Why Fight Club Is A Masterpiece

"David Fincher's most known film is undoubtedly Fight Club," "which I haven't seen. " "And I already know I need to fix that at some point. " *vine boom.

mp3* I knew Fight Club was a popular film, the definition of a cult classic. But I had no idea what I was getting into if I'm being honest. The only two things I'd ever heard about it beforehand, were the first two rules of Fight Club, and the name Tyler Durden.

I usually do some research after watching whatever movie it is I'm covering. I want to know general production information, as well as what the general consensus is, and what other people took from it. After about 5 minutes of research though, I realized something.

I'm in a rare situation where my opinion on this film hasn't been tainted by general consensus, and my thoughts on the themes presented haven't been influenced. So why not keep that fresh perspective? This platform already has a ton of videos of people giving their own thoughts after years of existing in an echo chamber of like-minded fans.

So, if I can, I'd like to offer something new. The downside of going for a fresh perspective though, is that I'll likely miss things or maybe even get stuff wrong. I apologize for that in advance, and be sure to let me know about stuff I missed in the comments.

With all that being said, it's been 25 years since the release of Fight Club, In the year 2024, by sheer influence alone, this film has earned it's role as cult classic. That isn't up for debate. However, for a new generation, does it still belong in conversations as one of the greatest films to ever exist?

Or has it's legacy been exaggerated? Let's find out. FIght Club is based on the 1996 book by the same name, written by Chuck Palahniuk.

The screenplay for the film was done by Jim Uhls, and it was directed by David Fincher. The movie begins with a highly stylized credits sequence. And the transition into the opening scene is seamless.

Immediately, we're introduced to the primary method employed to tell this story, narration. And how you feel about this will drastically change your opinion on the film. In fact, narration plays such a big role in this story that our protagonist isn't even given a name.

Edward Norton is simply credited as "The Narrator. " Personally, I'm not usually a fan of narration. However, this movie is a major exception.

Firstly, since it's based on a book written in the first-person, knowing the main characters thoughts is essential to understanding the story. And the second reason I'm okay with the narration is because of the psychoanalytic nature of the plot. I'll touch on this more later, but beyond simply understanding the story, it's a story that can only be told if we are in the narrator's head.

Another storytelling tactic employed here is shock value. To describe the narrative as a rollercoaster would be putting it lightly. Every scene demands a reaction from the audience.

And the opening scene is no different. In the first shot, the barrel of a gun is in the narrator's mouth. He then goes on to tell us that in 2 minutes charges will go off that will demolish a dozen buildings.

While also dropping a line that audiences will definitely not pick up on during their initial viewing. "I know this because Tyler knows this. " Just after being introduced to this incredibly high-stakes situation, we're dragged into a completely different setting.

A support group for men with testicular cancer. This isn't supposed to make sense yet, it's supposed to confuse the audience. The narrator even realizes that this story doesn't make any sense, and just as soon as we're introduced to this setting, we're put in another one.

The narrator has been suffering from insomnia for 6 months. He says nothing feels real, and mentions a seemingly random thought that whenever deep space exploration picks up, corporations will be naming galaxies and planets. While the way he says this makes it seem like he's against the idea, and consumerism as a whole.

Immediately after this he tells us he's addicted to IKEA catalogs. While he seems partially aware of the trappings of consumerism, he falls right into them anyway. And following this, we finally get the explanation of how he ended up at the support group.

After making no effort to treat the narrator's insomnia, his doctor makes a joke about how the narrator isn't in real pain. The men with testicular cancer though, that's real pain. So, likely out of curiosity, the narrator decides to visit the support group.

It's here where the narrator meets Bob. Bob used to be a bodybuilder, so he used steroids. After gettings his testicles removed due to cancer, Bob begins hormone therapy.

Because of the aforementioned steroids, Bob's hormones were all jacked up and he developed breasts. While this is mostly played for laughs, Bob's backstory is vital to the narrative. He serves as a personification of the primary themes of the film.

