Fight Club, Feminism and Misogyny: A2 Film Studies Exam Answer

It's that time of year again when the A2 Film Studies exams are nearly upon us. As usual I'm doing lots of revision with my students and also practicing exam answers. Here is one I wrote on Fight Club and whether the film could be considered misogynist or not.

'Marla is at the root of it’, says Jack in Fight Club.  Discuss what this statement says about the film as a whole.

When Fight Club’s narrator Jack begins to tell his story, he believes that it all starts with how he came to meet and begin a complex relationship with a woman named Marla Singer. Played by Helena Bonham Carter, Marla is a gothic looking, free spirited, depressed and deviant woman who spends her time in support meetings for people with serious illnesses. Jack blames Marla for much that is wrong with his life and many have suggested that this makes the film misogynistic. However, it is far from that simple.

 In Fight Club, the protagonist who the audience is encouraged to identify with at first seems to hate Marla. She ruins everything for him once he finds that he can cry when in support groups and that this allows him to sleep at night. He calls her a ‘bitch’, a ‘tumour’ and finds her presence threatening and annoying. The viewer learns this through Jack’s voiceover and so audiences are encouraged to identify with his feelings of hatred. The fact she is dressed all in black, smokes constantly and steals clothes from launderettes also makes her appear to be a negative character, very similar to the femme fatale figure of film noir who often lures the male protagonist to his death. Later in the film, Jack treats Marla terribly, often being rude to her and trying to get her to leave his house. This is made all the more offensive to audiences when they learn the twist in the story and that Jack is actually having sex with Marla before sending her on her way.

 On the other hand the film could also be seen to be about men needing to mature in order to have a healthy and loving relationship with another person. Jack is like a baby when we first meet him, nursing at the giant breasts of a man who has had his testicles removed and now resembles a mother figure. Jack cannot deal with the fact he may like Marla and so creates an uber-masculine alter-ego who treats women poorly and distances them from him. The end of the film sees Jack rejecting Tyler and accepting Marla as an equal and potential partner when the pair hold hands to watch the destruction of credit card company buildings. This shows that by the end of the film, Marla is a source of happiness for the protagonist and after reverting to being a baby then acting like a rebellious teen with Tyler, Jack is now mature and ready for a grown-up relationship with a woman.

 Fight Club could be also be read as a film that attacks the feminisation and emasculation of men in modern society. While Marla is not a very ‘feminine’ woman, it could be argued that Jack has been feminised by his job and the commercial culture he lives in. He is a consumer who loves nothing more than buying from the IKEA catalogue and satisfying his nesting instinct. He has never been in a fight, hunted for his food and never had a father figure around to teach him to be a traditional man. The film answers this problem by giving Jack his alter-ego Tyler Durden who is fearless and tough, rejects advertising and material possessions and uses women only for his sexual desire. Tyler wants to return to a vision of the past where men were hunters and did not have to go to work and be treated poorly by bosses for low incomes that allowed them to buy comforts such as duvets. It could even be argued that Marla finds the masculine Tyler side of the protagonist more sexually attractive than the more feminine Jack side.

 While the statement ‘Marla is at the root of it’ suggests she is a major character, women in Fight Club are barely present and could be seen to be ignored or dismissed in the narrative. They do not participate in the fight clubs or Project Mayhem and Marla and Chloe are the only named female characters. Women are either not invited or do not want to attend fight clubs and we learn little of Marla during the course of the film. Chloe is a cancer sufferer and is made a bit of a joke out of as she wants to just have sex one more time before dying. Both Marla and Chloe are tied to the idea of sex and although Marla seems quite strong and fearless in many ways, she also keeps returning to a man who treats her incredibly poorly.

On the other hand the men in the film are also very negatively represented and actually Tyler appears to be the main cause of problems for Jack in Fight Club. The men in the film are at first seen as whimpering support group attending victims. They cry and hug and many have literally lost their testicles. The men who join the fight clubs and are later sucked in to Project Mayhem are easily lead followers. They become like a cult, never thinking or questioning anything they are told. They are silenced by Tyler and become terrorists and moronic. Tyler becomes increasingly thuggish and dangerous until Jack if forced to fight and then kill him. Even though women are negatively represented in Fight Club, Marla appears to be the sanest person in the film by the end.

Marla is indeed at the root of Fight Club but she is not the cause of all Jack’s problems as he originally suggests. When he meets Marla, his psyche splits and in order to deal with the fear of falling in love, Jack creates Tyler in order for him to become a mature man. The film ends with the protagonist rejecting the macho rebellion of Tyler and accepting Marla as a source of love and affection. Marla is at the root of his salvation and the film is therefore neither as misogynistic nor radical as some have suggested.

A2 Film Studies Exam Practice: Spectatorship and Emotional Response

Would you agree that strong emotional effects are achieved in some films by the careful construction techniques and in others by the subject matter itself?

Films are carefully designed and produced to ensure that they cause the audience to feel something. Emotions towards a film can range from joy to anger and despair. The three films studied for this topic revolve around controversial subject matter such as racism and hatred and therefore cause most viewers to feel angry, sad, shocked and often a great deal of anticipation as to how they will end. These emotions are encouraged by the filmmakers through both their choice of subject matter and also the carefully constructed micro techniques used.

