Fight Club II This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time…
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| This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time… |
CHARACTERS
- Brad Pitt As Tyler Durden
- Edward Norton As Cornelius, “The Narrator”
- Helena Bonham Carter As Marla Singer
- Michael Lee As BOB
Released
on: September
10, 1999 (Venice)
IMDB: 8.8/10
IMDB: 8.8/10
CRITICS CONSENSUS
“Solid
acting, amazing direction, and elaborate production design make Fight Club a
wild Ride”
SYNOPSIS: Fight
Club, is a movie about a man who fights with the life he lives. The unnamed
main role of the movie suffers from insomnia. In the bud of the story, he copes
with his insomnia by falsely admitting that he has cancer and attending support
group sessions. The sessions allow him to feel included, as well as witness
suffering greater tha his own. When a woman, Marla, discovers his secret, he no
longer feels welcome at the support groups so he is forced to find a new outlet
for his insomnia. This is when he meets Tyler Durden. Tyler Durden works with
the protagonist to establish the popular Fight Club, in which men fight in the
basement of bars. The purpose of the fighting, they prove, is not simply to
beat up another man. The men fight against everything their lives have become,
and fight against their fears.
Throughout the story, Tyler
Durden escalates Fight Club into a mission to destroy the world. The
protagonist has a confusing bout with reality to ultimately discover that, when
he sleeps, he is Tyler Durden. The novel proceeds with the realization that,
all along, the main character has struggled with a personality disorder and has
been completing the acts of injustice to intensify Fight Club himself. The main
character, unable to cope, attempts to kill him. The last few pages describe
him waking up in a mental hospital and being told by alliances that they expect
Tyler Durden back. The story is a compelling depiction of a struggling man in
search of solace.
“Although there are numerous
positive reviews about this movie, many call it overrated, excessive hype or
time wasting movie. But after 20 years, it is believed that FIGHT CLUB is still
modern and will remain in center of discussion after 20-30 years”
Explanation by roles and incident:
Cornelius-
Narrator (Norton): Norton works in a company as an
automobile recall specialist which is a boring job to him and he suffers from
insomnia for a long time. He has not been able to sleep for six months. So he
consulted the psychiatrist and asked for medicines to help him to get rid of
this problem. Psychiatrist asks him to modify his lifestyle, but he urges that
he is suffering so much pain. Then, Psychiatrist suggests him to visit cancer
support group and see how much pain they are bearing.
Cancer
Support Groups: In such groups patients with cancer
shares their traumatic experiences of their lives. Norton heard of an injured
patient being neglected by his daughter and wife as a result of removal of
testicles. Norton felt pain about this and it results in a good sleepy night
for him.
Marla
Singer: Presence of Marla Singer in cancer support group
takes Norton back to his problematic life. Norton realizes that Marla is not a
cancer patient. For which, Norton couldn’t express his feelings to others
because of the presence of a faker. Later on, Norton accuses Marla about this
and tells that she is a faker. They make a conditional agreement that they
wouldn’t stay in each other’s group and separated their session timing. They
exchanged their number to follow this up.
Tyler
Durden: While Norton was sleeping while returning from a
business trip, he introduced himself as another alternative character, Tyler
Durden. Although Norton’s simple attire was worn, Tyler Durden was wearing a
bright color suit. When Tyler introduces himself as a soap maker, it appears
Tyler and Norton having the same briefcase. Tyler says in his conversation, it
is possible to make a lot of explosive with home accessories.
Apartment
Explosion: Tyler knows that, he is Norton’s
destructive phase but Norton still doesn’t understand that. Norton only knows
that Tyler is merely a charismatic person. In the meantime, while Norton falls
asleep, he goes to the destructive phase and blows up his furnished condo home.
But Norton initially thought this as an accident. This is understood in phone
calls between the police officer and Norton.
Norton’s
call to Tyler: From a phone booth, Norton makes a call
to Tyler. That wasn’t really a phone call. There was no incoming call written
in the phone booth. It was Norton’s fantasy. He met Tyler at the bar. At that
time, even though Tyler smoked, Norton didn’t smoke. Then Norton asked if he
would stay at Tyler’s house. Tyler agrees that he has to make a few favors. Tyler
asks Norton to punch him and started fighting each other and feels contented.
