Fight Club Review

Rating: 8/10 (27 September 2017)

Brad Pitt has done a tremendous amount of films, and a lot of them are very well known. One of his better-known films is Fight Club, directed by David Fincher, starring both Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. This film starts off quite slow, but he moment that Edward Norton's character, the Narrator, meets Brad Pitts character, Tyler Durden, the film picks up relatively quickly. The tempo and tone of the movie change after their first interaction with each other. The tone of the film beings to become somewhat dark. This tone is enhanced through the type of lighting that David Fincher uses throughout the film. As the film progresses, you rarely see any true natural lighting which results in the lighting being very dark and dim. This helps enhance the films tone, but also helps in telling a deeper meaning for the character and story. This decision to have the lighting like this in regard to the characters and the story works well in the way that David Fincher uses it. The Narrator's life is an unpleasant one, and as the story progresses it becomes darker, just like the lighting style that David Fincher uses. David Fincher also uses the concept of colors to help enhance certain points of the film, which works very well in this film. The major color concept that he uses is the outfit color differentiation between Tyler Durden and the Narrator. The outfits that Tyler Durden wears are very vibrant and colorful whereas the Narrator's outfits are very bland, and the colors are very boring and solid. The Narrator will wear black and white, and Tyler will wear an eye popping red or yellow. This differentiation that David Fincher used is key to the story line of the film. It shows the personality of both characters and how much they oppose each other. Tyler is a lot more outgoing and crazy, whereas the Narrator is more conserved and cautious. Another key element that David Fincher incorporates in the film that works really well is his ability to take a location in the film and basically make that location its own character. The two main locations that David Fincher creates are the house that Tyler and the Narrator live in and the basement where Fight Club actually takes place. These two locations are integral to the characters and the story line development. The house shows the turn of the narrator's life going downhill. This house though would become the focal point of Project Mayhem which shows the progression of the story, characters, and fight club itself. The basement where fight club takes place is also integral in that it shows where everything started and that it stays there throughout the whole film never changing. The film does use a variety of camera angles, some for the better while others are not. The camera angle used for the first fight between Tyler and the Narrator is done well in being a wide shot and zoomed out so you can see both of the characters. The camera angles used during the fight scenes I felt weren't great. I felt sometimes they were too close to the fighters which didn't allow me to visually see the fight as well. When David Fincher used a birds eye view of the fights I felt they were well done. Also the camera style he used when the scene zoomed a ridiculous amount, for example the scene explaining how the Narrators apartment exploded, I feel was a good touch due to its ability to show the true detail behind something. My thoughts overall on the film is that the film is very well made and the story line is very well progressed throughout the film. I felt the film though was dragged on and slow at certain points which caused me to lose interest at certain points. I enjoyed the movie and its story line. I also enjoyed the cinematography of the film and how the film is directed. I will not discuss the ending of the film to avoid spoilers for anyone, but I personally did not enjoy the ending. I felt that the ending was a risky move, and I feel that it was well done and it paid off. I just feel that it could of gone a different route and had been better. Overall I would give the film an 8/10.