Nothing a director does is by accident and many techniques such as the use of a soundtrack and editing are there to encourage emotional responses in the audience. American History X, This is England and United 93 all feature non-diegetic soundtracks that increase the sadness of events depicted on screen. Typical instrumental music is added to the film in post-production and violins and pianos are commonly used for sad scenes. For example when Danny dies in AHX and Derek is running in slow motion, there are violins playing and when Shaun is all alone on the beach in TIE, there is acoustic guitar on the soundtrack. Shane Meadows even drowns out the sound of one character’s speech with piano music to emphasise how sad the scene is with Combo being racist in front of Milky. The editing also builds anticipation in these films with crosscutting between Derek and Danny as they part at the school gates, cutting between the passengers and the people on the ground in United 93 and cutting to close ups of character’s reactions as Combo tells his story. AHX also uses voiceover to make Danny more identifiable.

All three films are constructed to make the audience identify more with some characters than others. They have clear preferred readings created through their construction techniques in order to make the audience care for and side sympathise with certain characters. For example in AHX and TIE, there are young characters called Danny and Shaun. Danny’s voiceover tells the story of the film and as it is supposed to be him reading his essay, it even continues after his death. In essence, the audience hears his thoughts and perspective on events and therefore is more likely to identify with him. The cinematography aids this process with close ups and point of view shots and also the fact Danny is played by Edward Furlong who was a minor star after appearing in Terminator 2. Similarly TIE follows Shaun through his daily life. There is no voiceover but the camera sticks close to him, even when he is alone and we learn that both he and Danny have fathers who have died, instantly making them more sympathetic. When Danny dies and when Shaun starts to become a racist thug, there is music on the soundtrack to ensure that the audience feels sad. On the other hand United 93 uses no stars and reveals very little about the passengers’ back stories but through the cinematography and subject matter, still makes the victims easy to identify with.

Cinematography can be vital to creating an emotional response, as can be the mise-en-scene that is captured by the camerawork. In United 93, the camerawork is very often handheld and the view is often obstructed by framing that is not clear and feels improvised. This gives the film a great sense of realism, as if the viewer is watching a documentary caught be a camera operator on the plane with the passengers. This makes it more horrifying and saddening. The cinematography in AHX and TIE is much more composed and formal. Thought it may not have the same level of realism as U93, it still can create an emotional response. In both films, the spectator is put in the point of view of victims; Milky when he is physically attacked and Murray when he is verbally attacked. The camera is positioned in a high angle to look down on Derek after he has been raped and also on Shaun when he is all alone in TIE. Similarly, a low angle is used to make the house look imposing when Doris falls to her knees outside it after her fight in with Derek in AHX. The mise-en scene of AHX is particularly shocking with its use of swastika tattoos and Nazi memorabilia but it is also shocking and sad to see the appearance of the World Trade Centre still standing in U93.

On the other hand, it is certainly not only the construction techniques in any of these films that make them so sad. It is also the subject matter in all three films that is essential to creating the emotional response and one of the main reasons for this is their reference to real life events. U93 is a film based on the real life events of September 11^th 2001 when a plane was hijacked and the passengers all died trying to take back control of the plane from terrorists. The real events are still very raw in the memories of many people who watch the film and the real life tragedy clearly makes the film far sadder than if the film was nothing but fiction. The phone calls that the characters make are based on actual transcripts which make the scenes where the passengers say goodbye to the loved ones extremely sad and difficult to watch.  AHX and TIE may not be based on true stories but they frequently refer to real life events, to make the films more poignant and sad. AHX has Derek ranting about Rodney King and the LA race riots but Derek also pushes hot button emotive issues such as immigration and unemployment to make his racist rants appeal to his audience of followers. Similarly Combo in TIE uses immigration and unemployment but also refers to the Falklands War and Margaret Thatcher to try and convince people of his cause. These real life references will undoubtedly mean more to those who remember them in real life but the use of real footage in TIE means the viewer will get the message that director Shane Meadows is trying to share.

All three films are about racism, hatred and violence. These are potent issues for creating emotional responses as many spectators will feel strongly about them. AHX deals with the issue of racism through the redemption of one Neo-Nazi skinhead who goes from brutally murdering an African American to being raped in prison by other Neo-Nazis to agreeing to help solve the problem or racism. TIE tells a coming of age story of a young boy who gets in with an older crowd before being influenced by a racist thug and finally turning against racism. U93 is about four men who want to kill a plane full of people because of their religious beliefs and their hatred of America. These are clearly emotive subjects where characters feel extremely strong hatred, say shocking, vile things and commit horrendous acts against each other.

In conclusion, it is not simply the subject matter or the construction techniques that create the strong emotional responses to these films. It is a marriage of both where the content is disturbing, challenging and often brutal while the music, editing and cinematography encourage the viewer to react with sadness, shock or horror. The script and the performances ensure that the audience care for the characters, even characters who they may have at first hated. The most emotional scenes of the films all occur towards the end where the subject of racial conflict comes to a head but also the music, performances, editing and cinematography add inexorably to the emotional impact.

A2 Film Studies Exam Practice: Spectatorship and Emotional Response

Creating the opportunity for emotional responses in popular films is simply to do with manipulating the audience: mainstream films don’t attempt to use emotional responses to make any more considered points.  From your experience would you agree with this?

