Fight Club (1999) Re-Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Fight Club
Year: 1999
Director: David Fincher
Country: US
Language: English

David Fincher's Fight Club was the first film I reviewed for this site back on March 19th, 2012. I gave this film a 1/5 , claiming that it was  "A celebration of fascism, shady philosophy and gratuitous violence." On October 2nd, 2012 I reviewed it again, exclaiming that it was "masturbation material for angry teenagers and testosterone filled old men" I haven't been easy on this movie, infact I've enjoyed ranting about it off and on for the last 4 years. Recently I watched it again and new ideas emerged. I had to re-re-review it.

Fight Club is about a nameless narrator (Edward Norton) who attends support groups in attempt to overcome his emotional state and relieve his insomnia. There he meets Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) who attends for many similar reasons Soon he begins to associate himself with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and gets dragged into creating an underground fight club which turns into a cult.

Without context I view Fight Club as "macho porn". It's pseudo-philosophical material could fill the meninist subreddit. "White males have it so hard!" boo-hoo and all that jazz. Personally I feel the film (and book) give a very oppressive view of what it means to be a man. Does aggression equal masculinity? Maybe in an ancient historical context, but even then the most well known Greeks weren't necessarily battlefield leaders. I would rather have been Socrates (minus the poisoning) than Leonidas. 

Viewed in the context of its time period, Fight Club is the perfect film to capture what the 90's was "about". There was an overall anger, angst, and ambivalence towards society. We wanted to move as far away from the materialism of the 80's as we could, but we were so desperate for identity and direction that we latched onto things we liked from other eras. Music was either branded to death (Spice Girls) or hopelessly nihilistic (Nirvana). Gaming, film and sports were all about "attitude". Even though the cold war was over, the economy was doing well and there was very little war (except you know, the Gulf War) the West kinda hated itself.

Other films (Truman Show, The Matrix, JFK) would also pick up on the 90's general distrust of authority and emergence of conspiracy theorists (dear lawd, do I hate the conspiracy theorists) but I think Fight Club captured the general mood of the decade the best. The lack of identity was society's identity. The narrator's hangup's about men being emasculated by their current roles of society captured how men felt back then and still feel this day (though I personally feel they are incorrect).

Even though I do loathe this film from an entertainment and ethical standpoint, I must admit that it is technically well made and - if viewed in historical context- it is a pretty accurate depiction of the 1990's. Throwing all real world logic aside (how exactly does shooting one's self in the face remove schizophrenia?) I'd say it's THE American film of the 1990's in terms of tone and atmosphere.