The best film of last few years!

Rating: 10/10 (7 January 2000)

Fight Club is the best film of last few years. Technically brilliant, with superb story, acting and profound psychological and social content. Fincher is by far the most innovative and creative American director after Stanley Kubrick.
This film is deeply philosophical and focusing on 'the meaning of life' concept. The story starts rolling with the depiction of the dissatisfying life of the main character. He tries to fill the existential void with goods, he tries to bond with people in sobbing and sharing about their pain and misfortunes, in the end nothing fills the void. Edward Norton's character is disgusted with the nihilism he sees around him - the superficial corporate greed with it's corporate pawns. Life falsifying and denigrating consumerism, which reduces individuals to mindless drones and leads them to believe that gathering material possessions, looking outwardly according to norms would make them happy. In essence the character gets sick with all the excessive socialization, all the unnecessary symbols of conformism and social status which leave him alien to himself. The character is confused who and what he is and what he essentially wants. He's only recourse is to the core of his being, his body. It's chemical mechanisms are simply rewarding or punishing, there is nothing less real or unadulterated in human existence. The corpus doesn't prevaricate. It transmits the signals and mind simply receives and interprets them. The signals are utterly authentic and that's Palahniuk's probable justification for the fighting and the violence, which was cruel but based on consent, much like courageous, ultramasculine boxing and ultimate fighting contests.

Pain and pleasure are unifying sensations between all people and also the signs of human separatedness from the world and the signs of individual corporality. Circumstantial changes in endocrinological hormonal secretions are often addictive and artificially sought in our culture.

First half of the film revels in consumerist critique and finding a way for these, mostly lonely and slightly alienated men to endure the nihilism of their existence. After the bonding has happened and Tyler Durden is awarded the status of a great visionary,a spiritual leader much like most autocrats have been raised to their throne by unsuspecting people (Hitler, Mao etc) the film takes a leap forward and starts analyzing the psychology of revolutionary activity and revolutionary groups.
Tyler starts project Mayhem and goes further and further into anarchistic activities to take the power back and overturn this spirit eroding, life degrading social system.
Fight Club's analysis of revolution is a lot smarter and deeper than the one in Matrix because the end part is raising the question 'why does revolution always seem to eat it's children?'. Why do idealistic men wanting to improve the society and the situation of countless humans end up instituting the most violent and gruesome regimes.
What is so flawed in human nature that turn good intentions to often even worse oppression than the one before? The references to Maximilien Robespierre, Lenin and Hitler are quite obvious in this film. The lead character wanted to liberate men from socialization, to enhance their individuality but ended up removing their individuality, denigrating and sacrificing them in the name of greater good. He sacrificed his own ideals, thus the fight in the end and another reference to historical revolutionaries. Robespierre who was responsible for the 'reign of terror' era of the French revolution got his jaw shot off before taken to the guillotine.