, “They make you feel dead. The things that you own end up owning you.” So fight to know what you are.
Brad Pitt is a pure visual treat. And more so as his looks are raw. Watch him declaring the rules to the group of men and flashing ‘attitude’. Edward Norton has done a fantastic job. His body language is brilliant and his facial expressions are just amazing. Marla Singer, is one other interesting character played by Helena Carter.
It’s better if you see this one on DVD or laptop, with no commercial breaks. The movie handles a subject of surrealism with great finesse. Surrealism has a profound sense and David Fincher has been successful in handling the subject with great expertise. This is a man who knows how to treat the scripts that dive in your mind and question the set beliefs. The movie is nothing but a picture of how a mind wants to be wild and primal. What can one do if one is taken out of the social mannerism and social set ups? Watch this one if you want to know what a great script and a great director can do to a complicated subject like surrealism. A pure art it is.
