"Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may."
Fight Club. When this movie was released in 1999, it was considered a boxoffice failure. It did'nt get much attention during award season as it got overshadowed by classics such as American Beauty and The Matrix. The fact that it's a dialouge heavy movie without too much action is probably why it took some time for Figh Club to get the attention it truly deserved, and as of 2013 it's one of the most popular cult classics in film history.
The main character of the movie, played by Edward Norton, is a miserable, depressed, prone to insomia office worker. His life is a faded blur of Ikea furniture, microwaved meals and a struggle to pay bills on time. On one of his many boring business trips, he meets Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, and his life almost instantly takes a turn for worse, or beter, depending on how you look at it. The two start spending time together, and thus begins one of the most awesome and interesting relationships seen in modern cinema. The journey these two set out on is deeply engrossing and fascinating, and you appreciate the chemestry these phenominal actors share from the moment they get introduced.
The film gets it's name from a secret organisation the two form together, consisting of depressed and misserable men who meet in a damp basement to fight. Not because they want to hurt each other, but because they feel alive during those moments, as if they become real men, freed from their ties and the social barriers that lock them up during the day time. This element is vital to the message of the movie, and the fighting is more of a tool to get it across, rather than the actual main theme. The second half of the movie, the fight club starts evolving into something more, and the movie gets a revolutionary feel to it thats hard to explain without spoiling anything. The twist near the end is one of the most surprising and innovative twists i'we seen, even though the secret becomes kind of obvious once revealed.
Fight club is very funny in a griddy way, and both Norton and Pitt deliver some hillarious lines in this movie. The humor is dry and dark, and it fits the dark tone of the movie perfectly. When it comes to the acting, both Norton and Helena Carter deliver top notch performances, but Brad Pitt completely steals the show as Tyler Durden. He's the laid back type of person who doesn't care about politics and materialism, he lives life one day at a time, and has a completely unique view on the idealistic way to live, compared to whats normal. He abselutely kills it in every single scene he's in, and it's no wonder that the chracter of Tyler Durden is as popular and well known as it is. If i had to choose one chracter from any film ever created that i could meet in real life, i'd chose Tyler Durden. He's the kind of person i would love to have a drink with, and the fact that Brad Pitt didn't win an oscar for best supporting actor, let alone got a nomination, is completely mindblowing to me. In Tyler we trust!
Most people who have not seen this movie automatically assume it's a simple guys movie about people who get in to fights. This assumption isn't false, but it's not true either. Fight club is so much more than a fighting movie. It deals with prime instincts such as fear, anger, happiness and the lust for dominance. It's about having problems creating an identity in modern society, the power of materialism and the invisible bonds it ties around us, and it questions the way people prioritize and value different aspects of life. It breaks down the way we, the people of the 21. century live our lives, and offers a completely unique view on society structure and materialism. It's clear that the director David Fincher has message he wanted to deliver with this movie, and he does a damn fine job doing just that, in my opinion.
This is the part where i normally talk about the things i didn't like about the movie that's being reviewed, but in the case of Fight Club, there simply isn't any negative things to say. Some people have complained that it's too long and too dialogue based, but to me, the dialogue is what makes the movie so good as it is, and to me the 139 minutes it lasts just seem to fly by in an instant . Other people, especially female audiences, have accused Fight Club of being too much of a guy's movie, and i kinda see how that could be true. It does focus mainly on the way modern time men live their lives and suppress their instincts working nine to five jobs, but i do know several girls who think Fight Club is one of their favourite movies, anyway.
All in i'd say that if you enjoy dialogue based movies spiced with hilarity, twists and messages combined with great acting, you will probably dig this movie as much as i did. It's one of my personal favourites, definitely a top 5 contender. To me, Fight Club is simply movie magic (6/6).
Fight Club IMDb page here
Fight Club trailer here
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