3/14/2001
Senior Seminar: Advanced Writing
Dr. Sadowski-Smith
Fight Club Outrageously Entertaining
In the depth of the human psyche we all picture ourselves as a person we wish we could be. What we dream up in our heads can determine whom we become, and that we are not necessarily what we perceive ourselves to be on the outside. Even on a regular basis we may try to play characters that are not actually like us, maybe with a different personality, morals, or beliefs, because we wish we were like that character.
The movie "Fight Club," brings to the surface these ideas very clearly. The willingness of the audience to perceive that what they were told was face value, and this is why "Fight Club" is such a good movie, because by the end you are not sure what is true and what is not.
A movie, no matter what the genre is being talking about, has one major purpose, that is to hold the audience in a ‘state of disbelief,’ a state where you perceive what is shown on the screen to be what is considered real. Looking at such the movie, for example "The Sixth Sense," brings to mind a movie that holds you in a this ‘state of disbelief.’ How could you know that Bruce Willis’ character was really dead-not to take away from the movie-but how could you? Willis’ acting convinced you that there was nothing physically wrong with him.
In "Fight Club" Edward Norton’s character using subtle hints about who Tyler Durden is, but does not let you know until the end, which he acted very well, when Norton discovers they had the same briefcase, or when Norton’s character notices that Tyler and Marla are never in the same room, except when they’re making love. Norton was very convincing in making the audience believe that everyone was really there, playing their parts.
If you are a person who can pick out these details, then "Fight Club" is a movie worth seeing, but do not let the meticulous details placed within the movie dissuade you from watching it. "Fight Club" uses numerous acting and film tricks to get you dragged in. You see a flash here or there in the first half hour when Edward Norton is attending his groups or at the hospital; was it a trick of the camera or a glitch in the film? What could that be, did that look like a person? Here is where we can begin to see that there is a connection to Edward Norton character and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), especially if you have slow motion on your VCR. Here, with these tiny details the audience is grabbed into that ‘state of disbelief’ that I was referring to earlier.
Norton’s character is part of the bigger picture, he is living a depressed life, and that he wants something more in his life, Tyler enters. He [Norton’s character] wants to be and to act unlike how he does in his daily life, and to be able to pull himself away from reality in the way the he does with Tyler is just one way that many people can try to escape their daily existence. How many times do people really see our other sides, which is why, to many, Tyler seems like another character, not an extension of Norton’s character.
Norton is very convincing here, and this is the most important part of the movie, because here is where Norton must convince the audience that he and Tyler are two separate people, yet showing that there is something about the whole situation that is weird.
It is this idea that shows there is more going on in the movie. More evidence of this is in the scene in Norton’s boss’ office, where he is beating himself up, when he makes reference to his and Tyler’s first fight. Or when Marla comes to see Tyler and Norton’s character tells her he [Tyler] is not there, and she gives him the strangest look, indicating that there is a discrepancy in the logic of what we know about these characters. This is where the ‘state of belief’ is breaking, and following the audience sees what this could mean.
This logic is the ‘state of disbelief’ is so important for movies nowadays to have. There is a lack of audience attention to movie in today’s world, because everything is so fast and violent to keep the attention. This I think makes movies of today less intelligent and trivial. "Fight Club" breaks this idea, with the twisting plot and the confusing associations I mentioned above. These tricks used in "Fight Club" kept me watching the movie, because I was not sure how all fit together, because the disbelief was so great that the only way to know what happened was to finish the movie.
We see how Tyler and Norton’s character are connected, and this is the charm that makes "Fight Club" a movie to watch. With other movies like "The Matrix", "Sixth Sense," and "American Beauty" not all of the information is given out, in fact, most of the first two movies listed have the least amount of information given. You have to gather information in order to ‘solve’ the movie, and that I think is what makes "Fight Club" a great movie, because you as an audience member must take what is presented and try to figure out it before Norton’s character does.
--C. Clark, March 14, 2001
A.K.A The GREAT Almighty Dragon :-D