Fight Club (Film) by David Fincher Essay

This confronting movie casts the brilliant Edward Norton and the extremely popular Brad Pitt as they team together to bring the public one of the greatest suspense movies of all time. Norton plays Jack, a middle-aged man, who isn’t sure what his purpose for living is anymore and Pitt plays Tyler Durden, a soap salesman, who has come to the same realization about life. Directed by David Fincher, written for the screen by Jim Uhls, and based on the acclaimed novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club is a powerful film, which fuses the highly sensitive issues that haunt its frustrated and confused protagonist with the visual representations of his mental states. It all begins when Jack becomes so frustrated with his life that he just can’t take it any longer. For his entire life, the media has painted a glorious image of wealth for everyone and has made everyone believe that they would be rich and famous eventually, while in fact they weren’t. Flooding society with more useless products and making them slaves to their own needs’, Jack realizes that it is all just a joke. Under the realization of this, Jack searches for a way to find new excitement away from the material world. He starts to visit numerous support groups for cancer victims and other diseases. This is where he meets Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), a middle-aged woman who is also going through the same thing as he is. Together these seem to be the only places for them to find real emotions, and to be able to express their own emotions at the same time. One day while on an airplane, Jack meets Tyler Durden. While talking with Tyler, Jack notices that they have the same exact suitcase along with many other things in common. Tyler gives Jack his business card and tells him to call if he ever needs anything. When Jack returns home, he finds that his entire apartment has been blown to pieces. With nowhere to go, he takes out Tyler’s business card and proceeds to call him. Tyler comes to Jack’s rescue and the two begin living together in an old run-down house. One night outside a bar, confused in their frustration of the world, they begin hitting each other for the pure excitement and adrenaline rush. After much thinking, Tyler has made up his mind about society and has created his own beliefs. He opposes all material wealth and lives for the moment, unafraid of pain or death. Slowly he teaches Jack these traits as well, as they now begin to build â€Å"Fight Club,† an underground association where equally frustrated men can take out their emotions by fighting with one another. Soon many Fight Clubs spring up across the country and Tyler is hailed as a celebrity among the members. With Fight Club’s popularity increasing, Tyler’s plans become much bigger and he establishes â€Å"Project Mayhem,† his plan to destroy the material world. He recruits an army of equally powered men and goes on a spree to destroy all signs of materialism he sees. While watching the mayhem Tyler has created, Jack becomes disturbed by the idiocy of the followers and the violent acts they are committing. He wants to put an end to the insanity, but without Tyler he can’t stop it, and Tyler is nowhere to be found. With Tyler now missing, Jack begins travelling from city to city in search of Tyler. When asking people if they know Tyler Durden, he is given the same answer over and over: â€Å"Yes sir, you’re Tyler Durden.† Jack finally comes to the conclusion that he and Tyler are the same person. Tyler is simply a figment of Jack’s imagination. Tyler is everything that Jack wishes he could be. He looks how he wants to look. He acts how he wants to act. He is Tyler Durden. This movie combines great action sequences, romance, and suspense all rolled up into one. The great casting of Edward Norton and Brad Pitt give the movie just the right amount of masculinity it needs. How the composer creates meaning The composer creates a chilling setting, which is familiar and stereotypically American with its high-tech devices, also with fast and crisp movement of camera angles to show some extraordinary effects. The composer also used lighting to create meaning. The lab in which Jack was sitting down which we witness in the fast and crisp movement of camera shots, had very dark and dull colours. The music also rolled along to help create this setting, which is very important within the film. The director David Fincher utilizes a number of techniques to present his ideas of change. The film opens with voice-over from our lead character Jack, played by Edward Norton. He hasn’t slept in months and it’s beginning to take a toll on his sanity. He finally finds release from his troubles by going to support groups for people with various diseases – testicular cancer, bowel disease, etc. – where he finds freedom in pretending he’s a survivor, that he has nothing to lose. Thus, it also represents a new foundation as a result suggesting a change in Jack’s lifestyle. Through the character Jack the composer is also able to create meaning. Here we see that through zoom and close-up camera angles the composer shows a change in the behaviour of Jack. It becomes evident that after bearing in mind explosion of his apartment, he becomes astound and through the facial expressions we see that he is discontented. The smile that was witnessed prior to this terrible tragedy has mislaid as a consequence symbolizing a change in his attitude and his perception of the slight civilization. The composer also creates meaning, through the use of Jacks lifestyle. In this motion picture the main character Jack, changes his lifestyle through self-destruction rather than self-development. The composer has done this to show that there is more than one way to change, that change does not always have to occur in a positive way. This is one of the most important themes running through the movie. Fight Club; a movie about the change within one mans life, Jack, with the help of his ‘friend’ Tyler, who is actually a creation of Jacks mind. Jack breaks away from all of societies conventions and this leads to the many changes in his life. Jacks changes are made all the more significant through the use of colours. Before Jack’s ‘enlightenment’ all the colours used are dull blue-greys. The camera angles are narrow and focused. This creates a tone of monotony and boredom. Later, the scenes become brighter and colours are powerfully contrasted. Many of the scenes take place at night with neon lights in the background with contrast with the bright red leather jacket worn by Tyler throughout much of the film to create an exciting, almost surreal element to the scene. The camera angles become wider, reflecting Jack’s broader perspective of life. A further structural device used by David Fincher is to allude to Jack’s earlier life. One example is when he receives a phone-call from the detective looking into the explosion of his house. Jack responds to his questions by discussing how much the things in his apartment meant to him, how they were part of his identity. When the phone-call is over he says, â€Å"I would like to thank the academy.