The first line he says is him whimpering the phrase, "We're still men. " This introduces us to his insecurity, and as we later find out, he isn't the only one who feels insecure in his masculinity. We'll talk about that more as those themes present themselves though.

For now, the narrator actually finds himself crying with Bob. As the narrator describes, he lets go. Strangely enough, this emotional release actually ends up curing his insomnia.

This causes the narrator to become addicted to support groups. He starts going to different ones every single day just to help him sleep at night. This goes on for more than a year.

Until one day, Marla shows up. Marla is basically doing exactly what the narrator is. Jumping around from support group to support group, despite not suffering from any of the diseases.

This forces the narrator to confront the lie he's been spinning to the other members. And he finally feels some guilt about what he's been doing. Because of this, he can no longer feel anything at these groups.

He can't let go, so he can't sleep. Instead of finding a normal hobby, like making film reviews and video essays on the internet, the narrator decides to confront Marla. The two decide to split up the support groups, and this is one of the funniest scenes in the movie.

In fact, now's a good time to talk about the comedy. I was genuinely surprised with how funny this movie was. I didn't have any idea it was a comedy going into it, but I found myself laughing all throughout.

"We each have 3, that's 6, what about the seventh day? I want ascending bowel cancer. " "The girl had done her homework.

" "No. No, I want bowel cancer. " After coming to an agreement on how to split up the support groups, the two exchange numbers.

Marla asks for the narrator's real name since he uses a fake one at each support group. Before he answers her though, the scene cuts to a montage of the narrator flying into different cities everyday for work. He's a recall coordinator for a major automotive company.

He applies a formula to see whether the company should initiate a recall or not. And this can be a very demanding job. Not just physically, with the constant travel and jet lag, but also mentally.

He has to look at corpses constantly, and apply human lives as statistics. If initiating a recall is more expensive than the probable cost of an out of court settlement, then his company won't do one. This again touches on the already prevalent theme of corporate greed and the resulting dehumanization.

While the narrator seems to feel indifferent about this, I don't think it would be a stretch to say that this a possible cause for his insomnia. Obviously, the frequent jumping between time zones and constant flights don't help, but the emotional suppression he undergoes to simply do his job, is likely why he needed the support groups in the first place. He had no emotional release.

He could never let go. And at this point, all this pent up angst is at an all-time high. "Oxygen gets you high.

" "In a catastrophic emergency you're taking giant panic breaths. " "Suddenly you become euphoric, docile, you accept your fate. " This is Tyler Durden, soap salesman.

And one of the most well-written characters in fiction. He's charismatic, skeptical, and fool of information that's not quite true. He says that they put oxygen masks on planes in order to get the passengers high, so that they accept their fate.

And he gives a recipe for napalm. Neither of these things are true, but he delivers the information in such a way that still makes you think. Brad Pitt does an incredible job in this role.

He brings one of the most dynamic and interesting characters I've ever seen in film to life in a believable way. Tyler and the narrator are seated next to each other on a plane. Where Tyler gives him his business card.

After the plane lands though, the narrators luggage is taken to the police since it was vibrating, and it's never returned to him. To make matters worse though, upon arriving home, the narrator's apartment appears to have exploded. Having lost his home and all his belongings in a single night, he's left with nothing.

All that's left is his suitcase and the business card he received on the plane. He decides to call Tyler and the two go out for drinks. During this conversation, the narrator goes in detail about his shopping addiction.

He says he was close to being complete. He defined himself and his worth by the possessions he had. He bought into the corporate myth that materialism would make him happy.

And Tyler's response to this explains his philosophy beautifully. Humans have been broken down by corporations from hunter-gatherers to consumers. We know longer have to concern ourselves with simple survival.

In turn, we concern ourselves with celebrities, new technology, and name brand clothes. And Tyler is tired of all this. We shouldn't strive for perfection by current societal expectations.

