4) Edward Norton – Fight Club (1999)
So much attention is paid to Brad Pitt’s Tyler Durden in David Fincher’s now-classic drama that many viewers of Fight Club didn’t even realize that Norton’s character is never given a name. In the credits, he’s simply called The Narrator. In the film, Norton’s character is an average office worker, suffering from insomnia and a distinct lack of purpose; he’s an Everyman, lost in his own life. The character’s anonymity is indicative of his incomplete personal identity; he has neglected to fill his life with meaning, opting instead to conform completely to his surroundings. Though convinced that he wants to live a picture-perfect life like he sees idealized in advertisements, the character fails to fill it with actual people, instead focusing on buying material objects and studying the art of being normal.
As the Narrator immerses himself in the dangerous world of fight clubs, viewers get increasingly extensive glimpses into his fractured psyche, but he remains sympathetic through the film. One widely-accepted take on the film is that he is just a victim, attempting to wrest control of his own life from parts of himself he doesn’t control, as well as those around him.
The Narrator is a symbol of society’s loss of masculinity, brought about by undue focus on materialism, particularly among gray-collar workers who feel overwhelming pressure to conform to a ‘norm.’ His insomnia suggests deep-set unease at his materialistic, hollow lifestyle, which the fight clubs eventually begin to alleviate. By retaining author Chuck Palahniuk’s practice of not giving him a name, Fincher conveys the character’s sense of self-delusion and also creates an effective parable about the dangers of a consumerist society, presenting The Narrator as a John Q. Public, emblematic of every person’s deepest emotions and fears.
