Plot
A man who works “in corporate America”, is struggling with life. He’s constantly in a state of insomnia, and it is beginning to affect his health. He tolerates his job, which allows him to build the perfect IKEA apartment.
At his doctors advice, he joins “help” groups – and starts to enter into the lives of those with terminal diseases such as testicular cancer etc. This ‘release’ of emotion finally allows him to sleep.
When Marla Singer, another ‘faker’ joins his groups – he returns to his state of melancholy, and he despises her ruining what was working for him.
One fateful day, in which he meets his ‘polar opposite’ and his apartment explodes in a bizarre accident, he moves in with the man, Tyler Durden – and the two begin a bizarre friendship where they create a “fight club” – where men go to fight each other and liberate themselves from their lives.
As things progress, and Fight Club grows, the shocking truth of the leader… comes out.
Direction
Directed by David Fincher with Cinematography by Jeff Cronenweth, who utilised low exposure to get the ‘look and feel the movie has. I will discuss more on this work in Breakdown section.
Cast
Edward Norton plays The Narrator. While he is very good, and this is one of his best performances, this is still not his ‘best’ performance.
Brad Pitt plays Tyler Durden. This is Pitt at his finest. Anyone who thinks Pitt can’t act, needs to see this. He is calm, controlled at times, and also maniacal to the extreme in others. This is a textbook example of acting at its finest!
Helana Bonham Carter plays Marla. She is perfectly cast as the woman who loves Tyler with all her heart, and is treated so poorly by him. You truly feel sorry for her considering what she actually endures through the film.
Other cast include Meat Loaf as Bob, Jared Leto as Angel Face, Zach Grenier as ‘The Narrator’s boss, and Holt McCallany as The Mechanic (one of Tyler’s protege’s).
Breakdown
I’m breaking the first rule even making this post…
I’m breaking the SECOND rule by even making this post… but here goes nothing…
Based on the 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk, we are introduced to a “nameless” man who we will dub ‘the narrator’ as he is credited as, he works in corporate America and has everything he needs… except he is plagued by insomnia.
He describes as ‘killing him’ to his doctors as he continuously loses time, waking up where he can’t remember how he got there. That is when he starts going to help groups, which allow him to have releases of emotions and helps him sleep. This helps for some time, and he becomes ‘addicted’ to them – which all falls to hell when Marla Singer shows up. She is brass, cocky and chain smokes through the help groups… even the testicular cancer ones.
Putting him right back to where he started, he soon “meets” Tyler Durden, who is everything that the man wants to be. He is suave, good looking and he even starts a very sexual relationship with Marla.
When “the narrator” moves in with Tyler following his apartment exploding in a mysterious gas leak, the trio rarely if ever share the screen… rather Tyler hides away when she is with ‘the narrator’ – explicitly forbidding the narrator to discuss him in front of her.
As the movie progresses, the two men start what they call “fight club” where men come together to beat on each other, to liberate themselves from the monotony of life, their jobs, their relationships etc. They create rules for the club, that are clearly broken (and I’m breaking right now), and as the club grows, so does the legion of followers’ loyalty to Tyler, so much so, they decide to start destroying things within corporate America – to send a message to the rich and powerful.
While the CGI has a typical Fincher feel, it sad has somewhat dated since its release way back in 1999 but still kicks the shit out of some films made in 2026. I don’t really feel as if anyone else could have brought out the dark, dank, gritty world that these characters exist in.
Even some of the way the camera plays with the notion of film and cinema. There are some fourth wall breaks that make you blissfully aware that you are in a movie (one such is when the narrator discusses that Tyler works as a projectionist and what ‘burn’ marks are – and how he sneaks snippets of other films into ‘family friendly films’… we then get to see that snippet just before the credits role. Another is when Tyler is doing one of his philosophical rants, the entire camera shakes to the point the ‘reel falls off the frame’ – What a mind that guy has for film!
He also uses unnatural colouring to really take us out of the naturalism of the film. The green and yellow hues add an unease. His split-second flash trademark is used multiple times, both the flash (literal) before the credits role, as well as several flashes of Tyler/Brad Pitt before he is introduced to the audience.
The violence when it does occur is brutal and graphic, such as the many fights between men, then there is the brutal bashing of Angel Face, and what happens to poor Bob… his name was Robert Paulson. The lye burn scene is also visceral and graphic too! It garnered the harsh R18+ rating here in Australia, which is like the NC17 in the states.
The big up is the characters, and that is of course the reveal at the end (one of the best versions of this twist as well), that Tyler and ‘the narrator’ are the same person. The narrator was always Tyler, and every moment that he was ‘watching’ Tyler was his split personality wishing he was Tyler… even though he was Tyler!!! This adds so much complexity to what poor Marla was going through considering how ‘nice’ Tyler was to her, and how much of a jerk ‘the narrator was!
There are many moments within the film that foreshadow this ending, like the car crash, the narrator is pulled from the driver’s side, and especially in some of the narrators dialogue (like when he is beating himself up in his boss’ office… this reminds me of my first fight with Tyler), it is no wonder novelist Palahniuk prefers this ending to his own book’s.
The constant narration works well, and considering the main character is literally called The Narrator… you’d expect nothing less. There is also sensational dialogue throughout, and the film delves deep in to philosophy with how people are viewed in the world, and why Tyler is doing what he is doing to change the world.
Overall
Still a perfect film over 25 years later, with fantastic performances, a breathtaking shock twist ending – and message about corporate greed etc.
Not for the faint hearted due to some of the subject matter, violence and gore etc.
A strong recommend, and worthy of top marks.
5/5
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