How about 'fight club' ... 1999
Symbolism In The Movie Fight Club
Symbolism
Soap"With enough soap, we could blow up just about anything."
'Tyler was full of useful information.'
-Tyler and the Narrator
Erika writes: When the narrator first meets Tyler, Tyler declares that he is a soap salesman, although Tyler has various other occupations including a night-time movie projectionist and a waiter. Tyler, however, most identifies himself with the job of selling soap, thus lending weight to the symbolic importance played by soap in the movie. Tyler calls soap "the foundation of civilization" and tells the narrator that "the first soap was made from the ashes of heroes". He also uses lye, a chemical ingredient of soap, to introduce the narrator to the pain of "premature enlightenment." In this role, soap is a symbol of purification and cleanliness, of a culture lacking the hypocrisy and fraudulence of contemporary culture. However, in that Tyler makes soap by stealing fat from the liposuction clinic dumpsters and then sells these soaps "to department stores for $20 a bar", soap also represents a too highly refined culture, a culture where all traces of natural humanity are suppressed, effaced, washed off. Rather than being made from the "ashes of heroes", soap is made from "selling rich women their own fat asses." The fact that Tyler is a salesman for this product represents Jack's subservience to this culture. Fight Club is founded as a way for men to regain their primitive instinct that culture tries to wash off. In that soap represents both the purifying and effacing tendencies of civilization, its symbolic function resembles that of ice in The Mosquito Coast where Allie Fox, a man obsessed with the fact that American civilization has become effete, perfects an ice machine believing ice to be the foundation of civilization. Interestingly enough, Fox deplores that one is forced to buy ice in America, making ice the symbol of all that is wrong about civilization as well as all that is right.
Freezon points out "Tyler...
http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Symbolism-Movie-Fight-Club/67951Fight Club (film)
ज्ञानकोश: - The Indological Knowledgebase
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Fight Club DVD
Fight Club (1999) is a film based on the novel Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. It was directed by David Fincher and starred Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. Also featured in it is an original soundtrack by the Dust Brothers. As of June 23, 2004 Fight Club is in development as a musical, developed by Palahniuk and Fincher. A video game based on the film is also planned to be released in October of 2004.
Contents [hide]
1 Plot
2 Differences between novel and film
3 Reaction and themes
4 Trivia
5 Awards
6 Technical data
7 See also
8 External links
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Plot
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The plot revolves around a nameless narrator (played by Edward Norton; referred to as "Jack" by the film's fans), an accident investigator for a major car company. During a severe bout of insomnia he goes to a meeting for men with testicular cancer. He begins to use the meetings as a release of emotion and subsequently finds that he can now sleep. When a woman named Marla starts attending these meetings for fun, the narrator finds that his insomnia returns.
Returning from a business trip, the narrator meets Tyler Durden on a plane. Arriving at his apartment, he finds that it has exploded in flames and calls Tyler Durden for lack of anyone else to call. Later, they meet at a bar and have a discussion on materialism and the modern male, which turns to the idea of fighting and eventually they have it out in the middle of a parking lot. The release of emotion and energy rejuvenates the narrator and after moving in with Tyler, they start a "fight club".
As the revolutionary idea of the rejection of material goods and the individual animal aspect of the fight grows, so does the club. Soon, Tyler is distributing "assignments" to the members of the club which grows into "Project Mayhem", an anti-corporate destruction squad led by Tyler. As the project grows, the narrator becomes increasingly disturbed by their actions and tries to stop it as one of the co-founders of fight club. He slowly uncovers their plan and soon discovers the real identity of Tyler Durden; he is a split-personality construct that exists only in the narrator's head and the actions that Tyler undertakes are actions that the narrator is really performing. The film climaxes with the narrator taking back control of his mind in a violent incident where he shoots himself in the mouth just as Project Mayhem's final act of vandalism, the destruction of all the credit bureaus, resetting the debt of the world back at zero.
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Differences between novel and film
Though the plot is mostly similar to the novel, some significant changes have been made in the film.
Tyler Durden is a soap salesman instead of a beach artist.
The narrator meets Tyler on a plane instead of on a nude beach.
The first batch of soap made by the narrator and Tyler is made from fat from a liposuction clinic, rather than from Marla's mother as in the book.
The scene where Tyler fights Lou (as well as Lou himself) did not appear in the novel.
The narrator's fights with himself to blackmail his boss at the car company in the film; in the novel, it was done to threaten his boss at the hotel that Tyler got him a job as a waiter at.
The narrator is not entirely aware of what Tyler is doing with Project Mayhem and is more uncomfortable with the increasing destructiveness of their activities, rather than being partially in control of it as in the book.
The confrontation with Raymond K Hessel is handled by the narrator alone in the novel; in the film, Tyler takes control while the narrator witnesses the event.
Project Mayhem's bombs are successful in exploding in the film, while they were duds in the novel.
The narrator shoots himself to kill Tyler, rather than to make a decision on his own as in the novel.
The film ends with the narrator and Marla watching buildings explode, while the novel ends with the narrator talking about a mental institution that he has been confined to.
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Reaction and themes
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Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden with Edward Norton as the Narrator
Fight Club was released in the United States on October 15, 1999 to mixed reviews. While some critics raved about the film, many high-profile critics denounced it. Janet Maslin of The New York Times compared it favorably to American Beauty while Roger Ebert called it "male porn." The graphic violence of the fights seemed to upset most critics, although only one person is actually killed in the film.
