Fight Club
Amazon.co.uk Review
All films take a certain suspension of disbelief. Fight Club takes perhaps more than others, but if you’re willing to let yourself get caught up in the anarchy, this film, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, is a modern-day morality play warning of the decay of society. Edward Norton is the unnamed protagonist, a man going through life on cruise control, feeling nothing. To fill his hours, he begins attending support groups and 12-step meetings. True, he isn’t actually afflicted with the problems, but he finds solace in the groups. This is destroyed, however, when he meets Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), also faking her way through groups. Spiralling back into insomnia, Norton finds his life is changed once again, by a chance encounter with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), whose forthright style and no-nonsense way of taking what he wants appeal to our narrator. Tyler and the protagonist find a new way to feel release: they fight. They fight each other, and then as others are attracted to their ways, they fight the men who come to join their newly formed Fight Club. Marla begins a destructive affair with Tyler, and things fly out of control, as Fight Club grows into a nationwide fascist group that escapes the protagonist’s control. Fight Club, directed by David Fincher (Seven), is not for the faint of heart; the violence is no holds barred. But the film is captivating and beautifully shot, with some thought-provoking ideas. Pitt and Norton are an unbeatable duo, and the film has some surprisingly humorous moments. The film leaves you with a sense of profound discomfort and a desire to see it again, if for no other reason than to just to take it all in. –Jenny Brown
when it opened in the U.S to tepid business, there was widespread misjudgement that it was another testosterone-fuelled man-flick about bare-knuckle fighting. don’t make this mistake. those who had read Palahniuk’s corrosive social satire knew exactly what to expect. the film begins in the Medula Oblongata of the brain and explores every corrupt brain cell of today’s culture. nobody is safe – Starbucks, Ikea and their children, which pretty much encompasses most of the developed world’s inhabitants, the corporations, the small businesses, educated and uneducated. the main theme is the crisis of middle-class masculinity and is set in an anonymous city, much like Seven, and is a world of oppressive conformity where nobody has the power or will to break away, least of all Ed Norton’s lead character. Norton plays an unconsuming drone (in the same vein of Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates in Psycho)and Brad Pitt, the enlightened anti-social (or perhaps anti-society) Tyler Durden. The cast is flawless, with Jared Leto playing a role with more importance than is realised, as Angel Face and Helena Bonham Carter sheds her corset for a female role to die for, displaying all the nihilism and apathy that the film requires. like Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, this book was also deemed unfilmable but Fincher’s ability behind the camera trashes another dictionary entry. the film ends on as much of an ambiguous point as it can muster, because in the world portrayed on film, nothing can be taken for what it really is. after this, it seems impossible to go back to your ordinary job and your ordinary life and indeed, ordinary films.
Rating: 5 / 5
Words can’t describe the intelligence and pure brilliance displayed by this masterpiece. This is a cult-classic that demands to be seen again and again, not only because of how stupidly good it is, but just to get your head round its different messages, meanings and twisted logic.
This is a story of self-discovery, taking the main character (played brilliantly by Edward Norton) through a struggle with the very foundations of our modern society and his own twisted state of mind. Brad Pitt shows yet again that he has far more to offer than just his looks, providing a fantastically confident weird ‘Tyler Durden’. Every other actor fits their part like a glove without exception and each makes a convincing and valuable contribution to the film, a rare thing in modern cinema.
David Fincher (also director of Se7en) does everything right in Fight Club. Nothing, and i mean NOTHING, is in this film by accident. Every tiny detail has been carefully planned and thought through; whether it be the subliminal flashing images, the intense fight scenes or the psychological mind games constantly being played between the characters and even between the director and the audience.
To explain the storyline any further would be an exercise in futility but the ending makes the film what it is, so whatever you think of it, persevere to the end.
This is my favourite film of all time and it has a huge cult following for a very good reason. Watch Fight Club and challenge your mind and your life like you never have before; that’s how powerful and relevant this film is.
5stars, without a doubt
Rating: 5 / 5
So, it’s a film which spouted inevitable tabloid controversy, didn’t do terribly well at the box office, got at best mixed reviews by critics, then through word of mouth and fast rocketing DVD sales has easily entered into every top films list composed since. It’s appropriate that Fight Club’s true quality was revealed to the critics by the public rather than the other way around.
The film follows Edward Norton’s insurance drone, a bored, soulless man who feels emasculated and numbed by his pointless existence. He lives out his life like anyone else, dull job, IKEA furniture, he’s as uniform and grey as any man you pick out on the street.
His life, however, takes a dramatic turn when he meets Tyler (played by Brad Pitt in his best acting role to date). Tyler is charismatic, intelligent, and intriguing. When Norton’s apartment is destroyed in a mysterious accident Pitt invites him to crash at his, but then comes the critical request ‘hit me’. And so it begins, the two new friends begin holding recreational fights in parking lots which quickly blossom into a the Fight Club of the title where frustrated, emasculated, average men can beat the living hell out of each other with their bare fists.