That’s why Norton himself fights noticed that the previous time he had a pain,
solved his insomnia problem.
Composition
of Fight Club: Norton’s goes to Tyler’s house. Tyler
says he has been here for 1 year. That means Norton’s destructive phase was
created 1 year ago. Norton briefly describes Tyler’s character as to where he
did it. Actually Norton used to fight with himself which attracted downbeat
peoples. One thing is very clear that is, there are so many pessimistic
characters in public, private and corporate places around us. No matter how
successful they are, but the number of happy people was so less. So, Norton’s
fighting with himself attracted them. There is another kind of happiness in
killing someone or beating yourself up which helps Norton to constitute fight
club.
Rules
of Fight Club: Fight club has eight rules to follow. We
see Tyler to say those rules in opening speech of fight club. But, actually
Norton was the man who narrates the rules to the members of fight club.
Assignments:
Tyler
gives some assignments to the members that they have to do that assignment and
tells that they have to become failed in some places. Tyler doesn’t like
people’s materialistic life. He proves that life is more precious than those
things. For example, Tyler demonstrates Norton an assignment, in which Tyler
interrogate a person named Raymond Hessel with gunpoint. Then Tyler let him go
with a six weeks pressure situation. When Norton asks Tyler about this, he says
tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of his life. He will take account and
feel important every little thing.
Project
Mayhem: Project mayhem is a secret operation led by the
members of fight club to demolish the American corporate system. It could be
taken as a fight of American working class against famished corporate
moneybags. Project Mayhem so many little assignments to done, though the main
goal was to demolish Credit Card’s Corporate House. It will demolish all information
about the indebted person and they will be free from debt.
Annexation
to Project Mayhem: In the last plot of movie, a twist in
which we see that, everyone knows Norton as Tyler and address him as ‘Sir’.
That’s mean the Norton is the main leader of project mayhem not his projection.
At the time of recruiting member for project mayhem, Tyler and Norton harass
bob and a stranger for 3 days. If Tyler and Norton find themselves qualified
only they are welcome to project mayhem.
Bob’s
Death and Norton’s Realization: In the meantime, Tyler
left Norton and Bob get killed at time of doing an assignment at a coffee-shop.
Then Norton finds out good amount of airlines tickets in his cupboard drawer of
departing and arriving of different places. With this clue, Norton started to
visit those cities and places and try to find Tyler. He finds out that in every
city fight club has been constituted and everyone addresses him as ‘Sir’. The
most interesting part was Norton asks a bartender that where is Tyler.
Bartender replies, “Sir, is it any kind of test?” Because fight club’s first
rule was, they don’t talk about fight club. The same rule later shifted to
Project Mayhem’s rule.
Ending:
The
movie starts with last scene of the movie and the whole movie was a flashback
of the narrator. In the ending, Norton tries to defuse bombs which were to
destroy the credit card corporate house. But Tyler stops him and they fight
with each other in which Norton gets defeated every time. At a point, Norton
shoots Tyler, but nothing happens to imaginary Tyler. Then Tyler asks Norton to
continue the project mayhem in gunpoint. Norton realizes that if Tyler is
Norton himself, the gun is also in his hand. So, to diminish Tyler, Norton puts
the gun in his mouth and shoots him which goes tearing apart his face. Here,
Tyler Durden’s chapter gets closed. But till then, Tyler’s mission was
accomplished.
SWOT
ANALYSIS
As we see in the movie,
main character Norton has split personality. Because of that, we have two
characters (Norton and Tyler) that plays main role but Norton is the only
person. So, it is necessary to understand both of the characters Strength,
weakness, opportunities and threats.
Ø Strength
of the characters
Edward Norton
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Tyler Durden
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Supportive: In
this type of personality, the people
are the universal helpers, sharing their knowledge, experience, time and
energy with anyone who needs it.
The Narrator Edward Norton has the
same personality in ‘Fight Club’. Because he attends support groups in
attempt to subdue his emotional state and relieve his insomniac state. When
he meets Tyler Durden on a flight home, then Tyler seems to be everything
that he is not and together they create a men-only group for bare-knuckle
fighting. It soon becomes all the rage with fight clubs springing up across
the country and the group itself becoming an anti-capitalist domestic
terrorist organization. Without Norton’s support this was not possible.
