Welcome to Planet Starbucks, I’ll be your narrator, Tyler Durden. I sell soap. When not selling repackaged human fat back to the masses at hugely inflated prices as a salve for the chasm of lost humanity in their lives I write spoiler free film articles for my alter-ego and this was originally penned and published over a decade ago.
To mark your card: What follows is an extract from my original spoiler free review together with links to both the entirety of this review as well as an opus blog article on the first ten films in the career of David Fincher, director of “Fight Club”. After a brief promotional section in the middle of the article there is both my Youtube and Rumble channel videos of my reading of my own review of the film, hence the “Read Along” moniker. Then the denouement of the article lays before you the options of either reading my film articles in full, reading them alongside my video recordings of me reading them or you’re free to pursue a Year Zero in other reaches of our electrical Matrix.
But worry not, I do all the heavy lifting here and anyway, no-one reads until the bottom of the article as everyone is far too busy in our collective Planet Starbucks copying and pasting everyone else’s articles and thoughts before passing it off as their own in a game they’ll never win.
Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy after all.
You wanna buy some soap?
Where do you start with Fight Club? A film that continues to split opinion between a violent, sweary, semi misogynistic wrap of a film that glorifies violence and wants a violent rebellion, to on a subconscious (dare I say more enlightened?) level, a rallying cry against modern living, of fractured lives, of a brighter future and a new beginning away from “Planet Starbucks” perhaps?
Based on the excellent (and thoroughly recommended) book of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk and a wonderful screenplay from Jim Uhls, Director Fincher also relied heavily on some wonderfully frenetic editing from James Haygood and in particular stellar cinematography from Director of Photography Jeff Cronenweth. Combine this with some wonderfully diverse and surreal characters, brilliant portrayals from some of cinema’s finest character actors and mix in a pulsing and unrelenting musical score from The Dust Brothers and you have Fight Club. But please remember before you proceed:
“The first rule of Fight Club is — You do not talk about Fight Club”.
The opening 20 minutes of this 139 minute modern day classic is an utter tour de force of film making, briefly dissected below:
The opening titles are seemingly one long continuous shot inside the veins of the human body only broken by intermittent flashes of the actor’s names and technical support staff until finally we see what looks like human skin and a single hair follicle. This quickly zooms, still in a continuous shot to the barrel of a gun, the tip of which is inside a frightened man’s mouth. As the Dust Brothers iconic pulsing opening track “Stealing Fat” ends, so begins “The Narrator” and his opening narration of “People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden”. Cutting away from the unnamed man, the gun now removed from his mouth, we see the first of many David Fincher trademark camera moves as with The Narrator still constantly narrating, the camera moves in between, around and often through the building in which the unnamed man is housed, the charges and explosives set, and the havoc about to be wrought by “Project Mayhem”.
Brief cuts follow before the unnamed man, reminiscing and thinking about “Marla Singer” (Helena Bonham Carter) is now in an embrace with “Bob” (Meat Loaf) and his infamous “Bitch Tits”. As The Narrator informs us, the unnamed man suffers from insomnia and in an attempt to resolve this he now visits various self help groups to relax, be himself or at least be someone and be with others, however bizarre and inappropriate the circumstances. With another trademark David Fincher about turn, the film grinds to a halt as we now rewind to fill the back story of how this still unnamed man got here, how he began visiting these self help groups and why. Numerous jump cuts (with continual narration) see him unable to sleep, falling asleep at work, lamenting that “Everything is a copy, of a copy, of a copy” whilst standing barely awake at a photocopier.
However it’s the quick flash of a Starbucks cup and more importantly the first flash of another man’s image in the background that catches your eye almost on a sub conscious level. A brief interlude follows as The Narrator decries the world in which we live and how the Corporations now run our daily lives.
