incredible, innovative film

Rating: Null/10 (2 April 2004)

Favorite film:
My favorite film is Fight Club. A movie which presents a perfect representation of our world / society. At the beginning of the film, when we are introduced to the principal character and narrator Jack (Edward Norton).This narrator apparently has a perfect life: He has a stable job, much money, designer clothes and an apartment with fashionable and expensive furniture. But this kind of life does not satisfy him; he has a rebellious second `I' which is represented by Tyler (Brad Pitt) and not discovered until the end of the movie. Jack admires Tyler and his day- to- day lifestyle. He is annoyed by all the repressions and by his job (he checks accidents in which the cars built by his company were involved). At the beginning of the story the spectator gets the impression that both actors belong to different social classes and that both begin a kind of friendship due to the Fight Club; however, this proves to be wrong. Obviously, the movie shows us how materialistic and superficial our society is. The actor's luxurious apartment and the scene in which both characters steal human fat from an aesthetic centre are perfect examples of this. Fight Club even underlines the fact that mass organizations like the Nazis really destroy the personality of every member and that they can really become dangerous (as the end of the movie shows). The camerawork is also very fascinating: We are able to `travel' through the interior part of a bomb and through the different components of a building.
On the one hand there are many quick camera movements which speed up the whole story, but on the other we also find some flashbacks which slow it down. The movie has many hints which lead us to its end; however, it is not easy to recognize them. People usually need to watch it several times, both to recognize the hints but also to find new, interesting elements. Due to this, we have a very surprising end: as mentioned before, Tyler and the other main character are different personalities of the same person. I think this is clearly representative for the fact that Jack is fighting in his interior. An interior which does not know which way to follow. Should he lead a lifestyle like the one Tyler has? Or should he be conservative and go on with his relatively boring, monotonous, working life?
The fact that Jack considers our society as disease, or as something that provokes illnesses (this is represented by Carla and Jack who need treatment sessions of all kind: antialcoholics, antidepressiva, anticancer, antifatness, etc. even though they do not suffer illnesses of that type) shows us that the character is in favor of Tyler's lifestyle. By using this split personality, Jack escapes from his reality and is able to fulfill all his secret wishes (maybe for the `normal' society member considered as really crazy wishes!).
I really recommend everybody to watch this film; it is really fascinating and innovative.