Fight Club

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A complacent and seemingly aimless gen-x male mired in the stagnancy of his early thirties contemplates his existential role in life amidst the mundanity of corporate drone work and mass-consumerism lifestyle. He's not a happy, or fulfilled kind of guy, and he's not too sure what to do about that. There's something noticeably dark festering beneath the surface of this blue collar nobody. It's not until he fatefully rubs elbows with a polar-opposite to himself, that things get interesting. And I could elaborate and talk about testicular cancer, and insomnia and how this is all just a really twisted, fucked up 'boy meets girl' love story...but I'm going to move on.

Tyler slips a moist finger in my ear and says, wriggling it around before I pull away in disgust 'You can't review your favorite movies without me. Without me, you wouldn't be here right now' and Tyler's right.

Tyler is always right.

I saw this in October of 99 after only seeing an initial trailer preceding the Matrix, and it looked like an interesting story with a great cast, and I liked Fincher's work, so I was sold on that alone. For the record- I saw this maybe six or seven times with various groups of friends. I was at the time unaware of the novel it was based on, and had no idea what I was getting myself into. And it was absolute nirvana for this gen-xer. It spoke to me, and it is my second favorite film of all time not only because it's a brilliant adaptation of a really good book in the ways most novel-to-film adaptations fail, but because it had a social relevance sewn into it's dark humor and philosophical musings. My friends and I spent a tremendous amount of time poring over the film, and said conversation was how I got to happen across the source material for the movie, and the work of Chuck Palahniuk, an author that has been a personal influence to me in a variety of ways, but this isn't really about me.

Tyler pulls the tab off the top of a beer can and flicks it into my forehead, saying 'Tell them about how...' and I cut him off, and tell him to go smoke a cigarette and shut up so I can get to my point.

I have always loved and been very motivated by film as an artist and writer, and this film was a huge influence to me when I saw it; it got me back into reading and pursuing writing more ambitiously and yes, I probably wouldn't be where I am today as a writer without Tyler.

Tyler laughs from outside, smoke billowing from his smirked maw.

As a philosophy nerd, I loved the usage of Buddhist themes and allegory in this movie. The deprivation of understanding life in totality without understanding suffering, the elements that mirror Buddha's time spent with the aesthetics, pushing himself to the threshold of death, only to find that that was not the ultimate path to enlightenment...I remember watching a documentary on Buddhism, and I felt like every other line was a twist on a Fight Club quote. It was surreal as hell, and bordering on nerd-porn for this guy. Seeing two of his passions meet and unify.

The Dust Brothers score is one of my all time favorites. I am pressed as a musician to define the niche, but 'primal euphoria' is the best I got folks. It's truly unique and a great listen if you're into film score composition.

Incase you haven't realized at this point, I love the @#$% out of this movie. You need to watch it. And then watch it again. And again.

And again.

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