A Short Deconstruction of Criticisms of Fight Club

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 2002)

The reason criticisms of this film are misguided is simple: they center around a dislike for the use of violence and a general antipathy to the perceived messages of the film. Critics of the film will argue that the themes of the film center around nihilism, sadism, and a general lack of respect for modern social constructs.
An adequate rebuttal will deny none of this as the movie does wear its intentions quite on its sleeves. But then again the annals of great literature are surrounded by these themes. Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground", Albert Camus' "The Stranger", "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger to name but a few. Indeed, since the birth of the Industrial Revolution the conflict between man and the society attempting to mechanise him has been a major theme of literature and art.
Why does this matter? Because Fight Club is even more relevant now than it was when it came out in the gogo era of the stock market bubble and the Millenium madness. The ending of the film, that rampant consumerism will lead to the buildings falling down around our ears, makes complete sense in the context of 9/11 and its aftermath. Osama bin Durden has started his own Fight Club and its madness we now face.
Fight Club does not condone violence but rather rejects it, or better put, rejects the fundamental roots of what leads to the violence it presents. As the world's resources are destroyed and we become more and more alienated from nature, the last this we need is more consumerism.

All other personal opinions can fall by the wayside. You may not like the medium but you must at least respect the message. Indeed that message may be the most important one America and the world faces as it enters the new millenium and struggles to deal with its own teeming masses and the need to satisfy all of their needs.
The last word belongs to Tyler Durden: F**k Martha Stewart!