Acting "Fight Club"
Wednesday, April 1, 2020 at 11:30AM 
Fight Club is an exhausting film. Years of heated discourse and malicious fandom have made it so, its miscalculations laid bare by the legacy it has earned. Inheriting the pulp narrative of Chuck Palahniuk's source novel, the movie is a failed satire, critique made incoherent by cinematic idioms where the visceral appeal of style is at odds with necessary intellectual remove. The love many feel for it is still easy to understand, whether it's masked by irony or proudly defended. David Fincher's bravura filmmaking makes toxicity seem cool, kinetic and self-aware. Though, Fight Club seduces too well and, in the end, is unable to bat away its lovers with some feeble pretension of dissected masculinity.
If 4chan had a cinematic embodiment, here it is, as gloriously enraged as it is putrid and entitled, shallowness dressed in a costume of depth. Quite frankly, it's even exhausting to write about the thing. Maybe because so much has been written already. After so much discussion of its theme, intent and Mephistophelean stylings, I propose we discuss an element of the picture that's rarely examined – the art of acting Fight Club…
In the eye of the hurricane that is the critical evaluation of Fight Club, it's sometimes difficult to find a great many words about the work of its cast. Considering how maddeningly watchable it is, how serpentine its ideas can be, one shouldn't fault the cinephile that gives more attention to those elements rather than the actors. Still, the movie wouldn't work as well as it does if its players were any less prodigious. From the leads to the bit players, everyone is excellently cast and in tune with Fincher's fractured vision. That said, in the name of brevity, let's just focus on the three leads (or is it just two?).
As the nameless protagonist, Edward Norton might seem nebulous and undefined, but the blurriness is more purposeful than incidental. Since the movie is intrinsically connected to the man's psyche, always showing us the world filtered through these insomniac's mad eyes, it's only logical that the performance is as amorphous as the picture that contains it. In that regard, the choice of Norton is inspired, for he was always shown to have intensity to spare, especially when it manifests as brazen hostility. Here, all that fiery power is poured into an inchoate form, devoid of identity but rich in angst. He's male aggression personified.
However, that same testosterone-fueled rage is not glamourous to watch. Norton plays the nebbish man who's angry at women and the consumerist void of society, the asshole that needs someone to point him in the direction of bloody catharsis. The nameless man is a follower, not a leader. If you're looking for leadership and guidance, Brad Pitt's Tyler Durden is your man. Dressed in red leathers and gaudy patterns, his brow glistening with dirt and sweat, he's a Godly vision, a messiah of cum stained anarchy (or is it fascism?). Tyler is also the first great creation of Brad Pitt, the movie star.
After years of building his fame and trying to prove his chops as an actor, Brad Pitt was a fully formed phenomenon by the time Fight Club came around. In his previous Fincher collaboration, Se7en, the actor had constructed a careful characterization, full of aching humanity and personalized ticks. As Tyler, on the other hand, he's not making a human being out of a screenplay mechanism, he's sculpting his movie star magnetism into the shape of a false messiah. Tyler is the id to the nameless man's psyche, raw and devilishly sexy, a siren song we're all too willing to follow, even if it leads to hell.
Against the coherent incoherence of these two fragments of man, Helena Bonham Carter plays Marla Singer, an unexpected reality-check made up like one of the actress' trademark weirdos. Of course, in the history of Carter's career, this is the first of those weirdos. Regardless, Marla's quite the character, a live-wire of disruption, chaos smeared with kohl and the only sane person in the narrative. Barely hiding her British accent and fidgeting about in constant disarray, Carter is also the only element of the film that feels genuinely unpredictable. Her somersaulting through disparate tones and abrupt line readings are particularly odd, rubbing against the formalistic perfection of David Fincher's directing.
The insomniac, the id and the goddess of chaos, these are the performances that helped make Fight Club into the cultural touchstone that it is. Let's celebrate them for they are great, even if the film they belong to isn't (or is it?).
Fight Club (1999) is now streaming on HBO
Reader Comments (23)
Saw recently that Janeane Garofalo was attached to the part of Marla early on. Obviously would have been a completely different character.
I'm grateful to have HBC's version, but it's fun to think about!
Fun fact:
The "I haven't been f*cked like that since grade school" line was originally "I wanna have your abortion"
lol
Pitt and Bonham Carter both should have been nominated. though it was a stacked yeaer so somebody had to be left out.
Bruh, you just use too many words. All the time.
Stop.
