A Girl’s Guide to “Fight Club”
I finally got around to watching “Fight Club”. And it turns out that, despite its name and its singular popularity among men, this movie is really just another sentimental chick flick. There’s the supportive, loving girlfriend anxiously wringing her hands over her mixed-up and confused boyfriend, who, of course, just can’t decide whether or not to commit to her and invest himself fully in their relationship.
And, true to form, the boyfriend finally comes around in the end, realizing he can’t live without her, just in time, before it’s too late, and she is gone forever.
Typical story line, you say, but David Fincher does a great job of spicing it up – which is probably why so many guys love this movie, and never suspect they are really watching just another sappy chick flick.
So here’s my take on “Fight Club” – some things to watch out for – one or two questions to think about as you’re watching it.
First, the characters. You’ve got to pay fairly close attention to who is doing what (and to whom) in this movie. Frankly, I was a bit too distracted by Brad Pitt’s abs to pay close enough attention to anyone else – and found myself having to rewind quite a bit. So pay attention, because it all comes together in the end, and then you’ll spend time (at least five, maybe ten, minutes) going over the scenes in your mind to figure out the plot holes – a la “The Sixth Sense”.
Okay, here’s something to think about. Did we really need to have the guy with the big boobs? What’s up with that? And is there any significance that the guy with the big boobs gets the back of his head blown off? AFTER he participates in the Project Mayhem stunt of cutting loose that big corporate ball that rolled down the hill and smashed into the coffee shop? A(nother) nod to misogynism, maybe? Uh, huh.
Second, the support groups vs. the fight groups. I’m still figuring out what I think about the parallels between the support groups and the fight groups. But one of my favorite lines in the movie is when Jack comes out of (I think) the brain parasites support group he has been attending and says, “When people think you’re dying, man . . . they really, really listen to you.” This is deep stuff. So, I guess this is the same kind of feeling you get when people are kicking the crap out of you and smashing your face into a brick wall. Interesting.
Third, at the end of the movie, you find out that Tyler (Brad Pitt) and Jack (Edward Norton) have a unique existential relationship. And this raises the philosophical question of whether you really need to kill part of yourself to be “normalâ€Â? What if you like that part of yourself? Um, without giving TOO much away, I think I’d choose to be Tyler. But maybe without all the blowing up of the buildings. The human sacrifices were really cool, though. Made me wish I had followed my dreams and gone to vet school instead of to law school.
Finally, this movie successfully drives home the obvious point that men love to smash and destroy beautiful things. Like Jared Leto’s beautiful face. (Oh, Jared! Your eye! Your poor, poor nose!!!) It also raises the general question of whether people can be “happy” living in our single-serving, manufactured corporate culture. But check out Jean Baudrillard and “The Matrix” for that.
All in all, I’d give “Fight Club” one and a half thumbs up. I would have given it two thumbs up, if we hadn’t had that guy with the boobs in it. He creeped me out big time.
P.S. There are so many great scenes in this movie, so feel free to discuss favorite scenes, quotes, etc. I’ll tell you that I wish I could tell my boss off the way Ed Norton does if my boss ever found my Primary lesson materials in the office copy machine.
Simply awesome, Elisabeth, except that I HEART Bob, and his “bitch tits.” Meat Loaf made the movie for me.
Comment by Supergenius — December 8, 2005 @ 12:13 pm
Fight Club is my second favorite movie of all-time. I think I’ve tried to defend it here before.
First, I don’t think the movie is misogynistic at all; actually, I think it’s exactly the opposite. It’s as you say at the beggining: he comes around, realizes that the misogyny portrayed by some characters during the movie is wrong.
As for Bob: I tend to think that Bob is the most feminized character in the movie. But it should be noted that he got that we because he overpursued the masculine ideal–by taking lots and lots of steroids. If anything, I think this is further support of non-misogyny.
IIRC, Bob is the only character (well, maybe…depending on your interpretation) that dies during the movie.
Support groups vs. fight club–I think the key here is the lye/soap-making scene when Tyler tells Jack not to deal with it the way those dead people deal with it (i.e. going to his cave). I liken it to football strategy–the difference between “playing to win” and “playing not to lose.” The fight club is the former, the support group the latter.
*spoiler* “…Kill part of yourself to be normal”. I should point out that, Jack and Marla both end up, well, not exactly alive at the end.
Happiness in single-serving lifestyle– I think a strong parallel can be drawn to Marx’s theory of alienation.
[Also, interestingly, the quote about soap being the yardstick of civilzation is actually from Freud...]
Comment by Pris — December 8, 2005 @ 12:24 pm
Pris – I think you’re right about the movie not being misogynistic – but ONLY if you are specifically looking to exonerate the movie on these grounds (i.e, that it is not misogynistic).
