Fight Club (1999)

Every cinephile has a favorite movie. Fight Club is mine.

I read Chuck Palahnuk's novel after watching the movie, expecting the novel to blow the movie out of the water. You know what? It didn't. It's one of the few movies that completely dominates the book. That's something special right there.

The first rule of fight club is you DO NOT talk about Fight Club...

A lot of people (n00bs, mostly) believe Fight Club is an action movie; these people couldn't be further from the truth. Fight Club is a philosophical movie; it SAYS something. There aren't too many movies that say something meaningful. American Beauty says something, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind says something, but no movie better critiques the 20th Century than Fight Club.

A lot of people don't get Fight Club. The entire movie is a statement on the over-civilization of modern man. The basic instincts of the modern male are useless in our modern society where life is easy and survival all but guaranteed. Man no longer finds the need to challenge himself. Once upon a time there were tigers to eat us and rival clans to fight for land, food, and women. Those things defined us as males. Now we're defined by the tag on the clothes we wear, the kind of car we drive, or how large our flat-screen televisions are.

The things you own, end up owning you...

We've been transformed from warriors into consumers, buyers of things. Previous generations had wars to fight, depressions to overcome. What does this generation have to overcome? Finding the perfect bed skirting for our bedroom in our perfect, little townhome? Having a wife whose ass looks less fat than all our friends' wives? Our own mediocrity?

We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world...

That's why Fight Club is a great movie - my favorite. This is the opposite of The Avengers. This movie is not a t-shirt. This movie is not a lunchbox or an action figure or a spin-off television show. This movie is an idea, a philosophy, a reflection of our society at the end of the century. This movie explains why young men walk into movie theaters and elementary schools with guns and shoot up the place. When you create a hollow country with no soul based solely on buying shit, we can't be surprised when people treat human beings like "things."

Now that's a fucking movie...

Why It's Awesome: If nothing else, it's one of the few movies that is better than the book...but it's so, so much more. In Tyler we trust.

Best Quote:

Tyler Durden: It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.