Monday, July 26, 2010

A Must See Movie: Fight Club

By Kathy Hendrix

If you haven't seen Fight Club yet, well... Welcome to the twenty first century. How was it under that rock where you live? This movie was sort of a cultural event back in the late nineties. It wasn't just a movie, it was The Thing everyone was talking about, and has since had every bit as much of an influence on the modern world cinema as Pulp Fiction and Goodfellas had had some years earlier. It's certainly one of the must download movies of the decade.

The story follows an unnamed narrator portrayed by Ed Norton. There's a lot of "Office Space" type humor as he disparages his corporate white collar job, but there's an ugliness to it here, a darkness not present in Office Space. The movie is very deep and brooding and twisted, while at the same time sarcastic and nonchalant about the whole thing.

The narrator meets Tyler Durden, and the rest is history. Durden is a character who is completely free of the boundaries of society placed on most people. You know Kramer, from Seinfeld? He's kind of like that. Just, imagine how dangerous, frightening, and at the same time, inspiring, Kramer would be if you took him out of the sitcom setting and put him into a world where his actions could result in serious consequences.

Tyler Durden is really the heart of the film in.. Many more ways than one. He and the narrator together found the Fight Club, which begins as simply a place where lonely white collar men can fight so as to reaffirm their manhood, but soon grows into something deeper, more frightening, and which has a much greater impact in the grand scheme of things.

The way it grows is fascinating to watch. You can see that, while some parts of the film are outlandish, the suggestion that this sort of a concept would catch on is probably entirely believable and plausible. It hasn't yet, but the impotent rage hiding in many men still has the potential to become potent. It's frightening to think about, but sooner or later, something's got to give.

The way it ties everything up is fascinating and was, at the time, an incredible and unpredictable plot twist. Since, it's become sort of cliche. This movie and the Sixth Sense both created their own style of "surprise endings", and created trends that would eventually get a little tired but which, at the time, were exciting and interesting.

Norton quickly skyrocketed in fame with this movie, proving that he could take some really exciting projects and make the most of them. Since, his career has had a lot of ups and downs, with a cool, edgy flick one year, and some weak box office bait the next. This is one of his best, though, and the same goes for Brad Pitt.

Love it or hate it, this movie, as shocking, grotesque and violent as it may be, is one of the most influential of the last twenty years, and at the very least, deserves its due respect. - 39815

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