Movie of the Week #4



Fight Club
1999, Directed by David Fincher

This week, our pick is by request. I’m going to cheat a little, as I had already written a review for this film some time ago. Copy and paste, baby. Well, for the most part, anyway.


"This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time."

Do you ever feel like that? Do you ever feel bored with life? Frustrated with your job and the people around you? Do you ever feel like you've wasted your precious time on this Earth? Do you ever feel like you can't feel at all? Well, Fight Club is the movie for you.

Many (who haven't seen the film) seem to be under the impression that Fight Club is a big, dumb, brutish, excessively violent guy movie about some kind of brutal kick-boxing club. This couldn't be further from the truth.

Here's the real plot: Our unnamed protagonist and narrator (Norton) is a man who hates his job and everything around him (Sound familiar?). He has a crippling case of insomnia that he can't seem to cure. He is a zero in a vast sea of electronic digits. Then he meets the enigmatic Tyler Durden (Pitt), a hip, confident funk song of a man; in other words: everything our narrator isn't. After a rather unfortunate event, he comes to live with Durden, and the two inadvertently become the founders of a club where disaffected men can take out their frustrations on each other. But eventually, Durden injects his own twisted ideals into Fight Club and it becomes something much larger and more important. It also becomes a nightmare for our protagonist. By the way, wondering why the narrator goes unnamed through the entire film? My guess would be to stress the impersonality of the modern age.

At first glance, it may seem like these men hurt each other because they are nothing but raging piles testosterone with nothing better to do. While this may play a minor role in their actions, the main reason they fight is because they are victims. Victims of the age of computers, credit cards, and Starbucks. They fight because they feel nothing and they want, long, and need to feel something, anything. They relish inflicting pain. They relish receiving pain. They relish the fact that they can feel. But don't be fooled and think that this is a depressing, unrelentingly serious film about deprived individuals; Fight Club is as much a comedy as a drama or a thriller. I actually found myself raucously guffawing on more than several occasions throughout the 2+ hour running time.

The film is beautifully photographed and masterfully directed by David Fincher, who drenches the film in his wonderfully original and fantastically stylish approach, but the style is not a gimmick to cover up a shoddy film; it works. It works perfectly. Fincher has always had a strong visual flair, and Fight Club may be his most aesthetically interesting film yet. The film also features some fantastic acting, principally from Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. Norton gives a dead-on performance as the frustrated every-man, and Pitt gives a very spirited performance as Durden, who may just be the biggest celluloid badass since Clint Eastwood's "The Man With No Name". Helena Bonham Carter is also notable as the only prominent female character in the film.

Another strong contributing element of the movie is the fun soundtrack. The film's instrumental hip-hop/techno score, courtesy of The Dust Brothers, really enhances the experience; I can't imagine the movie without it. And as a personal plus, the film uses two of my favorite songs of all time: "Goin' Out West" by Tom Waits and "Where Is My Mind?" by Pixies (which are both utilized perfectly).

But what is probably the most fascinating aspect of Fight Club is the way it dissects the psyche of a mentally unsound individual. But you will know what I'm talking about when you see the movie; I won't spoil it for you.

Also, don't be fooled by the critics who condemn the film for being overly violent and graphic. I quite simply do not understand this claim. There are a few brutal fight scenes and maybe two gun wounds. It is not excessive or graphic. It is necessary to the plot.

Fight Club is not about action. Fight Club is not about convention. Fight Club is not about brutality. Fight Club is about the adverse effects of our dehumanized society. Fight Club is about enlightenment. But most importantly, Fight Club is about rebellious and thoroughly entertaining filmmaking. Fight Club is a modern masterpiece.

Previous Movies of the Week:

#1: Gladiator
#2: The Passion of the Christ
#3: Cool Hand Luke

I'm serious Jordan, go to some sort of film school, whether it's a dinky one-day camera workshop or a four-year university. No professor is going to be able to change your views, even if they try their hardest (which they won't anyway as they are more interested in your views than anything) and you obviously have quite the aptitude for film. It would be a waste of your passion for you not to pursue education in some way. If you get some camera skills and make some shorts, you stand a real chance of getting into the best film schools with your knowledge.

I know you hate the idea, but you should really consider it.

my 3rd or 4th fav movie ever

i try to enjoy this movie, i really do. but i find fight club very over-rated. it's tough because i really enjoy the acting by brad pitt and ed norton. it just feels like the movie seems to drag on. This is just my opinion, and i know alot of people will disagree with me. i'm just not a big fan of this movie

Hey, we're all about debate in these threads. Don't feel like you have to worry about being attacked or anything.

