Fight Club

Brad Pitt is Tyler Durden in Fight Club.

Rating: ★★★½

Fight Club's tagline is probably one of my favorites and boasts a great question in the world today; "how much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?" Never being in a "true" fight, I suppose I, myself, and a lot of others don't know their physical strength, their limitations, and abilities under the given circumstances in a real scuffle. When will you call "uncle?" When will the anger consume you? When will you bleed out? Let's not talk about it.

Being requested by many people to watch this film, why I put it off is something I can't answer. I believe it was because I feared since the film is filled with morals and very subtle messages I would not "get" most of it. Out of the countless number of morals Fight Club spat at me, I took two and would like to share them.

The number one thing I took out of Fight Club is that men have become sort of "softies" in the world we live in, and many no longer sport the "tough as nails" image women mistake us for. Here we have an insomniac who loses direction in life, becomes what some will call "insane," and escapes to an underground fighting club where men beat the living hell out of each other for absolutely no reason, no questions asked. I think it's because beating each other to a pulp makes them feel like they still sport this image, and that they haven't gotten soft. They can take a lot of damage, unnecessary and necessary.

The other thing is sometimes the worst enemy can be your best friend or yourself. Writing a spoiler free review of this film is difficult, and explaining this moral without stating an example is hard as well. I really don't want to give anything away just to explain the moral I picked up, so I won't. Just go into the movie with that in the back of your mind.

On with the plot, our main character, also the narrator, is played by Edward Norton. He remains nameless throughout the entire film, and works as an automobile company employee. He suffers from serve insomnia, often having trouble dictating what is real and what is fake. Director David Fincher describes his character as an "everyman."

To cope with his insomnia, and forbidden any sort of treatment from his doctor, the man continues to visit support groups. He does this to feel better about himself, and to witness others with more serve problems. He is an impostor at every one of these groups, and creates a fake name for each.

Another impostor attends these groups named Marla Singer (Bonham Carter) much to the dismay of our narrator. They talk to each other and work out a deal so that their presences at these groups don't coincide with one another.

On a flight home from a meeting, the narrator meets Tyler Durden (Pitt), a soap salesman. They talk at a bar after the narrator returns home to find his apartment in flames, and Tyler forces the narrator to punch him. They continue to fight in the back of this bar, with more people arriving everyday. They soon find a basement in a building they can use and establish their own "Fight Club" to get away from society's troubles.

Fight Club is scored very well, and its cinematography is beautiful. Why no Oscar nominations for the much deserved Norton and Pitt? Because of the film's mis-marketing. Disappointing in the field of criticism and revenue, Fight Club's trailers looked as if it were a film about a bunch of people beating the hell out of each other for no reason besides personal satisfaction. There is a market for those movies, but I'm pretty sure unless having read the novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk or reading up on the internet about this movie, people who went to go see it, were likely, not aware they were seeing a very smart and beautifully crafted film.

Sadly, I was mislead upon watching this movie. So many people, including friends and reviewers on various movie sites, described the film as "life changing" and many said it changes one's view of movies forever. It did none of that for me. It entertained me, and some moments I couldn't look away. Even at the most grisly times, Fight Club remains classy and stylistic. But it is no way life changing. Just because one movie breaks all the rules and shows that even a simple plot can be complicated to a point where a rewatch is urgent, it does in no way change the life of someone like me, an average movie-goer.

But I can totally see how it did for some people. Some people enjoy the occasional "mind-rape" style of filmmaking, a style that Fincher is very good at. They love making assumptions, hunches, and usually use large amounts of evidence gained from repeated viewings of some movies. Even video games like The Legend of Zelda have caused a legion of fans to take the world of the game very seriously. I don't have the time to do this, especially to this particular film. I can't see myself enjoying it more and more with repeated viewings. It was very enjoyable the first time around, but I feel the more I watch it the less surprised I'll be at certain events in the film that stunned me (IE: the scene with Lou).

The acting is superb. Some of the best I've seen in a drama film. Especially from Helena Bonham Carter's unexpected role as the very foul-mouthed and mysterious Marla Singer. She does a great job of getting inside the viewer's head and making them question what is reality and what isn't. Seeing her in a role like this is shocking if you've seen her Charlie in the Chocolate Factory and The King's Speech prior to this.

The on character relationship between Norton and Pitt is excellent, and can't be replaced at all. The various morals in the film are very well crafted and the movie tackles more genres than one may expect. It's a lot like Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. Critics deemed it "dark" when it first came out, but lived on to become a classic. Fight Club took the same route.

All and all, I broke two rules of the film by writing this review, but it was worth it.

Starring: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. Directed by: David Fincher.