The film opened with $11 million, a surprise #1 movie in a close race that weekend at the box office. However, it fell very quickly in subsequent weekends, finishing with only $37 million in the U.S. It was regarded as a failure as the budget was $63 million, not including advertising which could have been another $20-30 million. Even with the $63 million later accumulated overseas, executives at 20th Century Fox still felt the movie was a severe disappointment, so much so that Entertainment Chief Bill Mechanic was fired. According to Mechanic, he had personally clashed with Fox owner Rupert Murdoch over Fight Club and it cost him his job, barely a year after Fox's Titanic had become the highest-grossing film ever made.
Fight Club's salvation turned out to be the DVD market which was experiencing rapid growth at the time. The two-disc package featured four audio commentaries and hours of extra material, offering an in-depth analysis of the film. Fight Club would eventually break even and later become profitable thanks to the sales of the DVD. The magazine Entertainment_Weekly, which had originally given the film a negative grade of D, later ranked the DVD #1 on its list of "The Top 50 DVDs You Need To Own."
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Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer with the Narrator
The film's highly critical view of consumerism and modern living echoes Naomi Klein's book No Logo and also caused discomfort among some critics. Critics like Ebert decried what they described as a fascist themes throughout the film, while others have commented on anarchist, nihilist, and buddhist ideals. Both are represented in the transformation of the fight club, an anti-materialistic organization of individuality to Project Mayhem, a more organized anarchy, led solely on the authority of Tyler Durden. The amorphous nature with which these seemingly opposed philosophical systems incorporated into each other is the cause for much of the disagreement over the philosophical core of this film.
Parallels are also drawn between Tyler Durden's vision of the world after his revolution, and the views of Theodore Kaczynski, a.k.a. the Unabomber. This can be seen in one scene where Tyler talks about abseiling down the Sears Tower in clothes that will last you the rest of your life and hunting elk on abandoned freeways.
Some elements from the film have found their way into the mainstream, such as the first two rules of fight club — both of which are You do not talk about fight club — or the name "Tyler Durden" itself. The general idea of a fight club was also adapted into the German computer role-playing game Gothic 2, which also listed Palahniuk in its credits.
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Trivia
The movie appears to take place in Wilmington, Delaware, home to most credit card companies. Tyler's business card includes the Wilmington zip code 19808. Moreover, the cities specifically mentioned in the car-smashing scene are New Castle, Delaware City and Penns Grove, NJ, which are close to Wilmington. The apartment building in which the narrator lives has as its motto "a place to be somebody," which is also the city motto of Wilmington, Delaware.
The film makers originally intended Tyler Durden to recite working recipes for homemade explosives. They later decided against it for the interest of public safety, and fake recipes were used.
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Two of Tyler Durden's one-frame appeances
In the beginning of the film, Tyler Durden flashes on screen for a duration of one frame, in four different instances. These are:
At the photocopier at work.
In the doctor's office, when the Narrator is learning about the testicular cancer support group.
At that group's meeting.
As the Narrator sees Marla leaving a meeting but doesn't follow her.
Beyond these individual frame moments, Tyler also appears on a hotel TV screen among a group of employees wearing white jackets and bidding the viewer "welcome" (look on the right side of the screen). This sort of trickery has become a trademark of director David Fincher.
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Awards
The film won the following awards:
the 2000 Empire Award (UK) for Best British Actress (Helena Bonham Carter)
the 2001 Online Film Critics Society Awards for Best DVD, Best DVD Commentary, and Best DVD Special Features
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Meat Loaf as Robert Paulson with the Narrator
It was also nominated for the following awards:
the 2000 Academy Award for Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing
the 2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Action Team (Brad Pitt & Edward Norton)
the 2000 Brit Award for Best Soundtrack
the 2000 Costume Designers Guild Award for Excellence for Costume Design for Film - Contemporary
the 2000 Sierra Award from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards for Best DVD and Best Editing
the 2000 MTV Movie Award for Best Fight (Edward Norton vs himself)
the 2000 Golden Reel Award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA for Best Sound Editing - Effects & Foley
the 2000 Online Film Critics Society Awards for Best Actor (Edward Norton), Best Director, Best Film, Best Film Editing, and Best Screenplay, Adapted
the 2000 Political Film Society Award for Democracy
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Technical data
writing credits: Chuck Palahniuk (novel), Jim Uhls (screenplay)
runtime: 139 minutes
sound: DTS / Dolby EX 6.1
aspect ratio: 2.35 : 1
release date: October 6, 1999 (USA)
budget: $63,000,000
MPAA rating: R
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See also
1990s in film
1999 in film
Generation X
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External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Fight Club (film).
Fight Club at the Internet Movie Database
A Metaphilm article comparing the characters to those in Calvin and Hobbes
An essay on Fight Club as spiritual allegory
Tyler Durden For America
When Larry & Tyler switch lines A comparison of the scene in The People vs. Larry Flynt and Fight Club, both starring Edward Norton, where dress code is almost identical.
Tyler Durden For America Presidential Campaign
http://www.indopedia.org/index.php?title=Fight_Club_(film)
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http://dialogues.rutgers.edu/vol_04/pdf_files/f_dintino.pdf..............
