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Fight Club (1999)
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Movie Review by Chris
February 4th, 2009
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There is a scene in 'Fight Club' where Tyler (Brad Pitt) and Jake (Edward Norton) are driving down the highway on a stormy night. Tyler is arguing with Jake about life, the decisions they make and everything like that, well Tyler let's go of the steering wheel, letting the car drive on it's own. It goes left then right, finally it drives right into another car which is pulled over on the side of the road, both the vehicles go falling down a cliff. Jake and Tyler are fine, but this is symbolism about life. Life steers itself, it goes left and right, with us just sitting behind the wheel in no control. Eventually we bank in the wrong direction and crash, leading to a downfall, but in the end were fine and we move on. There is plenty of symbolism all throughout the movie, it's not just about fighting. Just the fact that this movie is so brutally true about life and death, politics and finance, makes this movie very smart. In fact, this actually became one of my favorite movies of all time, no just because it's an insane trip into life, but just the pure entertainment of the movie is worth the 133 minute run time.
I made the same evaluation when I first heard about the film to, I thought it was going to be 2 hours of violent underground street-fighting, which kind of gave me a reason to avoid it for a few years. Though I do enjoy violent fighting, I made a few attempts to watch this a few years ago but I never got past the 20 minute point, just because the whole going to therapy gig never really entertained me that much. Now that I study movies and really watch them, I found that key element to be very thought provoking and insanely true, about how one man lies in order to cry. There is a lot more to the whole stuation that I didnt bring up, but it gives a lot of thought mostly to the character, how he reacts around strangers and comes up with fake names just to say he has testicular cancer. Jim Uhls wrote the screenplay for the film based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, who said the film was "an improvement on the novel", which I'm guessing is a good thing.
The script is so politiacally incorrect and brings up so many thoughts about life and fate, the way humans act and react, it would seem as if the whole movie is a giant PSA or something. Director David Fincher is known for creating films of epic quality though, creating the 172 minute crime thriller Zodiac and most recently doing a three hour drama entitled The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Another excellent thing 'Fight Club' does visually is make the audience feel as if were suffering from insomnia, images flash on the screen quickly and things like that. The editing is sped up and slowed down to extreme points, but this makes the movie so much more compelling and interesting to watch. David Fincher also uses this technique during fights or even conversations with the characters. It actually makes everything a lot more interesting and actually throws us right in there with how the characters think and feel.
The film was nominated for an Oscar for best effects/sound editing, I dont know what film won that but I believe 'Fight Club' was quite a challenge to beat. This movie at times feels very real, actually so real you believe your watching a dream, the insomnia feeling that's drenched through the movie with the dark cinematography and the feelings of the characters. To say that Jake (Edward Norton) is mentally insane is to harsh, but he's definitely a little crazy. I dont want to ruin the end surprise but just the fact that he goes to meetings for testicular cancer kind of makes us feel as if maybe he's a little nuts in the head. I have never seen Edward Norton so great since American History X, which was actually a little less then a year before 'Fight Club was released. He makes the character so real and insane it's very enjoyable to watch him act, to watch him build this character from the ground up.
Brad Pitt is simply astonishing here as Tyler Durde, he actually is seen at his best here, I've never seen him better. The way he engages himself into the body of the controlling and insane Tyler is really amazing to watch. He makes the character stand out and I cant really compare him to any other tough guy character I've seen in film before. His body is built, his personality is priceless and boy is he crazy. The perfect character for this movie. So, overall 'Fight Club' is one of my favorite movies ever, no real reason why, but Ive seen it a lot and plan to see it a lot more. A must see.
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