Are You Ready For This?

Rating: 10/10 (7 January 2006)

From the director that brought us the gruesome and graphic "Se7en", and following up his creepy thriller "The Game", comes the next step in David Fincher's career: the controversial "Fight Club". Based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk (one of America's most controversial contemporary authors), the film is many things: seductive, intriguing, intelligent. It's also very violent and very offensive. So which way do you go with a movie like this? It all really depends on what you like and what you don't.
The film is narrated by a man who is never actually given a name. The man in question (Edward Norton) is a lonely, sad insomniac, a lost soul of modern-day America and a serious victim of consumerism. Suffering from a lack of purpose, he begins to attend cancer support group meetings to see other people in pain. But when Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) starts doing the same thing, he no longer finds it appealing. He is trapped. Enter Tyler Durdan (Brad Pitt), a charismatic and slightly eccentric soap salesman who meets the insomniac narrator on a business trip. Tyler changes Norton's character's entire outlook on life, and together they create underground cult of bare-knuckled, bare-chested fighting matches to make them feel alive.
It is clear from the very premise that we are in for a confronting ride. Some, if not most of the concepts in "Fight Club" are rather sickening; and the violence is incredibly graphic and excessive. But this movie has so much to say, and so many issues to address on so many levels that, if you can stomach some of the less poetic elements, it is absolutely and one hundred percent worth every second. Its scathing dark satire of American culture, namely consumerism and masculinity, is some of the best of its kind... but due to the excess and devotion of said satire, the film can often be mistaken for both an endorsement of the values and acts it portrays and blatant nihilism. This is a sad misunderstanding of the film's moral.
And what is that moral, some might ask? This is a subject of great debate. The top contender is that of Individualism, but along the way the film explores very dark philosophies on self-destruction, civil disobedience and "freedom". All this rather vicious ambiguity stems from the film's origins as a novel. Chuck Palahnuik, as an author, is very interested in studying disjointed society through the eyes of those who are, by their behaviour and attitude, rejected and shunned by it. He enjoys and excels at identifying hypocrises in the social views on normality and abnormality, civility and barbarity, right and wrong, as well as drawing parallels between different interpretations of these themes. His characters are almost always what would be considered collectively as dangerously abnormal, whether the satirized subject matter is violence, sex, rituals, culture or any other subsets of these themes in relation to American society.
As interesting as this approach is, where does it leave the reader, or in this case, viewer? The answer to this will wholly depend on the individual. If you are able to not only see through but forgive what we are shown, which is in essence pretty sick material, to get deep enough into the film to analyze and judge what you feel are the *real* matters at the heart of it, you will be able to validly evaluate your own opinion of "Fight Club".
Thankfully, the film still has a lot to offer when appraised soley at face value. The direction is highly engaging, the score (composed by musical group "Dust Brothers" in the debut film-score appearance) is greatly reflective of the film's atmospheric excitement. The acting too, is quite sublime.
Norton, as always, delivers what this reviewer can call without doubt a flawless performance. His diversity as a character-actor is practically unrivaled in today's acting industry, save for perhaps the prowess of such talents as Russel Crowe or Sean Penn. Helena Bonham Carter has had a jewel-embedded acting career, with her role in Fight Club high on the list of most significant. And Brad Pitt gives the greatest performance of his life as Tyler Durdan. Not since 'Twelve Monkeys' has the Hollywood heart-throb so aptly demonstrated why he is such a renowned figure in modern society.
Despite cynicism and a bad wrap from the squeamish, 'Fight Club' is still proving to be one of the most intelligent and provocative films of its generation, spawning a significant cult following all over the world and blowing the minds of even the most jaded cinematic viewers. Regardless of personal styles and tastes, definitely a must-see for all film lovers.