it's a great rant, just "let go" and enjoy it

Rating: 9/10 (8 February 2002)

This movie is too graphically and personally violent (and the violence goes on too long), the squalor is too squalid, the grit too gritty, the plot too twisted, and the message basically retarded. But it's a truly great flick, especially if you can appreciate it for what it is. It's a rant. One doesn't take rants seriously, one appreciates them for style, vigor, angst, and in fact for their very absurdity itself. The spirit of the rant is Quixotic, it's "we're not going to take this anymore" when you know perfectly well you're going to take it more and then some. You're leaving rational discussion behind. You're banging your head against the wall to prove you really mean it.
It's fantasy, like all good movies. We, the rational and reasonable audience, are allowed to vicariously go over the edge, and we shall be brought back, by some means -- don't worry -- and don't complain (you got back didn't you?). Meanwhile one enjoys the release from reason. "Just let go!" Durkin says to the narrator at one point. That's what this movie is all about, the fantasy of letting go. Perhaps some people feel threatened by this, because they're so bottled up they might wonder if they're headed up on some roof somewhere with a telescopic rifle. Don't worry, all of us know somebody we'd like to kill, or, say, punch really hard. Admit it! This movie speaks to that, but don't forget, it's only a movie. Brad Pitt is a consumer product, this movie is a consumer product and a good one. People reacting to the content of the argument miss the point -- a fact iteratively stored within the plot itself.
Fantastic direction especially.