Fight Club and NeoNoir

A detailed Summary of Fight Club and NeoNoir

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-Car

The scene that shows the most characteristics of neo-noir film is the opening scene. "Fight Club" basically starts at the end and flashes back to see how "Jack" and Tyler Durden got into this situation, which is a technique often used in noir films. The scene opens looking directly into the eyes of "Jack," who is starring down the barrel of a gun that has been put into his mouth. Instantly the underlying theme of violence and crime are implemented. The use of shadows and dark lighting also is a key element in the scene, which establishes mood. The audience never gets a clear shot at either "Jack's" or Tyler Durden's face, without at least part of it being in shadows. There are no flashy colors, very dark and sullen, it is almost virtually black and white, except for streetlights and the time on the bomb, which is appropriately red. Before "Jack" even says his first on screen words, the voice over narration comes in. This voice over narration basically tells what is happening right as the movie picks up and will soon dive back into the recent past to bring the audience up to date on the events that led to this situation. The voice-over narration also brings in another characteristic of film noir even before she has appeared on screen, the femme fatale, Marla Singer. The audience now knows that Marla Singer had something to do with "Jack's" current state. In the first minutes of the film, Fincher established five key elements of a neo-noir film: flashbacks, the themes of violence and crime, the use of low lighting and shadows, voice over narration, and the femme fatale.

The truth shall set you free, but it also can be painful. One of the essential ingredients of genuine film noir - as opposed to the watered down diluted version that has the look but not the toughness - is the brutal truth. And ambiguity. No pat answers. Life isn't so simple in a good noir. At the fadeout it's not obvious how things might continue. We just saw an interesting tale, but the true ending is up in

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Approximate Word count = 1352
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Movies