Imaginative and Observant: This
type of personality comes under defender personality. In which defenders are
very imaginative and use this quality as an accessory to empathy, observing
others’ emotional states and seeing things from their perspective.
An insomniac unnamed
narrator needs a fantasy to escape from his deadly boring life. He tries
joining a cancer support group however the only thing they do in the group is
cry into each other’s chest. Even the narrator doesn’t have cancer he joined
the group just to observe what another person experiencing from within in
that situation. The narrator has the capacity to place himself in another’s
position.
Good Practical Skills: The
best part of these skills is, people with good practical skills have the
sense to actually do something with all altruism.
As an employer he was efficient with
his work in office. In Fight Club Norton shows his good practical skill as
teamwork, leadership for his Fight club. In Mayhem operation also he shows
his good practical skills as again teamwork. In Fight Club Norton seems to
thinking practically for anything.
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1.
Charismatic and
knowledgeable: A charismatic person can not only
appear confident in communication, but they can also help others feel
confidence too, thus aiding and enhancing the communication process. Hence
charisma is the quality of being able to attract charm and influence people
around them. Whereas a knowledgeable person passes up a good opportunity to
learn something new. If a person is knowledgeable then he will appear
charismatic.
In the movie Tyler Durden has just
opposite personality of Norton. Tyler is a character who is anti-consumerist
and basically an anarchist. Tyler is very charismatic and knowledgeable and
leader who can affect and control a group of men in an almost cult-like fashion.
Quick
thinker: Tyler Durden
has the debater personality types, who has tremendously flexible minds, and
are able to shift from idea to idea without effort, drawing on their
accumulated knowledge to prove their points.
In the movie if talk about Tyler, has the
source of ideas. If talk of starting of fight club while drinking outside the
bar, don’t know what he thought he just told Norton to hit him. And
continuously forcing him to hit. Then he hit him and in return Tyler also hit
him. Then from there fight club started. In everywhere in the movie he seems
to be a quick thinker. He has given many rule of innovation. First one is,
‘No Fear. No Distractions. Second rule- No Fear No distraction. Third is, I
say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let’s evolve, let the
chips fall where they may.
Energetic: when given chance to examine an interesting
problem, people can be truly impressive in their enthusiasm and energy,
having no qualms with putting in long days and night to find solution.
In the movie when Tyler faces any
problem then he simply overcomes from those. There was a situation when
legally they were caught during fighting in fight club. Then just he overcome
from that he starts fighting with him and start applying blood on his mouth
and then the police authority went away from there. There are many other
scenes in the movie where he uses his energetic strength.
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Ø Weakness
of the Characters
Edward Norton
|
Tyler Durden
|
Reluctant
to change: These challenges can be particularly
hard to address since people’s personalities value traditions and history in
their decisions.
In the movie Norton is affected by
consumerism. He even subconsciously knows that it is not right. These things
don’t matter in life. But he is just running away from it rather than admit
it. When fight club is developed well, Tyler gives assignments to members.
The assignments are not ethical and every time brings change to everything.
But Norton just wanted to run the fight club as it is, not anything else.
Repress
their feelings: People
with this type of personality type are private and very sensitive,
internalizing their feelings a great deal. They protect their own feelings,
and this lack of healthy emotional expression can lead to a lot of stress and
frustration.
In the movie Edward Norton has the
feelings for Marla singer but he represses this and shows he doesn’t love her
anymore and force her also to repress the same. Sometimes in the scenes he
seems in emotional state but he represses it and shows himself as a strong
man.
Take
things too personality: people
have trouble in separating personal and impersonal situations – any situation
is still an interaction between two people, after all – and any negativity
from conflict or criticism can carry over from their professional to their
personal lives.
In the movie there is a scene where
Norton’s manager found blood on his shirt which was of last fight. Somehow
the manager gets to know about fight club. And told him to change the shirt
then he took this personally and set the mind to vex his manager. And then
after somedays he threatened his manager to give him salary even if he won’t
come to office taking the advantage of fight club. Then the manager denied
and called the security. For making manager indulge in an affair Norton start
hurting himself. So manager agrees to that deal what Norton promises.
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Insensitive:
Being
so rational, People often misjudge others feelings and push their feelings
well past others tolerance levels. People with this personality type don’t
really consider emotional points to be valid in such debates either, which
magnifies the issue tremendously.
