Wife and I just watched Black Swan and after the conclusion I decided that the story was essentially Fight Club but with ballerinas instead of fighting dudes.
When you look at the stories side by side they are remarkably similar. Do you agree?
FTR I though Black Swan was an excellent movie.
Yeah, I’ve heard lots of people make that comparison and it did occur to me. The whole, “This person is really someone’s in someone’s head” thing is getting so old now. It wasn’t so bad in Black Swan since Lily did exist–she just didn’t do all the things Nina thought she did.
I felt like the similarities went beyond the person within a person idea. I’m on my phone right now so I can’t list them but I thought he story all together was very similar to FC.
I find the increasing insistence that all movies be classified as “for boys” or “for girls” not only offensive but simplistic. Plenty of women like Fight Club. Plenty of men like Black Swan or other movies with female protagonists. The idea that a man can’t/shouldn’t possibly like a movie that centers on female characters or love and isn’t filled with violence or “action” is an insult to men.
And Black Swan is more or less a remake of The Red Shoes. If there are similarities between FC and BS, then it’s FC that’s the first copycat.
True. That other person let the neurotic/unhappy original person unleash their hidden wild, anarchic side. And there’s the whole killing yourself (or trying to kill yourself) to kill the other person. And there was an undercurrent of homoeroticism in FC (and more than just an undercurrent in BS). And the emphasis on pushing the body to its limits.
Fight Club felt more like it was trying to make a statement on our society as a whole while Black Swan was very limited to the body/skin/person of this one person, Nina. And of course the violence is mostly directed to the self in Black Swan while it’s directed at other people in Fight Club (well, sort of…) in Fight Club, as that tends to mirror how psychological issues go for men and women in general.
Though I do agree with Claire that the “for boys” or “for girls” thing is silly. I loved Fight Club and Black Swan and I’m female.
Oh get over yourself. It’s for chicks in the sense that it stared all women and fight club starred all men.
Love the offenderatti here.
My exact words to my wife after watching Black Swan were, “I like it better when it had fighting…and was called Fight Club.”
So yeah, I agree that it’s pretty similar.
I don’t understand how “for” means the same thing as “starred all” I think “with” would have been a better word to use here. “For” does make it sound like you are categorizing girls and boys movies (especially when you use the word “chicks”) and yes, that does annoy many women (and probably some men). Leaving offense aside, the idea that movies fall so neatly into guy movies or “chick” movies is something some people actually still believe so any implication along those lines will bring people trying to correct it.
If we are keeping score, I am female and loved Fight Club, I enjoyed Black Swan but I regard it as camp.
Back on topic, I never made the connection between the movies but I think it’s a good observation.
Ok. I’ll email all my posts to you so you can make sure I use words that you approve of before I post.
You can post whatever you like of course. But if you imply certain movies are for women and others are for men I think the response is going to be pretty predictable. If that is really not what you intended to say you will have an easier time avoiding hijacks if you say what you mean clearly. Don’t blame me, that’s how the internet works.
Because the whole damned point of Fight Club was that it was a rebellion against the emasculation of the modern male by a society that acts in every possible way to play nice and avoid conflicts. Or else. Tyler Durden pretty much states it in the movie several times.
A movie whose theme is explicitly about men should be able to safely be considered “for” men. If anything could fall neatly in “guy movie”, Fight Club should go at the top of the list.
-Joe
Wah! People don’t like my simplistic gender-oriented worldview!
The “for girls” vs. “for boys” thing is quite silly. But, yeah, my SO and I watched this over the weekend and I remarked to her – during, I think, the sex scene – that I wondered if Nina were Tyler Durdening her interactions with Lily. (She looked at me funny, but I think it was clear as the movie went on.)
OK, how about, “it’s manly but I like it too”? Why not just say that it is “about” men (and I would still say it is not exclusively about men) and let people of either gender decide for themselves if it is “for” them or not? I mean, women have historically been told to play nice and avoid conflict more than men. It hasn’t always worked out so great for us either.
And your point still doesn’t address the other side, that Black Swan is supposedly for chicks. I know men who liked it and “chicks” who hated it. Wouldn’t it be better if we just stopped trying to assign movies to a particular gender and just discuss them for what they are?
And, perhaps, anyone else who enjoys a good movie.
Why wouldn’t a movie that plays with ideas of men’s role in society, and their reaction to it, be of interest to women as well as men? I just don’t get the idea that because it’s about men it’s somehow “for” men. It’s not like it’s some manifesto of “this is what you need to know to be a man” that guys need to go study to learn how to function in this confusing modern-day genderless world. It’s a brilliantly made movie about entertaining, crazy people! Just like “Black Swan”. Who knows, maybe they were intended to appeal to a similar audience, not a different one.
Not a whole lot. I think both involve a main character who suppresses important parts of their personality, only to have those parts eventually come out in weird ways. But the suppressed personality in fight club was anarchistic and I think the suppressed personality in black swan was totally different, more of an independent, sexual personality. But aside from the fact that both main characters repressed parts of their personality only to have it come out in weird ways, they are totally different movies.
Plus the character in FC seemed to integrate his personality by the end, in black swan she seems to revert to her old self in the end.
Also In episode 2F09, when Itchy plays Scratchy’s skeleton like a xylophone, he strikes the same rib twice in succession, yet he produces two clearly different tones. I mean, what are we to believe, that this is some sort of a magic xylophone or something?
But Tyler Durden’s basically proven to be wrong about his solution to the problem. I don’t think it’s such a stretch to think he was wrong about the problem.
I don’t think a movie about the emasculation of men is necessarily just for men either. Something that sweeping about society/culture definitely is hugely relevant for…well, everyone, I’d think.