Fight Club
20th Century Fox, 1999
Directed by David Fincher

$$$$

It may sound like hyperbole to say one movie defines a generation, but Fight Club does that and much more. If you're looking for a film to put in a time capsule of artifacts that capture the essence of the dwindling days of the 20th century, you could do far worse than this gritty, challenging and inventive satire from director David Fincher.

Edward Norton stars as Jack, a big city twentysomething who finds nothing but emptiness in a life that each day takes him from his high-rise condo to his corporate job and back again. He has a wealth of material possessions, but something is lacking. There's a deep dissatisfaction within Jack that he can't let out. Early in the film, Jack finds some solace by attending support groups for diseases he doesn't have -- just so he can have a place to openly cry.

Jack needs a savior and he arrives in the form of Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt. When Jack's condo, along with his Ikea catalog-ordered furniture is blown bits, he takes-up residence with Tyler in a squatter's shit-hole in an industrial part of town. Tyler helps Jack understand what's truly missing in his life -- and what's missing in the lives of the men of his generation. They are men without purpose, raised primarily by their mothers. They've had no wars to fight, no depression to overcome. They're not hunter-gatherers, they're consumers. There's nothing to define them as men.

So Jack and Tyler give themselves an ordeal to overcome and it comes in shape of an underground bare-knuckles boxing club. They soon have dozens of members -- young men who pound each other into oblivion night after night, and in the process rediscover their masculinity. It's a concept of gender roles that may be out of vogue, but that seems to be the point.

TV ads for the film would suggest that this Fight Club, as it's called, is the centerpiece of the film. In fact, it's just a small part of a big picture that tackles large societal issues. Fight Club becomes a movement and grows on a national scale and as the film's story progresses Tyler finds himself becoming a cult figure, a hero, liberating a generation of men from one sheep-like mind set and leading them into another.

To say any more would give too much away. The surprise twist has become the hallmark of Fincher's films -- Alien 3, Se7en and The Game all contain some big switcheroos and Fight Club is no exception. There's a development late in the film so unexpected and so jaw-droppingly bizarre, it makes the surprise ending of The Sixth Sense seem piddling.

Pitt and Norton are in top form. Rocker Meat Loaf is a revelation as one of Jack's support group pals. And Helena Bonham Carter manages to bring an endearing vunerability to the film's trashy love interest.

Screenwriter Jim Uhls's adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's novel is brilliant. And Fincher does a remarkable job of bringing it to life. Few directors can make the world look quite as bleak as Fincher. He has a particular knack for showing characters living in repugnant squalor -- an important ingredient for a film that, as much as anything, is about hitting bottom. He shoots Fight Club in a bold visual style that is dynamic without feeling gimmicky. At times Fincher takes the camera where other films don't go -- sometimes taking us down to the action on a microscopic level. Fincher adds other touches, such as subliminal flash frames of incongruous images -- and even goes so far as to alert the audience to their presence. He also leaves us with one of the most memorable closing shots you'll ever see.

The film is also filled with some of the most violent images ever portrayed, and for that reason alone, Fight Club unfortunately may be destined to be used as "Exhibit A" in the thought police's war against Hollywood. Granted, the movie, if misunderstood, could give an unstable person some very bad ideas. It's a film, however that should be celebrated rather than shunned -- a masterful deconstruction of life in the late '90s. It's not the problem, rather, it more clearly helps us see what the problems are.

(c) Copyright 1999