Sanyog Reddy
Period 7
Dr. Drummond
1/22/09
Out of the Ordinary
Director David Fincher, mainly known for works such as Se7en, Aliens, and The Game, is
also the creator of the popular movie Fight Club, one of the finest works in his career. This
renown movie forces viewers to question the reality that they live in using an underground club
known only as Fight Club. It consists of the white collar workers of society that are tired of all
the conformity in the world. In the beginning, Fight Club is a club only meant for violence, but
then becomes a sort of therapy for men who begin to revert back to their primal barbaric state of
violence and pain because they feel as if they are just cogs in a wheel.
The movie is narrated by Jack (Edward Norton), a geeky insomniac who lives in a state
of ignorance, only bothering himself with things that involve him. But when his insomnia
becomes so intense that he can only sleep an hour a night he must find relief. Jack’s impatient
doctor tells him no useful information except that Jack should stop complaining and should go
see the testicular cancer support group if he wants to see people with real problems. So Jack
decides to actually go to this support group and he eventually realizes that when he interacts with
the victims in the group it gives him an emotional release and allows him to sleep at night. Later
at the meetings, Jack encounters Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), who is also a faker.
Unlike Jack, she goes to these meetings purely for entertainment. Once again Jack is unable to
sleep and on one of his business trips meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) who is a “goes wherever
the wind is blowing” kind of guy and once Tyler and Jack become friends they create Fight Club.
The film continues with Jack narrating to the audience about his thoughts and feelings.
Edward Norton was perfectly cast as Jack; he does a brilliant job of explaining everything
happening in the movie. Through his calm yet provoking voice Norton conveys some of the raw
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feelings that people face in society. Similar to Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter was
ideally casted; her dark facial expressions were in faultless placement for the way her character
was to be perceived, as a semi-suicidal chronic smoker. As for Brad Pitt, he is one of the reasons
for the movie’s success with his popularity already as an actor. Many would think he would have
over shadowed others in the movie, but he did quite the opposite. Pitt delivers one of his most
meaningful performances playing the crazy yet ingenious Tyler Durdan. He compels the
audience with his philosophical questions of life and new age view on society.
As good as Fight Club was, there were some faults with the ending. David Finch
exaggerates the ending by making Fight Club start off as a small underground boxing club
escalating it to the point where it is called Project Mayhem (a very corny name). The main
objective of Project Mayhem is to bring chaos to civilized society. On the other hand
Cronenweth did an excellent job in the cinematography by mainly using a low key medium shot
he captured the darkness of the film. The main theme, anti-conformity, is a well used subject of
films but in Fight Club are a little too scattered therefore confusing audiences. As for all the gory
fighting scenes, they are all a little too dramatized for the realistic edge that David Fincher was
going for. Likewise the music for the film was played by the Dust Brothers, a punk rock style
band. In essence the anti-conformity theme of Fight Club was expressed with the Dust Brothers
because of their hardcore guitar solos and original music.
Fight Club is an original movie with plenty of humor and intelligence, breaking the
boundaries of ordinary films about humanity. Therefore Fight Club would be a movie that I
would recommend to any viewer who wants to see a movie that provokes you to question the
norm of society and keep you on the edge of your seat.
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Works Cited
Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. DVD. 20th Century Fox,
1999.