Fightclub
On the Dark Side: Fight Club & Neo-Noir In "Fight Club" (David Fincher, 1999) the director, Fincher, presents the elements that are essential in a Neo-Noir film. The most obvious of the characteristics is the dark overtone of the film. "Fight Club" is mostly set in night or in shadows as are most noir films. The other obvious characteristic of Neo-Noir is the voice over narration. Voice over narration is when a voice off screen is doing a narration of what is happening on screen. This narration is provided by the protagonist of "Fight Club," "Jack." Edward Norton plays the ambivalent protagonist, who only refers to himself as "Jack." An ambivalent protagonist, usually the main character, is someone the audience likes, but who possesses character flaws. This brings us to the use of doubles and splits in noir and neo-noir films. "Jack" (Edward Norton) unknowingly develops an alter ego by the name of Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). However, this turns out to be only one of "Jack's" flaws as "Fight Club's" ambivalent protagonist. For every protagonist in Neo-Noir films there is a femme fatale, which is the leading lady who eventually leads the protagonist to his doom. "Jack's" femme fatale is Marla Singer (Helena Bonham-Carter). These are t
he characteristics of Neo-Noir expressed in "Fight Club;" shadows or dark lighting, voice over narration, the ambivalent protagonist, double and split imagery, and the femme fatale, while implementing an underlying theme of crime and violence. "Fight Club" is also almost completely a flashback up until the very last scene. Although not a typical noir film, "Fight Club" does fit in best under the genre of neo-noir due to these stylistic elements. One of the main reasons that "Fight Club" could be considered neo-noir is because of the dark lighting and the use of shadows. Noir films are often considered dark or "gloomy." Low-key lighting is characterized in this way: Low-key lighting features a relatively bright key light compared with little fill light. This produces lots of shadows. In low-key lighting, most of the picture is under-lit while other portions of the image area are adequately exposed. Typically, low-key lighting employs hard light in a high contrast, fast fall-off image. (Prince 56) Fincher uses low-key lighting efficiently. Virtually every scene has a dark feel to it; especially the scenes in which "Jack" is at Fight Club or the personal help seminars. This lighting not only shows a reflection on the mood of the scene, but the mood of the characters as well. It creates a mind set in which right or wrong, good or bad are not always clearly defined. The use of shadows and low-key lighting give "Fight Club" a genuine neo-noir feel. The ambivalent protagonist, "Jack" played by Edward Norton is a character the audience will feel sympathy for and even come to like. However, it is obvious he has serious problems. "Jack's" main problem, what the audience comes to find out, is his alter ego, Tyler Durden. "Jack" struggles to take control as he sees that Tyler's acts of vandalism are wrong. However, he cannot stop himself until the very end (more on that later). However, even before the character of Ty
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Approximate Word count = 1293
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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