Hey it's me again, still right here on this strange little planet, slowly growing used to the odd traditions and societal differences. Even though this planet's destiny has been decided for eons, and initially I was just doing this mission because it's my job, I think I will actually miss this speck. Living here, being surrounded by the Earthlings, it almost makes you feel a kind of compassion for them. Like you spend enough time anywhere and eventually it feels normal - I suppose the very basis of intelligence stems from comfort in recognising patterns.
Oh well, let me tell you what happened this week. So this week I had a lot less work than usual, since the school term is coming to an end fairly soon... instead of the regular cycle of marking work, handing it back, being given more work to mark, and then immediately starting to mark it, this week I didn't have to do the last two parts. Over the course of the last seven days, I almost found myself at a loss for what to do. Might have been a mistake to enjoy it too much though, because once all the end-of-term exams start piling in, I will just be overwhelmed with work. Yep... this week coming is going to entail a nightmarish amount of marking!! Feels like the calm before the storm...
In other news, I met some more aliens this week... again, not from TX4, but actually in the same region of space! Really does make a huge difference meeting other beings who know how difficult it is to be lightyears away from home. Should hopefully be meeting up with them again at some point, because we had a fun time making jokes about human languages and stuff. Turns out one of them actually arrived on the planet at the same time as me - I was impressed, because I didn't see any other spacecraft arriving at the same time, so they must have pretty good holographic cloaking devices on their homeworld!
That's enough about me for now though, let's get down to the next slice of cinema that we'll be preserving!
[6/52 Fight Club]
Edward Norton plays the lead, a character who is never actually named in the film (credited as 'The Narrator'), Brad Pitt plays Tyler Durden, and Helena Bohnam Carter plays Marla Singer. Released in 1999, this film was directed by David Fincher, a director who has developed a distinctively dark and disturbing style of filmmaking. My goodness, this film is visually very dark - nearly black in some scenes - but also many of the themes (and individual lines of dialogue) are grim to say the least... this is about the most adult-themed film I can imagine. Although there is an awful lot to say about this film, I feel like it is very difficult to say anything about it without spoiling it. So much so that I think this film deserves at least two viewings in order to experience the full effect of the story, and all the subtleties that are hidden in plain sight. Any attempt to discuss this film without ruining the experience of that 'first viewing' is so incredibly hard that I highly, highly recommend you watch it before reading this... however due to the dark, distressing nature of the content, it certainly isn't a movie you can just pop on - you almost have to prepare to immerse yourself in a gritty, violent, pessimistic world, devoid of hope in order to match the tone of this film. Not that it's a bad thing per se, but this film definitely does not make you feel good.
Anyway, from here on out - huge spoiler warning.
Living up to his bleakly dark reputation, David Fincher starts the film with a somewhat distressing scene where The Narrator sits in a chair with a gun in his mouth, held by Tyler Durden. Through his narration, we learn that explosives are about to be detonated below several buildings, reducing them to rubble, and as The Narrator sits there, he remembers how all of this came about as a result of a woman - Marla Singer. He speaks to the audience directly, first showing us a scene from a group therapy session that he is attending, before deciding that it would make more sense to start earlier on in the story. According to his voice-over, it started when he began suffering from insomnia, and hadn't slept in 6 months (which for humans is physically impossible, so we automatically know that his character is either exaggerating, or that he truly believes he didn't sleep for that long), and as we see his distorted view of the world, there are moments where a figure flashes into his frame of view for an instant before vanishing. Starbucks coffee branding pollutes his life, he feels compelled to buy IKEA furniture for his apartment, and he visits a doctor about occasionally blacking out and not knowing what he had been doing upon regaining consciousness. Craving sleep, he randomly attends a group therapy session for men who have suffered from testicular cancer, and meets a man called Bob... as the two of them hug (as instructed), he "lets go" and cries deeply. Over the next few months he attends more and more group therapy meetings for many different types of problems, and he feels peace at last, but one day a testicular cancer session is interrupted by the appearance of a woman who seems to be doing the same thing as him - attending meetings just for emotional stimulation - and that woman is Marla Singer. Marla and he start arguing about the sessions, and how they can't both be faking at the same time, but something seems a little bit off about her... for example why does nobody question her involvement in groups for male-only problems, and why, when The Narrator is trying guided meditation as part of one of the sessions, does Marla show up as his spirit animal? Eventually they decide to split the meetings between them so they don't attend the same ones, but in voice-over we hear The Narrator's disdain towards her even though he is doing the exact same thing as her, and at the same time he is strangely