† From this statement, it is obvious that he looks back on his former lifestyle with contempt. From this film we can see how difficult it can be for one to move to another door of perception when everything around them reinforces the accepted view of the world. It is easy to accept everything that is occurring and live in denial without changing. Jack would not have been able to escape from the media induced, corporate driven life that he led if his brain had not created Tyler Durden. In Fight Club we see there are many reasons for people to choose not to change. The risk may seem too high. It might be hard work. There is a loss of the security a person has when he or she is in familiar territory where everything is known to them. Even when the opportunity stares at them right in their faces they refuse to take it. In the movie, we see Jack struggling at first with quitting his â€Å"ikea-guy† life but is soon able to boldly step away from the illusions that held him. Explanation of how the text links to both a text from the Stimulus Booklet and the play Away Clearly, change brings consequences. These consequences can vary in importance and significance; they can be beneficial, detrimental or even impartial. Change, its impact on self and the resulting consequences, which it inevitably brings, is an issue explored by many composers in a variety of texts. Change is the process of being made different. Change can be caused by anything such as time, birth, death, people and fighting†¦ The concept of changing self and its significance to the individual is explored in a number of texts including the play â€Å"Away† written by Michael Gow, â€Å"Sky High† by Hannah Roberts (BOS Changing) and the film Fight Club by David Fincher. All these texts symbolise change in a variety of ways. To show the consequences of change composers have used a number of techniques in terms of language, imagery, contrast and repetition. This film Fight Club deals with the approach in which we transform ourselves. In this film Jack transforms his standard of living through self-destruction to assertion self-development. The director David Fincher has fulfilled this to exemplify that the things we own, actually end up owing us. The change occurs when Tyler opens the door for him to amend. Unfortunately, Tyler becomes too powerful. This shows the rituals of both sides. Allusions is a structural device used by the director Fincher to contrast the Jack-then to the Jack-now, constantly making references to his earlier life presented at the beginning of the film. An example of this is when Jack is living in the dilapidated house he often receives calls from a Detective Stern from the arson unit, inquiring about his destroyed condo or feeding him information about it (the police suspect he did it to claim insurance). Jack often replies by talking about how much the things in his condo meant to him and how they were a part of his identity. When the phone-call is over he says; â€Å"I would like to thank the academy†. From this statement it is obvious that he looked back on himself with contempt. The director shows that the choices that one makes during his or her life, defines the changes that would occur to them in the future. When one looks back at the decisions that they had to make, the difference before the choice was made and after becomes quite obvious. Another aspect of change presented in the film is that change is often cyclic. As we make one decision, we are soon required to make further decisions and it is a never-ending cycle until the day we die. Therefore one never stops changing until their death. From this film we can see how complex it can be for one to move to another door of perception when everything around them reinforces the accepted view of the world. It is easy to accept everything that is occurring and live in denial without changing. Jack would not have been able to escape from the media induced, corporate driven life that he led if his brain had not created Tyler Durden. In link to ‘Sky High’ by Hannah Robert’s it demonstrates that responsibilities force a person to change, and that the change is not always optimistic, other than it has to be embraced for a character to established, and that although there is a change it is most undoubtedly not an end, but rather a progression. This text has contributed a great deal to my understanding of change. It helps us to see how difficult it can be to change ones lifestyle and to change their view of the world when it is reinforced as being the accepted view of the world that we must adhere to, and sometimes it requires something as drastic as an imagined person to change that view. The other thing it has contributed is that there are many reasons for a person not to change, risk, too hard work or the loss of security in their new life, but once that change is made, the person’s old lifestyle seems contemptibly inadequate. In â€Å"Sky High† by Hannah Roberts, it is not another person, which outlines a change in self of the persona, but an object (a clothesline) that triggers a memory from the persona’s youth. Personification of the clothesline, and it’s relation to the author’s own change in self since her youth, is one technique incorporated by Roberts. When describing her and the clothesline in the first two paragraphs, we are given the phrases â€Å"silver skeletal arms† and â€Å"smooth, sweat damp hands†. Comparing this to â€Å"age-warped washing line† and â€Å"hands, beginning to accumulate†¦wrinkles† one can see the dramatic realisation of the changed persona. Another representation of the changing influence of the clothesline is the