Fight Club: an essay
Film Essay 1
Ashlee Ferguson
5528727
Tutorial I
Clip 2
Fight Club
Destruction as Liberator: It’s the Circle of Life
Director David Fincher uses the elements of mise-en-scene and the technical components of editing to advance the theme of destruction as the threshold of creation in his film “Fight Club”. In a film which struggles with the concepts of masculinity in a modern age, the narrator strives to create a world in which he can reconcile his current effeminate circumstances with his aggressive cave-man origins. He discovers that it is only through destroying his current environment that the film and the narrator can move towards re-shaping the world. Fincher leads his audience to these thematic conclusions through his use of graphic, rhythmic, spatial, and temporal constructions.
For the purposes of this essay I am allocating that the two characters of Marla and Tyler, which appear to be diametrically opposite, do not represent the masculine versus he feminine, but instead are the signifiers of creation and destruction, and therefore are not in opposition with each other but are mutually exclusive. This conceit allows us to analyze how Fincher graphically attempts to have one concept lead to the other, destruction to creation, Marla to Tyler. Within the sequence Fincher crowds the setting with people, debris and oppressive lighting, this crowding of the ‘real’ world, the one in which the narrator assumes Tyler inhabits, is in contrast with the narrator’s fantasy, the cave. While the cave is bright, open, and also, as the narrator discovers, contains Marla, the ‘real’ world of the film and this sequence is oppressively over-full. The score of the film is crowded with people talking, sirens, and phones ringing. While this further highlights the overwhelming consumerist world to which the narrator feels trapped in, it also allows us to visually construct a negative modern world view and allows us to view the sterile, devoid of life cave as desirable. This desire for a different world drives this sequence when implausibly the narrator finds Marla’s number out of the wreckage of his apartment. By constructing this, the director again calls attention visually to the idea of destruction as necessary component of evolution. This is also further extrapolated by the director’s use of lighting. When the explosion goes of it is a pristine white light, in contrast to the heavily saturated, dark green light of the wreckage, the director will utilize this again at the end of the film when the narrator is re-united with Marla and explosions surround them. Fincher has graphically alluded to the theme of destruction throughout the film but has also connected the narrator and Marla together with his use of the elements of mise-en-scene.
The spatial construct of this sequence is further utilized to emphasize the discordance the narrator feels between ‘real’ life and the gateway to his future world. The gateway is often embodied by acts of violence. Fincher utilizes space to stress the importance of these moments by cramping the ‘real’ world, and leaving violent destructive moments totally exposed. In this sequence as the narrator relates how his apartment was destroyed we view the mechanics of it in a more open space than the environment in which the narrator is. Fincher almost gives the montage a clarifying effect, which in turn makes it more real. The use of the camera to push-in on specific elements also thematically connects the explosion in the apartment to Tyler calling the narrator in the phone booth. By manipulating the sequence in this fashion Fincher foreshadows Tyler’s existential connection with violence, and ultimately destruction.
The thematic quest of seeking creation (here represented by Marla) through destruction is instigated by the editor’s construction of time in the sequence. By emphasizing the destructive aspects of the scene by slowing down time during the expository montage, and then speeding it up again for the explosion the editor makes the destruction seem hyper-real. While parts of the scene appear to be in real time, the narrator arriving at the apartment building, focal points of the sequence are slowed, or emphasized by time re-arranging cuts. When the narrator attempts to call Marla we move in apparent real time, when the phone rings again, we focus in, time, to the audience, appears to have stopped and Tyler (destruction) has called the narrator. The cuts within the sequence allude to the importance of Tyler as someone who is hyper-real, Tyler of course being the manifestation of destruction. By changing the temporal meaning of the sequence the film’s premise is strengthened.
David Fincher reiterates the theme of the film the rhythmic pacing of the sequence. The pace that is set in the montage of the destruction, while not fast, seems to have progression or purpose, the violent act is propelling us forward. Fincher contrasts this with the pacing of the narration in the ‘real’ world scenes. The narrator is within a pacing that forces him to be sedate, and almost non-reactionary to what is happening to him, even when given an opportunity to react (the destruction of all his worldly possessions) the pace of the scene traps him in a conformist outlook. The beats of the narration while allowing for humour further perpetuate the idea that these destructive elements are ultimately positive.
The continued affirmation of constructive destruction is ultimately perpetuated by the use editing, lighting, and setting within the sequence. Fincher and his editor are able to not only propagate the positivity of destruction but draw the viewer to the conclusion that destruction is the forefather of creation, and without the first you can never be prepared for the second. When the narrator attempts to call Marla what makes him hang up? Is it the need for Tyler’s violence? Or is it the realization that he must first destroy who he is before he attempts to create a new life with her. Fincher leads us to these questions with his effective use of oppressive setting, his temporal discordance, and discerning editorial eye. When brought together these elements allow the audience to view the sequence not as an opposition of destruction and creation, but as bringing both constituents to each other.
