The Diva's
"Fight Club" Review

Fight Club (1999)
Rated R; approximate running time of 139 minutes
Director: David Fincher
Writer: Chuck Palahniuk (novel), Jim Uhls
Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, Jared Leto
Genre: Drama/Action

WARNING - SPOILERS BELOW.

The Digest

So here’s what’s up. Edward Norton plays "The Narrator" he is telling his story via a long flash back and voice over. The Narrator suffers from insomnia. Sometimes going 4 or 5 days without sleep. He begins looking for a support group for his condition and happens upon a group of men who are suffering from testicular cancer. By the end of that session he opens up and cries and sleeps better than he has in months. So he becomes a support group junkie. He pretends various illnesses so he can get his emotional release and sleep. This works fine until he notices a woman (Helena Bonham Carter) is attending all of the same meetings he is (she goes to cancer support groups and chain smokes and nobody says a word…that’s Hollywood for you.). This unnerves him. He feels that his space has been violated and he can’t relax enough to cry so again he isn’t sleeping. All that changes when he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt who was looking miiighty nice. He was really in shape).

The Narrator is flying home from a business trip and happens to be seated next to Tyler. He strikes up a conversation and the relationship ends on the flight. Ends until The narrator gets home and finds out that his condo has been blown up. He calls Tyler and they meet for drinks. Tyler agrees to let The Narrator stay with him, (In the nastiest, filthiest, most disgusting house I’ve ever seen.) , but only after he goads him into a fight. The kick each other’s butt and have so much fun they begin to do it every night.

Other men in the bar come out one night and watch them, then they join. Before you know it, they are in the basement of the bar, beating the stuffing out of each other- bare knuckled. No bets are made and no one is killed. When someone has had enough, the fight stops immediately. Tyler begins to become the leader, overshadowing The Narrator which is fine at first.. The club starts to grow even though no one is supposed to talk about it. It grows and boredom sets in. That’s when Tyler begins to change things. He starts giving out homework assignments. They range from picking fights and losing to vandalism and blowing up stuff. They keep getting more and more daring with the stunts they pull. They begin to worship Tyler and The Narrator. One by one they move into Tyler’s house and take over. It becomes a commune and they are a small army. I will say this much, while they beat the crap out of each other, they make sure no one dies and no innocent bystanders are hurt even when they are blowing up a building.

The Narrator is feeling a little jealous of the adulation heaped upon Tyler and he is a little tired of being kept out of the loop and that’s when things begin to unravel. Unravel right into a surprise ending.

The Dish

I’ll cut to the chase. I hated this damn movie. I hated it with a passion. I said back in August, "If I want to see a bunch white guys beat up on each other, I’ll stay home and watch Hockey" I should have stayed home. In all my years of going to movies, I have only walked out two. " Hell Raiser" (Mommy that’s for you) and "Fight Club". In fact, when I was through with this film, so were about 6 other people. But I’m the only fool that went back in (The scene that finished us off, had to do with liposuction waste). It’s not a badly acted movie and from a purely technical standpoint it’s a very good movie. So why did I leave? Because it was downright disgusting. I’m sure I’ve confused everyone by now and I'm sorry. It's just so hard to explain. I think perhaps it was just too controversial for me.

Even though I didn't like it, the people who decide what a classic movie is, will pick this one. It’s going to end up on all of the top ten lists. The critics will gush. It pushes all the right buttons and all of the wrong ones. It also pushes the envelope with it’s gratuitous violence. I was so sick of seeing broken bones and beat up faces. And my God, all of the blood! People will be talking about it for weeks. Talking about it first, then starting their own fight clubs. Just what America needs…

I used to kid myself by thinking I could handle "guy films". I’ve seen "Natural Born Killers". I’ve seen "Reservoir Dogs". They bugged me, but I was cool … that was until today. My moment of realization came early on in the movie when all the guys were laughing at a particular scene and my face was scrunched up like I was sucking on a lemon . It seemed every time I was disgusted, the men in the theater were laughing. That really disturbed me. Maybe it’s some male mechanism to deal with tough subject matter. Then again it may be because I couldn’t identify with this movie at all. I’m not a disenfranchised white man. I’m not looking for someone to lead me nor am I looking for something to belong to.

The Directive

I wouldn’t waste my hard earned money on this mess.

If you like movies like "NBK" and "RD" then you must see this movie. If you don’t have a strong stomach and don’t like violence. Stay home. Trust me on this.