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How is reception theory relevant when
analysing
fight club?
I chose to research how fight club falls specifically within that area of reception theory as
most of the main scenes are very mysterious and, in some cases, hard to follow which is
done on purpose to make the viewer come up with their own answers for the plot,
characters and events. Throughout this discussion I plan to discover how reception theory is
specifically relevant to fight club and how it’s one of the main driving factors behind the
movie. I intend on going about this by taking a deep dive into theories about the movie,
dissecting and analysing specific scenes / characters and looking into the director’s history
and see if reception theory is a reoccurring theme.
Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes each
reader’s reception or interpretation in making meaning from a literary text. Reception
theory is generally referred to as audience reception in the analysis
of communications models. Reception theory is said to have originated from the work of
Hans-Robert Jauss in the late 1960s, the most influential of this work was from the 1970s to
the early 1980s in Germany and the US.
The main beliefs that reception theory has is that media contain a variety of messages that are
encoded by producers and directors and decoded by the audience. Therefore, what we see is simply
a ‘re-presentation’ of what producers want us to see. Stuart hall presented that there are 3
categories of these understandings from the audience being:
dominant/preferred reading - the audience accepts and agrees with messages put forward
in the media
Negotiated reading – the audience agrees with some of the text but rejects / disagrees
with other parts
Oppositional reading – the audience disagrees with the messages that are trying to be put
across or conveyed
some people believe that the reception theory is flawed as the less shared heritage the
reader has with an artist, director, text etc, the less they will be able to recognise the
artists true and intended meaning, this can also be affected by cultural or personal
experiences meaning their understandings of the text will vary.
David Fincher has a large history in film making and directing with his first feature film
being “alien 3” which premiered in 1992 which came with garnered mixed reviews which

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was followed up with “seven” (1995) which came with a better review. But he didn’t start
off by making movies he started in the industry of making music videos for music stars
such as Madonna for her “express yourself” video in 1989 and her “vouge” music video in
1990 which both won the MTV video music awards for best direction. After sevens
release, he found more success in the release of “the game” (1997) and even more
notably with “fight club” which came out in 1999 and the movie he is predominantly
known for. His catalogue of movies spreads far as he is still making movies to this day, he
mainly focuses on psychological thrillers and biographical dramas which lead him to his
signature feature of low-key lighting and heavy use of shadows which works well his use
of restricted narration as the darkness of the lighting and the cloak provided by the
shadows helps his films build up the surprise that is achieved through his restricted
narration. He is also known to exaggerate and extensively use lengthy tracking shots and
places significant emphasis on the use of dolly or boom shots. He also enjoys exploring the
themes of corruption in a seemingly perfect and affluent environment.
Fight club was released in 1999 by fox 2000 pictures which was the studio who help[ed
David Fincher with the project, they have a big history of blockbuster titles such as :the
Percy Jackson franchise, diary of a wimpy kid franchise, the devil wears Prada and Alvin
and the chipmunks to mention a few, these all came after fight club was released meaning
fight club was one of the first to be released under fox 2000 pictures which has now
actually shutdown and did so in May 14th of 2021. Fight club is regarded as one of the best
movies to come out in the late 90s and early 2000s even though it bombed at the box
office, with its complex and intelligent story telling which doesn’t take the viewer for
granted and streaks of black comedy to break away from the gore and dark sections of the
movie. With this quite from David Ansen who is a top critic: “An outrageous mixture of
brilliant technique, puerile philosophizing, trenchant satire and sensory overload, Fight Club
is the most incendiary movie to come out of Hollywood in a long time. It's a mess, but one
worth fighting about.” I feel that this quote perfectly entails how fight club has been
represented to most people as it is a movie that makes you question everything you
know about giving its replay value along with its underlying black comedy about
modern day masculinity and how the corrupt socioeconomic society of modern
America changes the modern man. Some people saw fight club as too violent and felt
like it was anti-consumerism film filled with stylized rubbish. A few felt like it
promoted a type of glorified anarchism to appease the average angry American who
didn’t want to think deeper than “were very, very pissed off”
In the scene where the narrator finally confronts Tyler if he is real or not towards the
end of the movie the narrator is scrambling around different city's looking for Tyler as
he has seemingly left the narrator, he eventually ends up at a hotel room after he finds
out he is Tyler but is still confused in which he calls Marla. Tyler then appears out of
nowhere and has a talk about why people believe him, and Tyler are the same. With
the wide angle of this shot showing both sat opposite one another I feel it represents
how him and the Tyler persona are completely different and a total opposite with the
way they dress, carry their self and talk.
I think it was an effective decision to show the narrator recalling all the things he did
as Tyler as it really brings the story to its ultimatum but not the climax which gives
the narrator a choice and grabs the viewers’ attention significantly as the viewer is

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only just learning about this stuff the same time the narrator is making it more human
too. I also feel that putting the narrator alone in the room in the middle of this scene
truly shows that the narrator is alone in his actions and the cause of it all, but this
could be interpreted in multiple ways which gives the movie its replay ability and
intrigue for the viewer making them think of their own interpretation of this scene.
In another scene just before Tyler leaves the narrator which leads up to the
confrontation of him finding out who Tyler is of fight club Tyler Durden is present and
is seemingly having a self-talk or breakdown of some sort which is represented by
how to scene flickers like an old film reel which also ties into that Tyler makes film
reels on a night for cash. This also hints to that Tyler and the narrator are one in the
same as Tyler's face distorts slight hints of the narrator’s face is visible and meshes.
With this scene I think its effective to show the mental strain and breakdown the Tyler
persona is having on the narrator as he is trying to take away more and more control
from the narrator, I want to recreate something like this as I feel it is the perfect
balance of giving a hint to the viewer that the main character and the other persona
are the same person but it may just also be that characters so called mental state and
breakdown within their self-making the viewer speculate and bring their own idea into
the concept
Fight club as a movie is made to make the viewer question it and what they know
making it seemingly be based around reception theory, especially so for a new viewer
of the movie as most people have said they needed to watch it a couple or multiple
times to understand everything and see everything that was going on and even then,
some may not understand it. The three types of reception theory reading would
categorise the type of viewers for fight club with the dominant / preferred reading
being that the narrator is an insomniac that develops dissociative personality
disorder and is just becoming Tyler in times of stress or worry, the negotiated reading
could be that the watcher agrees that the narrator does have dissociative personality
disorder but has control over what he is doing as in one of the scenes he even says
“Tyler’s words coming out of my mouth” or the scene where he beats himself up in
his bosses office and says “for some reason I thought of my first fight with Tyler” and
maybe using Tyler as an excuse for some of his actions. Lastly the oppositional
watching may be that the watcher believes that the narrator is just visualising all the
actions he does as he is constantly sleep deprived and clearly needs help so he may
just be hallucinating or imagining this all in a state of delusion.
In conclusion I believe reception theory is fully utilized and weaved within and
throughout fight club with its direction, artistic depictions of mental struggles and the
boring monotony of everyday for the modern man. Whilst researching I’ve found that
some love this movie for this and how it is almost a black comedy based on this with
a touch of psychological drama. On the other hand, some seem to dislike this movie
for that same reason and feel it enforces those negative behaviours and gives it a
platform to be stylized with its anti-consumerism message. But with this shows that
reception theory is deeply embed within fight club as it has its intended viewing, but
some may delve a bit deeper and see between the lines allowing them to make up
their own preferred viewing takes which is why I believe that reception theory is fully
present within fight club.