Mainstream films have a reputation for often being shallow and involving clear-cut heroes and villains with no moral ambiguity.  Emotional response is key as audiences want diversion from everyday life and to be thrilled, happy, excited or saddened by the on-screen events.  However despite the manipulative techniques used by mainstream filmmakers to provoke responses from the audience, some films do deal with serious issues and try to raise serious points about subjects such as racism

Manipulation of the audience’s emotions can be subtle or blatantly obvious.   Sometimes this is just to make the audience feel something and to enjoy the piece of entertainment.  The films studied for this topic are all challenging and do provoke strong emotional responses in the audience.  ‘American History X’ (AHX), ‘This is England’ (TIE) and ‘United 93’ (U93) all deal with the issue of racism and conflict between races.  The films are constructed to manipulate the emotions of the viewers.  Each film is categorised in the drama genre and as expected ends with the viewer encouraged to feel sadness.  This is achieved through the narrative structure, the script, the performances of the actors and the construction of the film form (micro-elements).  The soundtracks of all the films mentioned are particularly manipulative.  The use of violins, a choir and piano music is designed to provoke strong feelings of sadness in the audience.  The end of AHX uses slow motion running, close ups of crying characters and strongly emotive music to generate a feeling of sadness in the audience when a main character dies.  Similarly the ending of U93 uses violin music and handheld cinematography to create a feeling of unbearable tension and sadness in the viewer and likewise, TIE has moments where the piano music is designed to evoke feelings of sympathy and sadness. 

However the films studied do not just use these manipulative techniques to create an emotional response.  The films use these emotional responses to make very well considered points and challenge expectations that viewers will have of characters.  In AHX, the protagonist Derek is a racist skinhead gang leader that kills a group of African Americans for attempting to steal his car.  The film encourages hatred of Derek and disgust at his actions but also gives him a platform to air his shocking and controversial but very articulate viewpoints.  The camera, the script and the narrative structure all identify Derek as the focus of the film but the viewer is encouraged to empathise most with his younger brother Danny.  The death of Danny at the end of the film makes the audience sympathise with Derek.  After he has been raped in prison by white inmates and helped to recovery and rehabilitation by his African-American school principal, Derek is changed and the viewer is challenged to change their feelings for him.  The film uses Derek as a symbol by revealing that even the most hateful characters can find redemption and deserve a second chance.  Similarly the killing of Danny by a young African American in the film suggests the never-ending cycle of hatred that is spawned from the actions of racist people.  

This is England makes an explicit link between racism, nationalism, war and politics.  The use of real footage of Thatcher, the Falklands war and extreme right-wing rallies shows the context of the film and the real-life events that were occurring in the 80s when the film is set.  Shaun’s father has been killed in the war and Combo uses his anger to mould the young boy into a racist, hateful skinhead.  This makes a serious point about the dangers of sending men to war and training them to be racist in order that they can kill their ‘enemies’.  The idea of unification and the diversity of 80s Britain is emphasised through much of the reggae/ska soundtrack and is juxtaposed with the hijacking of skinhead culture by those raised to hate.  Thatcher is explicitly blamed by Combo for starting the war and much of Combo’s anger is directed at immigrants who he sees as the cause of Britain’s problems. 

United 93 is very manipulative of the audiences emotions using a recent real-life event and tear-jerking music to gain a response from viewers.  However there are some considered points in the film that are subtly put across to the audience.  For example, the film intercuts between the passengers of the plane praying for their lives and the terrorists also preying.  This subtle use of editing implies the similarities between the God-fearing, religious Muslims and Christians.  The titles on screen at the end of the film force home the message that this is a real-life event and that many real people lost their lives on September 11^th 2001 and that the official story of what happened to United 93 is true and that rumours it was shot down are untrue.  However originally the titles were to say ‘the war on terror had begun’ implying that the people on board were the first to fight against terror in the ongoing war between America and its enemies.  This message was changed to avoid controversy however.

The films listed here are not as mainstream as Hollywood blockbusters but were all very popular with critics and audiences.  Their tackling of a serious issue like racial conflict suggests that they are going to make some serious and considered points.  However as they are mainstream narrative films, they do this with interesting characters and dramatic plot elements to encourage audiences to have strong emotional responses.  The films try to engage viewers by creating anger, sadness and even disgust but also give the viewers things to think about and a chance to challenge their own views and preconceptions, as well as extremist ideology.

World Cinema: Messages and Values in City of God and La Haine

To what extent are the messages and values to be found in City and God and La Haine similar or dissimilar?

World cinema films often convey profound messages about the worlds they represent. Often world cinema films will not reach a wider audience than within their own country of origins but others will cross over and thanks to film festivals and often big American distributors (like for example Miramax) will achieve international recognition. These films may sacrifice some of their important social and political messages in order to appeal to a wider and more globalised mass market. City of God and La Haine both maintain strong messages while gaining large audiences across the world and many of these messages are similar across both films.

