Fight Club (2002, VHS)

Some people may disagree with me on this. But I view Fight Club to be the late 1990s version of Bonfire Of The Vanities. Thankfully, it is far closer in quality to the original Tom Wolfe novel than to the now infamous big-screen version that came out about 9 years before Fight Club.

Fight Club (which too is based on a novel, by Chuck Palahnuik), is an example of what the Sherman McCoy character might have been like if he had achieved his upwardly mobile financial success in the 1990s instead of the 1980s Me Decade. You see: the 1990s were just as much a decade of greed as the 1980s were when you think about it. The 90s had just as many mergers and corporate takeovers if not more. The difference being that in the 1990s, people were supposed to have consciences. Greed was not supposed to make us feel good, it was supposed to make us feel guilty. And that's exactly how the unnamed narrator of Fight Club (Edward Norton) feels.

The narrator (Who's most commonly used alias is Jack) works as a recall specialist for an automaker. Our narrator is young and upwardly mobile. Yet while capitalism may pay off well, he's left bored and old. To find what's missing in his life, he attends support groups for diseases that he doesn't really have such as testicular cancer. Of course he doesn't have any of those diseases (although other members of the group, such as singer Meat Loaf, do) and this comes to a head when he discovers that Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) another attendee is also faking it.

During one of his business-related trips, Jack/Narrator meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Durden seems really strange, yet he is the only person around to offer shelter when Jack/Narrator's Condo is blown to smithereens. So Jack moves on down from his nice plush condo to Tyler's little bitty trashy house of squalor. Yet for some reason, he likes it. It isn't long before him and Tyler have set out creating one of the titular clubs as an outlet for the energies of many other outcasts of the capitalist world. Let out some energy by pounding the crap out of an opponent.

So far, some of you reading this may think that Karl Marx would applaud this film. Not quite. Socialism gets skewered just as much as capitalism. As the followers of the fight club become more and more dedicated to the preaching of Durden, they begin to look more and more cold and amoral. Especially when his preaching puts people's lives in danger (although no innocent bystanders are harmed in this movie, at least not as far as the viewer can see).

The film is shot quite effectively; moving from a straightforward serious treatment of the material at one moment, to a rather comedic view the next. There are some scenes that are alternately squirm inducing yet hilarious. That's a sign of good social satire.

Performances? Well Ed Norton proves that he is one of the better younger actors in Hollywood. I couldn't see Leonardo DiCaprio pulling off the innocent yet immoral role of Jack. Norton does it brilliantly. Helena Bonham Carter is pretty good, although she does seem to be trying to imitate Winona Ryder at some points. By far, the best performance is by Brad Pitt. Tyler Durden is a mysterious character in more ways than one and Pitt truly brings him to life. He always plays the character with just the right amount of restraint and never goes over the top.

Some people I know who still have not seen Fight Club say that it's too violent for them. Yes it is very violent and bloody. If you think you can handle the violence, yet are still not sure about the movie itself, here's a test: Did you enjoy both Bonfire Of The Vanities (The novel of course) and American Beauty? If your answer is yes, then Fight Club is for you.