The movie Fight Club is a movie which is quite deserving of all our attention.
Of course, you've got to be able to deal with brutal, bloody violence and disturbing,
often disgusting, jokes and events, but it's more than worth your while.
The basic plot is as follows: A man (Edward Norton, whose character also narrates)
has been spending a fair portion of the past little bit of his life not sleeping. Things
are becoming distorted for him in his real life. When he says to his doctor that he
wants the pain to stop, doc has this to say to him: "...the testicular cancer support
group.... Now that's pain." Our sleepless protagonist does, and what he finds is that
he is finally able to let himself loose. He is able to cry and, more importantly, he
is able to sleep. Before long he is attending all of the support groups at the local
church on a nightly basis. It becomes "an addiction", but one that allows him to sleep.
As he says himself: "Babies don't sleep this well."
Enter Marla (Helena Bonham Carter). As with our protagonist, she attends these support groups and yet there
is nothing wrong with her. Her reason, we find out later, is that "she figures she
could die any minute." Her presence illuminates his lie (I paraphrase the narrative,
but this is pretty much what is said in the movie) and so the magic of the support
groups is shattered.
Enter Tyler (Brad Pitt), a charismatic, intriguing character who dresses much like a
pimp or a crack-addict on vacation in Hawaii. He sells soap for a living (soap made
from the discarded human fat from lyposuction clinics). He also works as a projectionist
(splicing bits of pornographic movies into children's films) and as a waiter/chef at a
restaurant (where he urinates--among other things--in the food). Norton's character is
intrigued by Tyler, and once Norton's apartment blows up, it is Tyler he calls. When Norton
asks to stay at Tyler's place until he can find a place of his own (he is goaded into
asking by Tyler--he can tell it's what Norton wants to ask), Tyler accepts quickly... with
one precondition: "I want you to hit me as hard as you can." After some deliberation,
Norton does so... and Pitt's Tyler hits back. ("That hurt. Hit me again," quoth Norton).
The two soon begin to brawl on weekends in front of the bar.
And so does the Fight Club of the title begin.
Pretty soon, though, the club escalates. Chapters are formed all around the United States.
And Tyler soon begins to recruit the young men into his own small army against the lies and
corporate establishments of the world. Along the way Marla comes back into the picture.
That's where this synopsis shall end. To reveal more would be to reveal too much. The
movie is thoughtful and shockingly philosophical. For instance, Tyler inflicts a chemical
burn on the protagonist's hand and refuses to neutralize it until Norton embraces it because
it's "the most awake you've ever been in your life." He points a gun at a man's head and
asks him about his education and his dreams (the man works at a convenience store). Once all
of this information is unearthed, Tyler tells the man to go out and become a veterinarian (the
clerk's dream), and that if he isn't on that road in six days, he'd shoot him. When Norton
questions this, Tyler is calm in his response: "Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day in
his life... His breakfast will be the best he's ever tasted..." and so on and so forth.
The movie itself is about alienation. Why does Norton's character suffer from insomnia? He
craves human contact. Hence the support groups ("Why is it that when people think you're dying
they actually listen to you instead of just waiting for their turn to speak?") He finds the
contact he's been craving here, up until when Marla joins, of course. When she does, his lie
is brought up before his eyes and it's almost as if he can't bear to see what he truly is. And
so the insomnia runs back into the picture. Until Fight Club is made. Then he finally sleeps again.
Alienation from self. Alienation from society. Alienation from people. Alienation from love.
You name it. They can all be applied to this movie.
The movie also takes a stab at what is important in our lives today. Pitt's Tyler is a man who
believes that all our material things are worthless. They're just things (another point made in
the movie American Beauty which I also highly recommend). He is highly anti-establishment.
Then there are the fights, where men regain their manhood. That, to me, is what the Fight Club
Norton and Pitt create is all about: Regaining what you have lost. It's a support group for men,
just men, and only men. Men who work in offices, in restaurants, in gas stations, in bars, in
churches, men who suffer from testicular cancer... That's what this is all about, making them feel
like men again. They go into the basement of the bar to beat themselves into a bloody pulp in one-on-one
bare-knuckle brawling. And when the fights ensue, the blood flows. This is not a movie for the weak
of heart or stomach. It has been criticized for its violence (which Norton has even said, in an
interview with the Toronto Star, is metaphorical), and the violence is realistic. When a man is hit,
it sounds like kunckle slapping skin. Blood will flow from a man's nose or mouth with ease. Both
fighters will get covered in the other's blood. The fights are regulated, though. Tap out to end it.
Go to the hospital if you've been seriously injured. And no one can die.
Regain your manhood, cries the Fight Club. Bond with your male fellows. Feel like you are a man
again, no matter your place of employment or your stature in life.
The movie is amazing. If you're looking for just an action movie, forget about this film. If you're
looking for an easy to watch philosophical flick, forget this. The violence is brutal, and yet the
philosophy is intriguing. Oh, and Pitt hasn't been this good since 12 Monkeys, in which he
also played a psychotic. Suffice it to say, though, that this movie is a trip. That's all that can
really be said about it. It's a trip, and one hell of a good one at that.
"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."