In both City of God and La Haine, the poorer members of society are segregated from the rich and appear excluded from wealthier parts of the country. In La Haine the message is that the poor ethnic youth of les banlieues feel excluded and hated by the rest of society and they therefore riot every night as an expression of their rage against the society that marginalises them. City of God offers in a similar way many of the same problems. The mostly black inhabitants of the favelas are crammed together in their slums, moved away from the ‘civilised’ cities and the drugs and guns are allowed to proliferate with little interference from the corrupt police. Both in La Haine and City of God, the youths rarely appear to have jobs. Even when Rocket gets a job in a supermarket, he loses it because of his association to the favela and its ‘runts’. Hubert in La Haine only finds money from drug dealing and similarly in City of God, the drug dealers are the ones with the most money, power and best clothes. The youths of both films rarely leave the places they live and when they do the contrast is stark. City of God shows a wide open plan newspaper office and apartment with hot running water in comparison to its crowded, cramped, dirty and dangerous slums whereas La Haine offers a tasteful art gallery where guests are offered champagne and called ‘sir’ in comparison to les banlieues that are grey, crowded and covered in graffiti. In both films the lower class (and often from ethnic minorities) appear excluded and cut off from the wealthier areas of the country and therefore find it harder to find legal employment and safety.

Another message that both films share is that there is a cycle of violence that will continue to go on and on in poor areas if the cycle is never broken. Both films start and end with violence and feature seemingly good, honest and decent men dragged down into violence and despair. La Haine takes its title from its message as stated by Hubert; ‘Hate breeds hate’. At the start of the film it is revealed that a young man has been beaten by the police so badly that he is in a coma. Vinz wants revenge on the police, as many of the other youths in les banlieues do. The police hate the youths for rioting and being violent and the youths hate the police for trying to oppress them and for their own violence. The cycle is destined to repeat forever if somebody does not break it. Similarly in City of God the violence escalates between Carrot and Lil Ze’s rival gangs because members of the gangs continue to kill each other and more and more people get dragged into the gang warfare due to wanting revenge. When Lil Ze is finally killed by the runts (who he gave guns to), it appears they are to be the next generation that will stalk the favelas looking for people to kill and therefore gain more power. The tragedy of both films is that Knockout Ned (who at first refuses to kill) and Hubert (who wants kids to take out their anger on punching bags rather than the police) both end in positions where they feel they have to fight and kill.

A message that comes out to varying degrees in both City of God and La Haine is that the government, police and other institutions are inherently racist, classist and corrupt in many countries around the world. It ties into the earlier message that poor people are ‘swept under the rug’ in these areas where they can almost be forgotten about. The favelas and les banlieues are places where those who have no jobs and have often come from poorer countries can be shoved at a minimum cost to the government and kept out of the sight and minds of the wealthy. The police in both films are also represented as corrupt and racist. In La Haine they have beaten a young Arab man to death in their custody (and this was based on a true story) and later Said and Hubert are taken and tortured by some cops who are ‘training’ a younger officer in the ways to get away with abusing those in their custody without getting caught. In City of God, the police are seen shooting innocent favela dwellers, selling guns to gangs and taking money from dealers. The films seem to say that if the police are not trustworthy and good, then why would the people obey or respect them.

In both City of God and La Haine, the media is seen to play a vital part in perpetuating stereotypes about poor ethnic youths. People in wealthier parts of the country are rarely represented and all they probably often know about the favelas and les banlieues is what they pick up from the newspapers and the television news. La Haine starts with real footage of the riots and the media are constantly relaying the tale of Abdel, the young man beaten up by the police. The media harass the youths when they are minding their own business and try to get them to talk about the riots which they assume they were in. Similarly in City of God, Rocket gets a job at the newspaper because he gets photos of the violent gangster Lil Ze. The journalists are delighted to get a photo of Lil Ze and his gang, guns drawn and looking mean. This image of poorer areas is what sells and what perpetuates stereotypes about young ethnic minority youths. A counter argument is that the media help people to see the injustice and inequality that are rife in their own countries, in these cases, Brazil and France.

There are on the other hand a couple of messages that the two films do not share. In City of God it appears as though hard work, decency and honesty can be rewarded whereas La Haine has a more pessimistic view. Rocket in City of God ends the film with an escape from his life and the favelas. He does not choose guns, drugs, violence and hate and instead gets a job as a photographer suggesting that there may be hope for those who try to stay honest and hardworking. On the other hand in La Haine Hubert who worked so hard to start a gym sees it burnt down by the people he created it for and finally ends the film pointing a gun at a police officer.There is little hope for the youths in La Haine no matter what they do and how hard they try.

Another difference is the representation of drug use and drug dealing in the films. In City of God, cocaine particularly seems to bea cause of major problems in the favelas. In both films, marijuana is smoked and dealt with little problems. In fact Hubert deals to get money for his family and Rocket buys drugs to help him get a girlfriend. However in City of God the introduction of cocaine seems to bring bigger problems like Tiago’s addiction and an increase in gang warfare and the proliferation of guns.

In conclusion, City of God and La Haine share many of the same messages. They are both set in similar worlds and depict poverty and conflict. They revolve around the clash of cultures between the poor and the police and the warfare between gangs. While they are both made by middle class white filmmakers, they both dig beneath stereotypes and attempt to challenge some purely negative representations of poor ethnic minority youths. City of God and La Haine both have powerful messages to convey but City of God has a more mainstream approach by having a somewhat optimistic ending (at least for main character Rocket) whereas La Haine leaves its ending bleak and wide open and ensures that the audience is forced to think about its messages for a long time to come.

