“The first rule of Fight Club is: You do NOT talk about Fight Club.” And yet, here we are, talking about Fight Club. Prepare for a brain-bending, almost-psychedelic trip into humanity, consumerism, masculinity, society, and soap-making. Spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
Believability: The big twist was a tiny bit hard to swallow because of how much Tyler interacts with the world and people around him, but honestly that just added to how jarring the revelation of Tyler’s true nature was. It’s still a tiny bit hard to swallow, but the set-up for the reveal was kooky enough, just pushing the boundaries of what seems possible in real life, that didn’t seem totally unreasonable in the end. I guess I will admit though that contributing some of Tyler’s actions to the Narrator while they’re in the same scene was sometimes a stretch, but again, not unbelievably so. 8/10
Story Originality: There’s nothing like Fight Club. I mean I guess these kinds of wacky trips into society and culture have been done, as has the bizarre mix of comedy and philosophy. Even the dual-personality thing isn’t totally brand new. Still, every instance of something like this that has occurred since has been and will be compared to Fight Club, and the combination of these elements is iconic and legendary. Want to create a book or film about someone with two personalities? Fight Club did it better. 10/10
Story Artistry: Fight Club just nails this. From hidden images of Tyler before he actually arrives to ultra-subtle visual hints that fill this movie to the brim to the grimy visual style of the sets, the movie was wonderfully vibrant despite its grim or simple settings. Tiny gripe; the narration was a little odd sometimes because it was so clearly ripped directly from the book. Lines from the novel don’t always make total sense with the character of the Narrator we see on screen, and sometimes he’d repeat things we were seeing right in front of us. 9/10
Visual Effects: Real quick I’m gonna mention something that’s not technically visual but is still technical enough to mention; the sounds of the fights. The jarring grittiness of the fights is largely due to the wet and crunchy sounds of people getting smacked, so props to the minds behind the noise. As for visual, again, the grimy locales and bizarre imagery made an old house, the basement of a bar, and a bland office seem like the most exciting and interesting places in the world. It was always so busy and beautiful in its twisted displays, and that was emphasized by the wild and frantic visual effects that would interject themselves into the normal patterns of the film. Costumes were phenomenal too. Honestly, it doesn’t look that dated after 19 years, either. 10/10
Acting Skill: My biggest qualm was with Bob, who was shallow and seemed a little unrealistic. Actually, the lack of depth in all of Tyler’s goons, though I know it’s supposed to make the point of how dumb their blind following is, makes them far less compelling or interesting. Still, Marla was great, as were a lot of side characters like the cop, the boss, and others we meet even temporarily. I’ll touch on the main two characters later. 7/10
Acting Chemistry: Tyler and the Narrator had this friendship that made NO sense and yet was utterly believable, and the tension between Marla and the Narrator made perfect sense when all was revealed. Honestly this is more of a story thing, so I won’t mark this category down for it, but I was pretty bothered by how Marla got over the fact that she had just been KIDNAPPED because buildings blew up. I mean… what? Why? Still, the actors? 10/10
The Narrator’s Motive: He wants to find himself. That sounds super cheesy and corny, but if you’ve seen the film, it’s just as complex as human nature is. If you haven’t, stop reading this until you’ve seen it. It is a little bizarre, and I doubt most people can identify exactly, but it’s never really unbelievable. 9/10
The Narrator’s Depth: Again, I love his complexity, but this is the part where being able to identify with him becomes so problematic. I think there definitely is an irony to the fact that as much as Tyler represents the him he wishes he could be, we can kind of think the same way and wish we could be like the Narrator. Still, he is human, and seeing that part of him rear its head even when he’s at his most primal gives the whole story more depth. 9/10
The Narrator’s Acting: No complaints here. He isn’t too suave or cowardly or good-looking or ugly. He is human, and yet oddly enough there’s nothing bland about that. The actor manages to perfectly capture how complex it is to be an ordinary person. 10/10
Tyler’s Motive: He just wants chaos. I know there’s some satire there, since it just goes downhill, and don’t get me wrong, I love his methods, but when I found out he was just going after anarchy, I was actually kinda disappointed. It just seemed much more… meh. 7/10
Tyler’s Depth: Even though Tyler’s true nature means he could be totally shallow and just chaotic, he is unpredictable and ambiguous from his first appearance on the plane until his final revelation. True, after we find out the truth he becomes just a bland, madman villain, but until then, he is totally bizarre and confusing and it’s great. You never know when he’s going to kiss someone’s hand until it scars or let go of the steering wheel or punch someone. I especially liked the homework assignments he handed out, just because they reflected his bigger plans and yet mysterious nature. 9/10
Tyler’s Acting: Pitt really nails this role, but almost a little too well. Tyler should be likable enough to confuse us, but he’s almost TOO cool to the point that him representing the bad side of the narrator just seems.. not that bad. Still, he should be tempting in his wickedness. 9/10
Emotion: This one has one of the most unique and hardest-to-nail-down emotional goals I can think of; it wants you to feel conflicted. It honestly does a pretty good job of that. I struggled to choose a side and to decide whether or not I approved of what the Narrator or what Tyler was doing. The fact that the Narrator sometimes goes along with Tyler just adds to the conflict in his own mind. I think sometimes it was almost too easy to just shrug it off and let myself be entertained, but it definitely still nagged at the back of my mind. 9/10
Story Speed: The story excels pretty well here. It’s always interesting, never too slow, and just when you think things are too settled, the plot twists. Perhaps you could argue that there aren’t real stakes until too late, but that’s not too horrible in the context of the story. 9/10
Entertainment Factor: I did enjoy this, but I think I honestly was a little put off by some of the twists at the end. The BIG reveal was fascinating, but I enjoyed seeing the weird exploration of human nature, so when it just became a rebellion and a hunt for anarchy, I was kind of disappointed. I dunno. It was super interesting, but I sometimes felt like the IDEA of Fight Club was a little more entertaining than the actual execution. 7/10
Fight Club as a Commentary: This might be a little complex, especially for one paragraph, but for my “other thing,” I wanna talk about Fight Club’s commentary on human nature and society. One of the things I’ve heard people criticize about this movie is its glorification of anarchy and primal masculinity. They think the film wants to say that beating the crap out of each other and being “real men” in the most ape-like sense of the phrase is good. To that, I say “did we even watch the same movie?” The whole point is that those ideas DON’T work. It entertains briefly what it would be like to fall away from society and modern culture, and explores how bizarre and yet somehow weirdly enticing that kind of world could be. THAT works. However, I think the way Tyler’s world and philosophy is so intoxicating is lost when he goes to militaristic anarchy. I get that in some way that’s the point, but it was almost too soon. We didn’t round the corner and suddenly face the consequences of our temptation, which would have been really something. Instead, we just kind of… got there, like we saw it on the horizon before even reaching it. It also made the decision between a chaotic life and culturally acceptable one for us. After letting us walk the line, it was like the storyteller just caved and said “But just so you know, here’s the bad one.” 7/10
Final Score: 87%
-Kranxx
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