a fatal miscommunication

Rating: 5/10 (23 January 2004)

Here's a movie that pretends to condemn violence (by the end, Tyler Durden is unmistakeably a villain), but it makes fighting look so cool that thousands of people have misinterpreted its message. Maybe I'm being too harsh here; I've met two people who were inspired to start random fights because of this movie, and that really irritates me (especially since they took pokes at me!). However, I do think that a fatally flawed message is enough to sink a film, even a great film, and this is not quite a great film.
Oh yeah, there's social commentary in this movie...commentary for angry 15 year olds. Okay, commercial society stinks, so we should rebel, we should reform popular culture by...by...going to the basement and punching each other out? No, that doesn't strike me as a viable solution. Even the movie knows this, and it does some quick back-pedaling at the end and tells us not to trust Durden...but he's been the hero all along!

So, in the end, the film points out problems but offers no solutions. It generates anger, but channels it in the wrong direction. It's clever, but it's not actually smart. It's satirical, but it doesn't have a point. Violence is good, until it kills Meatloaf, and then violence is bad. Sorry, it doesn't work.
As for the film's actual style...gross, innit? So, I ask myself - why watch a gross movie with a flawed message? Good question. The answer is, don't watch it, and go find an actually good, actually wise movie instead.