very good movie 8 out of 10

Rating: 8/10 (28 September 2017)

In David Fincher's 1999 Fight Club Edward Norton's character is a depressed insomniac that is stuck in his boring life but looking for an escape. In an attempt to find his escape he attends support groups, until Marla Singer(Helena Bonham Carter) starts to do the same thing that he is doing. When he see's this he is distraught and doesn't know what to do until he finds Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden. Soon after they move in together and begin fight club, a club for men to get together to relieve there aggression and problems. The club quickly develops in to something very different; They start vandalizing around the city as a means to topple the country's social structure, and fight club becomes project Mayhem. As Edward Norton's Tyler Durden gain's knowledge of the larger plan he begins to hunt down Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden to stop all of this, but he soon realizes that Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden is a figment of his imagination and he is the one that caused all of this. The film ends with Edward Norton's Tyler Durden watching buildings collapse and the social structure topple as he wanted. Although film noir is not a style that has a happy ending we see many elements of film noir through out Fight Club. So is this a film noir or just a film with many film noir elements. Film noir has many key elements to it such as lighting flash backs and voice overs. It also has many key story elements such as loss, nostalgia, lack of priorities. Through out the film we see many of the elements that go into a film noir such as lighting. Lighting has a key importance in this film, it is very expressive and high key used to show the modes of the scenes. The lighting plays a huge role in the scenes where fight club is held in the basement of the bar. The fight scenes are very dark and mysterious only having enough light to show what is happening. When light is put on someones face only half of their face can be seen, this adds to the idea that you are not yourself when your in fight club; By only showing half a face you do not show someone's entire identity but only part of it. Another way lighting is used is in showing dominance in the fights. The scene in which Edward Norton's Tyler Durden is on top of one of the members and punching his head in to the ground we see that his face is light from the bottom this is showing dominance over his opponent. This scene is also interesting because of the camera angle. In this scene a low camera angle is used to show Edward Norton's Tyler Durden's dominance over the other fighter. The camera along with the lighting give him a different type of dominance and power almost making him look sinister. These are two prime examples of very stylized lighting that is used in the film. On top of the fight scenes being dark and mysterious the entire moving tends to be quite dark with only few scenes with actual full lighting. The majority of the light seen through out the film tends to be very dim with the backgrounds tending to be very dark. Other key elements such as flash backs and voice overs are also seen through out the film. Flash backs are a big piece to this film, the entire film is a flash back. In the beginning of the film we see Edward Norton's Tyler Durden tied up and being held by Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden; The film is one large flash back of how he got in to that position. Along with Flash backs you will see voice overs, those two go hand in hand. These are two big elements of film noir and they are seen through the entire movie not just parts of it. Other than the elements of film noir the muse en scene in fight club also stood out. Through out the entire film Edward Norton's and Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden both were in the center of the frame. This showing that they are the center of attention and are the most important characters through out the film. This also shows their dominance over other characters throughout the film being in the center of the screen. Another thing that happens through out the film is that when Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are in the same frame Edward Norton is in the center and Brad Pitt is off to the side a little. This has to do with the plot and how they are related. Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden is made up by the imagination of Edward Norton's character so it makes sense that Edward Norton is in the center and Brad Pitt is off to the side a little. Is this a film noir or just a film with film noir elements; This is a film noir, there are a multitude of film noir elements and themes. So this is a film noir that happens to have a happy ending.