This is what I like most about this site. All the contributors' opinions are informed, even if I may disagree with them (which in this case I clearly do).
Claudio, nice article as always. But I think Fight Club is a flat-out masterpiece, hugely influential and as incisive, disturbing, and creative an assay on masculinity as any film ever. It's a film brought up by many people commonly today (nobody is talking about Cider House Rules or The Green Mile, or really almost any other pic from 1999). Looking back, American Beauty's tackling of its themes feels like very low-hanging fruit, but Fight Club feels as vibrant and vital now as it did twenty years ago. I guess I was shocked to read your hesitancy on it. Ah well...different strokes...
Helena Bonham Carter is such an under appreciated actress. She is every bit as talented as the much more celebrated English actresses of her generation.
Your words are always interesting to read Claudio.
The movie has an interesting plot but I'm not a big fan of it, about the actors, the one I most remember is Helena Bonham Carter but I don't found her memorable (maybe because i watched dubbed).
Even when is understandable for these story the magnetic-star-prescence acting style of Brad Pitt I'm not so into him. Is boring to me to watch the same corporal expression of confident-masculine characters full of testosterone a la Mathew McCounaghey.
I prefer a most terrenal "hero" as Jonathan Pryce in Brazil
Me - Claudio is reinvigorating the site and giving the best articles by far (that's not a dig since the others mostly clear great as a minimum) and in such great quantities. I mean, a Fight Club piece after a lifetimes worth of them that you actually want to read, that's talent bruh. If you don't like the current MVP then skip his articles. If his meteoric rise to the top here bothers you so much just leave.
Jorge;
He's a talented writer, which is exactly why I'm saying this.
And I generally agree with his review. And agree a bit on the Pitt thing César is saying.
Your comment is boring tho.
Every time Claudio writes a review I seem to disagree vehemently. I've noticed in most of his 'negative' or 'critical' reviews he uses the word 'entitled' a lot. I just scratch my head and wonder.
Me -- I know I'm sometimes too verbose and am trying to work on it. Self-editing is usually the most difficult part of doing these pieces for me. Thanks for the feedback.
brandz -- Sorry you disagree, but thanks for that observation. I'll be on the lookout for gratuitous uses of the word "entitled" and will tone them down. It's honestly something I never realized until you pointed it out.
@Eric B. Definitively are just different strokes. When I watched the movie I don't seen it as a story about masculinity, just about anger and how we handle with that
But you are so right, Fight Club have been discussed more than American Beauty. Some other titles from 1999 that i've seen has more attention are The Matrix, Magnolia, The Blair Witch Project and La ley de Herodes (Herod's Law) in national cinema.
Yes, I am a defender of this film as well. It's one of those films, like THE SOCIAL NETWORK, that is actually about misogyny and toxic masculinity, but so many people only look at the surface and believe it is misogynistic and toxic. (I particularly know this being an educator of teenagers, and hearing so many boys over the years who revere it as gospel, not understanding that they're being satirised).
I actually believe it is a flawed masterpiece (I think it unfortunately drops the ball in its handling of the big twist), but a masterpiece nonetheless.
Fight Club is the Clockwork Orange of the modern era. I don't think the movie wholly works because it runs way too long. But Fincher was absolutely the right choice for the material. I love the three principal performances too.
It's strange because I don't like FIGHT CLUB but at the same time I understand the appreciation. Anyway for me Edward Norton is the best in show
1999, being such a great year for film historically, had such a dippy nomination list in the Supporting Categories, among many others. Imagine:
John Malkovich, "Being John Malkovich"
Christopher Plummer, "The Insider"
instead of:
Michael Clarke Duncan, "The Green Mile" (nice but nothing special)
Michael Caine, "The Cider House Rules" (he already had one, for a much better movie)
And how about:
Helena Bonham Carter, "Fight Club"
Cameron Diaz, "Being John Malkovich"
instead of:
Angelina Jolie, "Girl, Interrupted" (highly overreated)
Samantha Morton, "Sweet & Lowdown" (decent, but not in this groundbreaking year)
I love Cláudio’s writing, which is always thoughtful.
Bonham Carter absolutely ought to have been nominated for this (and won for The Wings of the Dove, but that’s another post altogether).
Your external environment plays a significant role in keeping you motivated that's why you must watch inspirational movies to keep yourself motivated for achieving goals in life. Some of the movies that have the potent enough to inspire and motivate us, like Fight Club, Social Networking, the Wall Street, The Pursuit of Happiness.
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