Movie that changed my life! All time no.1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 10/10 (26 October 2004)

From the moment the narrator slobbers on Bob's tits I just knew there was going to be something very special about this movie. This movie quite simply embodies everything that a movie is supposed to be. A 2h roller coaster ride of thoughts and emotions. It can quite rightly be regarded as the first movie of the 21st century. To put it simply: This movie is the most intense thing I have ever seen.
The idea of the movie seems simple, and if you watch the commercials it will re soundly have the appearance of a conventional film. An ordinary and, more importantly, nameless guy (who narrates the entire film) meets a non-conformist and quite insane Tyler Durden.
"Now let me tell you something about Tyler". He does night jobs. He works as a waiter at galla dinners and pees in the soup, subsequently suing the catering companies. He works as a projector and splices short, but definitely noticeable, porno clips into children's movies. Last but definitely not least, he scrounges the dumpsters at liposuction clinics for bags of fat, makes soap out of it, and "sells [the rich ladies] their own fat asses back for a profit". Out of this soap, he also makes explosives.
After having his house blown away for at that point undetermined reasons, the narrator turns to Tyler for a place to stay, which turns out to be one of those wrecks even poverty-stricken squatters would stay away from and in the middle of nowhere.
Little by little, Tyler lures the narrator into his ways and makes him question his entire reality. By defining himself through his job and what he buys, he has lost touch with his inner self and his true emotions of loneliness and helplessness. Tyler's solution is to stop trying to control things, to hold on to things one does not need, to be perfect. Tyler's answer is to "let the chips fly". To do things just for the heck of it, including experiencing pain. Only when one can loose everything one does not need is one free to go after what truly matters.
The entire progression of just how far one can go is evident in the movie. Tyler first cajoles the narrator into having a fight with him with the following words: "I've never been in a fight either. There is no one watching. Come on, how much can you truly know about yourself if you've never been into a fight". This duking out turns out to be a pleasurable experience and becomes a regular event. Before you know it, other guys join the fray and the ultimate release in the form of senselessly beating another man and in turn being beaten is institutionalized in the form of "Fight Club", lead by Tyler and the narrator.
Evidently this movie reeks of testosterone and raw, violent male energy and the movie is unapologetic in this respect to the very end. In some ways "Fight Club" is about rediscovering ones masculinity, a force quite vilified and suppressed in recent decades. Converts to "Fight Club" include former members of the "Remaining Men Together", a club of testicular cancer sufferers, mostly abandoned by their wives now having children with other men, who before "Fight Club" knew of nothing better than to cry on each others shoulders (literally) and pathetically embrace each other. Hilariously, one of the key characters and ex-members of this group, played by Meatloaf, is aptly equipped with huge titties.
That "Fight Club" transforms everyone in it is evident, especially on the narrator, who is no longer content to tolerate the cr** one routinely gets served with in wage-slaving office jobs. He ultimately blackmails his boss into giving him "a job never to tell anyone" about the dirty dealings in the company. To seal the deal, the narrator starts "fighting" himself and is so violently battered by the time security arrives that his boss has no chance but to comply.
In any case, the number of "Fight Club" members grows. And they all start listening to what Tyler has to say. Tyler's influence on this large band of people from all walks of life slowly grows and culminates in the so-called "Project Mayhem". Rather than being freed, they end up being made instruments of Tyler's will. The narrator is of course mostly kept out of the loop and must find out what is going on before its too late!
And then something unexpected happens. And the REAL fun starts!
Suffices to say that Fight Club packs more story and ideas than ten times what most movies do. The ideas truly resonated with me. The energy of the movie is at a fever pitch. The violence is gritty and its underlying purposelessness makes it that much more intense. Tyler's charm and charisma are awe-inspiring. Truly all the actors do a superb job.
In terms of visually conveying all the ideas, Fight Club is unparalleled. Since the entire movie is narrated, we experience wild and sometimes outrageous cuts between different scenes and time frames. More so, we are treated with astounding visuals, close-ups, slow motion scenes, featuring in one case an explosion happening in slow motion. In line with the "splicing of porno movies into children's films", many interesting "splices" occur through out the movie itself. The effects are given a gritty 90s-00s feel. Yet they are there only to consistently prop up the story and elevate it to a new high. In short, in terms of visual innovation and effects this is probably the most innovative movie since Annie Hall.
What can I say, this movie will undoubtedly be talked about for centuries to come and be the mark of a "very strange time" in the life of humanity.
10/10
SCALE:
positive opinion of a movie: 10 MASTERPIECE, 9 Excellent, 8 Good, 7 OK
neutral opinion of a movie: 6 Adequate, 5 Fair, 4 Mediocre
negative opinion of a movie: 3 Poor, 2 Bad, 1 HORRIBLE