interested in her craziness (like leaving half of her laundry in the laundromat, and carelessly walking into traffic). Then we are shown The Narrator's numerous work trips, investigating if manufacturing faults were the causes of gruesome car accidents, and over time he begins to black out more and more regularly, having fantasises about plane collisions while making depressing smalltalk with his fellow passengers. On one flight he meets Tyler Durden, and the two instantly become friendly through The Narrator's admiration of Tyler's cynicism, knowledge of explosives, and total lack of regard for society and cultural norms (plus they have the exact same briefcase). As he arrives back at his apartment, he finds it has been totally destroyed in an explosion, and with nowhere else to go, he calls Tyler and meets him at a bar where they discuss how pointless everything in society is. Nearly everything Tyler says is related to how society is sinking, how material and social wealth are worth nothing, and how humans have become merely consumers - throughout the film he has some incredibly memorable quotes, but they are all horrendously pessimistic and almost chaotically cynical. Exiting the bar, Tyler tells The Narrator he can stay at his place on the condition that he punch him as hard as he can (his justification - "how much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?"). Now, The Narrator pauses the film, and Tyler Durden and he break the fourth wall to explain to the audience what kind of person Tyler is - a cutaway segment shows his horrible behaviour in cinemas and restaurants, which is complimented by the two of them taking it in turns to say parts of sentences. Durden goads The Narrator to hit him, and they start fighting viciously while shouting "hit me again!". Walking back to Tyler's house, bloodied and bruised, it turns out to be an abandoned, grotty building, and as The Narrator describes the state of the house, time passes in a montage (he says he has stayed there for at least a month) and clips are shown of people beginning to show an active interest in Tyler and The Narrator's regular fights outside the bar. Over time he and Tyler become more and more obsessed with fighting, start amassing similarly violent-minded people, and start an underground Fight Club which nobody is supposed to talk about. With such a bloody and vicious hobby, everday life loses any meaning besides fighting. Then one day the phone rings - it's Marla who is calling The Narrator because she's taken an overdose, but he leaves the phone off the hook... which leads to Tyler meeting her and having sex with her. In the morning, Marla seems offended when The Narrator claims he doesn't know why she stayed over at Tyler's house, but after she leaves, and Tyler starts boasting about her, The Narrator gets incredibly jealous. Moaning and thumping can be heard coming from Tyler's room for the next few weeks as he starts having regular sex with Marla, and The Narrator notices that they are never in the same room together except when they have sex. Eventually she leaves after The Narrator offends her (again), and after stealing some human fat from the waste disposal of a liposuction clinic, Tyler explains how it can be used to make soap... or dynamite. Randomly, Tyler gives The Narrator a chemical burn on the back of his hand, encouraging him to give up completely, and to hit absolute rock bottom. Eventually, The Narrator bumps into Bob (the guy from the group therapy sessions) on the street, and Bob reveals that he too has been going to Fight Club, and at the next club night, Bob and The Narrator fight. Also, on the next night, the owner of the bar comes to evict the club, and beats Tyler up, but as Tyler continues to laugh hysterically even while being brutally attacked, the owner loses his nerve and lets them use the basement for free. Leading on from that, Tyler Durden starts assigning 'homework' to the Fight Club members, such as getting beaten up by a stranger, damaging cars, and destroying televisions, but he also starts taking 'human sacrifices', where he threatens a person at gunpoint until they admit what they really want to do with their lives, before letting them go. Later, Tyler starts recruiting some of the members to come and live in his house, and carry out increasingly vicious and dangerous terrorist attacks (calling it Project Mayhem), and The Narrator starts to disagree with their actions. Young blonde recruit Angel Face starts to take The Narrator's position as Tyler's right hand man, which makes The Narrator furiously punch Angel Face in the face repeatedly during the next Fight Club, claiming that he"wanted to destroy something beautiful". Following a particularly destructive and dangerous mission for Project Mayhem, in which Bob is shot and killed by police, Tyler Durden suddenly disappears, and the members of Project Mayhem start to behave as if The Narrator had been in charge all along. Looking desperately for a way to stop Project Mayhem's plans, The Narrator flies all over America (using plane tickets that he found in Tyler's room), only to find that Tyler Durden has power everywhere he visits, almost as if he had arrived there just before him. In one particular bar, the owner (heavily injured - presumably from a recent Fight Club) reveals that The Narrator had been there the week before, asking about security, and when The Narrator asks the owner who he thinks he is, he replies "You're Mr Durden". Everything suddenly falls into place, and he quickly calls Marla to confirm that he had been having sex with her all along, and she refers to him as Tyler over the phone. Suddenly Tyler magically appears in the room, and when The Narrator asks him how people could possibly confuse the two of them, he has flashbacks to parts of the film in which he is doing the