More A2 exam answers:

Analysing La Haine

World Cinema: Distinctive Visual Features

World Cinema: Social and Political Context

WJEC A2 Film Studies Exam Practice Section B

A2 Film Studies Exam Practice Section B 

Is Fight Club a film about power and control rather than liberation? (written version)

Is Fight Club a film about power and control rather than liberation? (video version)

Lots more Fight Club links

Using Critical Approaches to Study Fight Club

Fight Club is a film that lends itself to study from a vast number of critical approaches. Each approach reveals a new way of looking at the film and new ways of interpreting its messages. Fight Club is a complex and subversive film and though it can be studied in many ways, I will focus on how useful feminist, psychoanalytic and genre approaches have been in reading the film as I believe considering gender representations is the most interesting way to read Fight Club.

Fight Club is a film that many have accused of being misogynist for its depiction of men who reject women and feel emasculated by modern society. Its representation of women is limited with only Marla being the main female character. The men in Fight Club appear to reject not only women but also the apparent feminisation of modern society. Tyler encourages them to forget their past ties to their homes and possessions and join a men only cult where they do not care about how they look, what they wear or the comforts of modern life. Tyler specifically questions if his generation of men ‘raised by women’ actually need another woman. He seems to suggest that because the fathers of many modern men have been absent from their son’s lives, the boys have grown up to be weak and too influenced by their mothers and femininity. Also this generation of men feel emasculated due to the impact of feminism and modern women being able to take control of their own lives. Men are threatened in the workplace, in education and even in reproduction as they have become less important and powerful now that women have the freedom to do more in society. Marla is one of only a few women in the film and is represented as unhinged, suicidal and as the root of all the protagonist’s problems. By encouraging the viewers to identify with Jack, it also encourages them to hate this woman that causes problems for him. However she is also revealed as the sanest character in the film by the end though she keeps coming back to Jack for his affection, she is also quite carefree and independent.

On the other hand others have claimed that the film is in fact not at all misogynistic and could actually be considered to be more about rejecting capitalism and the maturation of boys to men. Though Fight Club is all-male, the eventual goal appears to be to bring down capitalism rather than just reject women. The target of Project Mayhem is companies and banks that hold too much wealth in the world and by attacking them, Tyler and his followers aim to bring about increased equality. Jack is initially in awe of Tyler and his monologues, actions and world view but eventually by the end of the film, Jack learns that he must reject Tyler in order to live a happy and healthy life. Though Tyler criticises the capitalist economy, excessive marketing and inequality in society, he also acts like a terrorist and does not seem to have a well thought out or realistic plan for the future of society. Jack by the end rejects Tyler and instead realises that he appreciates Marla and as the credit cards explode in front of them, he holds her hand, showing that he has developed from the angry little boy of earlier in the film to a responsible mature adult who accepts that growing up and finding a partner is the way forward to a happy, healthy life. Fight Club is therefore not about rejecting women but about growing up and accepting traditional ways of living (such as heterosexual, monogamous relationships).

A psychoanalytic reading of the film also suggests that Fight Club is about growing up and finding a sense of self by learning to reject basic desires and external influences on a person’s personality. Freud theorised that within the brain was the part he called the id that was infantile and just held unconscious desires that we struggle to control. The super ego is the part of our brain that is influenced by external factors such as society and particularly our parents. In Fight Club, Jack’s personality splits and Tyler is like a manifestation of both his id and to a lesser extent his super ego. Tyler does whatever he likes; he is confident, has lots of sex, rejects basic comforts like duvets but also smokes and fights. In this way he is Jack’s id, unleashing repressed desires and acting upon them. However he is also a bit of a father figure to Jack and imparts his wisdom that Jack takes on board and learns from. Jack looks up to Tyler and learns how to speak and act from this mighty father figure but what he mostly learns is how to act on his repressed desires. Jack has been rejected by his father and other authority figures like his boss and is exploited by Tyler. Tyler is not simply his id but because he has values and beliefs to explain his wild, childish actions, he is also the super ego to an extent. Either way, Jack grows up through the fantasy of Tyler from childlike aggression and lashing out at other men to acceptance of a normal stable relationship with a woman.

Fight Club is also hard to classify in terms of generic conventions but analysing it in terms of a genre approach reveals it to share many of the characteristics of the romantic comedy, albeit a very dark one. Though Fight Club many have many of the generic conventions of action and crime films, it is really a film about a man and a woman who first despise each other and then begin a strange relationship that eventually blossoms into love. Romantic comedies pit a man and a woman together after a meet-cute. Jack and Marla meet at a testicular cancer sufferer’s support meeting. Jack immediately hates her but has to talk to her in order to separate their support groups. There is a fundamental misunderstanding at the centre of their relationship that causes conflict and once resolved allows them to be together. It has witty dialogue, the relationships (and love triangle of sorts) is at the centre of the story and love wins out over violence in the end. Fight Club is above all a very dark romantic comedy about a man and a woman getting together and the differences between men and women in modern society.

Fight Club is a rich text to study, taking any number of approaches. What it reveals about those approaches is that there is often some overlap and each approach can be useful to in order to ascertain what the messages and values of the film are. In the case of Fight Club, by using feminist, psychoanalytic and genre approaches, the film reveals itself to be a romance that is most critical of men rather than women and all approaches seem to suggest that Fight Club is actually a film about maturation and learning to embrace a healthy relationship with another person, rather than rejecting any gender, culture or way of life and examining it through these approaches is key to understanding the film fully.

