A lot of depth for those who look.

Rating: 10/10 (8 July 2001)

To the world: This isn't really a movie about dumb guys beating each other up because they're too bored to do anything else. No, Fight Club is actually about personal and cultural revolution within a corporate consumer society that destroys the human spirit. At least, that's how I saw it.
I loved this movie, and rating it a ten is not some whimsical fancy--I don't hand out gold stars for nothing. It looks good, sounds good, pacing, dialogue, acting, etc. are all excellent. Why it didn't rate higher on the mainstream critics' lists for cinematography alone is beyond me.
What really makes this movie shine, though, is the unflinching way in which it looks at North American society--our mass consumerism, our slavery to stuffy corporate office jobs, our growing lack of what makes us human. The movie doesn't pull many punches.
Norton's character is the automaton office lackey who is desperately searching for meaning in his materialistic shell of a life, Pitt plays the modern-day surfer/hippie Tyler Durden whose devil-may-care, spontaneous attitude to life offers the perfect (?) solution. These two personalities struggle to reconcile their different perspectives on life without destroying their relationship. To make things more difficult, Bonham Carter creates a love triangle to further test the friendship.
Is it better to be free, alive, and chaotic, as in Pitt's anarchistic vision, or safe, secure, and bored like Norton's capitalist American Dream life? Or, can a compromise be found? Can love conquer all? This is the peripheral, deeper stuff Fight Club is made of, not the smack-down action that the trailers and critics focused on.
This movie demands at least one viewing. If you're queasy about violence (there is a graphic fight scene or two), then watch it with someone who's already seen it and ask for an edited version. Even if you don't end up respecting the movie's message or the complicated questions it asks, it remains a well-crafted film, deserving of recognition.