Fight Club was not a commercial success when it came out, but it became a huge cult hit as soon as it was available for home release. It is a dark, humorous satire with a lot of disturbing scenes. In 1999 (theatrical release) and 2000 (video release) it really seemed to have tapped into something in the American psyche – people were talking about it everywhere. Does it hold up as film all these years later? I think it does, and I don’t think it has become any less relevant.
The Set-up
The Narrator (Ed Norton) works a white-collar job and lives in a nice high rise apartment. But something is missing from his life. He fills his apartment with furniture from the IKEA catalog. He can’t sleep at night and stays awake watching late night TV. He goes to a doctor who refuses to prescribe him anything. The doctor tells the Narrator to look in on a support group of people who are really suffering.
The Narrator goes to a support group and everyone assumes he has the same affliction they have. The support group makes him feel better, he goes home and sleeps that night. He begins attending multiple support groups. But then Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) appears. Like him, she is a faker at the groups. He wants her to leave because he can’t feel better when there’s another faker around. They agree to split up the groups.
Later, during a business flight the narrator meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a man with an interesting viewpoint on life. Returning from his flight he discovers that there was an explosion in his apartment. Not knowing where to go he calls Tyler.
He meets Tyler at a bar and Tyler agrees that the Narrator can stay with him. But Tyler has a condition – that he and the Narrator fight first. Neither has been in a fight before, and how much can one person know about himself if he’s never been in a fight?
Their fight attracts a crowd, and eventually turns into Fight Club. At the Fight Club men meet at night to fight each other. The Narrator sees it as his therapy. Tyler sees it as a way to fight back against the system.
The Narrator ends up living with Tyler. Fight Club gets bigger and bigger and turns into the anarchist group/cult Project Mayhem. Marla meets Tyler and they begin sleeping together. The Narrator and Tyler become more and more intertwined and the Narrator’s life gets more and more out of control.
There is a big twist about three-fourths of the way through the movie. The first time you watch the movie it is a real surprise but on subsequent viewings it seems like it was obvious all along.
Why It’s Great
This is such a complex film. It can be interpreted in so many ways. You could talk for hours about it as a Jungian or Freudian exploration of basic archetypes. Or you could debate it as a criticism of modern consumer culture or as a commentary on the loss of traditional masculinity in the modern world. Theories have been written on it as a critique of Fascism. The dangers of the cult of personality is another major theme.
There are so many different ways that it could be looked at. But it’s also not simple. Its philosophy should not’t be viewed like the philosophy of the Dead Poets Society or a John Hughes movie. Tyler Durden claims to be anti-materialist yet he sells soap to department stores at exorbitant prices. Tyler and the Narrator claim that women are necessary but Marla is their only meaningful social outlet. Tyler claims to be against the system but he relies on the system to set up his cult.
It is not just a metaphor, it is thoroughly engrossing as a movie. As the Narrator tells his story you are along for the ride the whole way. You always want to know what happens next.
Despite the darkness of the subject matter there is a lot of humor, mostly through funny exchanges. Brad Pitt and Ed Norton have great chemistry together. It almost feels like a twisted romantic-comedy at times.
The supporting cast is great as well. Bob (Meat Loaf) is a support group member and a Fight Club member and is intensely likable. Jared Leto has a small part and does not’t do too much or too little with it. This is probably my favorite Helena Bonham Carter role. She’s a weirdo and a symbol, but also a real person.
It is a rare movie that is both slickly entertaining and about something deeper at the same time.
Would I recommend this movie to everyone? Absolutely not. The violence is shockingly realistic at times. If you’re easily offended by violence or jokes in bad taste I would not’t recommend against it
This movie was made before Columbine and 9/11. There are a few scenes that parallel those real life events in some ways. While necessary for the story of the movie, those scenes leave a bad taste in the mouth.
If you are not’t easily offended and are a fan of dark satire, you should see this movie. It’s one of the most interesting movies of my lifetime.