Note: Movie Spoilers Ahead! 

How would life be without the complex rules there are? How much more hectic, chaotic, and disoriented can our world get?

Every time summer rolls in, there's a movie I always look forward to watching. Scratch that, anytime any season rolls around there's one movie I look forward to rewatching. If there's any movie I have to recommend to thousands of random people on a day to day basis: It's this one. My first watch dated back to 21st July 2023 around the same time as the Barbenheimer releases. I first watched Fight Club (Dir. David Fincher, 1999) because I thought the poster looked “cool” and also because: Brad Pitt. Having had no background knowledge on Fight Club I gave in and watched it on the morning of the same day I had to watch Oppenheimer in my cinema. Out of pure boredom of having to wait all the way tonight to watch the latest Christopher Nolan film.

In this review, I’ll cover all the different cinematic features of Fight Club as well as my personal insights from my first watch up to my latest watch which was in the beginning weeks of this summer.

To my first watch, from what I can recall. I had just woken up and eaten breakfast. I was sat at an empty table in my room with nothing but an almost-of-battery computer. There was nothing to watch on YouTube and doomscrolling on Instagram brought nothing but 30 seconds of dopamine which would evaporate away. I thought now would be the best time to watch Fight Club and see what the hype is about and to really see if it was about wrestling or fighting or whatever. I wasn’t entirely wrong though. They did fight.

Everything was really absurd to me, as someone who speed-watches films and usually skips a lot of parts so the action can come faster, I remember by the end of the film I was so confused because of all the skipping so I decided to try again and watch the whole thing for as it is. Did I waste an extra hour and a half (probably more) because I couldn’t watch it right the first time? Absolutely not, I think that's the best hour and a half extra i’ve spent in my life. In the end I gained something, some sort of enlightenment in me and I didn’t even know what it was. I was amazed and stay amazed after each rewatch of Fight Club. Even if I have the dialogue memorized or I know what happens next I can just never get bored of it. Fight Club inspired me to pursue my hobby for film to one day be able to produce something as well as Fight Club and be able to work with the best directors in the industry!

The cinematography is some of the best in the world. Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth employed a dark aesthetic with striking blues and greens as well as the use of muted tones. When checking through the color palettes for certain scenes in Fight Club I tend to notice lots of muted browns and striking blacks. There's also the use of significantly brighter blues in contrast to all of the darker tones present. Striking color grading paired with hand-held camera action merges to create a sense of immediacy and chaos which matches the film’s themes and motives of a hectic, urban world.

Now onto something that I really appreciate in films: breaking the fourth wall. What this essentially means is that breaking the fourth is like breaking an imaginary wall between the audience and the character. These interactions can result in a more engaging experience and can make the audience feel as if they’re directly engaging with the character. In Fight Club we see the narrator address the audience whilst introducing Brad Pitt’s character: Tyler Durden. This makes the interaction feel more personal between the audience and character as well as sets the illusion of Tyler being a “real” person (more on that later.)

The editing. The editing in Fight Club is fast-paced with a lot of rapid cuts, jump cuts, and clean CGI. This editing style mirrors the life and state of The Narrator and can provide great perspective for the character. One of my favorite things done with the editing of Fight Club is quick flashes of Tyler on screen, a great way to show the presence of Tyler has existed throughout the life of The Narrator just up until they meet in the airplane scene.

Fight Club employs various camera angles which are integral to the unique visual style it carries. Such as using unconventional and disorienting camera angles to showcase the narrator's sense of instability with low angles, extreme close-ups, and distorted perspectives which are used to make the viewer feel uneasy. I have to admit, watching Fight Club for the first time made me feel uncomfortable because everything was happening so FAST.

The soundtrack, The soundtrack produced by The Dust Brothers accompanies many scenes in the film. there isn’t much to say about the soundtrack except the fact that it’s great to have a soundtrack especially a personalized one such as the one for Fight Club containing gorey, eerie, and ominous noises to suggest its violent and dark nature. It sets the mood for the film and gives that “spice” to a lot of scenes individuals would consider boring without. 

Now onto the actors. The three main characters you’ll see frequently appear are The Narrator (played by Edward Norton), Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt), and Marla Singer (played by Helena Bonham Carter.) Each character is equivalently excellent in committing to portray their character. One of the best performances from Edward Norton, and here's why. Before working on Fight Club he had to work on American History X in which he had to undergo an INSANE body transformation. Going from a strong, muscular figure to a shrunken down, skinny figure. When you think about it… is that really the same actor? The first time I saw Helena Bonham Carter on screen I became baffled, “Isn’t she the dark witch from Harry Potter?” also fun fact about Helena here, she had gotten bronchitis from the number of times she had to smoke on screen the 6 months. At least her commitment to the act let her play the perplexing and dark character of Marla Singer.

After I found out more about the Fight Club franchise, I decided to give in and buy the first book and it was insanely complex. I believe it was mentioned in the book or somewhere on a forum, I read that the movie simplified a lot of the book so it could be sold to a wider audience. After reading the first book I thought I was done... But apparently I wasn’t as there are 2 other books with even more action and content but I’m satisfied with where the first book left me.

As much as I love Fight Club it comes with its fair share of criticism or controversies. Such as being labelled as a misogynistic film with misogynistic characters however much can't be said about Fight Club and it's misogyny. As well as going under appreciated when it first released leading to the film not being able to win any awards. Though now it serves as a cult classic for many around the world.

So in conclusion, maybe its always great to watch a movie on the basis of how the poster looks. You won't regret it.