I read Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club a couple of years ago but had never seen the film until we watched it in class.  I was immediately much more enthralled in the story and the characters than I had been when reading the book.  This got me thinking, because I tend to think that the book version of a story is better than the movie version, why was Fight Club better as a film than as a novel?

For one, the story was able to flow so much better visually than in print.  The novel was rather disjointed and at times I thought it was hard to follow.  Perhaps, this can be traced to the fact that Palahniuk said he had not planned out to have two alter-egos of the same person portrayed as the same character.  Since the film makers knew this going into the film, they were able to drop more subtle clues that viewers can pick up subconsciously or consciously on.  This makes the ultimate revelation that Tyler and the narrator are the same person more believable.  It also allows for people to rewatch the film over and over again to reanalyze the clues leading up to the reveal.

Also in relation to the convoluted writing in the book, is the film’s decision to romanticize the movie.  In the book, Marla’s character wasn’t as well developed and the relationship between Marla and the narrator was not as emphasized as in the movie.  I think by shifting the focus to make the film more romantic, allowed for greater depth to be added.  It brought together the film better, especially at the end, with the idea that the “man has reached a point where he can commit to a woman”.  I think that Marla also helped to add to the psyche of the narrator, especially through Fincher’s decisions such as having Tyler styled similarly as Marla and Marla replacing the penguin in the narrator’s psyche.

The addition of Marla as more of a significant character, also lead to the changing of the ending.  In the novel, the narrator shoots himself to get rid of Tyler and ends up in an asylum that he believes is heaven and hints at the fact that Project Mayhem will continue.  This is in sharp contrast to the film’s ending that shows the buildings collapsing and the narrator returning to sanity and getting to be with Marla.  This shift in endings brings the story to a close better, and reflects the romanticizing of the story and brings together a better close to the narrator’s storyline.

Finally, I simply think that the visual media allowed for the story’s anti-consumer culture message to be conveyed better.  Through Fincher’s direction, different logos and aspects of consumer culture were better highlighted than simply stating them in the novel.  Even subtle choices, such as in the scene when Fincher shoots from the inside of the fridge, are used to show how people’s lives (especially aimed at men) are driven by the consumer needs and other basic needs are overlooked.

Overall, I enjoyed Fight Club better as a film rather than as a book.  I wonder if someone who had seen the movie first and then read the book would find similar issues as I did, or if I was more biased by reading the book first.  In all, I believe that through Fincher’s direction Fight Club was able to portray its messages better in film version.

http://edition.cnn.com/chat/transcripts/palahniuk.html

http://www.cracked.com/article_20287_5-movies-that-improved-book-according-to-author.html

There were a lot of interesting things going on in Fight Club, but my favorite aspect was definitely the twist that Tyler and the narrator were the same person. I’ll admit I didn’t see it coming, though in hindsight there were a lot of clues (having the same suitcase, the fact that Marla seemed very offended when the narrator asked her why she was there, etc.) It reminded me very strongly of a book I read called Three by Ted Dekker. I’ll attempt to describe the book from memory, so the details may be way off, but basically the main character has three personalities (hence the title). One is his regular self, one is his female childhood friend-turned-love-interest named Sam, and one is a crazy guy who blows stuff up and kills people. Sounds famliar already, right? Obviously we don’t know that they are the same until near the end of the novel, for maximum dramatic effect. In this novel, the main character’s trauma stems from his parents, particularly his mother who neglected him and I think had some hoarder issues. Like in Fight Club, the “evil” persona mutilates his own body in some way. For Tyler, this meant dumping acid on his hand. For the protagonist in Three, this meant putting ice cubes in his eyeballs. When I read this book years ago I thought it was incredibly original, but now I’m skeptical that the book just ripped off Fight Club.

There is one noticeable difference though, and that is the love interest. The protagonist of Three dreamt up Sam as his childhood friend, which shows that his mental illness started at an early age. In fact, Sam is the first of his three personalities to realize that they are all the same person and coaxes his “true” personality to the realization. We discussed the possibility that Marla is another of Fight Club’s narrator’s personalities. I actually did consider this, in part because of Three and also because Marla seemed too eccentric and appeared so suddenly in the narrator’s life. This would definitely be an interesting possibility, though I don’t know what that would do to the message of the movie. In any case, I guess that my point is that if you liked Fight Club you will enjoy Three as well. I already spoiled the whole thing, but it’s still a thrilling read and you can look for the clues that they are the same person throughout the book.

Though many know him as the founder and lead singer of the band 30 Seconds to Mars or the new Joker in Suicide Squad, Jared Leto is actually an accomplished actor, winning an Academy Award in 2014 for his supporting role in Dallas Buyers Club. Throughout his twenty year film career, Leto has also been shown to have strong supporting and leading roles in critically acclaimed films. However, upon further investigation of Leto’s filmography, I discovered and interesting pattern- his character almost always ends up dying or badly disfigured in the film. While this pattern is probably a coincidence, here are 10 films (out of the 21 released films he has acted in) where Jared Leto’s character meets a gruesome end.

