Kim Morgan: Fight Club Ten Years Later - Deconstructing The Movie We've Become

News Type: Opinion — Seeded on Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:28 AM EST

Article Source: The Huffington Post

entertainment, fight-club, david-fincher, tyler-durden

If any picture was the movie to usher in the new millennium, it was David Fincher's Fight Club. To me, it was the movie of the 1990s -- as prescient as Network was in the 1970s towards the future of "news," and as equally misunderstood. As Fight Club revealed and essentially, proselytized, we live in a world where we seek to express ourselves, either through conspicuous consumption, or following philosophies for supposed betterment, or to simply remember what it was like to actually feel like a man after the world has feminized us so (something as a woman I find frustrating and heartbreaking -- let men be men again).

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1.5

{"commentId":10842934,"authorDomain":"killfile"}

Killfile

I loved (and love) this movie. My wife hates it. Somehow, however, I think that's sort of the point.

{"commentId":10842934,"threadId":"730924","contentId":"3534117","authorDomain":"killfile"}

2 votes

#1 - Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:41 AM EST

{"commentId":10844237,"authorDomain":"greglujan"}

greck

I've read the book several times.

To get a woman to understand it, explain it to her like this:

The point of fight club is exactly the same as that quote from Akeelah and the Bee.

The essence of "male-ness" is found in the abandoning of fear to love.

for me, the whole thing is encapsulated in the "Raymond K Hessel" scene. Tyler puts a gun in a 7-11 clerk's face, tells him he's going to kill him, looking through the wallet, finds an expired college ID, asks the guy what he wanted to be before, the guy says a vet (IIRC), Tyler tells Raymond that he knows where he lives, that he's going to check up on him in six months, if he's not back in school on his way to being a vet, he'll kill him, because he might as well be dead anyway.

The book doesn't end with the apocalyptic explosion. It ends with everybody from the support groups coming to help the main character (nitpick: the "Jack" thing came from the guy reading Reader's Digest, I don't think it's his name).

the fighting, the mayhem, the distruction of the sacred, all of that was just a conduit to self-actualization, and to love.

{"commentId":10844237,"threadId":"730924","contentId":"3534117","authorDomain":"greglujan"}

#1.1 - Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:46 AM EST

{"commentId":10844404,"authorDomain":"triw19"}

thestranger26

I saw Fight Club around 2000, fell in love, bought the 2 disc collector's edition, forced all my friends or anyone who dared venture in my apt to watch it, dled and practically memorized the script, and have a BnW poster of Tyler Durden holding the soap in my bathroom. I've since grown out of the obsession, but remains one of my absolute favourites.

P.S. did I mention I'm a chick :)

{"commentId":10844404,"threadId":"730924","contentId":"3534117","authorDomain":"triw19"}

1 vote

#1.2 - Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:53 AM EST

{"commentId":10844457,"authorDomain":"triw19"}

thestranger26

"To get a woman to understand it, explain it to her like this:

The point of fight club is exactly the same as that quote from Akeelah and the Bee."

hey now!

{"commentId":10844457,"threadId":"730924","contentId":"3534117","authorDomain":"triw19"}

1 vote

#1.3 - Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:55 AM EST

{"commentId":10844524,"authorDomain":"greglujan"}

greck

hey now!

present company excepted, of course.

{"commentId":10844524,"threadId":"730924","contentId":"3534117","authorDomain":"greglujan"}

1 vote

#1.4 - Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:58 AM EST

{"commentId":10843323,"authorDomain":"sionxxii"}

Tyler Durden-330839

This film came out the year I became a father. If I weren't a parent...

{"commentId":10843323,"threadId":"730924","contentId":"3534117","authorDomain":"sionxxii"}

3 votes

#2 - Mon Nov 23, 2009 10:01 AM EST

{"commentId":10846715,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}

Scott (Scoop) Butki

I love it. It's a great movie. Good seed. I can think of only a few women I know who love it like most men do. Did you hear about the prank the director pulled with the new release?

The prank is described here and I seeded it here

{"commentId":10846715,"threadId":"730924","contentId":"3534117","authorDomain":"sbutki"}

1 vote

#3 - Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:30 PM EST

{"commentId":10847496,"authorDomain":"hemphill"}

hemphill

I used to watch fight club and falling down back to back a lot. They always felt like they were pointing at the same thing.

{"commentId":10847496,"threadId":"730924","contentId":"3534117","authorDomain":"hemphill"}

1 vote

#4 - Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:01 PM EST

{"commentId":10847701,"authorDomain":"Nic-24"}

Nic-24

I am a woman and I LOVE this movie. I think that too many women see the violence in it and shy away. But the movie isn't really about violence or being a man, it's about identifying with our primal nature, about breaking down a self-created material world and really living for once in our lives. It is essentially one man's search for enlightenment. It is a powerful story beneath some blood.

And, frankly, even the fighting touches on a very real impulse. Although the vast majority of us maintain quiet, safe lives in which we placate others and use wit to get us out of situations... we have all thought about punching someone as hard as we can. And just how alive we feel after experiencing just a little pain. This movie touches on the human within us all.

Side note... greck, you are right, his name is not "Jack"... :)

{"commentId":10847701,"threadId":"730924","contentId":"3534117","authorDomain":"Nic-24"}

#5 - Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:10 PM EST

{"commentId":10873763,"authorDomain":"michgal"}

Michgal67

Well...I too am a female and I thought this movie was amazing! And I haven't seen Akeelah and the Bee thank you very much! Not all women watch nothing but romantic comedies....

The acting alone in this movie makes every cringe worthy bloody scene worthwhile. Edward Norton is just the best...have loved him since American History X. How he has not won an Oscar for anything yet is a mystery to me. Heck even Brad Pitt proves in this movie that he too is not just a pretty face...however he proved that to me in 12 Monkeys years ago.

Love...love...love this movie!

{"commentId":10873763,"threadId":"730924","contentId":"3534117","authorDomain":"michgal"}

1 vote

#6 - Tue Nov 24, 2009 3:42 PM EST

{"commentId":10950375,"authorDomain":"Nic-24"}

Nic-24

I think Brad Pitt does so much better when he is cast in weird roles as opposed to handsome leading man roles... he is an amazing actor. And you are righ about Ed Norton, I love him. Helena Bonham Carter is great in this movie too. They could not have cast these roles better.

{"commentId":10950375,"threadId":"730924","contentId":"3534117","authorDomain":"Nic-24"}

#6.1 - Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:51 AM EST

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KILLFILE

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Kim Morgan: Fight Club Ten Years Later - Deconstructing The Movie We've Become

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