things that Tyler did (such as giving himself the chemical burn on the back of his hand, and beating himself up outside the bar) and realises that they are the same person. With a whole load of scenes from the film being played back with only The Narrator in them, Tyler explains that he dreamed up a new personality who could change his life and who was able to do things that he couldn't. Hearing this, The Narrator blacks out, and when he comes to, Tyler is gone, and it seems he (Tyler) had made a number of phone calls while he was unconscious. Expecting something terrible to happen with Project Mayhem, The Narrator desperately calls all the numbers again, but Tyler's influence has spread into the higher reaches of authority (even the police) so there is nothing he can do to stop Tyler's plan to blow up 11 buildings in the city. Not knowing who else to turn to, he tracks down Marla, and warns her about the terrorist attacks while apologising for all the pain he has caused her as a result of his split personality, and as she leaves him, she tells him that he's the worst thing that ever happened to her. Yet again, The Narrator tries to alert the authorities by turning himself into the police, but the interrogators all turn out to be working for Tyler, and tell him that he had ordered them to cut off his balls if he tried to interfere with the plan. Only just managing to escape by grabbing one of the police officers' guns, The Narrator runs to one of the buildings in an attempt to stop Project Mayhem, where Tyler appears to him again, mocking him. Underneath the building there is a van filled with explosives (which was seen in the very opening of the film), and as The Narrator desperately tries to disarm the bomb, Tyler Durden pressures him, but since they both share the same brain, The Narrator is able to use Tyler's knowledge against him and successfully deactivates the bomb. Angry that he is trying to interfere, Tyler Durden attacks The Narrator, and they start fighting violently (an incredibly clever sequence, which occasionally cuts to the building's CCTV footage showing that in reality he is alone in the building and is just injuring himself), culminating in The Narrator throwing himself down some stairs and blacking out. Returning to the very beginning of the film, The Narrator wakes up with the gun in his mouth (although this time he makes a subtle fourth wall breaking joke about 'still' not being able to think of anything to say, and Tyler chuckles and says "flashback humour") when he suddenly spots Marla outside who has been captured and is being brought to Tyler to tie up loose ends. Experiencing an identity crisis, and begging Tyler not to kill Marla, The Narrator has a moment of clarity, realising that the gun is in his hand, not Tyler's. He puts the gun to his head, telling Tyler that it's not just his head, but their head, and pulls the trigger. As the bullet narrowly misses his brain, he survives, but he imagines Tyler with a hole in the back of his head, and the delusion of Tyler falls to the ground dead. Very shortly afterwards, Project Mayhem members arrive along with Marla, and after asking him if he's okay (he can barely talk) The Narrator sends the men away. In her shock from seeing The Narrator's bullet wound, Marla forgets about everything else and asks him if he's okay - he replies that everything will be fine, and they hold hands as the 10 other bombs detonate and they watch the buildings collapse.
Now this is a film that is an incredibly rich experience - as I said, it almost certainly deserves two viewings to fully appreciate the artistry and effort of planting the clues throughout the film (them having the same briefcase, certain lines in the film like "Tyler's words coming from my mouth" or "Sometimes Tyler spoke for me"... even when they talk about their father, and The Narrator agrees with everything that Tyler Durden says). Going by The Narrator's character developing multiple personalities, I can only interpret that it stemmed from his childhood trauma with his parents, which is alluded to in the film, and a frustration with his dependency on coffee and consumerism. For what it's worth, I am convinced that both Tyler and Marla are figments of The Narrator's imagination (Tyler representing his secret desire to just "let go" of his normal world and give in to chaos and brutality, and Marla representing his own self-worth and belief in who he is as a person... a "spirit animal" if you will). Under the stresses of his life, the two delusional characters compete for a place in his mind, and while not everything we see is real (in fact we can't really accept anything that happens in this film as total fact), his journey to self-acceptance takes him to the very bottom of his self esteem, and that downward slide is paralleled incredibly in the events of the film. Now this truly is a film which I cannot fault... the acting is absolutely astounding, the plot is original, bold and entertaining, the direction, music, and editing all keep the film moving quickly and purposefully while remaining interesting and not talking down to the audience, and the subtle touches like the way that the narration is playful, self-referential and often breaks the fourth wall, yet is delivered in a dull, almost sleep-like monotone, really captures the tone of a tired, bored, disturbed everyman who is only awake through an enormous amount of Starbucks coffee. Everything that this film sets out to do, it does perfectly, and it it truly is a unique, amazing piece of cinema - although you do have to be in the mood for something extremely dark!!
Holy cow, that took far longer than I expected it would, I guess there was a lot to talk about this time... perhaps next week I might watch something less time-consuming, but until then, this is MuiXViuM signing off.
