i hate fight club

I like it a bit more than you I suppose, but mostly cos of the soundtrack (that bit w/the Pixies mainly). Yeah, it wants to be cleverer than it is, and it's shot pretty well, but it was trying so hard to be cool! Like Pulp Fiction was... they both managed it for most people, it seems

I like Fight Club too. It ain't my favourite movie, and it probably is nowhere near as profound as people hold it up to be (anyway, what ever is?) But the "minorly good movie w/ tricky plot twist" is a pretty good description.

people obsessing over 'fight club' is just further proof of the way 'alternative' keeps moving closer to the right. ie licking the arse of fuckin mainstream for some dollars. it's also an example of how it's almost impossible for americans to protest cause they're too too into celebrity. and it's got one of those fuckin dumb and then i woke up and it was a dream endings, which is the sign of a narratively-challenged writer if ever there was one.

and it's usually boys who obsess and they usually monologue at you about conspirary stories

Its deep. deep lie a child's inflatable swimming pool. deep like a sand box. nothing more, nothing less

it's usually boys who obsess about it because it's a film *about* male identity. and it nails it. watch it more carefully, marla is the most sympathetic character in it - the most normal person in the film, fucked about by a collection of inadequate and weak, confused men.

and clare is right, it is a mainstream film pretending to be alternative - but so what? no-one seriously thinks it's any kind of underground film, but personally i like the idea that something that intelligent and potentially subversive got made by a huge studio.

i think, pete, that you should read some baffler articles. also, what exactly is a sympathetic character - musta missed that class at grad school? but i take yr point re why boys obsess over it - i just saw it as something that boys think only they can talk about - like why war's gonna happen and punk music.

I absolutely hate that film along with that other stylized logs of crap like Pulp Fiction. And I hate the fact that a track from one of my favorite albums is involved with this snake oil. Its just another marketing exercise aimed at the so-called Gen. X. By the way, the book which inspired the movie is just amatuerish crud.

clare, i don't know any boys who think like that. i try and avoid them, they're unpleasant.

i think what i'm getting at is that the film is really most interesting, like, psychologically. i don't think it's trying to be politically subversive, and like justin says, in the end it's only so much snake oil anyway. for me, the shock of seeing it the first time was the way it presented a mindset that i just hadn't seen in any film before. it describes a way that so many people i know feel but that almost never gets talked about. maybe i have just been duped by Gen X marketing, but when something rings so true i won't dismiss it.

and anyone who doesn't think a film that ends with images of skyscrapers collapsing 2 years before 9/11 doesn't merit some close attention should think again.

ps - thanks for recommending the baffler, i'll check it out

"it describes a way that so many people i know feel but that almost never gets talked about" - what aspect of the film do you mean?

Motiveless aggression and nowhere to aim it?

I think most of you have missed it. Yes, it's overstylized. Yes, the anti-marketing movie was marketed. Yes, it tries to seduce you with the glamour of it's anti-social message. But it's all done in the same vein as films such as "A Clockwork Orange" or "Goodfellas". It presents a viewpoint, albeit a very negative and anti-social one, and then takes it to the extreme to show you where it can lead, for good or for bad. Hopefully somewhere along the way you get better understanding of where your morals lay.
Here, straight from the mouth of that "narratively challanged writer" is information about "Fight Club" that all you hardened reviews, who would rather trash and flame a movie then admit that you didn't get it, should read. http://www.joblo.com/fightclubchat.htm ... you'll see that the reason this movie was made by a major studio despite it's subversive material was because they couldn't afford to NOT make a movie with so many stars names attached to it.
David Fincher, who had the impossible job of filming this unfilmable story, took full advantage of the fact that his film was coming out of studio famous for over-marketing it's movies, by taking several jabs at the movie industry in the advertising as well as the film itself.
And as for that suprise ending that you people are saying is just "soooo 15 minutes ago", it came directly from the book, which came out in 1996, which I believe was a year after the release of the "Usual Suspects", which kind of put new blood into the whole concept of the twist ending. So the movie is just being true to the material it was based on! And if you removed that twist in the plot, you would be ripping out the HEART AND SOUL OF EVERYTHING THE FILM IS BUILT UPON.
Also, many people with disasociative schizophrenia have been asked what they thought of the film. Suprisingly, a large number said this film most closely resembled the kind of relationship you have with yourself .
How can you say a movie that makes you re-evaluate what you are wasting your time with, what you're reading, what you're watching on tv, what kind of crap you are putting into your body, as "a piece of Gen X marketing?" If anything, this movie is an attack at the hypocrisy that is underneath every generation, and is growing. This is not just a theme that is directed at men. There are men AND women all over this planet being sucked into a lifestyle that leaves them feeling spiritually bankrupt and emotionally manipulated.
I shouldn't even be having to say any of this if you gave the movie some thought! This is not a movie designed to make you go out and buy the Fight Club action figures, or get the Fight Club coffee mug.
Many people on the web, and about a billion on E-Bay, I'm sorry to say that you guys missed it. Unfortunately, many movie watchers these days cannot relate to a movie that is designed to invoke thought. I love this movie because I am a writer and a film editor, and the layers in this movie can be ripped apart to no end. Such delibrate intentions were pain-stakingly taken by the director, actors, film and audio editors, camera, sound, and lighting people that it does not deserved to be seen only once. It needs deeper thought.
Many people cannot be bothered to take the time to re-evaluate what they have witnessed, and choose instead to take what is presented to them at face value and then pass judgement. Please, don't be turned off by an opportunity to learn something new and expand your mind simply because you did not "get it" or you find the fans of a particular movie obnoxious.

