The movie I chose to write about for blog one is fight club. Fight club was made in 1999 and starred Bradd Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Carter. This movie is about an office employee and a soap salesman that start a club to destroy debts owed in credit.
This movie would have been hard to do as a silent film, but still possible. The film starts out by showing Edward Norton and how he has mental issues. He goes to therapy sessions and is suffering from insomnia. He becomes addicted to the meetings until one day, a woman named Marla comes in, and he knows that she is faking her mental issues. On a business trip, he goes on a flight and meets Tyler. He becomes friends with him and the two make a club where all they do is fight. More fight clubs start all over the country and they band together to shut down the credit companies.
As a silent film, the movie would start out by showing the main character, but to show the main characters mental problems, it would have to show him holding his head most likely, and then he would be going to the classes. There would most likely be a short writing that tells the audience that the main character has mental issues. After showing the main character repeatedly going to therapy sessions, it would show the same scene, just with a girl in it. The next scene would be an image of the main character with an angry face. This scene would repeat, but each time, the look on the main characters face would begin to get angrier looking. Then, the character would go on a plane, there would be another scene with writing that says, “He is taking a business trip.” On the plane, it would show a scene where he shakes hands with another character, demonstrating the friendship. In the next scene it would show a club, and it would be called the fight club. Then after a few more scenes, it would show many more clubs started, all with the same name. It would then show the twist. I can imagine a scene where the two main characters are standing next to each other, and with a fading film transition, one would disappear. Then there would be writing that said “It was one person the whole time, imagining a second person.” The next scene would have a picture of a building, then it would show the main character again, then it would have a picture of a collapsed building that looked similar.
Some of the major changes that would be necessary are the difference in music instead of dialogue. To show the feelings, there would be many random changes in pitch, making it seem more intense. I chose something that would be difficult to make into a silent film to show the significance of the voices. If there is no sound, Tylers (Brad Pitts) personality would have never been shown correctly. It would be tough to make it have a good twist. Also, it would be tough to demonstrate mental issues in a silent film. Not only because of the sound that is needed but also, when silent films were being made, most people did not understand mental issues like they do today. http://cinemaroll.com/cinemarolling/alfred-hitchcock-presents-psycho/. Psycho was the first movie to really demonstrate mental issues. That is possibly why it could be popular.
I love the idea of how incredibly difficult it would be to make "Fight Club" a movie, and how hard it would be to do plot twist and be able to fully understand a character, especially one with two personalities. Which, both are demonstrated at different times throughout the movie. I agree it would be difficult to do, and to do it in the way you are describing would not have the audience engaged one bit, and most of the movie would have to be explained to the audience much like a language translator does, taking most of suspense and mystery away from the movie. And making the realization of the two character actually being one in end into one direct statement, pretty much saying, "Hey, stupid audience! Its the same guy!" Good analysis!
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