In Fight club he doesn’t have any
feelings for anyone. Even if Norton shows his feeling for Marla singer in
front of him, he just misjudges his feelings. He never shows his sensitivity
in the movie.
Intolerant:
- Unless people are able to back up
their
ideas in a round of mental sparring, people are likely to dismiss not just
the ideas but the people themselves. Either a suggestion can stand up to
rational scrutiny or it’s not worth bothering with.
In movie Tyler attempts several tasks
which were rational from Tyler’s perspective. Everything Tyler does have a
reason. But Norton doesn’t understand what’s going on and keep on asking him
why you doing this? What is the need to do such things? When these questions
arise Tyler gets furious on Norton.
Very
Argumentative: If there’s anything debaters enjoy,
it’s the mental exercise of debating an idea, and nothing is sacred. More
consensus oriented personality types rarely appreciate the vigor with which
debater personalities tear down their beliefs and methods, leading to a great
deal of tension.
In movie Tyler has
different ideology from Norton. Norton tells a lot of things giving any
thoughts to mind which was pity for Tyler. Tyler arises argument almost about
everything with Tyler. He shares his rigid ideologies with Norton and tries
to understand that how everything works.
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Norton is the only
character who possesses two different identities in two different time frames.
But the opportunities or threats are involved with each other, because
whatsoever coming, Norton has to face that.
Ø Opportunity
of the Character
Overcoming
Consumerism: What so ever characteristics Tyler
possess, it is the projection of Norton’s mind. Tyler is an anti-consumerist,
so is Norton, sub consciously.
He
could have brought his imaginary solution by rational thinking and could have
solved this problem by more efficient way instead of destructing everything and
changing people’s mind as a rebel. Tyler wanted to make revolution against rich
moneybags which is taking away the inner peace of people’s. Norton could have
surpassed this problem just by helping himself with more strong thought
process.
Biggest
Community in USA: Norton and Tyler have spread out the
fight club throughout the USA. In every cities, places even in police
department’s, fight club has its members. The community was so bigger and
strong that they could achieve anything. But their motive was right from their
perspectives but the way they have chosen is not right at all. People from all
aspects of life could have demanded to get out of this problem. They could
negotiate with big capitalists and come in an effective solution with their
huge manpower. And, Norton aka Tyler only led to all of this as a leader of
fight club. Everyone just followed him to get eternal peace by get rid of this.
Ø Threats
of the Character:
Legal
action: Norton as Tyler has planned something bigger which
was not even in his knowledge. If anyone of national security could have known
this Norton could be in prison cell. He even couldn’t have the idea of what is
going on. Though Tyler did this, but the person is Norton. His life might be
ended up here.
Dissociative
Identity Disorder: Along with dissociation and multiple or
split personalities, Norton could have experience a number of other psychiatric
problem such as suicidal tendencies, panic attacks, psychotic etc. Though he
was having depression, sleep disorders and eating disorders. As a result,
Norton could have end up his life by giving it away.
Bombing
Credit Card Corporate Building: To demolish consumerism
Tyler plans to blow up all credit card corporate houses. He is clear that it
wouldn’t do any harm to people and no one would be killed. But a bigger plan
like this of blowing up every corporate building could easily take away
people’s life.
Issues
in the Movie
Norton is an insomniac
and suffering from some other problems which he didn’t know. So we should
divide the problems in three steps:
Step 1: The main character Norton- the
Narrator was suffering from insomnia. So, he doesn’t know when he is sleeping
or when he is awake. He was also affected by consumerism which he (subconscious
mind) actually didn’t want. He thinks only that his insomniac problem took his
peace away.
Step 2:
Along with the previous problem, Norton has created another projection (Tyler)
of himself which is actually a mental disorder. This disorder is known as
Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) or Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).
MPD or DID is a disorder, where duality or multiple personalities of any person
are present in different time frame.
As Norton
subconsciously didn’t want to spend his money on unnecessary things, it creates
a different identity in him which is against consumerism or materialistic life.
The proof of this problem is, Norton couldn’t sleep for last six month but when
he gets sleep and after awaking, he finds himself in different places. That’s
mean, Norton’s another projection (subconscious mind) gets strong when he
sleeps and acts as Tyler Durden.