For more posts on Fight Club:

Is Fight Club a film about power and control rather than liberation? (written version)

Is Fight Club a film about power and control rather than liberation? (video version)

Lots more Fight Club links


More A2 exam answers:

Analysing La Haine

World Cinema: Distinctive Visual Features

World Cinema: Social and Political Context

WJEC A2 Film Studies Exam Practice Section B

A2 Film Studies Exam Practice Section B

 

Is Fight Club a film about power and control rather than liberation?

Fight Club is the story of an unnamed narrator (from here referred to as Jack) who unconsciously creates an alter ego for himself in the form of revolutionary anarchist icon Tyler Durden. This split in the personality of the hero manifests itself in a whole new person being created who helps Jack to become free from the trappings of modern life. However Tyler is also an agent of control with great power over Jack and therefore Fight Club is both about power and control as well as liberation.

Tyler is virtually a fascist. His ideology is centred on the idea that pain and violence can be progressive. Fascists believed in the benefits of war, particularly for men as war can bring out the best in people. War allows people to come together to fight a common good, allows men to fight and be brave and strong and also helps society to advance technologically. Tyler believes that by creating his own army, he can change society for the better. These changes will include acts of destruction, damage and violence or at least the very real threat of violence. For example he intends to blow up credit card company buildings and threatens to kill a man if he does not strive to reach his potential by becoming a vet.

Tyler also controls his army like a fascist dictator. He shouts slogans at them like ‘you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake’, therefore controlling what they think and taking away their individuality. He makes them dress in an all-black uniform and shave their heads so they look the same. He refers to them as space monkeys who should be willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. He has great power over his army and controls their actions, their words and their thoughts. Project Mayhem members begin behaving like indoctrinated cult members, unable to think for themselves and chanting ‘His name is Robert Paulson’ simply because they fail to question authority.

Fight Club itself turns into Project Mayhem and the rules state that its members should not talk about it. Similarly Tyler insists that Jack does not talk about Tyler to Marla. Jack even says that sometimes Tyler spoke for him, almost like he is an abused and silenced housewife. Tyler may have some revolutionary politics and appear as a liberator but he is also a very controlling and domineering force in the film.

On the other hand, Tyler is also a liberator, a revolutionary and an anarchist. He is created by Jack because Jack is unhappy with the state of his current life, desperate for an escape from the boring existence of the modern corporate man. Tyler offers him freedom in the form of giving up his possessions, his job and learning to live without the trappings of IKEA catalogues and comfy living. Tyler teaches Jack to let go and ‘hit bottom’. This seemingly cures Jack of his insomnia and allows him to speak up for himself at work, scaring his boss and finally leaving his job. Tyler believes that having unnecessary possessions and media marketing keep people enslaved in their jobs and consuming products that they do not actually need. Tyler attempts to convince young men that they do not need to work boring jobs and keep buying whatever advertising tells them to buy. He wants men to free themselves from the comforts of modern living.

Tyler also tries to start a revolution against capitalism and the culture it has created. He wishes to blow up credit card companies in order to erase the debt record. In this way he is a socialist as he wants everyone to be free from debt so that all human beings can be equal again. He believes that destroying these companies, he can bring about real change in an unfair and unequal society. Marxists believe that a revolution will be necessary in order to bring about social change and to redistribute the wealth of the world to all people equally. Tyler appears s to be a revolutionary but he has to be a dictator to begin the revolution. The question is, in a freer and more equal society after erasing the debt record, would Tyler relinquish his power, leaving society to run itself or would he become an even more tyrannical dictator?

The film is also critical of corporate control over men in the modern world. Jack is bored and depressed because of the monotony of his job. His boss talks to him like a faceless robot and it seems that much of Jack’s life is dictated by work. He has to travel where work tells him and do as he is told. This allows him to afford the life he lives and the life that Tyler tries to get him to reject. Jack even mentions in his voice over that when space exploration develops, it will be the corporations that take control of the planets, naming them after themselves like ‘Planet Starbucks’. This shows that he thinks that corporate control is total and that their profits will allow them to explore and dominate the universe in the future. It is the banks that control the debt that keeps people working all their lives in order to pay it back and that Tyler wants to overthrow.

Advertising also is a key form of control that Tyler criticises for telling people what to buy, what to wear, where to eat and drink and how to look. Fight Club seems to stand against these sorts of control but in the end, the protagonist Jack rejects Tyler so perhaps it is more complex than to say Fight Club is simply anti-capitalist and against corporate control.

Marla appears to be the most liberated character in the film. She does not fear death, she does not let her gender stop her from attending testicular cancer support groups and she steals from others with reckless abandon. Jack/Tyler does seem to have some control over her as he manages to mess with her mind and she keeps coming back to him. She is also literally restrained and dragged back to Jack in the final scene of the film, showing that again, Project Mayhem is as much about power and control as liberating the masses.

The question of whether Fight Club is all about power and control or liberation really comes down to the intentions of Tyler and Project Mayhem. On the one hand their intentions to make a more equal society can appear noble and could help to set free a lot of the wage slaves of the world. On the other hand Tyler is a dictatorial presence and a hypocrite and it is only once Jack destroys him that he can truly be free. Fight Club is therefore about power, control and liberation. It questions corporate control over the world and has a character that advocates revolution but it also represents the revolutionary as a character to be critical and cautious of. Tyler is as much of a dictator as he is an anarchist and contrary to his demands, Tyler must be discussed. We have to talk about Fight Club.


