Fight Club (1999)

★★★★
Fight Club is really a tough one to pin down. I praised it upon its release but had reservations about its ending, which seemed like a surrender to big explosive finales than as a commentary on anything. I saw it again eight years later and its effect was much stronger. Now, seeing it once again twenty years later, its point is clearer than ever. It’s inevitable that this happens. Movies are free to make a point and comment on the current state of things, but that point can be lost on those who lack the experience to see it. I was not an office worker in 1999, but a college student on my way to a degree. I was in my fifth year, the result of changing my major and working full time in customer service, which limited the number of classes I could take. It was getting to be a drag. I absolutely couldn’t wait to graduate, so that I could get a better job and end the term papers, the studying, the all-nighters. While my situation at the time could be envisioned as being stuck in an endless trap (I graduated after my sixth year), I don’t believe Fight Club’s themes extend to a prolonged undergrad existence. In actuality, there are two themes present here. One is the uncertainty of the upcoming new millennium and the chaos that could ensue. The other is how suffocating a monotonous existence can be. I once walked into a Walgreens wearing my profession on my sleeve. A stock clerk whispered to me if I wanted to trade jobs. I don’t know if a fight club would have been right for her, but according to this movie, the tension built up after mundane employment could require extreme methods to provide relief.

An unnamed Narrator (Edward Norton) works for a car company, inspecting wrecked vehicles to determine if a recall is necessary. He has been suffering insomnia for months. On the advice of his doctor, the Narrator visits a local support group for survivors of testicular cancer. Though he is healthy in that regard, the Narrator nonetheless benefits from these sessions. Seeing others with problems worse than his has a therapeutic effect. Finally, he achieves a full night’s sleep. Craving more, the Narrator visits other therapy sessions to replicate the feeling over and over. That is when he meets Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), a “tourist” who also visits support groups, including the testicular cancer group. He knows she isn’t sick, and that knowledge ruins the illusion for him. He feels fine if he’s the only healthy person in the group, but the presence of another healthy person induces his insomnia once again. The two discuss their situation and agree to split the sessions so that they don’t see each other.

After returning from one of his inspections, the Narrator meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a mysterious soap salesman with encyclopedic knowledge on just about everything. After returning home, the Narrator finds his apartment blown up, so he calls Tyler for a place to stay. That night, Tyler asks the Narrator to hit him. The Narrator does so, which sets off a series of events that culminates with the opening shot, a gun placed firmly in the Narrator’s mouth. How he gets to that point is revealed throughout the movie, which escalates into a violent series of fistfights conducted in the basement of a local tavern. Word gets out and more men show up, despite Tyler’s emphasis on the first two rules of Fight Club—“You don’t talk about Fight Club.” The movie doesn’t stop there, though. Eventually Tyler transforms Fight Club into a terrorist organization, committing petty acts of vandalism that quickly elevate into more destructive goals. The narrative arc gives us several revelations to study, decode and discuss. Once all the blood has dried and all the teeth have been yanked out, what are we to make of it? Does it have something to say about the destructive tendencies of consumerism or are we looking at a celebration of anarchy? To answer that, we must make sure we remember who is barking the orders.

Tyler Durden assembles Fight Club out of broken-down working-class men who feel castrated by their jobs. He has an uncanny way of probing them to find out what they all have in common. He lashes out at consumerism, which forces workers to earn income to buy things they don’t need. The accumulation of comfort items doesn’t originate from an actual need of such things, but rather from aggressive marketing. Tyler sees the world as a force that sucks the life out of everything. His ultimate plot, dubbed “Project Mayhem,” is designed to restore order by eliminating consumer debt. That way, the slaves can be freed and ready to begin again. The destruction of several crucial buildings, the headquarters for big banks, will send the country’s financial situation into chaos.

The connection between the destruction of these buildings and the Y2K bug is easy to see now. I remember reading articles about the Y2K bug and its potentially catastrophic effects on our computers. If nothing was done, then our computers, which ran everything from our finances to our airline routes, would be thrown into disarray. Indeed, the Narrator imagines an airplane crashing into his own. Durden’s Fight Club, then, is the Y2K bug personified. Little nagging inconveniences quickly compound one another, building up to this giant reset button, which would rob us of our ability to navigate a tech-heavy landscape. Or perhaps not. I was personally not concerned about Y2K back then. I was aware of it, but there was also a school of thought that offered convincing counterarguments. Basically, the Y2K bug is just an overblown media invention. What were director David Fincher and screenwriter Jim Uhls saying at the time? Did they believe Y2K was a threat? Probably not. I believe their film captures the paranoia of Y2K and illustrates the end state that many believed would take place once the dust settled. The Narrator, who makes every attempt to stop the plot, could be that “fix” that computer companies issued to ensure computers would stay active.

What of the other theme here? Could it be that Fight Club is simply a violent amped-up version of Office Space? Fight Club tells us that blue- and white-collar men alike feel shackled by their jobs and need to be set free. This reading is more challenging to examine than the Y2K idea, because it changes everyone’s motives. If the members of Fight Club represent Y2K, then they are not at fault for their actions, since Y2K itself was just a mindless computer deficiency, much like the fighters who gradually begin talking like robots. If the members are actually representatives of the working class who feel stuffed into their cubicles and require fights to release their tension, then they’re psychopaths, and “Project Mayhem” is the first step to anarchy. This would be a problematic position for the film to take, except for one crucial element: The Narrator. He is the voice of reason. Fight Club is out of his control, having evolved far beyond its roots as an outlet of aggression. He attempts to stop the plot, injecting sanity into the narrative. Fincher solidifies what he really thinks of these characters once we learn the true relationship between the Narrator and Tyler Durden. The Narrator is the protagonist, imperfect as he is, trying to stop a gang from carrying out a devastating plan. We're with him all the way.

Jim Uhls based his screenplay on Chuck Palahniuk’s book, and this is the rare example of when the movie is better. The book has all the key dialogue and same basic structure, but it doesn’t have the same frenetic pace, nor does it adequately convey the brutal imagery. This is a very visceral story, and Fight Club benefits not only from its incredible performances but also from Rob Bottin’s special effects. Bottin was nearing the end of his FX career at this point, but he shows here that he never lost his step. The movie is nearly wall-to-wall with black eyes and pulverized faces, delivered by Bottin as only he can. He worked on many monster movies (John Carpenter’s The Thing) but his collaborations with Paul Verhoeven showed that he didn’t need horror to display his talents to the fullest. The graphic and bloody aftereffects of gunshots and knife wounds from Robocop and Basic Instinct demonstrate a willingness to go above and beyond slapping red paint on someone. He has a signature style. After Fight Club came a few comedies, then he bowed out for good. This was his last great work.

Fight Club isn’t easy to dissect, but then again why should it be? It’s a complex tale of pent-up frustrations that need to be channeled into something. The timing of its release adds an extra layer of mystery, since the implications of the end of the decade/century/millennium found a way into the story. The movie underperformed when it was first released, and that’s understandable. It’s difficult to process. One must jump through hoops to navigate its story and see if there’s anything interesting beyond the bodies laying on the concrete floor of that gnarly tavern. There is, once you peel back enough layers.

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