From one bizarre interlude we cut to another, however The Narrator is now far more self critical of his life and how he has blended in with the norm. This is aptly and bizarrely depicted as our unnamed man walks in between the pages of a “Furni” catalogue (doubling for an Ikea catalogue) as he continues to decry his own life and his frustrations with modern life. From here we go full circle as a visit to his Doctor and his tongue in cheek suggestion of visiting self help groups bring us back to his embrace with Bob, but not before the second subconscious “flicker” image of a man next to the Doctor. A third flicker image soon follows.
The film now loops between embraces with Bob and the unnamed man’s visits to other self help/support groups and the great solace he finds in the company of strangers. Here he is able to be someone, anyone. Guided Meditation directs him to his “cave” and his “power animal” and another bizarre interlude inside his cave and his power animal follows. Able to sleep now and feeling better and again in an embrace with Bob, his serenity is broken by the introduction of Marla Singer! Striding into a male support group heavily smoking she calmly questions “This is cancer, right?”
Constantly smoking and seemingly following the unnamed man to every support group, his anger rises as does the ire of The Narrator “Marla, the big tourist” and “Her lie reflected my lie”, he watches her walk away from their latest support group, accompanied by the fourth subconscious flicker image of a man. Concocting a speech to give to Marla (which is bizarrely played out as a fast forward) we cut to another support group and of “Chloe” (Rachel Singer) dying of cancer whom The Narrator describes as “Chloe looked the way Meryl Streep’s skeleton would look if you made it smile and walk around the party”. Following Chloe’s desperate plea which breaks the heart, the unnamed man’s ire continues to rise and remembering his guided meditation he retreats to his cave and his power animal, however Marla Singer is now occupying his cave!
The unnamed man and Marla are now partners within their groups and they share an interesting joint assessment of their predicament as they discuss the validity of the groups and why they visit them they agree that when people are dying they actually listen “instead of waiting for their turn to speak”, however this is a prelude to their splitting of groups, thus enabling both to reap the benefits they both need and the coming introduction of “Tyler Durden” (Brad Pitt).
The opening, breath taking twenty minutes closes with both a stunning plane crash and the introduction of Tyler Durden. Tyler, a soap salesman and free spirited businessman is everything that our unnamed man isn’t. He is confident, cocksure and in control, whereas “The Narrator” (Edward Norton) is an insomniac, frustrated and desperately unfulfilled as he travels the country inspecting fatal car failures and their reasons. Polar opposites, they are drawn together by circumstance and by a shared goal.
Brad Pitt and Edward Norton share top billing and both produce astounding, career defining performances.
In supporting roles and as noted above, Marla Singer is an acquaintance of both, and is a chain smoking, suicidal neurotic brilliantly portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter. The other major supporting role, again noted above but that needs further clarification is the astounding and surprising performance from Meat Loaf as Bob. His performance as a “juicer”, desperately lonely and unable to cope without the support of his family is both a joy and a real surprise. Another surprising yet smaller role also falls to a rock n roll lead singer, with Jared Leto playing “Angel Face” particularly well.
Original Review of "Fight Club" (1999)
"David Fincher - 22 years in film"
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection" Vol.2 - Available via Amazon
My Youtube Channel Reading of "Fight Club"
My Rumble Channel Reading of "Fight Club"
So now with an appetite duly whetted dear reader you have a choice.
You can either:
(a) Read my entire review of “Fight Club” via the first link above
(b) Treat yourself to the first ten films in the career of director David Fincher via the second link above.
(c) Watch either of my Youtube or Rumble channel videos of my reading of my own spoiler free review of the film, hence the “Read Along” moniker.
or (d) Treat yourself to any combination of the above or even (e) disappear to pastures new within our collective electrical Matrix of doom.
Oh, and (f) There’s a link above to Volume 2 of my exhaustive 7 volumes of “Essential Film Reviews Collection” packaged in my e-book and Kindle series on Amazon.
All 7 volumes are FREE to read if you have an Amazon Kindle “Unlimited” package.
Bless you for reading.
Thanks for reading. If you like the premise of this absurd idea of “Read Along”, then you might also enjoy:
"Sideways" (2004) - Read Along
"Punch Drunk Love" (2002) - Read Along
"Requiem for a Dream" (2000) - Read Along