Perfection in modern society is weakness. Rather, it is necessary to evolve. The narrator seems to sympathize with Tyler's point of view by the end of the conversation and agrees to stay at his house.

But Tyler isn't done with his sales pitch yet. "I want you to hit me as hard as you can. " "What?

" "I want you to hit me as hard as you can. " We finally get some background on Tyler. He's what the narrator describes as a "night person.

" He worked at night as a projectionist and banquet waiter. These jobs were simply a means to an end for him though. That end being disrupting society in whatever way possible.

He wants the narrator to hit him because he's never been in a fight before. And this is an interesting thought. Tyler says, "How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?

" And this is an understandable sentiment. There's a famous Mike Tyson quote, "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. " You can only know certain things about yourself, like how you'll respond in a stressful, potentially life-threatening situation once you're in it.

Tyler follows up this line with another piece of insight. "I don't wanna die without any scars. " This could be translated as, "I don't wanna die before I've even lived.

" In this comfortable society some find themselves in, it's easy to allow ourselves to be molded. To fit into our roles and play it safe. Never doing anything to disturb our peace.

And that's where these characters are. Having lived such a mundane, routine experience that they never even gained anything to fight for. And that's what makes fighting so appealing.

Through violence and physical pain, they finally are allowed to feel something. This scene is perfect. Every shot, line of dialogue, and expression is executed flawlessly.

After their fight, Tyler and the narrator promise to do this again sometime. And it's needless to say that the narrator's found something to replace his support groups. The narrator decides to move in with Tyler, who lives in a dilapidated house on Paper Street.

The two begin regularly fighting outside the bar, where they eventually attract the interest of even more people. And, at this point, the fights are an addiction for them. Even when they aren't fighting, they talk about who they'd like to fight.

The narrator plainly says that when he goes into work on Monday, all he can think about is next week's fight. And this scene makes it clear to us why fighting was the solution for Tyler and the narrator. There is, of course, the aforementioned reasons about it allowing them to feel something.

To help them escape everyday life. But there's more to it than that. When talking about who they'd like to fight, Tyler mentions his dad.

His dad set all these goals up for him, like going to college and getting a job. And this plays into the themes of escaping everyday life. After being railroaded into a certain lifestyle, Tyler finally wants to make decisions for himself.

His dad did give him one more goal though, getting married. And both the narrator and Tyler's responses are noteworthy. The narrator feels he isn't prepared to get married.

Describing himself as a 30 year old boy. And Tyler mentions how they were raised by women, and still feel incomplete. So how would another woman fix that?

Both are seemingly unique perspecties, but they come from one root cause. The narrator and Tyler feel like they're missing something. Something they aren't receiving in their regular lives.

In the narrator's case, it was so bad that it caused insomnia. Through fighting, Tyler and the narrator are figuring out their problem though. It's an insecurity in their masculinity.

Both view being masculine as a vital part of their existence, but they weren't aware of that until recently. This is something they should've been taught by their fathers. Following the beaten path and submitting themselves to corporations, has left them feeling frustrated, disillusioned, and discontent with life.

And it's not just them. The growing popularity of this fighting ring is evidence that this emptiness is felt by the whole generation. In fact, there's so much support for this concept that the narrator and Tyler are given the basement of the bar to hold fights.

And finally, they give this ring a name. "Gentlemen," "Welcome to Fight Club. " The official formation of Fight Club marks a significant turning point in the narrator's life.

He finally feels complete. We don't get any further updates on his life for presumably a few weeks. He does nothing but work and fight, and he's happy with this.

That is until he receives a call from Marla. She's taken a dangerous amount of Xanax and is probably gonna die. The narrator doesn't feel like listening to her talk and leaves the phone.

As he walks away though, Tyler overhears her on the phone and heads to her place to pick her up. This is where Tyler and Marla's relationship begins. The following morning the narrator is confused as to why Marla is in his house and kicks her out.

