Well underrated, this movie exposes everything about being force fed "the way things ought to be" while revealing the opposing path which is equally vile.

Rating: 9/10 (19 September 2000)

Many people in the media who have trashed this movie about how it glorifies violence never really understood it at all. It's a wonder how these people get paid to simply miss the point.
(Spoiler!) This story is about a man (we were never told his name, something we didn't notice until we consciously thought about it) who was living an existence of monotony, but had been seeking a way to change his life. Incapable of making this change on his own, he creates a personality, named Tyler Durden, who acted separately of himself (unbeknownst to us, we are led to believe that he is in actuality a separate individual), through whom he functioned as a carefree opponent of the monotonous, binding society "in which we live." Tyler taught our protagonist how to become free of all his worries, and aimed to help others to do so by becoming chaotic. Near the end, the main character realized that this extreme personality was in fact himself, and he struggled to alleviate this illusion to protect everyone from his mayhem. Still incapable of doing so, the main character was at the mercy of his split personality Tyler until finally, in a bit of desperation, he told Tyler that he had finally understood (and we believe him). The main character forever rid himself of Tyler by shooting himself in the mouth, the bullet exiting the back of his jaw, symbolically killing Tyler in a rather grotesque, but darkly humorous manner.
The point of course was not to emphasize the amount of violence, though it was attractive, but to show that there are two sides to any way of life, and we must find a balance between the two so we are not perpetuating madness within ourselves, whether it be monotony or chaos.