Fight club was a film that I had heard a lot about. All I knew was that it had a lot of fighting and I had the general gist of the idea of the film. However, on watching, I started to realise just how wrong I was and just how different the film was to what I thought it was.
So, what’s the film actually about? Well its about a bloke who has named himself “I am Jack” (Edward Norton) who is bored of his repetitive life as a car accident assessor. He travels all over the place meeting different people who he calls ‘single serving friends’ due to everything in his life being of a single serving. He’s right too, when you get that cup of tea you get a single singer and a single milk, so that’s why he calls them his single serving friends, he talks to them on the aeroplane and never sees them again. He is suffering from insomnia and has been for 6 months. He’s crazy about Ikea and the stuff he buys from them are his worldly possessions and basically the love of his life.
One day he gets bored of the insomnia and goes to the doctors for help in the form of pills to get the sleep that he needs. However, the doctor tells him to try some exercise or a support group of some sort. So, he ends up at a support group for testicular cancer and acted as if he had the illness. It worked for him, he got the sleep he needed as he felt better in himself. So, he started going to other support groups and got more sleep etc. Enter Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter). She comes along for the same thing as “Jack” and he cottons on to this which ruins the new identity he has just found hence he is back to square one again and can’t get the sleep. They work out some arrangement so that they won’t see each other again, but swap numbers incase they need to re-arrange!
Coming home on a flight he meets a man called Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) who is a soap salesman. He starts talking and eventually the flight ends and he watches Tyler zoom off in a red convertible, just like he would like to do. He gets home and his apartment has been blown up. Tyler had given him his card and he needs somewhere to stay as his apartment is ruined. Who does he phone, well he tries Marla first but gets no answer, so he try’s Tyler.
This is where the story really starts and I’m not going to go much further into it. 1. Because it gets extremely complicated to explain and 2. Because it will ruin the film for you anyway.
Anyway, he meets up with Tyler in a bar and has a chat, they set off back to Tylers place and just as they leave the bar Tyler asks him to hit him as hard as he can. A little bit shocked he asks why, but Tyler insisst he hits him, so he does, right on the ear. Tyler then hits him back and they both realise that this is the best way for them to get through the day to day boredom and ‘single servings’.
Fast forward a bit and this is a Saturday night ritual, they would begin fighting and suddenly other people who start to join in aswell. This all became bigger and Tyler decided to start a group called ‘Fight Club’ where people could vent their anger on each other. There were rules that they were told they must obey. People got hurt but when one person in the fight says ‘stop’ or goes limp then the fight is over.
I’m not going to tell you any more, your going to have to watch the film yourself if you want to see what happens from here. All That I will tell you is that this gang gets bigger and bigger and suddenly turns into a sort of terrorist organisation that gets out of hand. There is a HUGE twist in the story which you will either get totally lost (like me) and have to ask the person next to you what’s going on or it will all start to fall into place and you’ll start to see what’s going on. Notice I can’t give you name to Edward Nortons character, only what he describes himself as which is “I am Jack” as he narrates all the way through the film.
The film was given an 18 certificate and this is because of the quite intense scenes of violence and swear words. There is one sex scene but its nothing much really. The film is directed by David Fincher and is very dark like his other films Se7en and The Game. He really has lived up to his reputation here. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton play their characters superbly and add to the atmosphere of the film. Most of the film is actually set in the dark and some of the special effects/CGI are amazing. (If you watch it you might catch the CGI that’s used, i.e. the waste paper basket and when you go behind the fridge, if you don’t notice it then it has done it’s job properly as you are not supposed to notice CGI!)
So, did I like it?
Yes, I did, I liked it a lot. There’s just one thing that annoyed me and that was the fact that I didn’t quite get what was going on towards the end of the film. It’s one of those films that you either get or don’t get and this one uses the trick of letting you think what’s going on and then proving you so totally wrong you feel stupid, especially if the person your watching it with knows exactly what’s going on and can follow it with ease. If you understood the likes of ‘The Matrix’ then you should understand this film, however, if like me you didn’t, you’ll either be thinking about it for days or will just have to ask someone! I’m a bit annoyed that I missed it in the Cinema as the sound effects and music really added to the film and the surround sound effects used in the cinema would really have bought the film to life. If you have a home cinema system and want something to make good use of it, then this film would be a good film to get. The way the camera is used which is backed up by the sound effects is astounding.
A very good film, if you can understand it. Heres a good tip for you, if you have the time, try watching it twice as after you know the ending, the whole film will start to make more sense and you can really get the idea more clearly as to what’s going on. Go rent it!
Oh yer, and the DVD’s are on the extra disc that comes with it, however, if you get the rental version you will only get the one extra which is the theatrical trailer, unless of course your rental shop is really nice!
I really should give this film 5/5 but as its so complicated I’m going to have to give it just the 4!