Fight Club is one of those movies that is so messed up, you have to see it twice. It's not that the plot is hard to follow, it's just that the ending kind of leaves you scratching your head the first time you see it, and you need to go back to make sense of it all. I found out there's actually a word for this kind of movie: Neo Noir. Some other examples include Pulp Fiction, Memento, Sin City, The Game, and Se7en (The Game and Se7en were also directed by David Fincher.) But once you've figured it all out and can put all the pieces together, it's just...wow.
Edward Norton is the unnamed protagonist, a man going through life on cruise control, feeling nothing. To fill his hours, he begins attending support groups and 12-step meetings. True, he isn't actually afflicted with the problems, but he finds solace in the groups. This is destroyed, however, when he meets Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), also faking her way through groups. Spiraling back into insomnia, Norton finds his life is changed once again, by a chance encounter with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), whose forthright style and no-nonsense way of taking what he wants appeal to our narrator. Tyler and the protagonist find a new way to feel release: they fight. They fight each other, and then as others are attracted to their ways, they fight the men who come to join their newly formed Fight Club. Marla begins a destructive affair with Tyler, and things fly out of control, as Fight Club grows into a nationwide fascist group that escapes the protagonist's control.Fight Club was nominated for one Oscar (Best Sound Effects Editing, big friggin' deal) and didn't win. It's kind of surprising because the Academy seems to really like movies that incorporate elements of film noir, probably because they are beyond the understanding of the general movie-going public, and the Academy wants to look smart, even if the movie made no sense at all (i.e. Mulholland Drive) If it's film noir, it must be brilliant!!
No comments:
Post a Comment