Scary Imagining of What A World Without Women Would Be Like

Rating: 9/10 (21 December 2005)

The ads for "Fight Club" are completely misleading. While "Variety" is probably right to call it "the anti-date movie," the promos I saw gave absolutely no indication that in fact it's a social satire in a similar vein to "American Beauty," and likewise turns into a psychological thriller.
It's Robert Bly's "Iron Johns" taken to the extreme, only they're in the basement and then out in the cities instead of in the woods, which seems inevitably to result in "Lord of the Flies." If you only see the trailer you'll think it's a gratuitous violence-fest.
Brad Pitt uses his bronzed and buffed movie-star image for specific effect, and the script even has him referring to the irony of celebrity-worship (though I wouldn't be enthralled if very young hunk-seekers would throng to see it).
Helena Bonham Carter is in it only to try and convince us that the guys are straight, despite all the gleaming homo-eroticism splashed all over the screen.
Edward Norton, of course as usual, is spectacular, with reminders of his "Primal Fear" role.
While the novel probably worked better in leaving more to the imagination, the cinematography does very well at making the dark side visual in a world that could be today, could be sometime in the near future in some city. The next urban step would be as portrayed in "Blade Runner."
Certainly it's not a very hopeful view of what a world of only men, without women, would be like, so it plays into the hands of feminists, rather than rebelling against them. It could scarily be an argument for frequent wars to serve as a release valve, if today's video wars don't even do that. Or maybe just "Rollerball" as a solution.
(originally written 10/18/1999)