flawed but brilliant film (some spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (4 June 2000)

The `machismo factor,' though it lies at the root of virtually every shoot-em-up war film, western and action picture Hollywood has ever produced, has, strangely enough, gone largely unexamined in films as a subject itself. `Fight Club' becomes one of the first movies to actually address the issue, bluntly and directly. Before it eventually spins out of control, this provocative film audaciously confronts a disturbing, but truly pertinent anthropological issue: in a society that, for purposes of its own survival, actively discourages violent behavior, is it possible for a man, conditioned by eons of innate but ever increasingly repressed `hunter/gatherer' instincts, to ever cut himself loose and be true to his real nature? And if he doesn't, can he be said to ever be a `real man,' or is he simply a hollow shell allowing society to determine what he values and how he lives?
Edward Norton stars as Jack, a man so softened by the amenities of a modern technological culture that he has even replaced pornography with the IKIA catalogue. As far from his barbaric ancestral roots as any man worthy of the label can be, Jack has turned to haunting feel-good support groups to fill the void his empty life devoted to meaningless culture-driven values has created for him. Suddenly, into his life walks Tyler (Brad Pitt), a sardonic, tough talking thug, the total antithesis to Jack and a man completely in touch with his male-based instinctive need for simple hand-to-hand physical confrontation. Together, the two set up an underground club designed to give men like Jack the opportunity to beat the living crud out of each other and therein find their way back to their true primordial selves.
Not only does `Fight Club' explore a fascinating and long-overdue theme, it insidiously lures us in to the glamorous excitement of the fight scenes themselves. Much as we may resist their pull, we are so appalled by the alternative we are shown in the form of Jack's drearily routine office environment, the stifling conformity of his decorator-influenced, perfectly coordinated apartment and the self-aggrandizing emotionalism of the many support groups he visits that we feel as liberated as he does by the simple physical aggression of the unregulated bouts. This is the genius of the film: it makes us just as cognizant of the compromises we ourselves routinely make to social norms as it does Jack. What is most impressive is that the film could easily have turned into just another cautionary tale, a violent tract warning us of the dangers of allowing these instincts to run amok. Instead, the filmmakers have been careful to keep most of the activity in the realm of self-contained mano-a-mano confrontations. In fact, the club members do not employ guns, and, for the most part, scrupulously avoid hurting innocent bystanders or killing anyone. (Just for the record, this controversial work is actually a much less violent film than most of what passes for benign action cinema these days). Although there are a few steps taken by the group in the direction of involving outsiders in provoked fights and eventually detonating some empty buildings Â– these are, by the way, the least authentic sections of the film - the violence really doesn't extend much beyond the confines of the club itself. Thus we are spared the tiresome moralizing one might expect from a film exploring this theme.
Where, then, does the film ultimately come out on this issue? Is `Fight Club' a socially irresponsible call for the unfettered use of violence to create societal chaos, or is it a sly black comic vision of a world gone crazy intended to highlight the dangers of just such a situation? The answer to that question is really not an easy one to come by, for the film itself loses its way in its final half hour. Having set up this fascinating premise, `Fight Club' decides, rather inexplicably, to go the sci-fi route, setting up a Jekyll and Hyde situation that both undercuts the seriousness of the theme and spells the message out in far too simplistic terms. Also, unlike in `The Sixth Sense,' the surprise turnabout ending doesn't make sense in the logical context of the story. Are we to actually assume that Jack has been fighting HIMSELF all this time? It is true that the dark comedy flavor that runs throughout the film does create a world where the improbable can be made possible. But the suspension of disbelief required by the final acts of this film places far too heavy a burden on the audience to make the drastic shift in tone truly work.
Special note should indeed be made of the extraordinary performances of Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. Pitt, in one of his finest roles to date, conveys the macho hard-edged physicality and sardonic charm necessary to lure these men to his way of thinking. Norton always keeps his character focused and life-sized, allowing Tyler to exploit these inner yearnings yet remaining enough on the outside to continually question the validity of his actions.
`Fight Club,' for all its imperfections and moments of confusion, deserves credit for finally attempting to explore a theme too often exploited but rarely examined by Hollywood. The film provides some real food for thought and, in all honesty, how many movies can you truly say that about?