Cinematography in Fight Club

A detailed Summary of Cinematography in Fight Club

Both the cinematography and editing often have an important role in portraying to the viewer the underlying themes and ideas being communicated by a particular film's plot. David Fincher's film Fight Club is an excellent example of how various editorial and cinematic effects can greatly reinforce the themes of a film as well as create the an appropriate atmosphere in order to further enthrall the viewer into it's plot. In Fight Club the protagonist unknowingly has a severe split personality disorder and is portrayed by two characters, the narrator played by Edward Norton and Tyler Durden played by Brad Pitt. While the fact that these two are actually the same person is not made known to the viewer until the end of the film, the majority of the film is spent creating a dichotomy between the behaviors and ideals of these two characters in order to shock the unsuspecting viewer upon discovering the truth about the protagonist. In a larger sense the differences between the protagonist's conflicting personalities reflect differences inherent in the entire social structure of modern America. In making Fight Club David Fincher, as well as the film's entire production team use a great deal of editing effects and cinematography in order t

Another important vehicle for showing the differences between Tyler and the narrator was the use of digital cinematography and special effects. One of the first occurrences of digitally added effects in the film comes when the narrator is describing the over priced, catalog bought furniture in his condo and as he speaks captions of white text, describing and pricing his property begin to appear next to their respective products. This effect illustrates to the viewer how the narrator is hopelessly engrained with both consumerism and materialism. Furthermore, when the narrator is on an airplane he imagines a midair collision in which the plane bursts open and plummets to the ground. The fact that Fincher chose to actually show the viewer this fantasy rather than just have it recounted by the narrator helps to further illustrate just how disillusioned the narrator is becoming with his life before meeting Tyler. Another important visual effect takes place when Tyler gives the narrator a chemical burn in order to somehow enlighten him. While being burned the narrator desperately pictures a serene forest and a frozen cave, trying to avoid thinking of words like searing and burning which are flashed across the screen in the form of a close of their dictionary definition. This conflict truly shows the difference between Tyler and the narrator, while Tyler is trying to force the narrator to embrace the pain and thereby accept the world's imperfections, the narrator reacts by trying to mentally escape from it thus characterizing him as afraid and non-confrontational.

While Fight Club was an excellent book before

Some common words found in the essay are:
Lou's Tavern, Fight Club, Raymond Hassell, David Fincher, Paper Street, Brad Pitt, , fight club, tyler narrator, street house, paper street, paper street house, Tyler Durden, dimly lit, David Fincher's, editing effects cinematography, editing effects, club excellent, differences protagonist's, film fight club, throughout film, fight club excellent, fight club takes, club takes,

Approximate Word count = 1089
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies