Fight Club

Rating:
Summary: A Top Movie of All Time
Review: Fight Club was an excellent movie. The movie is definitely one to purchase because you will want to watch it several times over. You can relate to the Ed Norton character and also see who you want to be in the Brad Pitt (Tyler Durden) character. The supporting cast really helps in adding to this cinematic classic as well. If you enjoy the movie I would also recommend reading the book, which is a bit more descriptive.

Rating:
Summary: The Men's Movement on Celluloid
Review: In 1999, a decade into the bookish Men's Movement, its concerns have finally been committed to celluloid. "Fight Club's" Tyler Durden represents the cocky virile manhood missing in the pale fluorescence of modern man's office life in a service economy.

Brad Pitt's Tyler chainsmokes, wears red leather, dresses garishly, behaves transgressively, and begins a paramilitary movement to overthrow the glaze the American corporate world has placed in the eyes of its drone workers.

We begin, however, with Ed Norton's emasculated Jack, an insurance appraiser whose unchanneled emotion has made him a sag-eyed insomniac. Physically healthy, Jack discovers illness support groups as a means to vent his sadness and frustration. It's there that he meets sassy basketcase Marla Singer (Helena Bonhma Carter) whom he is too much of a eunuch to seduce. The first half is the film is sharp black humor as Jack and Marla begin their bizarre courtship.

Slowly Jack's macho alter ego Tyler begins eclipsing his gentle cooperative persona to the point where, under Tyler's influence, he burns his well-appointed IKEA-packed urban condo and moves to the seedy edge of town near a malodorous paper mill. Tyler and Jack, in buddy movie fashion, are first depicted as like-minded friends, both on the run from capitalistic values and their commodifying effect on human beings as well as a male-bashing Ritalin-crazed post-feminist world. In their large dilapidated shabby-chic home, they create a male precinct where the traditional masculine values of freedom, mischief, rebellion, and vitality can thrive.

In a touching scene, Tyler and Jack discuss the absence of fathers, hinting that this missing piece of their upbringing is behind their vague but tender homoeroticism. In their spare time, the duo form FIGHT CLUB, a group of disaffected men who meet in the basements of bars for bare knuckles boxing sessions which those involved find cathartic and invigorating.

In the Bible Christ says: "I came not to bring peace but a sword." Tyler Durden can be seen as a Christ figure. As a 30something, he's the right age. He gathers an enthused discipleship. He preaches of a spiritual war against materialism and docility. Instead of the Sermon on the Mount, we get The Sermon in the Basement. Tyler takes on the powers that be in his society, much as Christ did, with an army of misfits and outsiders, and he proves he is willing to die for his cause.

"Fight Club" flies in the face of political correctness every chance it gets and reminds us how sex and aggression animate our lives. The scene in which Tyler gives Jack a searing chemical burn on the back of his hand is the film's shuddering climax. Jack tries to disappear into New Age fantasy as Tyler urges him to stay with the pain. This is Jack's hazing into manhood, recalling the male rites of passage of primitive tribes. It reflects Christian mythos as well, since the scar from Jack's burn resembles one of Christ's stigmata. Jack and Tyler then proceed to give this scar to all new Fight Club members.

When Fight Club morphs into "Operation Mayhem," Tyler's vandalistic direct attack on civilization, Jack becomes skittish and winds up out of the information loop of an organization he helped to create. He and Tyler clash, which yields a shocking revelation about them I won't spoil here.

"Fight Club" and "American Beauty" (both 1999) rail against the domesticated demise of American frontier manhood. Their central characters are willing to pay a high price for freedom. These characters' failures and disconnections lead to a kind of endearing macho campiness, and many will be lead to sympathize with their "male malaise."

"Fight Club" is like a gun aimed at the idealized androgyny and co-ed conversion of the last 40 years. What men need, it seems to claim, is "guy-space" and "guy-time," male bonding and man-making ritual. The movie suggests that only after this confidence and swagger is achieved can a man be a fit companion for a woman, meeting her considerable sexual and emotional power with a brand of power all his own.

Well acted by Pitt, Norton, and Carter; ably directed with great technical flourish by David Fincher; poetically written by novelist Chuck Palahniuk and screenwriter Jim Uhls, "Fight Club" is a biting satire, a malcontented masterpiece that forecasts a redefinition of manhood which is somehow both revolutionary and reactionary. After Americans are past the long period of political centrism that began in the late 1980s and persists to
this day, look for "Fight Club" to be regarded as a crystal ball.

Rating:
Summary: I am Jack's Smirking Revenge and I refuse to say "Baa"
Review: One part scathing social commentary, one part intro to abnormal psychology and throughout a work of genius, "Fight Club" is a must-see for anyone who is, ever has been, or is acquainted with a disaffected youth. Why do people who have everything seemingly hate everything and everyone? What is "Fight Club"? Think Holden Caulfied on crystal meth... one hell of a mind trip, but just as thought-provoking. Why is everyone so mad? Why do young men want to beat and be beaten? What is the source of our self-destructive impulses?

The psychological turmoil that lies beneath the thin veneer of civilization covering most men is explored in this film. "Fight Club" is about the two sides of human nature: reason and animal violence. Or reason vs. animal violence? Why do we value material possessions, "Fight Club" asks us. "Why do I know what a duvet is? Its just a blanket," said Brad Pitt's character, Tyler Durden. And so we are asked to confront our acquisitiveness, acquisitiveness being the clearest sign of our phoniness. "Fight Club" is about the schizoid split that occurs in each of us when faced with the choice-- to be driven by your heart, and inner compass or to be herded along with the rest of the sheep? In many ways "Fight Club" was the light at the end of a tunnel for many disaffected post-adoloescent, post-collegiate professionals who were sick of the herd mentality that suffused their environment. It made them know their dissatisfaction was not unique. That is why the phrase "I am Jack's Smirking Revenge" became almost a mantra. I don't want to be one of the sheep. I don't want to say "baa". "Fight Club" hones into this feeling and the fears that produce it, as a result the film, while geared towards a cult audience is a modern classic.

I give the "Fight Club" DVD five stars for being an accurate interpretation and distillation of Chuck Pahlaniuk's novel. In many ways the film is more effective than the novel. The casting choices, set design and cinematography were all stellar and the DVD comes with great extra features.

Rating:
Summary: Straight out, white guy flick.
Review: Fight Club comes in at number thirty-nine on the list of the top 250 films of all time at the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), right before Das Boot. So is it better than the epic war film? Not a chance, it is merely because the majority of those on imdb.com are caucasian males, and Fight Club (1999) starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, is one of their movies.

Fight Club joins such films as Memento and Donnie Darko. As with all of these films, this movie really has no redeeming qualities for those of another sex or ethnic group, because it is bound to not be as relevant to them as caucasian males. They are not films like those by Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg or any other director that is hailed for his or her movies. They are films for a specific person and I am not that person, meaning it did not keep my attention.

To the film, it is based on Chuck Palahniuk's novel of the same. He is the author who also wrote the books Choke (God awful), Survivor and Invisible Monsters. It is directed by David Fincher, the same man who brought the film Seven, a boring film that not even Morgan Freeman could save,...

His film, Fight Club, concerns a white office man (Edward Norton) going about his dull life as a nobody until he meets Tyler Durden, whom upon meeting boosts his confidence and frees his inhibitions. And what does every man do when they feel free? They pummel each other with fists, of course. The two men begin a fight club, hence the title, with a list of rules, a test to initiate members and a cult-like following. Following the gritty, all-male action is Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) a woman who doesn't appear overly smart, yet is probably over many intellectual borders that men like Tyler Durden met back in first grade.

I despise the character of Tyler Durden, he isn't interesting and his philosophy is pointless and the beliefs of a man without a real cause other than anarchy. I thought that Edward Norton played it straight as the working man, a conscious body in a realm of unconscious and utterly ridiculous beliefs and the transformation, in the film, of a men's club becoming a cult and leaving it without having learned a thing. Pitt was [bad], as in Seven, and I despise him as an actor and his character in the film Fight Club.

[...]

Rating:
Summary: fight club
Review: Awsome movie if you like it read the book it was excellent to in this rare ocastion its hard to decide which I like better they were both great

Rating:
Summary: Great Film!!!
Review: This movie was just awesome, too much for words. The whole movie i was thinking something totally different from what was really going on. I love helena bonom carter too. She made that movie perfect. If you havent seen it, i highly recommend that you do.

Rating:
Summary: chick flick?
Review: Probably not, if your taste runs toward romantic comedies...but if you are interested in passion and poetry, being fully alive while you've still got a pulse, this movie is worth checking out.

There's a line from the movie "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" that has stayed with me forever: "In life, in order to understand the world, you must die at least once. So it's better to die young, when there's still time left to recover and live again."

That pretty much captures the theme of Fight Club, a film about a man with insomnia who sleepwalks through his empty life and well-furnished condo until he meets a stranger who tries to empty his life of fear and regret and fill it with purpose.

Sounds serious. But it's also pretty funny in parts.

I didn't see this movie when it first came out, as I thought it would be an empty-headed violent testosterone-driven film. It is violent, it is testosterone-driven (there's only one female of any import in the film), but it is NOT empty-headed.

Check it out!

Rating:
Summary: It Has To Be Said!!!
Review: It has to be said - just take a look at the number of people who have been INSPIRED to write a review...THIS FILM IS A CUT ABOVE THE REST!!!

Brilliant acting and direction, thought provoking storyline, what more can you ask for? This film is one of the greatest films ever made.

And it impacts on your life...HONEST..tomorrow I'll resign from
my job and take up wrestling.

Rating:
Summary: A Twisted masterpiece
Review: This is a definite to any DVD collection. A rare DVD that makes you think. Norton plays Jack and Brad Pitt plays Tyler who is a soap salesman with a twisted way of viewing life. Tyler thinks the way to get the most out of life is by testing your durability in other words beating yourself till you can take no more. And if you if can endure the most painful of pains then what's there to be afraid of. Together Tyler and Jack start an organized underground Fight Club where the members Fight each other. The club has rules. It really is strictly insanity. But a twisted ending will totally expand your mind and make you think outside the square. A classic. One of the best DVDs I have ever come across.

Rating:
Summary: ***** THE MOVIE OF THE NINETIES? *****
Review: 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, who cares? Whatever, in my opinion Fight Club beats the hell out of most other movies and fully deserves five stars.