Fight Club

Johanna Becker

GenreI would place the movie ‘Fight Club’ under the genre of Psychological

Drama Thriller. Because it is too slow for it to be an Action, too dark to be a romance and too slow to be a consistent comedy. The items listed above (Action, romance and comedy) are all elements within the movie but it is not an underlying theme throughout it.

The drama element in the genre is aimed to move the audience and follow the character development of the main character. It is psychological thriller because of the quality of reality, Characters within Psychological Thrillers tend to doubt themselves, or try to find their ‘true’ identity. We tend to perceive the story through the perspective of the main character which means that the audience can misperceive the story incorrectly and therefore allows for major plot-twists within them movie.

The Narrator (Jack)The narrator of the film is the main

character himself. We rarely hear his real name, it is mentioned once and is known as Jack. Jack has a certain insomnia which can only be cured by crying. He achieves this by attending various help groups and cries in front of other people who are also crying. It is in one of the help groups that he meets Bob. When he finds out that a woman names ‘Marla’ also goes to the help groups although she doesn’t need help, he gets very angry. On a business trip he bumps in a man named Tyler Durden who turns his world upside down. Together they start Fight Club.

Tyler DurdenTo the audience, Tyler Durden is

just another man, who sells soap, steals cars and does what he wants. He helps ‘Jack’ out of trouble and together they set up Fight Club. A club where people go to fight on Saturday nights and then walk away like nothing happened. To begin with Tyler is just a man, but by the end of the film we find out that Tyler was ever just a figment of ‘Jacks’ imagination.

Marla SingerMarla, as well as the narrator, lies

her way through help groups, but in her case it’s to feel better about herself. She previously worked in a funeral home to ‘feel better for herself’ also. Although Marla is an obstacle to the narrator, without her the whole story would just be following the narrator who would just seem like a delusional man. Marla puts everything into perspective.

Robert ‘Bob’ PaulsenThis is Bob. Bob was ‘Jacks’ friend in

the testicular cancer help group. After ‘Jack’ leaves to move with Tyler, Bob believes that Jack had died, so when he see’s him again he is very glad he is alive. He tells ‘Jack’ about fight club, to which Jack tells him that he invented it. After fight club begins to become a cult, Bob eventually gets killed with a bullet to the head.