Fight Club Case Study The film Fight Club from 1999 was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. The plot follows a nameless protagonist who suffers from insomnia and attends support group meetings. He meets Marla Singer and Tyler Durden, and with Tyler creates an underground fight club to release pain. Fight club grows into an anti-capitalist organization called Project Mayhem that uses violence and vandalism. The protagonist discovers that Tyler is actually his alter ego and he has a split personality. The film was controversial for its violent scenes but was ultimately rated 18 by the BBFC for adult audiences.

1. Fight Club Case Study
Fight club, released in 1999 was directed by David Fincher and features a
number of stars including Edward Norton, Brad Pit and Helena Bonham
Carter, who were all cast for the leading roles. The plot follows the protagonist
(Edward Norton), who remains nameless throughout the film as he suffers
with insomnia, we learn that he lives a miserable life and in order to cry, he
has becomes fixated with attending support group meetings for a variety of
diseases, such as testicular cancer, which his where he meets Marla Singer
(Helena Bonham) who too attends support group meetings as a way of
releasing the pain and misery of her everyday life.
It is when the protagonist meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) that he finds a new
release for the pain through violence, both the protagonist and Tyler create an
underground fight club. Although at first the protagonist felt that fight club was
an effective way of releasing the pain within his life, it soon becomes apparent
that under Tyler’s leadership things are becoming out of control, fight club
becomes an anti-capitalist organisation who carries out projects such as
project mayhem, where the recruits would emphasize their anti capitalism
through violence and vandalism. When Tyler disappears, the protagonist sets
out to find him, it is once the protagonist finds Tyler that it becomes apparent
that Tyler is in fact the protagonist’s alter ego and that he is suffering from
some form of split personality in which he created a complete different distinct
identity, his ideal self and convinced himself that Tyler was a complete
different person when in fact Tyler was himself.
Fight club’s distributor, 20 Century Fox submitted Fight Club to the BBFC
(British Board of Film Classification) with a requested rating of 18, which
caused much debate due to the film featuring a number of bloody, gruesome
violent scenes. Two scenes in particular was felt to focus on the pleasures of
beating the faces of helpless victims, therefore under the BBFC guidelines 6
or 7 seconds from each were cut in order to reduce the sense of sadistic
pleasure through inflicting violence. After these cuts were made the film
passed for 18 for occasional strong violence and an 18 certificate was given.
Another worry that the BBFC examiners had was that the film glamorised
violence and therefore has the potential to encourage an interest in organised
bare fist fighting.
The Hypodermic Needle Theory – This theory implies that mass media is a
means of communication and has a direct and immediate effect on its
audience. The theory claims that mass media provides the audience with a
particular message in order to trigger a desired response, suggesting that
mass media has a powerful influence on a person’s behaviour due to the fact
that the audience are powerless to resist the message being conveyed.
However this theory dates back to the late 1920’s when the government had
just discovered the power of propaganda in order to change a person’s belief
and there are now arguments relating to the accuracy of this theory.

2. Alexander Walker, a 1999 London film critic described Fight Club as a “toxic
experience” and claimed that not only does the film promote pain and
suffering, but that it also reminisces Nazi Germany and that if you watch this
film, you too will become a Nazi, which is absurd . Although it is
understandable that people may worry that the film fight club may encourage
violent behaviour due to the fact that throughout the film violence is
represented as an effective way of escaping from the pain of everyday life, the
conclusion to the narrative clearly identifies that this is not actually the case
and I completely disagree that everyone watching the film will be overpowered
by this message and that it will result in the audience taking up bare-knuckled
fighting, unless the person viewing the film is mentally unstable.
Uses and Gratifications Theory – is an approach looking at how media texts
fulfil the needs of the audience. In 1948 Lasswell suggested that media texts
had the following functions for individuals and society: surveillance,
correlation, entertainment and cultural transmission. Researchers Bulmer and
Katz then expanded this theory, stating that individuals might choose a media
text for the following purposes:
Diversion – This refers to escapism, in which a person consumes the media
in order to escape from everyday life. I myself when watching the film was
able to escape from everyday life due to the fact that I was no longer focusing
on my own life, I was lost within the narrative of the film.
Personal Relationship – Refers to using the media for emotional and other
interaction. This refers to the individuals who develop relationships with
onscreen characters.
Personal Identity – Refers to finding yourself reflected in texts/learning
behaviour and values from texts. This refers to the individuals who may relate
to a particular character or their story, for example a person may relate to the
protagonist in fight club and therefore learn behaviours or values from the text
in order to deal with their own circumstances. Personal identity can also refer
to a person aspiring to be like a particular character, for example a person
watching fight club may want to be more like Tyler and therefore this
influences the way they dress etc
Surveillance – This refers to the individuals using a media text in order to
gain information which could be useful for living and mainly relates to media
texts such as the news.
There is no arguing that due to the violence within the film that this film isn’t
suitable for an audience under 18, however in 2005 the whole film without the
cuts was passed for a DVD submission with an 18 rating, due to a new BBFC
director and a new set of guidelines stating that adults should be free to
choose their own entertainment, which I feel is suitable due to the fact that
adults are more than capable to decide what they want to watch and what
they feel consider to be harmful.