More A2 exam answers:

Using Critical Approaches to Study Fight Club

Is Fight Club a film about power and control rather than liberation?

Analysing La Haine

World Cinema: Distinctive Visual Features

World Cinema: Social and Political Context

WJEC A2 Film Studies Exam Practice Section B

A2 Film Studies Exam Practice Section B

 

Analysing La Haine

La Haine is a powerful and unforgettable French drama about three youths, one gun and living on the outskirts of a society that hates you. I write about it a lot here at I Love That Film and elsewhere, having contributed an article to Media Magazine comparing it to City of God and most recently writing for Static Mass Emporium analysing the brilliant open ending.

If you have seen the film, please head over to Static Mass Emporium to find out why I find this to be one of the best film endings of all time. It might frustrate some but for others it will ensure that you can never forget this film and its cast of wonderfully conflicted characters. I start the article by arguing 'Open endings are a divisive tool that can leave an audience enraged, frustrated, gasping for breath, shocked, disappointed or yearning for more.' Hopefully La Haine's final scene will leave you feeling a little bit of all these emotions.

Check out my deconstruction of the final scene of La Haine at Static Mass Emporium here.

I also found the recent British film My Brother the Devil had many similarities with La Haine and I compared the two films in my review of My Brother The Devil at Filmoria here.

I teach about La Haine on A level Film Studies for the section on world cinema and we compare it to City of God and Tsotsi, two other powerful dramas dealing with issues of exclusion, poverty and violence.

Here is an exam answer on the visual style of La Haine, City of God and to a lesser extent, Tsotsi.

Here is an exam answer on the social and political context of La Haine, City of God and Tsotsi.

I wondered what would have become of the characters after the closing minutes of the film and in their futures in this post about making belated sequels.

I considered why La Haine is a must see film over at Filmoria.

Finally I named it as my second favourite film of the 90s and you can see my top 30 of that decade here.

In the future, once I get finished on my first book, I would love to one day write a book about La Haine but for now I will make do with writing about it as much as I can and for anyone who is willing to publish something on it. If you're a fan, let me know why in the comments below. If you haven't seen it, I urge you to. Forget the subtitles, the black and white and the lack of stars. This is cinema at it its best.


A2 Film Studies exam answers:

Using Critical Approaches to Study Fight Club

Is Fight Club a film about power and control rather than liberation?

Analysing La Haine

World Cinema: Distinctive Visual Features

World Cinema: Social and Political Context

WJEC A2 Film Studies Exam Practice Section B

A2 Film Studies Exam Practice Section B

World Cinema: Distinctive Visual Features

In my continuing goal to become a better teacher, I am putting up more exam answers to help students to see how to structure an argument and refer in detail to a text.


This is an example of an answer for Section A of the A2 Film Studies exam.  Section A covers world cinema and there is a focus on urban stories and how they deal with issues of power, poverty and conflict.  The films looked at are City of God, La Haine and Tsotsi.

Check out my answer on social and political context here. 

This answer is on visual features of the films studied.

What are the distinctive visual features of the world cinema films you have studied?

World cinema films are often positioned as art house films and therefore their visual styles can be very different from their Hollywood counterparts.  However in the case of some world cinema films such as City of God, there are elements of the visual style that could be aimed at a much wider audience.  The three films studied, City of God, La Haine and Tsotsi all have very different visual styles but they are also all devised in ways that emphasise the realism of the representations on screen.

City of God and La Haine have very different visual styles.  Both use the mise-en-scene of real locations to add to the realism of the films.  In City of God, the filmmakers chose to shoot in the real Brazilian favelas that are depicted in the film.  This adds to the realism and the choice to use many non-professional actors also aids this.  The film looks in many ways like a documentary with its real locations, lack of recognisable star faces and also the cinematography that captures the scenes.  The favelas are very unfamiliar to global audiences and the striking poverty including endless grey concrete and shanty style huts, skinny animals wandering around and the electricity wires that hang precariously in many shots all increase the sense of hardship that the inhabitants face.  The characters’ clothes are similarly torn and raggedy and Benny’s desire to get new clothes after earning more money through drug dealing reflects his desire to break free of the poverty of the slums.

Similarly the locations used in La Haine emphasise the realistic nature of the content.  Les banlieues on the outskirts of Paris are filled with more grey concrete.  High rise flats are hemmed in together so that the sounds of the estate ricochet around.  Though not in as desperate poverty as the slums of both City of God and Tsotsi, the locations used in La Haine are still grim, depressing and hopeless.  The youths in La Haine sit around in simple playgrounds, one flicking a discarded syringe with his feet and hanging out in the cramped apartments that are very different to the open plan luxury of the Parisian apartment they later visit. 

All three films contrast their poverty stricken locations with opposite locations to emphasise the poor conditions.  In City of God, we see the journalists large open plan offices and one journalists house (that Rocket notes has hot running water), in La Haine the youths end up in the centre of Paris in a lush art gallery where the attendees are offered free champagne and called ‘sir’ and in Tsotsi the audience sees the contrast of the townships where Tsotsi lives with the gated mansion of the rich people he steals from.  These contrasts help to emphasise inequality in society and help the audience to empathise more with the youths in the films who struggle with crime, drugs and violence.

