A Critique of Today's Fake Manhood and Consumerism

Rating: 10/10 (6 May 2001)

Fight Club is easily one of the best films of the past decade. Similar to Taxi Driver or A Clockwork Orange, its reception has been mixed and ambiguous. Like its two illustrious predecessors, though, its portrait of society is spot-on.
This is especially true for its poignant satire of the all-pervasive jock mentality in the US. By showing the disillusionment and inferiority complexes of men, it initially seems to bow to the generic macho response: denigrate women by "hanging with the boys" and finding oneself in brainless fascism. That's how Hitler recruited youths for the SS and SA, and that's how the WWF and MTV "recruit" its viewership. Yet its twist at the end turns the film into an ambiguous, postmodern criticism of its previous 120 minutes. Refusing to be typecast, Fight Club ends with a melodramatic anti-climax that leaves the viewer in a daze as to the film's exact meaning.
As most people will tell you, the film's true essence only becomes apparent after a second viewing since one's innocence of the narrative has been lifted. Besides the amazing relevance of its content, be warned of the barrage of subliminal Tylers (can you spot them?) and penises, which together with the hilarious scene where Ed Norton shows Tyler's editing handiwork add to the self-parody of filmmaking in general and the film itself in particular.
Be further warned of the aggressive criticism of today's male reactionism. While some have viewed the depiction of fighting as a literal expose of fascist ideology, the film actually denounces the violence it represents, although it does so in a more intellectual and subliminal way than people might be comfortable with.
Gary Crowdus' summary of this masterpiece may also be its most accurate appraisal: "The first film of the 21st century." Ambiguous?!