Fight+Club+(1999)


 * Film:** Fight Club


 * Plot:** Fight Club is about an insomniac (The Narrator) who creates an underground fight club using the identity of Tyler Durden due to his schizophrenia. With Tyler Durden, The Narrator realizes Tyler is everything he isn't, adventurous, great in bed, and most importantly, Tyler was free in ways The Narrator wasn't. The Narrator wants to be more like Tyler and less like himself which is what Tyler wants all along...

**Theme:** Self exploration almost always leads to something interesting...


 * Tone:** The tone of the film seems to be very dark throughout as there are rarely any uses of bright colors and in cases where there are, the environment surrounding consists of many dark color shades. Not only do colors set a very dark tone however the plot itself, an insomniac battling his schizophrenia, sets a very dark tone. The Narrator also assist in establishing this dark tone through his narration. The narration has a very neutral tone which strongly applies to the dark tone of fight club because during scenes such The Narrator imagining everyone being gruesomely torn apart in a plane crash, the narration is still neutral adding a mood of melancholy which in turn, contributes to the dark tone of the movie.

//**Non Diegetic:**// 1) A core element of Fight Club is the **narration** . If you take that away, no one in the audience would understand what's going on in The Narrato r's mind. The Narrator also uses narration to explain situations in which the audience would not have known other wise for example, when The Narrator is "lost in oblivion" or lost in Bob's "chest", he narrates Bob's story of how he was once successful but now broke because of drug use.

2) At the beginning of the film credits, the **music** is very upbeat and distorted as we travel through The Narrator's mind (literally). The reason for this is to emphasize on how chaotic The Narrator's mind is through the use of sound and visuals.

3) This screenshot is not only non diegetic due to the music but it is also non diegetic because of the **title** or **text on the screen** "Edward Norton".

4) After The Narrator gets extremely mad at Tyler for pulling a gun on a store clerk, a random shot of Tyler appears and the screen shakes back and forth. He is looking directly at the camera making it seem as if he was talking directly to the audience. This reinforces the mounting suspicion towards Tyler that he is not what he seems and foreshadows that something bad is about to happen as the way Tyler delivers his lines is extremely unsettling because of the shaking and also the scratching disc sound in the background.

6) When The Narrator pulls off that epic fight..with himself, the music starts to pick up after a long period of only background noise and conversation. The music immediately starts off as very upbeat emphasizing the change of atmosphere and mood in the room.

7) **Credits**!! In fancy fonts and colors!!!!

8) During the scene where The Narrator talks about his perfect condo, prices start to form on top of furniture (non diegetic) as he describes how much he likes his condo.

9) When the men of Fight Club were going through the bar to get to the basement, a jukebox is playing and as they enter the basement but even though they have already left the pub to enter the basement, the music is still playing from the jukebox and it slowly turns into a more upbeat tune to set the tone of the fights. Though it was diegetic before they entered, it became non diegetic as we could tune had changed and it was no longer coming from a source we could see on screen.

10) In the scene where Tyler is burning The Narrator's hand, a random shot of a burning forest appears to symbolize the pain the Narrator is going through.

//**Mise En Scene:**// 1) In the shot where The Narrator goes to his power cave however Marla has already infected it, we can see a contrast of colors. White in the background while Marla is dressed primarily in black. This emphasizes how evil Marla seemed to be towards The Narrator at the time. The fact that Marla looked like a devil spawn definitely contributed to the dark tone of the movie.

2) In all of The Narrator's support groups, there is always an ever hanging presence of death or depression or both in the support groups. The reason being is that the rooms are very dark and when they are lit, they are lit with white fluorescent lights and not the nice ones but the ones you see at your public rundown hospital. The example screenshot is of the cancer support group.

3) In this shot, there is a strong contrast between The Narrator and everyone else around him (or clones of his former self). A now free and powerful man as opposed to the desk jockeys around him that live by societies norms. This was a very good use of Mise En Scene because it showed how much The Narrator has changed from what he used to be (desk jockey slave towards society). This new person was a result of The Narrator's self exploration.

4) When Tyler Durden brings The Narrator to his house, the house is run down and empty. This shot screams contrast because if you look at choice 3, the Narrator WAS a person who worried so much about every single piece of furniture in his house however within a day of living in Durden's house, the Narrator realizes he does not care at all for Ikea furniture hence the theme: self exploration.

5) In my opinion, this was a very powerful shot as not only did it contribute to the dark tone but it told us a lot of things. A) Tyler Durden was living in a rundown house implying he did not care much for things people don’t need (He isn't poor because we can see him leaving the airport in a red sports car in an earlier shot) B) The house is in a very bad part of town. C) They are all alone for a half a mile radius which is essential to the plot later on as Project Mayhem's HQ will be in this house as no attention will come down on this broken house.

6) Mise En Scene was used very well in this shot. The Narrator had already seen the boss at the edge of his cubicle prior to his shot yet The Narrator still chooses to ignore the boss wiping off blood from a cut lip from the fight the night before. This directly relates to the theme of self exploration as after the fight, The Narrator realizes everything else in his life has become completely irrelevant and “tuned down” because he realized the life he is currently living is not who he truly is. He will then later leave his job with an epic exit.

7) Another great use of Mise En Scene is the Tyler Durden frame cuts. These Tyler Durden frame cuts were used before Tyler Durden was ev en introduced which shows that The Narrator already knew Tyler Durden which is impossible unless The Narrator made up Tyler Durden himself which is pretty much what the plots all about.

8) When The Narrator is going to testicular cancer support group, everything around the entrance is dark while the entrance itself is very brightly lit. This symbolizes how the support group is his only salvage against his dark life which is represented by the dark around the entrance. After his support groups, he can, as he put it, “sleep like a baby”. This also relates to the early part of the theme of self exploration. He decided that he would go to these support groups to try them out and he found out that for himself, his cure to insomnia was to go to these support groups and cry himself out.

9) After The Narrator makes it to the scene of his burnt down condo, there is a panning shot of all his furniture on the ground burnt to smithereens. This obviously will have a negative impact on anyone however more so with The Narrator as he emphasized in a previous scene that his Ikea furniture was pretty much his life. This definitely contributed to the dark tone of the film as everything in his life he had ever loved was just destroyed and its carcass left for him to see, all burnt up.

10) When Tyler Durden left the house, The Narrator comes downstairs and Mise En Scene is used to express the gravity of Project Mayhem which seems to be in full effect. Mise En Scene is also used to show how The Narrator, in his pajamas, no longer has control over something that spiraled out of control as he looks small and weak compared to the men or Project Mayhem around him.