An all-out attack on consumerism

Rating: 10/10 (4 December 2006)

Warning: Spoilers This really is a great comedy. I never ready the short novel but do have read the differences. It sounds to me like the movie improved upon a short 200 page book.
The male macho "Guy Flick" persona is what Fight Club is disguised as. In reality, Fight Club is a strong attack on consumerism, corporate sponsorship gone mad, and a dark satire.
The lead character (initially only known as the narrator) is your average corporate middle-class American. He works for a large car company and examines faulty cars. He is the man that determines which will save the company more money; A) Out of court settlements or B) A Recall of the faulty parts.
The narrator flies across the country from city to city with what he refer to as his "self-serving friends". Anyone who has had a mainly travel job for a large company will understand this reference immediately.
Our narrator is addicted to purchasing meaningless stuff. He buys the yen-yang coffee table, has a great collection of clothes. He asks himself what type of khakis defines him as a person? The point is of course what a person wears does not define who they are. The larger point is that the world is out of control and people are working long hours even at menial jobs in order to purchase things that they do not need and do not really make their life better.
Norton feels so empty and suffers from insomnia and when his M.D. refuses to prescribe him sleeping pills, he starts attending groups full of people with terminal diseases. This acts as a catharsis for the narrator and allows him to sleep again. However, after some time he spots Marla who is a tourist to the group just as himself. This enrages the protagonist since he can no longer get anything out of the groups since Marla's presence bothers him so much. He ends up confronting Marla and they make agreements to who gets to attend which terminal illness groups. Marla makes a big play to get the brain parasites group. Marlas also comments that she has more right to the testicular cancer since Norton still has his. This is very dark comedy and is funny even if you feel demented for laughing at it.
Once Norton's character meets the infamous Tyler Durden, things change for him. Tyler makes soap for a living and likes to talk about how easy it is to make napalm out of household items and orange juice. Tyler questions what a man is. He asks "Is that what a man is" when he see's the Calvin Klien type ad on the bus.
The Narrator's fancy Condo with all of his collections suddenly explodes one night leaving him homeless and without all his possessions. This is a pretense the movie uses in order to set himself free.
The narrator then meets Norton for a few beers after his Condo blows up. Tyler says he can stay in his house. The narrator agrees but Tyler asks him for one favor first -- HIT ME AS HARD AS YOU CAN. The narrator hits him in the ear and Tyler punches him back. Norton has now found his replacement for the support groups.
Norton's character then goes to move in with Tyler who lives in a condemned building in a bad part of town with limited electricity and were nothing works.
The narrator and Norton get into another fight and onlookers get involved. Soon enough we have FIGHT CLUB. There are eight rules of Fight Club but the 1st two are NO ONE TALKS ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.
The movie has a subplot that continues with Marla and Norton's character blackmailing his boss he can have fight night every night and the money. However, the main point of the movie is watching Fight Club turn into Project Mayhem. This shows a down wired spiral into madness or freedom depending on your point of view.
By the end of the movie, the twist comes and the goal is to destroy history, consumerism, and the credit card industries.
I will not completely spoil the ending for those who have not seen the movie but it is a good thing this movie came out in 1999 instead of after September 11, 2001 or they probably would have re-written the ending.