Fight Club Rating (out of five): ****1/2 Starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, Jared Leto and Zach Grenier Directed by David Fincher Written by Jim Uhls (based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk) Rated R for violence, profanity, sexual situations and subliminal nudity Theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 Released in 1999 Running 139 minutes
For years, director David Fincher has been turning out some of the most stylish and inventive thrillers to ever hit American screens. In spite of critical and public backlash, his Alien 3 remains the most technically interesting of that series, and Se7en stands as the suspense film upon which all other modern suspense films are gauged. With The Game, he proved himself more than a one-movie-wonder and emerged as one of the most original filmmakers working in Hollywood. Which brings us to Fight Club, Fincher's most unnerving and stylized outing yet.
By now, anyone who follows the entertainment business by even a slight degree has heard of the controversy surrounding Fincher's latest. With most publicists focusing on the film's unflinchingly violent and blood-soaked fight scenes, most viewers would be led to believe (myself included) that it's nothing more than a handful of starkly realistic bar brawls, and nothing you couldn't see during one night at your local pub.
Well, take all that you think you know about Fight Club and leave it at the theater door. With as many twists and turns as Se7en and The Game put together, this is a wholly exuberant and unique experience, and not at all what you would expect from the previews. Yes, there are numerous graphic depictions of bare-knuckled fist fights, but they are never exploitive or glorifying at all, contrary to what you probably have heard. Whilst the participants in the fight are crying tears of joy and sharing a supposed male-bonding experience by letting there killer instincts surface, us movie-goers in the audience are busy wincing at the notion of such bloodshed. Unlike most Hollywood action pictures that make violence look exhilarating, Fight Club, if anything, sets to rest any desire you have to get in a fight; it ain't pretty.
Edward Norton stars as a conformed, white-collar working man who finds this out too late. Never given a name (let's call him Jack), he symbolizes the corporate everyman, so choked by his own mundane existence that he often gets the primal urge to tear free from his barriers (in some extended quips, Norton, as narrator, makes some of the most blistering comments on modern consumer life since the great monologues in Trainspotting). And tears free he does, once he hooks up with a mysterious figure named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a soap manufacturer, theater projectionist and part-time waiter. With his anecdotes of splicing frames of pornography into family films and masturbating into fresh clam chowder, it becomes clear that Durden is the exact counterpart to Jack; a laid-back anarchist who has plans of, eventually, actually doing something about uptight mindless masses and setting the world free of itself.
After getting into a rumble with Jack (and liking the effects), he devises Fight Club, an underground organization consisting exclusively of men who come together a few times a week to, without any loftier purpose, beat each other to a bloody pulp. What better way to rage against society's standards and explore yourself, eh? Soon, Fight Club evolves into something much larger, something that Jack no longer has even a small amount of control over. What is Tyler really up to? Is there more to the guy than first meets the eye?
There's so much more to discuss here and many more subplots to get into (notice I haven't once made mention of Helena Bonham Carter's character?), but doing so would inevitably detract from your Fight Club experience. That said, I do think it's pretty safe to say that the film is much more powerful and profound than the basic plot outline would suggest. In addition to the natural instincts of man, Fight Club also delves into such topics as manipulation, cultism, communism, fascism and even the psychosemantics of the human id and ego, and explores them all equally, all the while sustaining the excitement and hyper-kinetics of an effective thriller. I could have done with a less ambiguous ending (which accounts for the subtraction of a half-star), but as it stands, Fight Club is bound to rank as one of the year's best.
*Find all of Jason's reviews online at http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/7475
**Complimentary movie ticket courtesy of Valley Cinemas at http://www.movie-tickets.com
Copyright 1999 Jason Wallis
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