Ashlee Ferguson
5528727
Tutorial I
Clip 2
Fight Club
Destruction as Liberator: It’s the Circle of Life
Director David Fincher uses the elements of mise-en-scene and the technical components of editing to advance the theme of destruction as the threshold of creation in his film “Fight Club”. In a film which struggles with the concepts of masculinity in a modern age, the narrator strives to create a world in which he can reconcile his current effeminate circumstances with his aggressive cave-man origins. He discovers that it is only through destroying his current environment that the film and the narrator can move towards re-shaping the world. Fincher leads his audience to these thematic conclusions through his use of graphic, rhythmic, spatial, and temporal constructions.
For the purposes of this essay I am allocating that the two characters of Marla and Tyler, which appear to be diametrically opposite, do not represent the masculine versus he feminine, but instead are the signifiers of creation and destruction, and therefore are not in opposition with each other but are mutually exclusive. This conceit allows us to analyze how Fincher graphically attempts to have one concept lead to the other, destruction to creation, Marla to Tyler. Within the sequence Fincher crowds the setting with people, debris and oppressive lighting, this crowding of the ‘real’ world, the one in which the narrator assumes Tyler inhabits, is in contrast with the narrator’s fantasy, the cave. While the cave is bright, open, and also, as the narrator discovers, contains Marla, the ‘real’ world of the film and this sequence is oppressively over-full. The score of the film is crowded with people talking, sirens, and phones ringing. While this further highlights the overwhelming consumerist world to which the narrator feels trapped in, it also allows us to visually construct a negative modern world view and allows us to view the sterile, devoid of life cave as desirable. This desire for a different world drives this sequence when implausibly the narrator finds Marla’s number out of the wreckage of his apartment. By constructing this, the director again calls attention visually to the idea of destruction as necessary component of evolution. This is also further extrapolated by the director’s use of lighting. When the explosion goes of it is a pristine white light, in contrast to the heavily saturated, dark green light of the wreckage, the director will utilize this again at the end of the film when the narrator is re-united with Marla and explosions surround them. Fincher has graphically alluded to the theme of destruction throughout the film but has also connected the narrator and Marla together with his use of the elements of mise-en-scene.
The spatial construct of this sequence is further utilized to emphasize the discordance the narrator feels between ‘real’ life and the gateway to his future world. The gateway is often embodied by acts of violence. Fincher utilizes space to stress the importance of these moments by cramping the ‘real’ world, and leaving violent destructive moments totally exposed. In this sequence as the narrator relates how his apartment was destroyed we view the mechanics of it in a more open space than the environment in which the narrator is. Fincher almost gives the montage a clarifying effect, which in turn makes it more real. The use of the camera to push-in on specific elements also thematically connects the explosion in the apartment to Tyler calling the narrator in the phone booth. By manipulating the sequence in this fashion Fincher foreshadows Tyler’s existential connection with violence, and ultimately destruction.
The thematic quest of seeking creation (here represented by Marla) through destruction is instigated by the editor’s construction of time in the sequence. By emphasizing the destructive aspects of the scene by slowing down time during the expository montage, and then speeding it up again for the explosion the editor makes the destruction seem hyper-real. While parts of the scene appear to be in real time, the narrator arriving at the apartment building, focal points of the sequence are slowed, or emphasized by time re-arranging cuts. When the narrator attempts to call Marla we move in apparent real time, when the phone rings again, we focus in, time, to the audience, appears to have stopped and Tyler (destruction) has called the narrator. The cuts within the sequence allude to the importance of Tyler as someone who is hyper-real, Tyler of course being the manifestation of destruction. By changing the temporal meaning of the sequence the film’s premise is strengthened.
David Fincher reiterates the theme of the film the rhythmic pacing of the sequence. The pace that is set in the montage of the destruction, while not fast, seems to have progression or purpose, the violent act is propelling us forward. Fincher contrasts this with the pacing of the narration in the ‘real’ world scenes. The narrator is within a pacing that forces him to be sedate, and almost non-reactionary to what is happening to him, even when given an opportunity to react (the destruction of all his worldly possessions) the pace of the scene traps him in a conformist outlook. The beats of the narration while allowing for humour further perpetuate the idea that these destructive elements are ultimately positive.
The continued affirmation of constructive destruction is ultimately perpetuated by the use editing, lighting, and setting within the sequence. Fincher and his editor are able to not only propagate the positivity of destruction but draw the viewer to the conclusion that destruction is the forefather of creation, and without the first you can never be prepared for the second. When the narrator attempts to call Marla what makes him hang up? Is it the need for Tyler’s violence? Or is it the realization that he must first destroy who he is before he attempts to create a new life with her. Fincher leads us to these questions with his effective use of oppressive setting, his temporal discordance, and discerning editorial eye. When brought together these elements allow the audience to view the sequence not as an opposition of destruction and creation, but as bringing both constituents to each other.