First of all, the Marla character is, well, I’d say worse than Jack OR Tyler. She attempts to kill herself with pills (passive aggressive way to commit suicide – guys never commit suicide in the movies this way) and then calls Jack to talk to him as she dies, so I completely disagreed with Tyler’s assessment that Marla is at least “trying” to hit bottom – because she called Jack to save her after she took the pills (ostensibly). So, she’s a typical weak female character – not only because of this, but because of the way she allowed herself to be treated by Jack/Tyler. True, she was getting some enjoyment out of their relationship, but it was destructive and co-dependent (again, typical female character).
I think the movie would have been much better (and a completely different movie) if Marla herself had joined in the fight clubs. Where were the women fight clubs?
Second, the Bob character goes either way. Yes, he’s the only one who dies – but isn’t this because he’s the most feminized character? I like your point about he only became feminized through his own weakness (steroid use), but I’m not sure how that exonerates his character.
Third, Tyler and Jack bemoan the fact that their fathers abandoned them, that they were raised by women, and that’s the last thing they need in their lives – another woman. Sure, you can read between the lines here (and later on in the movie), and see that Jack actually DOES need Marla (?), but this conversation is part and parcel of the “women are the cause of all men’s problems” mentality.
Fourth, I have to admit that I didn’t quite get the soap analogy other than Jack and Tyler laughing at the women who were paying $20 for a bar of soap made out of their own discarded fat. (stupid women)
Anyway, I generally liked the movie – but I think any anti-misogynistic theme may be a bit too subtle for most people to pick up on.
Comment by Elisabeth — December 8, 2005 @ 12:45 pm
I work with a guy who is into lots of martial arts, along with his buddies. On Saturday nights they get together, drink a keg of beer, then “do” fight club. He has invited me to come and watch. I can’t decide whether to be disgusted with myself because I haven’t gone yet, or because I kind of want to.
Comment by Mark IV — December 8, 2005 @ 12:56 pm
LOL! Well, if you go, Mark – you have to fight. After I saw the movie, I was all psyched up to smash someone’s face in. Since I’m a peaceful vessel who doesn’t go around picking fights (well, physical ones anyway), I realized that all the studies about children watching violence on TV may be right on the money. But, that said, Jared Leto’s face post-fight has cured me of any fight club aspirations.
P.S. No one was harmed in the making of this blog post.
Comment by Elisabeth — December 8, 2005 @ 1:05 pm
I ran. I ran until my veins pumped battery acid. And then I ran some more.
Comment by Eric Russell — December 8, 2005 @ 1:22 pm
Let me add that the Fight Club website is one of the greatest early uses of the web for a big movie. You can download the alternative flight emergency procedures! http://www.foxmovies.com/fightclub/
Comment by Supergenius — December 8, 2005 @ 1:32 pm
Mark, if you bust out the “Peach Stealing Monkey,” I guarantee you’ll win. And never be asked back.
Comment by NFlanders — December 8, 2005 @ 2:33 pm
One of the great movies of all time (IMO). It was this film that led some to think Fincher might be the new Kubric. Then he went and made Panic Room and not much else.
I’d contest whether it is anti-mysoginist or pro-mysoginist. To me what is so great about the film is that it spirals between both positions making you think about it. The point of the movie (symbolically played up by the ending, I think) is that there are all these issues that it problematizes, only to then kick you again when you’re convinced by the opposing view, swinging you back to your original and so forth.
Even its nihilism is like this. The move between positions without picking one would seem to be a kind of embracing of nihilism. Yet then nihilism is endorsed by Jack’s doppleganger and we’re ushered into a kind of anti-nihilism. Further there are all these moments in the film, like the “fake” shooting of the Korean guy working at the store that are pretty anti-nihilist. (For those familiar with philosophy, it’s very Kierkegaardian)
Great film precisely because at the end you’ve not been told what to think but rather have been told to think.
Comment by Clark Goble — December 8, 2005 @ 5:03 pm
Clark – that’s a great analysis. I think that’s why I liked the movie, too – it wasn’t so obviously in one corner or another.
Many people don’t realize that before “Fight Club” was a movie, Chuck Palahniuk wrote the book “Fight Club”, upon which the movie is based.
I read the book before I watched the movie, and I think I like the book better than the movie (although the movie is a fairly good adaptation of the book). You should check it out.
Comment by Elisabeth — December 8, 2005 @ 7:34 pm
I read the book after the movie, and I didn’t feel it added anything to it. There was very little lost from the book, and quite a few cool things that I think Fincher put into the movie himself.
Seriously and without hyperbole, I truly believe that Palahniuk is one of the worst writers in print today. He lucked out with Fight Club and the movie adaptation; he’ll never have to submit to an editor again. I read Survivor and Choke, both of which are currently on my top ten list of worst books I’ve ever finished.
Comment by NFlanders — December 8, 2005 @ 8:40 pm
Ned, try getting through the “Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood” for a book group some time. Or is that on your top ten list, too?
Comment by Elisabeth — December 9, 2005 @ 8:42 am
I was just grateful that this film provided such a good soap recipe. It works great.