Well, let the flaming e-mals and messages rain upon me. I spoke from my heart.

― Daniel Chappell, Thursday, 13 March 2003 07:03 (twenty-three years ago)

I think most of you have missed it. Yes, it's overstylized. Yes, the anti-marketing movie was marketed. Yes, it tries to seduce you with the glamour of it's anti-social message. But it's all done in the same vein as films such as "A Clockwork Orange" or "Goodfellas". It presents a viewpoint, albeit a very negative and anti-social one, and then takes it to the extreme to show you where it can lead, for good or for bad. Hopefully somewhere along the way you get better understanding of where your morals lay.
Here, straight from the mouth of that "narratively challanged writer" is information about "Fight Club" that all you hardened reviews, who would rather trash and flame a movie then admit that you didn't get it, should read. http://www.joblo.com/fightclubchat.htm ... you'll see that the reason this movie was made by a major studio despite it's subversive material was because they couldn't afford to NOT make a movie with so many stars names attached to it.
David Fincher, who had the impossible job of filming this unfilmable story, took full advantage of the fact that his film was coming out of studio famous for over-marketing it's movies, by taking several jabs at the movie industry in the advertising as well as the film itself.
And as for that suprise ending that you people are saying is just "soooo 15 minutes ago", it came directly from the book, which came out in 1996, which I believe was a year after the release of the "Usual Suspects", which kind of put new blood into the whole concept of the twist ending. So the movie is just being true to the material it was based on! And if you removed that twist in the plot, you would be ripping out the HEART AND SOUL OF EVERYTHING THE FILM IS BUILT UPON.
Also, many people with disasociative schizophrenia have been asked what they thought of the film. Suprisingly, a large number said this film most closely resembled the kind of relationship you have with yourself .
How can you say a movie that makes you re-evaluate what you are wasting your time with, what you're reading, what you're watching on tv, what kind of crap you are putting into your body, as "a piece of Gen X marketing?" If anything, this movie is an attack at the hypocrisy that is underneath every generation, and is growing. This is not just a theme that is directed at men. There are men AND women all over this planet being sucked into a lifestyle that leaves them feeling spiritually bankrupt and emotionally manipulated.
I shouldn't even be having to say any of this if you gave the movie some thought! This is not a movie designed to make you go out and buy the Fight Club action figures, or get the Fight Club coffee mug.
Many people on the web, and about a billion on E-Bay, I'm sorry to say that you guys missed it. Unfortunately, many movie watchers these days cannot relate to a movie that is designed to invoke thought. I love this movie because I am a writer and a film editor, and the layers in this movie can be ripped apart to no end. Such delibrate intentions were pain-stakingly taken by the director, actors, film and audio editors, camera, sound, and lighting people that it does not deserved to be seen only once. It needs deeper thought.
Many people cannot be bothered to take the time to re-evaluate what they have witnessed, and choose instead to take what is presented to them at face value and then pass judgement. Please, don't be turned off by an opportunity to learn something new and expand your mind simply because you did not "get it" or you find the fans of a particular movie obnoxious.

Well, let the flaming e-mals and messages rain upon me. I spoke from my heart.

― Daniel, Thursday, 13 March 2003 07:03 (twenty-three years ago)

right on

Elisabeth can we watch this sometime? You haven't seen it, right?

yep sure thing

'tis leet:P

what the fuck is wrong with the first person of this statement about fight club. your a fucking idiot, your the kind of person that would watch the matrix, american beauty, momento, and not understand it, and then wine to your friends about what a gay movie it was. and no matter how hard they try to explain it to you, you sad fuck just won't gat it wil you. well i hope that you gat hit by an idea bus and wke up to reality man, you not even real so dont even bother justifying your opinion to the world.

the matrix sucked tho

american beauty too

I'm pretty sure Rebekah got it, it's not hard to get! Just a movie come on. I did like Fight Club though.

Wow, Disco Stu is PISSED. Andrew, have you watched it yet?

jeez sorry disco stu

Yeah, it was cool. Stu, she liked it! Did you like READ HER POSTS?