Another contrast between the films is that whereas La Haine and Tsotsi are set over short periods of time, City of God is set over decades and the mise-en-scene effectively shows this time span.  Les banlieues and the townships stay the same but the favelas in City of God noticeably change from sun drenched, open and almost optimistic looking places to grey, concrete lined alleyways that hem in the characters and give a sense of claustrophobia.

None of the films use a star which helps to create more realism as the faces of the characters are far more believable and their performances and occasionally improvised dialogue in the case of City of God adds to the sense that the viewer is watching real people’s lives.

However all the films are stylised in some ways.  La Haine uses black and white cinematography to enhance this realism by linking it with the real footage from news reports shown in the opening credits.  This real footage gives the viewer real social and political context at the start of the film as we can see that riots and confrontation with the police are genuine occurrences in the French banlieues.  Similarly City of God also uses real footage but places this at the end of the film in the closing credits.  Unlike La Haine which uses black and white to give a sense of grey, boring reality to the scenes, City of God begins with bright colour (in the sixties and seventies) but as the narrative progresses, the colours become duller as the concrete trappings of urban development take over.  The use of colour reflects the more innocent crimes of the early characters before plunging the audience into the darkness and despair of the later scenes.  Tsotsi uses naturalistic lighting but also emphasises the beauty of the townships through the golden sunset tinged establishing shots.

Handheld camera is used throughout City of God enhancing the documentary feel, whereas La Haine features more steadicam movement with long flowing shots following characters through their environment.  City of God is hectic in both its cinematography and editing.  The opening chase scene is a great example of how the films subject (a chicken running for its life) and the film form used reflect each other.  The point of view shots from the chicken, the close ups on the chicken’s face and the low angle shots of Lil Ze are rapidly cut together to give the impression that the viewer is watching something as it happens and gives a sense of the hectic, danger-filled environment of the favelas.  There are many close ups that can disorient the viewer by not allowing them the conventional establishing shot that sets the scene.  On the other hand the close ups give a great level of detail about the favelas helping to create a realistic and atmospheric representation. The close ups of the chicken’s face in the opening scene accompanied by close ups of blood, knives, instruments sets up a party atmosphere but also a tension and fear for the chicken’s life (and by extension protagonist Rocket’s life). The use of point-of-view shots also helps the viewer to identify with Rocket and we often see events from the view of him or his camera.

The use of strobe lighting in Benny’s death scene and the parallel editing between Blacky entering the dance hall and the rest of the people partying creates unbearable levels of suspense and is a standout scene where editing, cinematography and mise-en-scene are used to create meaning for the viewer.  The fast cuts, quick zooms and unsteady camera all emphasise the hectic nature of the scene.

La Haine uses much slower paced shots with a very deep depth of field in its cinematography. This conveys a sense that life is much slower in les banlieues with the boredom of the main characters being emphasised. The three youths look like they belong in their environment as they are constantly in focus and the camera often tracks them through the streets of their estates. There is one shot where the camera floats over the streets and flies high above the buildings as a DJ plays a tune from his window.  This one shot alludes to the sense of freedom provided by music. One scene in City of God is similar to La Haine with its use of depth of field as the story of the apartment is relayed to the viewer.  This scene is all one shot and fades between different moments in the story of the apartment as characters come and go. La Haine uses this same technique when Hubert is smoking in his room. The camera stays in the same position but the image jumps or fades to Hubert in different positions.  Both these scenes draw attention to the editing while using static shots of a single location. The cinematography of La Haine also changes when the youths arrive in Paris.  The depth of field becomes shallower and the youths suddenly stand out from their environment, reflecting the way they feel and their exclusion from the environment they find themselves in.

The editing also adds to the restlessness of the camera in City of God with lots of quick cutting and speeding up of footage.  La Haine, on the other hand, favours shots with a longer duration and the editing is less choppy than in City of God.  This emphasises the idea that life is fast in the favelas, whereas life is boring in les banlieues.  However tension is created by using a number of ‘explosive’ cuts at the beginning of La Haine.  The image cuts, for example, on Vinz pretending to shoot a gun at his mirror image and hitting a boxing bag.  The sound of a gunshot is used on each of these cuts.  This means the combination of lengthy shots punctuated by sharp, loud cuts keeps the viewer on edge and builds expectations of something abrupt happening after the youths spend so long sitting around being bored.

Overall the most noticeable visual features of the films are in the mise-en-scene. The striking realism of the locations is very powerful and gives audience a powerful sense that what they are watching is real. City of God’s flashy editing and handheld camera aesthetics work to both give the film a documentary feel but also to draw attention to the style of the film, perhaps taking away some of the realism. Tsotsi is the most traditionally shot of the films and again it is the mise-en-scene that is most powerful.  However the editing and cinematography of both La Haine and City of God add to the meanings created in the films and is rewarding on repeat viewings. Most of all they have several scenes that stand out in the memory for their effective and experimental visual features.

What do you think?  Do I get an A?  Any feedback always welcome.

More A2 exam answers:

Using Critical Approaches to Study Fight Club

Is Fight Club a film about power and control rather than liberation?

Analysing La Haine

World Cinema: Distinctive Visual Features

World Cinema: Social and Political Context

WJEC A2 Film Studies Exam Practice Section B

A2 Film Studies Exam Practice Section B