Movie review - Fight Club

"The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club."
"The second rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club."


-Tyler Durden

Breaking the first two rules will be damn worth it this time, because what I will talk about today is personally my favourite movie, let alone a really good one in general. So what makes it so awesome? Well.. here are my 2 cents, or perhaps I should say my 3 points.

1) ACTING: The first thing I'm going to have to mention is the actors' performances. I'm not usually impressed by actors that much in general and when I am it's often because of really bad performances that end up ruining movies that had a lot of potential. In this case however, I can't imagine anyone but Edward Norton and Brad Pitt playing their respective roles. Edward Norton has its strongest moments during the movie's beginning while Brad Pitt progressively steals the show since the first moment he appears, effectively resembling the main character's evolution. Helena Bonham Carter does a fine job too, but gets overshadowed pretty badly due to most of the attention being focused on Tyler Durden. Edward Norton also deserves a special note for being a solid narrator too and for being really badass when he finally gets to play the Tyler Durden side of the protagonist near the end of the movie.

2) PLOT DEVELOPMENT: What I mostly like in movie plots is action, depth and twists. For obvious reasons it's often hard to combine all of these into one single project and the only one I recall who's been doing this on a regular basis is director Christopher Nolan. Fight Club finds through its unique plot the perfect balance of these factors: calm at the very beginning, it slowly begins to build up tension and action up to the final confrontation between the narrator and Tyler. Meanwhile, several subtle hints are scattered around, all eventually pointing to one big plot twist that takes place at about 3/4 of the movie. Once the truth is unraveled, the movie gains even more depth than before. It literally kept my eyes on the screen from the beginning till the end. I remember no other movie having this effect on me.

3) OVERALL MESSAGE: In the end this movie turns out to be all about anarchy and the struggle between individuals and modern society. Many many movies share these very themes yet develop them in very different (and somewhat less refined) ways. Fight Club isn't just the classic rise-against-the-government movie. This is where lies its originality, unicity and beauty. The enemy isn't an oppressive political movement, it's a lifestyle. Our very own modern lifestyle, an enemy everyone can easily relate to. While characters such as Neo from the Matrix or Evey Hammond from V for Vendetta feel somewhat displaced from the viewer, Fight Club's main character and narrator couldn't be more stereotypical. He's just a random guy. Hell, as the movie starts he isn't even given a name. This, combined to the fact he also happens to be the narrator brings the viewer to quickly identify himself with him. Which leads to the final conclusion: Tyler Durden hides into each and every one of us.