#3 Fight Club

David Fincher's Fight Club (1999), based on the novel by Chuch Palahniuk, is really like no other film I've seen. Aside from the stunning cinematography, clever screenplay and mesmerizing soundtrack, the story of Fight Club pretty much takes the whole idea of social satire to a whole new level. It's lovely.

The film (in a nutshell) revolves around an unnamed office employee-credited as The Narrator-(magnificently portrayed by Edward Norton) who, tremendously sick of his extremely mundane life and suffering from a severe case of insomnia, meets the cunning and anarchistic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). From then on, the duo establish an illegal underground organization called Fight Club, where various members vent their social aggression through brutal fighting. However, Fight Club then slowly drifts into a more nihilistic organization (appropriately titled Project Mayhem, led by Tyler) whose sole intent is to rid the country of its big business corporations and "false" media that they believe has devastated their lives in society. The Narrator then begins to realize how Project Mayhem's terrorist activities are going way too far, but almost everything seems to stop him from foiling their plans and bring down the organization for good--almost everything.

Fight Club is really one of those movies that first got to me because of its irreverent style. In terms of visuals and direction, the film is (due to a lack of better words) awesome. As difficult it is for me to explain why, I've spliced a couple of clips from the movie to show what I mean (explanations are also added):



The screenplay was what I felt to be a mish-mash of clever dialogue with a variety of pop culture references that earned its title of a social satire on the disturbing ways of anarchy.
In one of my favorite examples, The Narrator (now living at Tyler's) is on the phone with a police detective discussing new leads to who blew up his condominium recently. With Tyler jokingly pressuring him with: "Tell him you blew it all up. That's what he wants to hear.", The Narrator (worried of being a suspect) proceeds with the following lines to the detective, emotionally:

"Look, nobody takes this more seriously than me. That condo was my life, okay? I loved every stick of furniture in that place. That was not just a bunch of stuff that got destroyed. It was me!"

He then narrates:

But with all the flamboyance set aside, it is really the social commentary of the film that makes it so remarkable. With the fighting being seen as a semi-metaphore to unleashing the rebellious personalities of the members, it is fortunately not the focal point of the movie. What I truly believe what the film is trying to say is how anarchy might not be the best way to go in life. It is constantly shown throughout the film how the characters blame mass media for its "false truths" on living life perfectly, which violently steers their attention to the rich corporations they believe is dehumanizing society and making them (quoting Tyler): "--the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world". At first, this promotes Project Mayhem (Fight Club was just the beginning of the process) to commit a series of anti-social -but relatively harmless- acts such as randomly starting fights in the streets, vandalizing private property, etc. But as it progresses, the message becomes more clear to everyone and their activities become more and more dangerous.

Although it is not said who the film/book was intended to, the target audience in my opinion would be those who are in extreme opposition towards the media. While everyone completely has the civil right to freely to express their opinions, it is the actions of these individuals and their anti-corporate/government movements that should be taken into serious account. What is even scarier is how these establishments can affect others in a global scale, creating a world of anarchy; towards the end of the movie, Tyler has apparently established a Fight Club in nearly every major city in America, anyone The Narrator bumps to could be a member (although unrealistic, let it be remembered that the film is a SATIRE).

Besides that, this movie is a must see. Its riveting story-telling and character development (there's a pretty sweet twist near the end) added with the bizarre visuals and amazing soundtrack (The Dust Brothers shine in this one) make it a pretty good movie to look into. Don't miss it.

Unfortunately, some critics and reviewers have bashed this movie for its apparent "glorification" of violence (yes, it can be a bit gruesome sometimes) and encouragement to anti-social behavior. Ignore these blockheads.