The movie "Fight Club" is a film that is creatively engineered and perceptually intriguing. The story line of "Fight Club" is what sets it apart form other movies. Although the reality of the film becomes clear by the end ,or throughout upon the second and third times of watching it, the main affect of the film is its shifting perceptions that are visible to the viewer yet imperceptible to the characters. During the film, viewers have a special insight into the mind of the narrator played by Edward Norton who interacts with Tyler Durden - his minds alter ego.To explain how this insight comes about, Walter Benjamin describes in his article, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" within section VIII that film is all about the camera in that "the audience's identification with the actor is really an identification with the camera." This seems to be very true in terms of "Fight Club" because the audience is subject to what the camera, not the character, allows one to see. The characters in the film are not privy to the distinction in personalities between the Narrator and Tyler Durden. They only see one person who may act differently in different situations and settings. As an audience with the unique perspective connected through the lens of the camera, we are given insight into the minds of the characters.
Though I feel like I did have a special insight into the Narrator, this knowledge did not present itself until the end of the film. It was only then that I was shown that Tyler Durden did not exist in reality as a separate person from the Narrator. The majority of the film - which does hint at the fact that Tyler does not exist - actually deceives, confuses, and intrigues the viewer. This film does an incredible job of exemplifying what Benjamin says when he describes how within film "a different nature opens itself to the camera than opens to the naked eye - if only because an unconsciously penetrated space is substituted for a space consciously explored by man" (VIII).
We as the audience enter the unconscious mind of the Narrator. We see how he views himself in terms of his dependence on objects rather than self-understanding. His world centered around IKEA, the workspace, and confinement are (in his mind) completely separate from the introspective, intense, and free spirit of Tyler Durden. I think that is why at the end of "Fight Club" we as the audience understand the character better than any other characters in the film could have. This film is important in depicting what film in general is able to do for perceptions and understanding. Through the means of film, the camera, narration, scenes, and shots, we are able to enter a realm outside of the conscious and reality.