Comment by danithew — December 9, 2005 @ 9:08 am
Nice review. (I was creeped out by the man-boobs too.)
Fight Club is one of my favorite movies, Elisabeth. And not just because Helena Bonham Carter is a cutie. (n.b. — one of the movie’s many quirks was that the love scene was in fact computer generated. HBC has a great quote in Premiere magazine about filming that part: “Very frustrating-to be underneath Brad Pitt for twelve hours and not be able to enjoy it.”).
I think Clark is exactly right that one of the things the movie does is draw the viewer in to the misanthropy in a weird participatory way. Tyler peeing in the soup is horrible, and yet it’s awfully funny at the same time. And we’re horrified (I hope) but laughing at the same time. We as viewers get a chance to exercise part of our personality that we would never do in real life, and we like it. The funny thing is that that is ultimately (without giving too much away) what Ed Norton is doing as well. It’s all about living vicariously. Doing things we would never otherwise do.
And so who is the unnamed narrator? It’s you, Elisabeth, and me. It’s the nameless, faceless viewer. We are Ed Norton, watching Tyler’s many adventures.
Comment by Kaimi — December 9, 2005 @ 2:45 pm
I too love Fight Club. And I loved your take on it Elisabeth — bravo!
Comment by D. Fletcher — December 9, 2005 @ 3:41 pm
I wonder just how many women really do like this movie, and how many women say they like this movie just to appear cool with the guys. (not that you’re doing this, Elisabeth – I’m just sayin’).
I had to fast forward a lot of this movie because it was just too violent. But anyone who rents a movie called “Fight Club” knows what they are getting into.
My opinion? Watch “March of the Penguins” instead…
Comment by Tess — December 9, 2005 @ 4:17 pm
Kaimi – interesting take. Living vicariously through others is thrilling (um, peeing in soup? Not so much. Splicing naughty pictures into family films? Um, no…)that it can become difficult to distinguish fantasy from reality (i.e., the fantasy becomes your reality), which, in this movie at least, leads to disastrous consequences.
D- thanks! I enjoyed the movie, too. No matter what Tess says.
Comment by Elisabeth — December 9, 2005 @ 10:14 pm
Hate to break it to you, but he wasn’t peeing.
Comment by Supergenius — December 9, 2005 @ 11:38 pm
Hate to break it to you, Supergenius, but he *was* peeing in the soup. If you thought it was something else, you imagined it.
Comment by D. Fletcher — December 10, 2005 @ 9:39 am
Wait, what about the clam chowder??
Comment by Supergenius — December 10, 2005 @ 9:55 am
Elisabeth– How did you know what my book club is reading? Seriously, though, I’d pick up the Ya-Ya Sisterhood before another Palahniuk.
Comment by NFlanders — December 10, 2005 @ 12:58 pm
I agree with NFlanders re: Palahniuk getting lucky writing Fight Club. I loved the book and the movie. Recently I purchased Haunted hoping I would enjoy it just as much as I did Fight Club. It was horrible!! Of course there were parts that I couldn’t stop reading, just like I can’t look away from a train wreck. But in the future I will do my best to avoid any of his future writings.
Still I loved the movie… and not just to appear cool to the boys.
Comment by Rebecca — December 19, 2005 @ 5:24 pm
Here’s the deal with Bob: The pursuit of masculinity that he pursues with steroids that costs him his manhood is the scar-free, marble statue version of manhood. This is the stylized, feminine ideal of man. It is completely different from the hard-as-nails, push yourself to your limit version of manhood developed in fight club.
I vehemently disagree with Clark’s analysis.
There’s no ambiguity in the message of the story. As the book says, “What you see at fight club is a generation of men raised by women.” The description that follows outlines exactly the impact this has had on them. They’ve never pushed themselves as men. They don’t understand their own violent natures. They fear confrontation that pushes their limits as men.
The reason why a generation of men raised by women doesn’t know any of this is because manhood isn’t something that can be taught. It is something that can only be learned by doing. The first and second rules of fight club are “you don’t talk about fight club.” Fight club is about doing, not talking. You recognize these people with their scars and bruises, and you exchange a knowing nod–there’s nothing to be said.
In the end, it’s popular to say that anything that celebrates manhood by opposing it to feminine ideals is misogynistic. But this is a misapplication of the word. Celebrating masculinity does not detract from femininity, nor is it necessarily hostile to it. Fight Club is not misogynistic, but it unapologetically celebrates manhood and bemoans the emasculation of men’s roles in society.
It’s also a cautionary tail. In another voice, I’ve referred to it as a post-feminist horror flick. It portrays what men will do when society fails to contain them.
As far as Marla, she’s a foil. It’s difficult to see her as a full participant in the story.
Comment by DKL — December 23, 2005 @ 2:41 am
[...] populist fascism can flourish here, and about why this is the perfect time for it.” The blog Kulterblog tells us that really, “despite its name and its singular popularity among men, this movie is [...]
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