1. Switchback (1997)
   • Character: A hitchhiker
   • Fate: Unfortunately, his hitchhiker gets a ride from the serial killer of the film and is unfortunately, stabbed to death.
2. Thin Red Line (1998)
   • Character: Second lieutenant in a WWII movie
   • Fate: One of the first men killed in battle.
   • 
3. Fight Club (1999)
   • Character: Angelface (one of the space monkeys in Project Mayhem)
   • Fate: Beaten to a bloody pulp by the narrator during a fight. He lives through the ordeal, but his face is extremely disfigured and grotesque.
   • 
4. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
   • Character: Harry, a young adult addicted to heroin.
   • Fate: While in prison, his left arm becomes increasingly infected due to daily heroin injections. Though he is transferred to a hospital, it is too late and his left arm must be amputated.
   • 
5. American Psycho (2000)
   • Character: Patrick Bateman’s (Christian Bale) co-worker.
   • Fate: Hacked to death with an ax by Patrick because “he had a better business card”.
6. Panic Room (2002)
   • Character: a burglar.
   • Fate: Lit on fire by his own hostages, then shot in the head by his own henchman.
7. Alexander (2004)
   • Character: Hephaestion, Alexander the Great’s lover.
   • Fate: Died from mysterious illness, presumed to be caused by Alexander’s wife poisoning him.
   • 
8. Lord of War (2005)
   • Character: Brother and partner to Yuri (Nicholas Cage), an arms dealer.
   • Fate: Tries to convince his brother to not finish a deal, is gunned down by soldiers.
9. Lonelyhearts (2006)
   • Character: A con-man who robs wealthy, aristocratic ladies and kills them.
   • Fate: Eventually arrested and dies by electric chair for his crimes.
10. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
    • Character: Rayon, a HIV positive, trans-woman who helps Ron ( Matthew McConaughey) sell treatments to other infected individuals.
    • Fate: Dies from HIV.
    • 

Though morbid endings of Leto’s characters was the focus of this post, one can also notice the variety in his performances, portraying unique and different characters throughout his twenty year film career. While his chameleon ability is admirable, his supporting screen appearances are limited by the likelihood of morbidity in his characters’ fates. No wonder Leto does not liking watching his films, his happy endings are few and far between.

I love Fight Club. It’s the only movie that we’re going to watch in this class that I’ve seen before, and it’s not like I’ve seen it once and then forgotten about it. I watch Fight Club maybe around once a year and the jokes still make me laugh and the gruesome scenes are still just right to make me cringe. It’s a seriously great movie.

One of the things I like about the movie the most is that once you’ve seen it, the movie actually becomes more fun to watch. That’s because Fight Club was so good at laying foundation that the narrator was actually Tyler Durden, and it’s so easy to miss and overlook. And I mean, sure there’s the obvious stuff like “hey we have the same briefcase” when they’re on the plane. But there’s also the VERY subtle stuff.

I’ll start with the craziest way they said that Tyler Durden was fake. Remember right after the apartment exploded, and the Narrator called Tyler, but he screens his calls and calls the payphone back? There’s a shot where they zoom in on the phone to show the BWAAHHHH aspect of the phone calling back. The ending of the movie was right there the whole time. See below.

The phone can’t take incoming calls. Clearly this is all in the narrator’s head, and we’ve barely even seen Tyler Durden.

But even BEFORE Tyler shows up, hes’ already in the movie. And you might not even have noticed it. The movie has a few different shots where he shows up for a split second. This video has all of those shots slowed down because they’re literally blink-and-you-miss-it. Even i missed one of those shots watching it on Monday, and I knew where it was going to happen.

Guess what, we’re going to go even earlier in the movie to find the next one. Remember when the narrator was in the hotel room talking about his life, and the commercial for the hotel said “WELCOME!”?

Yep. Tyler Durden. He was there the entire time.

I could write about these subtle hints that Tyler is a figment of the Narrator’s imagination all day. And I will. Let’s keep going with smaller ones:

In the scene where the Narrator fake fights his boss, he says that he was reminded of his first fight with Tyler. Why? Because that fight was just him beating himself up.

When the Narrator and Tyler are discussing fighting different people and get on the bus, the Narrator pays only one fare. You might have thought Tyler was being rebellious and not paying but nope.

In all the scenes where Tyler is driving, and it shows the Narrator getting out of the car, it ALWAYS shows the Narrator getting out of the driver’s side.

It’s little stuff like this that makes it such a good movie. You could keep watching it over and over to catch these small details and it just enhances the enjoyment of the movie. Another Fincher movie that I’d recommend if you enjoyed the mind-blowingness of Fight Club is The Game. When I watched it for the first time, I could not tell you where I thought the story was going because Fincher is that good at laying out details for either side. Would recommend.

Today’s blog’s music was the new Explosions In The Sky record, The Wilderness. Listen to it and love it.