Tyler explains what happened, but strangely makes the narrator promise not to mention him in front of Marla. The narrator is clearly jealous, since he apparently had a thing for Marla. Despite the fact that he was completely okay with leaving her to die.

This takes a toll on him, as up to this point he's somewhat managed to balance work and Fight Club. Now though, he's going to work a complete mess and is sent home. To make matters worse, he receives a call from the police informing him that his apartment was intentionally sabotaged.

This doesn't really bother the narrator as much as you'd expect though. He's content in his new life, for the most part. "Like in Boy Scouts.

" "It's hard to imagine you as a Boy Scout. " "Keep stirring. " Tyler, in case you've forgotten, is a soap salesman.

While the narrator helps him make soap, Tyler aims to teach him a life lesson. While yes, the narrator does enjoy Fight Club, he's still holding back. Tyler intentionally gives the narrator a chemical burn.

The narrator's first instinct to the pain is to return to the meditation techniques he learned at the support groups. This is opposite to the lesson Tyler is trying to teach him. He wants the narrator to feel this pain, live in this moment, and be dragged down to his lowest point.

Summarizing the lesson in a single line. "It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything. " The narrator finally lets go and stops fighting Tyler.

And only after this does Tyler offer the solution to ease the pain. This marks a significant shift in the narrator's mentality. And this is most evident in the following scene when the narrator is confronted about Fight Club by his boss.

When Tyler had previously told the narrator what to say to the police officer on the phone, the narrator didn't listen. Now though, even the narrator recognizes that his response to his boss, is as though it were Tyler's words coming straight from his mouth. "Cornelius?

" "Cornelius! " Later that night, the narrator runs into Bob on the street, and finds out that Bob's been coming to Fight Club during the week. Bob says that he's better than he's ever felt in his whole life.

Due to Bob's situation, he felt insecure in his masculinity. Now though, he feels he has a way to prove his masculinity. Bob's character serves as a personification of the primary theme of the film.

Bob spent his life chasing a physique that was forced onto him by society at the time. In order to achieve this, he caused irreparable damage to his body. By joining Fight Club though, he takes back his fate.

No longer letting society dictate who he is. Bob represents the emasculation of society by consumerism. And his joining of Fight Club represents the hope that one can escape this fate.

Due to the hope it provides, the narrator describes Fight Club as his and Tyler's gift to the world. And to these men it truly is. At the next meeting, Tyler gives a speech that summarizes the purpose of Fight Club and the hope it provides.

It's an escape for the so-called, "middle children of history. " A way to vent out their frustration over the broken promises they've been given by Hollywood and advertisers. They were supposed to be movie gods and rockstars, but instead they work dead-end jobs with no hope beyond them.

These men need Fight Club. A concerning pattern does begin to develop though. The members of Fight Club regard Tyler as a legend.

He is their leader. That's why when he gives them what he calls "homework assignments" they comply with these without question. And these range from starting a fight with a stranger, to vandalism.

To make matters even worse, the narrator has a development of his own. He blackmails his boss into paying him, without him needing to come into work anymore. Fight Club now has corporate sponsorship.

Now they can host Fight Club every single night. This further indoctrinates the members of Fight Club. And the homework assignments escalate from vandalism to domestic terrorism.

"What're we doing? " "Homework assignment. " "What kind of homework assignment?

" "Human sacrifice. " "Hey, is that a gun? Please.

Please tell me that's not a gun. " Tyler holds a man at gunpoint and calls it a human sacrifice. The man's name is Raymond and he's a cashier at a convenience store.

Tyler takes his wallet and asks him what he wanted to be in life. Raymond responds that he wanted to be a veterinarian. Tyler tells him that he's keeping his license.

He'll let Raymond go but he's going to check on him in 6 weeks. If he isn't on his way to becoming a vet, Tyler will kill him. This scene comes seemingly out of nowhere.

