Fight club is too long. It’s nearly long enough to be two movies. In fact, it basically is two movies within a film, though I don't think that was intentional. The first movie is a fantastic and gritty exploration of the way people try and cope with an often constricting and dehumanizing society. The second movie is a silly an underdeveloped attempt at a psychological thriller which goes a long way towards ruining the whole film.
Let’s talk about movie #1, which basically comprises the first 3/4ths of Fight Club. It’s really good, I recommend it. The characters aren’t particularly good people, but they’re all understandable and fairly likable, and they’re all acted exceedingly well. The movie is kind of dark and heavy, but each aspect of the storytelling and filmmaking is done so well and naturally that it draws you right in. Like I said, it’s good.
Then there is movie #2, which makes up the last quarter of Fight Club. In an attempt to have a zany twist, the movie shoots itself in kneecap and cuts away most of what made the first two hours so interesting and just kind of crawls towards its nonsensical conclusion. It says to me that the writers didn’t really know how to end the story, so they put in some zany plot that makes no sense in hopes to disguise it as “art”.
Really though, I’d still recommend Fight Club. Movies this engaging don’t come out too often. It’s just unfortunate that that second movie is in there. Ah well.
3 comments:
Well I wouldn't know. Luke lent me Fight Club for my viewing pleasure, then I moved to my currant digs and it got packed in a box, and is somewhere in the garage, happily awaiting me. Thank you for not revealing the zany twist, as I don't know what it is yet. I need to give my friends at Amazon.com an e-jingle and order up a copy to return to Luke (and watch first of course) as I don't feel like tearing through all the boxes of my no longer vitally important stuff to find his DVD.
I really liked the first movie that you speak of. Although I think it's a movie that degrades with time. I remember when I first saw it, I thought the movie was very important. Now, it feels like it explores what's already been explored many times. Perhaps it's me that changed. The movie does have good replay value. It's a movie you can watch twice. Once is not enough. Twice is perfect because it's different each time, and three times, well that's just too many. As for the twist, sorry to give it away Tawd, but I really hated the way the entire movie took place on a space station, run by Nazi midget robots from the 23rd century. Thankfully when you watch the movie a second time, you're, all, like, "Woah! I GET that, that's why he did that thing that he did just there!"
(Hi, I know I'm a stranger, but I came across this and since Fight Club is my favorite movie, I felt I had to defend it. :)
Fight Club is based on a novel, and the movie is surprisingly accurate (to the book).
I think you kind of missed the point, though. The "two stories" you speak of are there to show the different extremes, which you need in a movie like this. The movie really is much less about the fighting than people think it is. It's more about consumerism, materialism, family structure, male bonding, etc. It could have been the "quilt-makers club" and had the same point (that's a quote from the author). But in order to show the problems that Tyler has with society, they had to show the complete opposite side. They also had to show the depth and range of the characters.
Everyone should see Fight Club at least twice, and I'd disagree that seeing it more than twice is too many times, but then again, it is my favorite, so I'm a little biased.
I'd suggest reading the book, because it tells more of story that you liked than the part that you didn't (Hollywood had to give it an edge). It's by Chuck Palahniuk, and it's great.
(P.S. Sorry about being a creeper on your blog.)
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