Harsh. Driven. Smart. Poetic. Beautiful. Misunderstood.

Rating: 10/10 (7 September 2000)

In a year dominated by The Matrix and American Beauty, Fight Club seemed to slip by with little attention paid to any aspect than it's much over-hyped violence. However past all that non-sense is movie that is simply the one of most daring, challenging, original, smart and MEANINGFUL movies to come out of Hollywood in ages. When I saw the first brief trailer for Fight Club at the opening of Star Wars Episode 1, I heard several in the audience remark audibly comments like, "Aw, this is gonna be stupid." I was inclined to agree. The trailer made it look like a convention underground fighting club movie like Bloodsport. Having little interest for typical action movies, I didn't think much of it. However, a friend and I decided to see it anyways on a larth. How wrong I was to assume that this was going to be a simple action movie! Instead of seeing 90 minutes of kung-fu, I saw one of the most intelligent movies I had seen. Fight Club tells the story of a nameless narrator(Edward Norton.) The Narrator lives out the advertising dream, attempting to find solace in material possessions and status symbols, defining himself by what he owns. Yet he feels trapped and unfulfilled in this mass-media approved neo-yuppie work-a-day life. His only relief comes from a series of support clubs he crashes. This is where Tyler Durden(Brad Pitt) comes in. I'll say little more. This is just the set-up. I don't want to ruin the plot for the first time viewer. In fact, the less said, the better. Simply put, Fight Club has a lot to say about a lot of subjects like the media, consumerism, sexual politics, self definition and most of all freedom. And yet, so many critics seemed to NOT GET IT! Instead of seeing the true points of the movie, critics decried it's violence and what was seen as Fascism. It DOES NOT advocate violence. It simply doesn't outright criticize it. And to those who say it is Fascist, I say you don't understand what fascism really is. I believe the negative reviews stemmed from two things: 1)People not getting it and 2)How UNCOMFORTABLE Fight Club can make people feel as it points major fault with our society that many of us blindly buy into. Guess what?! Any good social criticism is uncomfortable!!!!! Fight Club is in the league with films like A Clockwork Orange(Yes, you little Kubrick purists, I dare to compare them) and Blade Runner. Not truly valued or understood in its time, it will become a film classic and required watching in college dorms of the future. Meanwhile, the pedestrian piece of fluff that is American Beauty (Not to knock Kevin Spacey. He's great.) will sink into obscurity. In closing, no amount of review of this movie is enough to cover this movie without ruining it. See it for yourself. See what you can get out of it. If you have an open mind, you'll be pleasantly surprised.