This document provides production context and analysis of the controversial 1999 film Fight Club. It discusses: - The film's experimental style and subversive themes caused tension with its studio backer. - It was delayed for release due to its graphic violence and its resemblance to the recent Columbine shooting. - The film critiques late 20th century capitalism and consumerism, representing a hollow modern society that leaves men without purpose or authentic relationships. - Controversially, it also suggests masculinity can be found through homoerotic bonds and violence rather than relationships with women. - The film's representation of gender roles and ideology, as well as its violence, led to debate about whether it

1. Fight Club

2. Production Context
• “Those idiots just green lit a $75m
experimental movie”
– David Fincher
• “This is a seditious movie about blowing up
people like Rupert Murdoch”
– Twentieth Century Fox Executive
• This was a very controversial film

3. Production Context - Paradox
• The funding by a global conglomerate of a film
which attacks the capitalist, consumer culture
which they are a part of
• The style and structure is unconventional, it is an
‘experimental movie’
• Do you think that FC is an experimental film in its
use of visual style and narrative structure?
• Does it conform to the conventions of Hollywood
cinema in any way?
• Does it remind you of any other films you have
seen?

5. It was cited as one of the most controversial and talked about movies of 1999/200
The censor, Robin Duval, said he was forced to
make the cuts because of the "indulgence in the
excitement of beating a defenseless man's face into
a pulp". One scene involves Pitt's character being
battered by a Mafia boss and in the other the
camera lingers as Norton's character pummels a
man's face.
Fight Club is shaping up to be the most contentious
mainstream Hollywood meditation on violence
since Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange

6. Release date
Fight Club was original slated to be released in July
1999 but was put back to August. Studios further
delayed the film, this time to the autumn of 99 due
to “a crowded summer schedule”.
However may critics believed it was more to do
with the Columbine massacre that happened in
April. The incident was widely publisied as a
copycat crime due to too much violence on TV
What implication does this action have?
What effect might it have on marketting?

7. Themes and Style
• Key themes are controversial
– US society ( and by extension the West) is
represented as fake, superficial, consumerist and
dehumanising.
– People no longer have authentic emotions but
ersatz/fake ones created through buying things

8. Themes and Style
• This desensitised state is symbolised through the
representation of life and death
– Serious illness is packaged into support groups which
can’t deal with real, difficult emotions
– Narrator’s job as a risk assessor has reduced life/death
to a formula
• The lack of authenticity in contemporary society
(life is referred to as a ‘copy of a copy –PoMo) is
also explored in the representation of masculinity
– Men have been feminised (no longer have traditional
roles)
– Meaning ins life can be found through the close bond
(homoerotic) with other men (not women) and pain

9. Misogyny
• Hatred of women as a sexually defined group
(not individual women) but in this film it is
targeted at one female character
• According to Fincher Helena Bonham Carter
initially turned down the role of Marla
because the film was ‘so misogynist. It’s just
awful’

10. Gender and Ideology
• What are the different attributes and
characteristics are associated with masculinity
and femininity in Fight Club? Give specific
examples/ scenes where we see this
attributes.
• What does this suggest about the ideology of
the film?

11. Critical Response to the film
• Roger Ebert – one of the most influential critics in
the US at the time of release
• Read his review and answer the following
questions
– Do you think Fight Club is a fascist film? What
elements in the film do you think Ebert is referring to?
– What is meant by the phrase ‘the sex movie
Hollywood has been heading towards for years’?
– What does this suggest about the representation of
women in Hollywood films?
– Do you agree with Ebert assessment of the film. Why/
Why not?

12. Important Scenes - Homework
• Using the copy of the film found in Student
Resources choose a scene that stand out for
you as significant. Make sure no one else is
doing your scene
• Re-watch it and make notes on the use of
micro elements
• Type you notes up (and the should be detailed
– see the example provided). Print off and
hand in next lesson

13. Key Source
• Film studies A2: The Essential Introduction
• Sarah Casey Benyahia, Freddie Gaffner and
John White