Adaptation & Transcription | "Fight Club" (1999)

Fig. 1 "Fight Club" Poster

The movie “Fight Club (1999)“ written by Chuck Palahniuk and directed by David Fincher is a story about a depressed man who suffers from insomnia and split personality disorder. Throughout the movie topics such as capitalism, aggression, Buddhism and communism are treated and analyzed thoroughly. The narrator is not given a name at the very start of the movie carried out until the very end when he actually finds out that his companion Tyler Durden is actually his other personality and therefore himself. “Fight Club” is one of the most successful movies having a box office of $100.9 million worldwide. The story of the narrator and his split personality friend Tyler Durden originates from the book with the same name “Fight Club” written by Chuck Palahniuk in 1996 which makes the movie an adapted film. However, how accurate did David Fincher capture the topics covered by Palahniuk in his novel and how did Fincher manage to bring the fiction to life?

Comparing the novel with the film the critical eye can see many differences. However, most of them are only small details such as in the film when the narrator found out his apartment blew up he went to a nearby phone cell to call Marla first and then Tyler whereas in the novel he instantly calls Tyler at the lobby or the fact mentioned in the book that the narrator is left a hole in his cheek after a brutal fight, however, in the movie this never happened. Apart from the many other small unimportant details there are some big differences too. In the book the narrator is shown as less of a scaredy-cat. In the movie Tyler at some point forces a convenience store clerk to change his way of life by threatening his life with a gun with the narrator standing by helplessly whereas in the book the narrator is threatening the man while Tyler is away collecting licenses from people.  The end scene is different as well: In the novel Tyler’s plan was to blow up the tallest building located on top of a museum, however, his plan failed and the bomb did not go off. The narrator shoots himself tearing a hole in his other cheek in front of the group. In the movie Tyler wants to reset the public debt to zero by blowing up all the credit card companies. The narrator shoots himself tearing a hole into his cheek in front of Tyler.

Fig. 2 "Fight Club" Novel Cover

In addition to those differences, the movie implemented scenes not mentioned in the novel and vice versa. For instance in the movie the narrator and Tyler hit golf balls in the front yard of the Paper Street house at night or the conversation about which famous figures they would fight against such as Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln and William Shatner and why which does not happen in the novel at all. However, some events happens in the book are not mentioned in the movie such as the scene when Marla exposes the narrator in front of the cancer support groups that he does not have cancer at all or one of the final scenes before the detonation of the bomb, members of Project Mayhem pushing filing cabinets out of the windows of the Parker Morris building.

Fig. 3 Final Scene

Despite the fact that the movie and the novel differ in many different scenes, Fincher manages to stick to the original story as close as possible and treat the same topics as the books such as aggression in the modern society and its suppression with their founded fight club, capitalism ruling over the society and communism as the answer to it exemplified by the narrator’s apartment and his obsession with his furniture with Tyler Durden as his communistic tutor and guide, and the topic of Zen-Buddhism and its concept of the life circle exemplified by the way of living of Tyler Durden.

Overall, Fincher manages to adapt the novel to a film capturing the themes and topic discussed and treated in the novel marvelously. Looking at the numbers the movie “Fight Club (1999)” succeed at the box office with $100.9 million worldwide.

Illustration List:
Fig.1 "Fight Club" Poster. At: https://dspncdn.com/a1/media/692x/9d/b9/36/9db936757d9fd84117baafc043eafdb2.jpg (Accessed on 11/12/2017)
Fig. 2 "Fight Club" Novel Cover. At: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514qXrYZ5sL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg (Accessed on 11/12/2017)
Fig.3 Final Scene. At: https://i.imgur.com/JK4WmBA.gif (Accessed on 11/12/2017)