Step 3:
As Tyler Durden is a destructive phase of Norton, he gets what he want by
destructing something. By Tyler’s opinion, if we fight with each other without
any grievances we can get peace. Moreover, Norton exploits his own apartment by
homemade bombs acting as Tyler to get rid of consumerism. Only Tyler knows
that, he can made bomb from household accessories. And if Tyler knows, Norton
also knows. Later on, Tyler’s destructive phase took the situation to destroy
Credit Card Corporate House by project mayhem.
Overcoming
the Hurdle
Norton has a lot of
problems with some mental disorder which is so difficult to overcome without
intense care. Firstly,
Norton has no idea that he is suffering from mental disorder which needs
clinical psychologists help. So, we can’t say that the character actually did
overcome the problems but it ends up with his strength.
~
Norton wasn’t aware about his mental
disorder. But when he found his friend Bob dead, he felt that something is not
right. He was always supportive to Bob, which is his strength. He
was emotionally attached to Bob. So, when Bob get killed it triggered his
supportiveness for Bob. From that time, he starts to realize that whatsoever is
happening is totally wrong.
~
Then Norton’s observant strength
comes in life when he tries to find out where Tyler has gone. By his observant
power, he connects all of the points with Tyler’s work and gets to know that
Tyler has influenced him to do such heinous work. Though he didn’t know Tyler
is his projection of mind. After some attempt to find Tyler, he suddenly
appears and told Norton that, Tyler is no one but himself. And in the last
scene of the movie we see that, Norton observes whatever Tyler doing is
Norton’s work. For his good observation he helps himself by shooting him.
~
We can see that Norton wasn’t ready to
bring any changes to him. But later on, he transformed his weakness reluctant
to change to his power when he was emotionally triggered by Bob’s dead. But
till then he is likely to do as everything is.
~
A thing should be pointed out that, not
only Norton but Tyler’s strength of knowledgeable and rational mind
helped Norton to overcome his problem about consumerism.
~
Most importantly, how Norton overcomes
the Tyler who has a strong presence in Norton’s mind. He turns Tyler out of his
head by shooting on his face, which gives instant shock to his mind and the
pain he feels brings him to total consciousness. It has worked as reactions to
stimuli or triggers to stop projecting Tyler. And, as the Tyler’s motive gets
accomplished by blowing up all credit card corporate houses, so the projection
of Tyler didn’t come back after triggering the mind. And, for this reason, we
can’t say that Norton has overcome his problem. Because, his mental disorder
didn’t get cured.
Underlying
Message
“Fight Club” explains to us that
the creation of an authentic self is something we can only do for ourselves
whether it would involve a fight or a breakdown. For instance, the quotes from the movie,
·
“At the time, my life just seemed too complete,
and maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of
ourselves.”
·
“Only after disaster can we be resurrected.
It’s only after you’ve lost everything that you’re free to do anything. Nothing
is static, everything is evolving, everything is falling apart. Maybe
self-improvement isn’t the answer, maybe self-destruction is the answer”.
Fight Club tells us we are not free because of the things we think are
important, the things we own, the things and things.
It is because we try to complete our life by consuming materials and
possessions that surround us, but none of those matters if we are not complete
ourselves mentally.
And until we lose everything in life that we hold valuable, we truly do
not peek into our unconsciousness to seek the answer to “What do we
really want in life?”, because the question comes to us at a high price
and we pay much to answer it.
The movie “Fight Club” brings up a significant
interpretation that we seek help from our unconsciousness when our
consciousness cannot deal with certain problems that involve our emotions and
feelings. However, it is as if only once we are broken or stripped down or
destroyed, we start to seek answers and start to question our values.
But why do we wait for
such conflicts and hardships to rise so that we can start trying to answer
those questions? Really.
It is the same as if
something bad does not happen in life that challenges us; we might spend our
life surrounding ourselves with such temporary values, never trying to discover
what has the most value to us.
And only when something breaks those barriers and
shakes us, we wake up.
Probably, that is how the great people are great
because they do not wait for anything to happen (wait for Fight Club) instead
they create those challenges that tremble them. And they let it tremble them.
So they build themselves again.
The message we all should be getting from “Fight
Club” is not to talk about Fight Club instead it is this:
“Do not wait
for the fight club to find you; instead you should be your own fight club”.
-THANK YOU-
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