July 26, 2010

Fight Club Was The Best Movie Of The Nineties

Filed under: arts — Guy Merrill @ 7:57 am

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.

He meets two people who change his life, Tyler Durden, and a new woman played by Helena Bonham Carter. Durden, played by Brad Pitt, is an unusual character, completely unbound by societal rules. Think of Kramer from Seinfeld. Now imagine if Kramer wanted to lead a violent revolution. There you have Tyler Durden.

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 finale, the way the movie ties everything together, it’s very interesting. It’s kind of frightening, it’s exciting, and it’s kind of funny. In the end, all of the details about Durden and the Narrator are, if not quite solved, at least developed into something you’ll enjoy thinking about.

Ed Norton has since gone on to do a lot of… Well, some people call it Oscarbait. He does a lot of movies that are more, you know, “indie”, and he’s controversial, not all directors enjoy working with him. However, in Fight Club, he really gives the performance his all, creating a character who is both an everyman and a completely unique individual, and the perfect contrast to Tyler Durden. Pitt as Durden is every bit as capable, and turns in one of his best performances.

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.

You can find just about any move to watch online at the Internet Movie Data Base. Rent A Movie With iTunes, you have 30 days to from the time of your rental to watch the movie, when you rent movies online with them. You can buy movie downloads to watch on your iPhone so you can show off to your friends.

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