13 Val's Movie Review: Fight Club

November 4, 2011

Val's Movie Review:

By: Valerie Reyes Section Editor

Watching movies is my favorite thing to do during my free time. So, of course, the USF Encounter staff’s movie picks from our November 2011 issue piqued my interest. Their picks of the month were “Batman: The Dark Knight,” “Fight Club,” “Forest Gump,” “Puss in Boots,” “The Matrix” and “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.” I am no movie review expert, but why not watch one of the six movies and share my thoughts.

I normally only watch movies I know or think I will enjoy, but I am open to watching new movies. Out of the six movies, there was only one I knew nothing about, “Fight Club,” so I decided this was the movie to review. Before I go on, (spoiler alert), I will be talking about what happens in the film. The nameless narrator (Edward Norton) who is depressed and looking for an emotional outlet becomes friends with a stranger named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a charismatic, carefree and good-looking man, after his condo is destroyed by an explosion. The two start to fight each other to feel something which then leads to them creating a fight club. This fight club quickly grows and takes a dark turn into becoming a terrorist group, Project Mayhem, that wants to bring down society.

In the beginning of the movie, I found myself constantly checking how much time I had left of what felt like the longest movie I have ever watched. There were a few intriguing moments such as Tyler telling the narrator what to say and do in certain situations, which is when I started to get the idea that he might be part of the narration or a hallucination. My favorite part of the film was when the narrator started to put two and two together that he and Tyler Durden were the same person. The narrator and Tyler both played important roles, but I think Tyler is what makes the movie interesting because of his reckless personality. Laurie Penny told www.bbc.com, “The film has so much fun with Tyler Durden as a mad phantom from the id that it forgets that he’s meant to be frightening.”

I read some articles about “Fight Club” to get a clear idea of what it is about, and I think it is about becoming free, antimaterialistic and going against the social norm. According to www.dazeddigital.com, “It’s about what happens when you remove social mores, take aim at capitalist structures, transcend your fear of death.” I think this movie is telling people to stop giving into what society tells us to do and who to become. People should stop caring about the materialistic items we tend to care about too much.

University of St. Francis junior, Noëllie Inard, shared, “I really liked how it was filmed, with the narrator's voice that guides you through the movie and the guy who is depressed and hates his job. To some extent, I think that anyone can relate. 'Fight Club' is a movie that people should watch.” Although I think I have a have decent understanding of the movie, I am still confused on what it means.

Overall, I was not expecting this movie to be a thriller but a sport action movie. It was a dark movie with a lot of violence, gore and some disturbing scenes. According to www.rottentomatoes.com, the critic consensus is “Solid acting, amazing direction and elaborate production design make 'Fight Club' a wild ride.” I would recommend you watch this if you enjoy thriller dramas. I would not say that it was a terrible movie, but personally this is not a movie I would rewatch multiple times.