These fights aren’t vindictive, these men are not enemies, the fights make these men friends, comrades, drifting souls all screwed over and repressed by the same system. We often see them embracing with almost post-coital grins on their faces in the bloody aftermath of a fight. Fighting reminds Jack (Norton’s character is actually nameless but most refer to him as Jack) not only that he is alive, but that he is a man, that there is a fundamental primal part of him which can be repressed by society but never eradicated completely.
The Fight Club quickly spawns Tyler’s new and secretive idea, Project Mayhem. The culmination of Project Mayhem is stunning but I won’t tell you what that is because it would spoil the movie.
This is a very deep and multi-layered film, what do you think it’s about? Is it a satire on the way feminism, though achieving liberation for women, has made men’s liberation next to impossible due to anti-male prejudice? Is it and expression the basic unfulfillment and frustration of the everyday person in a capitalist society? Is it an eye-opening perspective on the way our most basic needs become repressed and dirtied by modern life? I’m not going to tell you, I know what I think, but this film is so deep and open that half the point is trying to work out what it says TO YOU.
So why buy it? It’s smart, it’s brutal, it’s highly re-watchable, and it’s a film everyone (men and women alike) needs to see. One of those ‘greatest films ever’ that actually deserves the title.
I could write a ten page essay on this film, but for now I’ll just leave you with a few words of advice: Go and watch it now, it’s truly brilliant.
“My eyes are open”
Rating: 5 / 5
Because of inaccurate and negative reviews I didn’t bother to go and see this at the cinema. That’s the last time I ever take any notice of the opinions of professional critics. However, this film is not a ‘comfortable’ experience for those who are happy with their IKEA-designed existence. So, if you are a shop- happy consumerist ‘Fight Club’ is not for you..but it should be. What did surprise me was the high level of dark, dry wit and I found myself laughing quite loudly at some of Ed Norton’s commentary especially concerning his addiction to attending self-help groups. Maybe I’ve become hardened, but the violence isn’t as shocking as some would have you believe. Anyway, top honours all round. Helena B-C turns in an image-shattering performance as a junkie loser although she still looks gorgeous to me. Like Johnny Depp, I’ve increasing respect for Brad Pitt for taking ‘weird’ roles that don’t capitalise on a heart-throb image. Ed Norton’s excellent. The only slight irritation is the alter-ego thing, which adds too much of a surreal edge. All in all, unlike blockbusters and most other hyped-up films, ‘Fight Club’ actually leaves you thinking long after it’s finished.
Rating: 5 / 5
When this movie first came out I had no real desire to see it. All of the publicity was about how violent the movie was and there was not much mention of anything else. I was a bit of a David Fincher fan after The Game and Seven and I really like Edward Norton, who in my opinion is the finest actor of his generation, but I still thought who really wants to see a movie about people knocking lumps out of each other for 133 minutes? I certainly didn’t and so weeks went by until one of my favourite UK movie magazines published their top twenty movies of 1999. What was top? You guessed it, Fight Club. But I still wasn’t convinced. However, I’d seen everything else that I’d wanted to see and Fight Club was about to leave the theatres and on the basis that every review of the movie in the UK had been five star I felt I had to see it. I didn’t expect to enjoy it but I kind of felt that as a supposed film buff it was my duty to watch even if I was going to hate it. I couldn’t have been more wrong, I was blown away by this movie. It was nothing like I expected and nothing like the hype. And it’s not just a guy movie either, I watched this with my wife and she loved this movie as much as I did and at the end she turned to me and said one word “wow”! Sure there is some very realistic and gorey fight scenes in this movie but to characterise it as a mindless bloodfest is to do it an enormous disservice. This is an incredibly powerful movie that pulls one surprise after another. It has an incredibly original script, excellent direction and wonderful acting. Not only is the ever fantastic Edward Norton better than he’s ever been before (or perhaps ever will be) but he is ably supported by Brad Pitt (who I’m generally not a great fan of) as the charasmatic anarchist and soap salesmen Tyler Durden, the superb Helenah Bonham Carter totally cast against type as Marla (…)(in what should have been a multi-award winning performance) and Meat Loaf. Yeah, Meat Loaf in good film, understated, funny, good acting shock!!! Who would have believed it? Not me but then Fight Club is that kind of movie, it is nothing like you’d imagine.
I don’t want to give the plot of the movie away in case you haven’t already seen it. To my mind the best way to watch a movie (and in particular this movie) is with no prior expectations and an open mind. This movie is a rollercoaster ride that will take you places and directions that no movie has taken you before. How good is it? Well, I read a magazine interview and Edward Norton stated that when he and Brad Pitt watched the movie for the first time, Brad Pitt turned to him and said “you know this is the best movie we will ever be in” and Edward Norton agreed. That’s how good it is! Darkly comic, a visual and verbal assault on the senses, Fight Club is perhaps a movie before its time that has divided (and will continue to divide) audience opinions to the widest of extremes. Does it have a deep and meaningful message? Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t and maybe that’s exactly the point, maybe that’s how our world is at this particular place and time. Whatever, in my opinion Fight Club beats the hell out of most other movies and fully deserves five stars.
Rating: 5 / 5