I am Jack's Film Commentary

Rating: 10/10 (16 October 1999)

Fight Club may very well be the best movie of 1999. It is also a film that requires multiple viewings to gather the full scope of. Just watch the surface of this film, all you will see is gratuitous violence. Most of you will be offended. You probably won't last through the length of the film. Get past the brutality, you'll find a story about consciousness, how you have to fight to achieve it, and how easy it is to slip right back into unconsciousness. There's no doubt; this movie blows minds, p***** people off, and gets a good rise out of anyone who sees it. With lines like "That's the best f*** I've had since grade school" peppered throughout the movie, how could you not?
Down to the technical stuff.
Jack can't sleep. He works a job he hates, lives a life he hates. Jack needs out. Jack meets Tyler Durden. Jack & Tyler make Fight Club, a place where men hurt other men. Fight Club grows, and spreads across the country. Tyler begins recruiting men from Fight Club for an amped up project, Project: Mayhem. Jack doesn't approve. That's as far as I can take you and still be able to sleep at night. Visually, the film is almost tactile. Textured. You feel the rusty, grimy dirt of basements, squatter houses. Your eyes sting at the harsh florescence of cubicle life. The score, by personal heroes The Dust Brothers, fits the film to a T; dark, twisting ambient electronic sounds and break beats. Completely appropriate for the times. The same can be said for this movie as a whole. Few films manage to address timeless issues, and yet be one of the most socially relevant films at the same time. Fight Club does.