Director: David Fincher
Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter
Set against the cultural backdrop of the rise of the nineties metrosexual – where feminised men obsessed over shopping and grooming – the film mercilessly poked at everyone of us. Its a relentless attack from virtually the first scene as Edward Norton is caught wandering through his luxury apartment which is flagged up like am IKEA catalogue.
Fincher deliberately tried to shake viewers out of the consumer coma in a manner similar to the lead character.
Like American Beauty it shows men having a crises of identity.
Chuck Palahniuk says of lead character Tyler Durden, “Tyler is that externalised version of yourself that you never think you will become. The person you always wish you were.”
Chuck Palahniuk says “People should experience hurt, during the healing process you really are a much more reflective settled person. In the book it says ‘after fight club you ‘ve got no problem driving inside the speed limit’.”
Fight Club redressed the balance of masculinity in pop culture that had made an icon out of Ross from Friends. But Palahniuk says to him the book was mostly about reinventing romance. “I was just trying to to write about a guy who was like a knight going on a quest in order to attain an adult, committed relationship. …which is why we have the support group scenes, to establish romance and motive for a quest. And then reinventing the quest itself which was the fight clubs. “