I can understand that opinion; it is a little on the lengthy end. However, to me, it just seems so relentlessly entertaining that I find it hard to get bored. That's one of the big strengths of the film: it blends entertainment and social commentary perfectly, a la Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

well it's hard to explain, see there are some people who, say yeah "i fuckin love fight club it's fuckin awesome" and they say it because it's the cool thing to do. And i ask them why because they fight? "yeah it's fuckin great" they seem to have no idea about the direction of the film or why it was written. You on the other hand have a very good understanding of what this movie is about. I have my own interpretations , and i just find the movie dull and almost childish.

I agree, and I think that's kind of the point. These men are reverting back to pure base primality, which is probably kind of a childish theme. But again, I think that's part of the point. Their only release is through being juvenile and brutish.

Great film, never gets old

I think some of the content is very questionable though

whatever do you mean by that?

i have yet to see the whole thing, though of the parts i have seen i don't really care to put pressure on myself to go see it. not in a violence kind of way, but the movie, of what i've seen, just didn't do anything for me.

It's late and I'm getting ready to call it a day but I will say this is one of my favorite movies of all time. There was a period of time that I watched it just about everyday for around 6 months. It just completely clicked and registered with me at the moment, the themes of alienation and consumer society, just everything about it. A great movie, I still find it hard to believe that I disocovered it on a lark at the $1.50 second run movies.

I'll have more tomorrow.

I love the first half, and love the theme. One of the most important movies of my young generation.

I think it's a good movie, but for different reasons than most people, especially dudes (many of whom worship this movie). I like how Fincher shows that by trying to destroy a society they hate, the men involved essentially become the corporate body that they despise in the first place, complete with arbitrary rules, an organized workforce, and orders that are followed blindly. They revert to the corporate drones that they were in the beginning of the movie. Interesting stuff.

I love watching it and this thread will be really entertaining once all the nay-sayers come in.

I'm not going to write a long review, because i feel pretty much the same way as the rest of you and i couldn't say anything that hasn't already been said, so i'll speak about my experience in seeing it for the first time.

Anyways when i first saw this movie as a young high school kid, i went into the theatre expecting a simple fight movie but came out with my mind twisted and my jaw dropped. It was one of the few movies i've seen where i actually felt compelled to go back through the doors and buy another ticket. Thematically it spoke to me as a kid who was feeling alienated by, and dissafected with society which is something i wasn't getting from most pop culture.

This movie is one of my all time favorites. I was on a recent road trip with some friends and we had rented a minivan with a DVD player. The guys in the back decided they were sick of music and threw in Fight Club, and unfortunately i was in the front passenger seat so i could only listen to it. What shocked me is that i had a picture-perfect visual burned into my mind of every single scene.

Amazing film, one of my all time favorites. Besides just being an immensly enjoyable film it offers a really intelligent critique of modernity and the way it traps us. But it goes beyond that and demonstrates and critqiues the way right wing movements feed off of that frustration and anger, offering people both a (destructive) outlet for their rage and a new identity, something else they can lose themselves in. The warning of the film is not necssarily that people want individuality--they want passion and faith and causes. They want to be a part of something they think matters and something larger than themselves. It's very smart both as critqiue and as a cautionary tale. you can learn a lot (although not everything) about the origins of facism from the film.

It is also much better than the book.

Damn good movie, but not in my top 20 of all-time. 4 stars.

This is exactly how I feel about the film. I only went to see it because Edward Norton was in it, and I was so amazed with his performance in American History X that he became one of my favorite actors. I too walked in thinking it was just about brutish underground fights, but boy was I wrong.

As said, this movie is so much more than that. It's almost prophetic, in a way; look at how the narrator describes how everything will be named after corporations, even after we've conquered other planets. The social commentary is amazing, and the plot on how to rid ourselves of such nonsense works so well.

But what surprised me the most about this movie is Brad Pitt's performance; I had always seen him as a pretty boy with no acting chops. Even in the movie Seven, which I adore, I felt like he was just in love with himself. Not here. He comes off as intelligent, angry and anarchistic all at the same time. Credit to director David Fincher for helping a decent actor give a great performance.

There are so many things to write about Fight Club that they could fill a book. Easily in my top 10 movies of all time, and believe me, I've seen plenty of great films, so that's a grand statement for me. And I may find some naysayers to this claim, but this is probably the most important movie of the past 20 years.

meh.

You know, this and Haunted are the only two of Chuck's books I haven't read. I don't know why I haven't read it, but I guess it's because I felt like there was no way it could live up to something I already had a such a love for. Sucks to hear that though, why would you say the film is better?

Also, I find your comment about the movie applying to "right wing movements" pretty interesting. Everything else you said I pretty much agree with and would count as part of my own interpretation of it as well but I never thought of it as being a critique on the right. Then again, I haven't watched the movie in the past several years and I formed my opinion of it long ago before anything that politically minded would have really meant that much to me.