Brutal, funny, brilliant and though-provoking.

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2002)

Ok, the idea that men are becoming emasculated and dehumanised by a society that is increasingly women-oriented (shoppers, not hunters) is not new... nor is it particularly insightful. Fight Club, though, manages to take the idea and spin it into an amazing visual and philosophical kick in the teeth.
I've seen reviews calling the film sexist because it has no women characters in it, apart from Marla and she is hardly a good example of womenhood. Who cares? Not every film has to slavishly follow the PC line and include the requisite tough female. This is a film about men; their problems; their neuroses (and psychoses), and a particularly brutal way of putting into perspective the crap that, as men, they have to take every single day. And it is not as if the film is flattering to men -- Fight Club moves from being a way for the men to regain their individuality, and turns it into a cult before pulling the rug out from under the viewer completely with the twist. It's a brutal satire on everything from the junk peddled as culture in the West, to the absurd self-help/inner-child nonsense filling our televisions (adverts and programmes), to ridiculous hyper-macho behaviour.
As a film, Fight Club is a violent masterpiece with a lot of similarities to A Clockwork Orange, not least of which is the outrage it caused in certain over-sensitive reviewers. Watch it and enjoy the visceral (damn I wanted to avoid that word) show... watch it again for directorial flare from David Fincher... and then again for fine acting by both Norton and Pitt. It's excellent the first time you see it, and it just keeps getting better -- and that's the sign of a truly great film.
Go out and start a fight? Me? Nah... but Fight Club served as a reminder that I'm not just a consumer; a statistic, or a demographic.