Misunderstood by many

Rating: 8/10 (11 April 2013)

What's the first rule of Fight Club again? Ask this question at almost any workplace, high school, or public environment in America and you're sure to get a response. "The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club". It's every teen's favourite film, and contains their favourite quote. Yet many people seem to overlook the discreet charm of Fight Club.
The film basically follows like this: an average, stereotypical working- class man finds that his average, everyday life goes through a series of changes after meeting several characters throughout the movie. The first of these characters is Bob, a man with testicular cancer who gives Norton's character the desire to try and help, as he becomes addicted to the feeling of not being judged.
Norton's character then notices an oddity in these groups, a fellow "poser". This is Marla Singer, who he feels is stopping him from truly feeling this euphoria he felt earlier. Over time, he and Marla arrange a schedule in which they will each meet at different therapy sessions so they don't have to confront each other, which satisfies Norton's character.
But then he meets the infamous Tyler Durden, who literally embodies everyone we want to be. Did you ever want to make that racist joke in a meeting that would have provoked laughs from anyone and everyone, but were afraid to? Don't worry, Tyler made it. And he's happy he did.
Tyler, as a character, is symbolic of a man's dream life. While we generally cling to our own safety, all of us, at one point or another, want to do something big, something crazy, and be free for once in life. Tyler is this freedom.
The rest of the film shows the progression of Norton's character slowly turning into a character more and more similar to Tyler as the two of them work together to produce a massive crime empire known as Project Mayhem, after, that is, they set up underground fight clubs all over the local area.
Tyler and Marla become friends with benefits, although without the friends part. Bob ends up being shot after a prank involving a giant globe and a coffee shop goes wrong. Norton's character questions life and death, and what his life really means. But these are all just plot points to progress and add to the film's parallelism, which is, in essence, that we all strive for freedom even though we live our lives in safety.
Fight Club is unique in that it doesn't make a true and to-the-point statement. It just forces you to ask questions about life. "This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time," Norton's character famously cites. "Is what I'm doing right now contributing to making my life the best it can be?" Maybe that's the question Fight Club demands its viewers to ask.
But, like Van Sant's "Elephant", Fincher's Fight Club will never have a definitive answer. We will never know everything about the film, about its obscure ideas, nor what it really wants the viewer to think of or do. It sets up plot points and abandons them, and although it seems to have a clearly set narrative, it doesn't seem to concern itself with a plot. It simply moves on ahead, not concerned with its infinite plot inconsistencies.
Although the films seem about as different as they come, you could make quite an interesting comparison to this and "Elephant". They both bring up interesting and sometimes dark questions, and the truth is that we as an audience will never fully understand them, and one guess is as good as the other. Is Norton's character schizophrenic? Is it all a surreal dream, as is Lynch's "Mulholland Dr."? Who knows?
Rating: 9/10