1. Fight Club- The Narrator
In the 1999 David Fincher masterpiece Fight Club, Edward Norton plays the nameless hero and narrator in the film. He lives a mundane life, working an office job, ordering from catalogs and attending self help meetings just for the entertainment value. His life is vacant, until he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Durden is a charismatic and free thinking soap salesman who slowly works his way into The Narrator's life. Eventually The Narrator and Durden form a "fight club" allowing other men to beat each other up to take out unwanted aggression and stress. This film's interesting premise relies on the friendship formed between The Narrator and Durden, they are the opposite spectrums in terms of personalities, yet they compliment each other together quite well, making their fight club a resounding success. As Durden grows more and more focused on causing damage to corporate America through his army of followers, The Narrator tries to maintain control in his spiraling life. Norton gives a great performance as The Narrator, allowing his neuroses and aggression loose as the fight club gets in full swing. At the outset of the film's climax we discover that Tyler Durden is a figment of The Narrator's imagination, and does not exist per-se. Everything that has been achieved has been accomplished by The Narrator, who we ultimately realize has allowed Durden's psyche into his own. Upon a second required viewing of the film, one can pick up on the traits of this discovery in Norton's performance throughout, and he amazes us once again with the subtlety of his talent in melding these two personalities together. Tyler Durden is the ultimate fantasy for any man to create, he is a violent enigma that every man wants to be like and every woman wants to be with.
Are there any other awesome Edward Norton performances that have a violent alter ego at the core? Have your say in the comments below.