if you DON'T like this movie, you're part of the problem!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 10/10 (7 February 2002)

very little of what passes for media, or even worse, art, actually does anything to confront society's ills. people constantly harp on "hollywood" as promoting violence and hastening the decay of society, when, in fact, hollywood is merely icing on an already rotten cake. fight club has the audacity not only to expose the abcess at the core of the modern world, but to also show how simple mindless reaction to that decay is equally evil.
fight club has the balls to actually confront the problems of the modern world. in a world where faction on both sides of the political spectrum peddle simple answers (just say no, violence in movies is killing us, etc) no one has ever bothered to even mention that our lives are hollow. in the film, tyler durden is created as a reaction to that. in claiming that rejection of materialism and a comfortable lifestyle in favor of a weekly dingy club where men beat the crap out of each other, fight club trades the nervous shell of comfort for the hard fist of real, honest feeling. pain, it says, is better than numbness, and there is some substance there. ultimately, though, it isn't fight club's violent reaction that saves "jack", but his connection with marla. this is another way of peeling back the disguise. simple mindless reaction to conformity is not what will save us. in the end, it's is our isolation which makes us hollow, and our connecting with other people that will save us.
this is tough for some people to see, and to accept. maybe alot of folks would like to have "jack's" life, full of pre-fab furniture and a dull day to day job. this has been promoted as the "american dream", and frankly, it sucks. lives of boring conformity and consumerism are not anywhere near as fulfilling as lives filled with passion, even if that passion comes with a struggle or a price. dullness, comfort, and hollwness are not something to aspire to, but something to avoid.
some people were bothered by the violence of fight club. to be honest, i didn't even notice. the story is so deep, and works on so many levels, that i was caught up in trying to take it all in.
i find it interesting to see how many people were not only upset by the content, but by the visual style of the film. it is gritty, muddy and dark. that isn't a mistake or a lack of insight. it is exactly how this movie should look. it is daring, and flies in the face of the soft focus, backlighting rampant in so much mainstream film making. I simply think its interesting to see people who can't accept that there is no guarantee that things, in story, theme, or style, must be "pretty".
most movies intend to make money. some aim a little higher. those are more important. those are art. art is under no obligation to make you happy. the fact that fight club continues not only to live as an organic document, but to become more and more relevant as time passes simply affirms its greatness. the fcat that many couldn't abandon their imprinted concepts of society, life, and what movies should "do" only makes it better.