However, this is another vital piece to understanding the philosophy of this film. The frustration this generation, the middle children of history feel, is caused by the fact that they feel they've been lied to. Promised from a young age that they could be whatever they wanted, when that simply wasn't the case.

And while fighting and lashing out with acts of societal disruption can be a way to vent out these frustrations, it isn't a solution. So Tyler offers a different one to certain individuals. He offers them the opportunity to actually go and accomplish those dreams they had as a kid.

To become what they wanted to be. Even the narrator is impressed by this, and this makes it clear to us why so many are willing to follow Tyler blindly. Because to a certain degree, he has a point, and a plan.

Tyler begins recruiting people and training them for an unknown purpose. Eventually, the narrator finds out though. It's called project mayhem and it's exactly what it sounds like.

The members serve as agents of chaos, committing various acts of domestic terrorism across the city. While the members celebrate their work being broadcast on local news, the narrator is horrified. Still, he continues helping with these assignments.

During the news broadcast, the police commissioner promises to begin an investigation into these attacks. Naturally, the next assignment is to scare him away from such an investigation. And this operation proves to us that this is a highly coordinated group.

The police commissioner agrees to drop the investigation, but as the group is leaving the narrator feels jealous that this guy called Angel Face, is receiving praise from Tyler. So during his next fight, he beats him up without ever giving him a chance to concede the match. Afterward, the narrator and Tyler go for a drive.

The narrator feels left out because he helped start Fight Club but he wasn't even told about Project Mayhem. And again, Tyler makes a point about the narrator needing to let go, through a painful lesson. He lets go of the steering wheel and demands the narrator do the same.

It's here where Tyler confirms that he's the one who blew up the narrator's condo. This should've already been obvious to the audience at this point, but this isn't intended as a big twist. Rather, it serves as a misdirect.

By making the audience feel as though they've already figured out a major plot twist, they're less likely to suspect another one. Which is exactly what happens later on. For now though, both Tyler and the narrator let go of the wheel and allow the car to crash.

The narrator is knocked unconscious but is pulled out of the car by Tyler. We then hear Tyler monologue about his vision for a new world. Which entails the complete collapse of modern society.

Meanwhile, the narrator falls unconscious for an indiscernible amount of time. By the time the narrator wake up, Tyler is gone. There's potentially hundreds of Project Mayhem members in the house working in unison.

To the point that the narrator describes it as though the house itself had become a living thing. All of a sudden though, two members are carried inside with gunshot wounds. One of whichi is Bob, who was shot in the head.

Now if Bob's joining Fight Club was representative of the hope that he could escape his fate, his death represents that hope dying with him. This method of escape, this "gift to humanity," had grown out of control and misguided this man to the point of death. The narrator feels guilty, after all he did help start Fight Club.

But while trying to gather an ounce of sympathy from the members of Project Mayhem, they instead begin chanting his name as though it were some kind of ritual. Meanwhile, the narrator finds plane tickets in Tyler's name. He visits each city to try and track down Tyler, and while he does find several Fight Clubs, he can't find Tyler.

Eventually though, at one of the bars he stops at, he's recognized. He's recognized as Tyler Durden. Immediately, he calls Marla, who he's been treating horribly throughout the course of the film due to him being jealous of Tyler.

And during their conversation, she calls him Tyler Durden. And suddenly, Tyler shows up to confirm the worst. The narrator and Tyler are one person with dissociative identity disorder.

And this is why it's so important that we spend a majority of the story in the narrator's head. It drags us so deeply into his world, that this reveal comes as a shock to us. The narrator created this alter ego in order to fix his life, and it's no coincidence that similar phrases are used to refer to Tyler and the narrator's father.

Like how the narrator's father abandoned him to set up franchises. The narrator's lack of a father figure is what led him down this path in the first place. And Tyler was meant to take on that role and fix everything.

