Nothing Poignant to Say, Just Loved it

Rating: 10/10 (24 June 2006)

Most films that use voice over narration are sophomoric efforts at best, mainly because voice over tends to be used as compensation for lack of good storytelling tools. That is, one of the first rules of fiction being "show, don't tell", a film ought to be able to convey its intent without directly telling the audience anything.
However the film makers pulled it off, Fight Club's narration actually works as an enhancement to a film. Perhaps it is because the narrator never actually gives any information; perhaps because Norton's commentary is sardonically amusing. The fact is, it manages to succeed where thousands of films leave the viewer gritting their teeth in irritation.
But this doesn't explain why Fight Club is worthy of the big 10/10. In addition to sharp directing, entertaining dialog, and talented cast, Fight Club wipes away the paper thin veneer of weak civility that replaces the raw, honest reactions so sadly lacking in contemporary culture. It is a refreshing breath of fetid air, so free of the insultingly cheap perfume of imitation sympathy and courtesy, that the viewer is made glad to experience the visceral, id-inspired attitudes of the characters on the screen. However immature and reprehensible the thoughts expressed may be, at least they are not patronizing themselves and others by pasting a Spackle of uninspired, new age crocodile tears many find themselves pressured to display.
Perhaps that is what is most personal in this case. This is only a fraction of what Fight Club has to offer, as it not only tears at the materialization and feminization of modern culture, but stylistically renders a vivid portrayal of a madness that is itself a cure for a greater madness. This madness is that which is experienced by those who have been subtly told through constant media reinforcement how to mold into the ideal human being; an ideal that is never held by those who adopt it, but is given them by advertisement and the weak minded who won't bring themselves to spew out a foul tasting wad of mucous for fear of offending somebody they will never meet, about whom they truly care nothing.
If this review appears relatively vague, it is deliberately so. It is not intended as an attempt to intellectualize the film because the language is just meant to convey what is interpreted as theme. Fight Club is one movie that should never be spoiled by a review. There are no specifics given here because every rendition done by anybody other than the actors involved (or Chuck Palahniuk himself) has always fallen short of the memorable manner in which the film delivers. The pseudo-intellectual psychobabble of this review is simply an amateurish attempt to create meaning without trespassing into the sacred experience that is Fight Club.
Whether the above review hits a mark or sounds like chicken scratch, Fight Club ought to have a liberating effect of some kind on almost any viewer. Almost seven years after its release, Fight Club still hits with bone shattering inspiration and head splitting satisfaction.
Watch with reckless abandon.