descriptions of the hanging clothes. Where as in her youth the clothesline was â€Å"festooned with socks and knickers and shirts like coloured flags in a secret code†, Roberts now â€Å"write(s) my own semaphore secrets in colourful t-shirts and mismatched sock†. This suggests that as a child, the author thought that the clothes were hung out in â€Å"secret code†. Now as an adult she realises the ordinariness of the practice. The â€Å"semaphore secrets† that she writes as an adult expose to the reader the question if these are messages of unhappiness. The narrator utilizes an analogy to illustrate how responsibilities and social conventions limit a person’s ability to follow urges. The writer wants to ‘fly’ as she did when she was young, but she is concerned that the conventions of her modern life will not allow her to do so. Remembering the minute details of the garden develops a nostalgic mood. This is so as a person remembers details such as these if they treasure the memories Sky high has contributed to my understanding of change by showing that responsibilities force a person to change, and that the change is not always positive, but it has to be embraced for a character to mature, and that although there is a change it is most definitely not an end, but rather a process. On the surface ‘Away’ by Michael Gow, may possibly appear like a simple narrative about three families who take off for a holiday. People are shown as going away, being pulled away, being washed away, walking away and so on. What is also stressed however is the act of recurring, regrowth and renewal that results from their ‘away’ experience. Away presents the concept of change as self-recognition and renewal through the portrayal of the key characters who journey from fear, isolation and delusion to an understanding and acceptance of themselves and their relationships with others. Away is a short though direct play, which deals with many variations of change, each of which is a change of character or personality, which occurs as a realization as the events in the play, get through to them. A perfect example is Gwen, a middle-aged mother with the need to control. Her resistance to change is of an attitude as her family suddenly becomes separate in reaction to her behaviour. The family is on a holiday and what was meant to be enjoyable, becomes a conflict which causes her daughter Meg to isolate herself from her. Gwen depicts this resistance to change with the importance of it. Simply compare changing toothbrush to changing personality, which will have a resisting effect. Michael Gow’s play is very theatrical. While much of the dialogue is realistic, drawing on the idiom of the day, the storm and the appearance of the fairies break away from realism. Gow draws on the conventions of comedy and tragedy as the play moves from the comic to the tragic. Many of the characters appear as stereotypes found in comedy- the nagging wife, the henpecked husband, the pompous teacher, – but as the play progresses these stereotypes are abandoned as the characters are confronted by the need for change. They become individuals capable of change. The composer exploit Language to provides a precious impending into the intelligences of the protagonists. Gwen’s continuous and tedious use of clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s creates her the parody of a middle-class housewife with high-class aspirations. In the final act, mime plays a vital role. It is the explicit lack of language here that provides the audience with a perceptive of the high level of self-awareness and imminent that is now shared by the protagonists. Perhaps the two most significant characters in ‘Away’ who experiences the most profound changes are Gwen and Coral. * Gwen is one of the most momentous protagonists in the play. She changes from being a stress ridden control freak of a mother and wife to coming to an understanding of life and the fact that humans are not in control. The plainest demonstration of this is the storm, which trashes her perfectly planned holiday. Note that in the stage directions, the fairies single Gwen out for particular attention in the storm. Gwen experiences an epiphany during the walk with Vic, presumably in reaction to the news that Tom is dying. She returns from the walk a changed woman, and it is she who stands and applauds Coral as she ‘walks’ in ‘Strange on the Shore’. * Coral has lost her grip on reality. At the beginning she is a woman pervading grief at the death of her only son in the Vietnam War. In attempting to respond to her husband (Roy’s) plea that she behaves ‘normally’, she enters a relationship with a young recently married man named (Rick). She than adopts the persona of the artist on the beach, and it is Tom who recognises her as the headmaster’s wife. She achieves some kind of acceptance of life and loss through her performance in ‘The Stranger on the Shore’. (â€Å"I’m walking, I’m walking† represents a return to life). The ‘walking’ becomes symbolic of Coral’s return to reality, her final acceptance of the death of her son who died in Vietnam. Tom is responsible for her ‘healing’. He determines Coral’s role in the play. In Act 5 scene 1 we see her reconciled with her husband Roy. These changes are represented dramatically in the pl ay. Her situation in ‘Away’ is symbolized by her role in the little play- when she walks at the end, she is retuning to life where she belongs. Opening on the last day of the school year in 1967 and closing on the first day of the next school year, the play spans only a few short weeks in the lives of its characters and yet their perspectives and understandings have changed radically over that time. Possibly the character who experiences the most philosophical change is Gwen. Through the intensity of the emotional conflict she encounters, she has had to acknowledge the inevitability of change in life and has adjusted her expectations accordingly. This change of perception over time can be contrasted to the reminiscing of Hannah Robert, in her story â€Å"Sky High†, Text 3 in the Board of Studies ‘Changing Booklet’. Where the older narrator looks back on a lighter, less burdened childhood. The rewarding repercussions of confronting change and of living for the present have been highlighted by the texts I have studied which in turn delineate the integral nature of change in the lives of people and their relationships.