Tyler Durden is who the narrator wants to be. This is why Tyler repeatedly emphasized the narrator's need to let go. So that he can finally have complete freedom over the narrator's life.

And slowly he transforms more and more into Tyler Durden. Tyler's power over the narrator is so strong in fact, that he simply wills himself into control over the narrator's body. Tyler wants to kill Marla since he think she knows too much.

Meanwhile, the narrator slowly figures out what the end goal of Project Mayhem is. Before going to the police with this information though, he tells Marla that he loves her but he needs her to leave town for her own safety. Eventually, she does agree to leave and the narrator brings all the evidence of Project Mayhem to the police.

Project Mayhem's goal is to blow up credit card company buildings in order to erase the debt record. This would create total chaos and eventually lead to the collapse of modern society. While at the police department though, the narrator is attacked by police officers who are also members of Project Mayhem.

He escapes and runs to one of the buildings that's set to explode. He realizes that if Tyler knows how to deactivate the bombs, then so does he. Tying back to the line from the first scene in the film.

"I know this because Tyler knows this. " He successfully deactivates the bomb but is beat up by Tyler and knocked unconscious. The narrator begs Tyler to call this off.

Especially since he's brought in Marla in order to tie up lose ends. Finally though, the narrator realizes that he's the one in control. He takes the gun that's been in his hand this entire time and tells Tyler that his eyes are open.

This is a callback to the chemical burn scene. He's no longer running from the pain, instead he takes control and stay in the moment. He shoots himself in the mouth, attempting to end both his and Tyler's life.

Tyler dies, but miraculously, the narrator survives. Immediately after this, Marla is brought in, and she realizes that he wasn't lying when he told her he was involved in something dangerous. The bombs begin to go off while the two lock hands.

Society is collapsing in front of them and Tyler's dream of a new world is all but assured. Fight Club really stands in a class all it's own. There was nothing quite like it before it's release and nothing quite like it has been made since.

At least nothing that completely captures the essence of what makes Fight Club, Fight Club. And that's a very difficult thing to articulate. I found myself during the making of this video being asked several times, "What's Fight Club about?

" And my response after just having seen the movie was, "I honestly don't know. " After a second and third viewing though, that's changed to, "How much time do you have? " It really isn't something that can be easily explained.

A genuine conversation about what Fight Club aims to achieve and the message it's trying to convey, is longer than the film itself and is open to several different interpretations. For me personally, my take is this, the film is about the emasculation of men in modern society by consumerism and absent father figures. The solution this film is pushing isn't one of violent rebellion, rather, this is an extreme example of taking back one's life.

The actual solution to these problems falls more in line with the human sacrifices Tyler conducts. For men who feel lost in society though, it's important to reclaim their masculinity first, while also avoiding the trappings of ones who claim to be able to help them with this. Otherwise you go from being society's slave, to the slave of a neurotic tyrant who preys on the weak.

Fight Club was ahead of it's time with it's interpretation of lost men blindly following one who claims themselves to be a savior and a light for these ones. And that's what defines true art. It is timeless, open to interpretation, and not easily forgotten.

Fight Club didn't do great at the box office, but 25 years later, and it's safe to say it's reached the target audience. For better or for worse. Many of this film's detractors point to the fact that, due to the many possible interpretations of the film, it's easy to misconstrue the messaging into a dangerous philosophy.

For example, some of those lost men mentioned earlier, point to this film as a source for their toxic mindsets and misogynistic ideas. And I want to make it clear that this is definitely not the film's intention, but to me, this is yet another aspect of the film that makes it so fascinating. True art should have a powerful affect on those who it reaches.

At this point, this word is overused, it's become almost a buzzword when speaking of film, but I have no hesitation in calling Fight Club a masterpiece. A masterpiece cannot be replicated, it should leave a legacy, and it should move the viewer. And, as mentioned previously, these are defining aspects of Fight Club.