Okay. I had to see the bro-iest of bro movies because walking through life without even understanding this quote:
Meant a lifetime of Fomo and film-major induced shame. But even though Fight Club may be #10 in the IMDb Top 250, it doesn’t even crack the AFI 100 Films list. Even worse! It won zero Oscars. Maybe I should’ve left it off this list?
Oh well. What’s done is done. And to be completely honest, I actually really enjoyed the film. As most critics put it, the idea is there, but the end is a little preachy. The central two characters, as my always well-placed gifs show, are a nameless, boring man with a boring desk job, played by Edward Norton, and the effortlessly cool soap salesman, Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt.
I’m sorry? Brad didn’t get an Oscar for that? Life is unfair.
Anyway. So the narrative arc is very interesting, with the film starting at the climax, with Norton’s character with a gun in his mouth and a bomb about to go off, and then it jumps back to the “real” beginning. After explaining (in narration) that his life is an endless train of waking up and sleeping, and that his insomnia creates a sort of zombie-like state where he never has any idea where he is, he goes to see a doctor who refuses to prescribe him anything. The doctor instead tells him to go to a cancer support group to see some real suffering. At the group, the narrator finds that being surrounded by people who are chronically ill brings him a sort of emotional release from the monotony of his life. He starts going to a different support group every night to keep feeling that euphoria. But one night he meets Marla Singer, played by Helena Bonham Carter, who turns out to be a fraud just like him.
Shortly after dividing up the nights with Marla so they never have to see each other again, the narrator meets Tyler Durden on a plane. Tyler is so much cooler than he is, and all he does is sell soap. Norton’s character goes home that night and finds that his condo has been blown up. He calls Tyler, and the two go out for drinks. After the drinks, Tyler finally says in the parking lot:
The two engage in a brawl, and quickly realize that they have never felt the kind of release they feel while beating each other senseless. This is where it gets sort of crazy.
Soon enough, Tyler and the narrator have created the Fight Club, an underground “support group” where men beat each other almost to death just to feel anything. And the philosophy is very interesting, because Tyler constantly preaches of the emasculation of our generation as a result of rampant consumerism and commercial ideology. The idea is that constantly being told what we need and what to buy to be happy has taken the meaning out of life, and as men, they must cause each other physical pain just to feel anything anymore. It’s barbaric, but I followed it.
And that’s probably due to Tyler Durden’s charm and allure as a man who seems to be totally and completely understanding of how to be happy. But things go south as soon as he starts putting into motion a plan he has called “Project Mayhem,” which requires members of Fight Club to start vandalizing staples of consumer culture, like franchise coffee shops and computer stores. The narrator begins to draw away from Tyler, and things REALLY get crazy after that.
I definitely did not expect the film to be as philosophical as it was, because prior to having seen the film, it just seemed to me like a wrestling movie that somehow became a cult film amongst teenage boys. But it turns out that Fight Club is actually a thought-provoking piece of art. Who knew?
Most critics consider it to be the most controversial film of 1999, many comparing it to 1971’s A Clockwork Orange for its senseless violence. To me it actually felt more like 2001’s Donnie Darko, being a sort of coming of age story with a twist that the person coming of age is actually pretty mentally disturbed to the point of being almost supernatural. Anyway, the point is I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. So I guess I won’t be judging Brad Pitt films by their cult followings anymore!
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