Mr Wilson's Movie Review: Fight Club

My Buddy Mr J. Christopher Wilson is reviewing some movies. He has agreed for us to post his reviews here.

In Tyler We Trust!

In its day “Fight Club” was a unique and provocative film about extremist ideology. None of that has changed, but I couldn’t help but feel a stronger connection to it when viewed again in 2022. Not only does it stand over time, it becomes richer and more poignant. Truly, it is a film before it’s time.

While the extremism and domestic terrorism felt somehow ridiculous and a bit far-fetched at the time, it rings incredibly authentic when viewed today.

The anarchy and chaos ideology seemed so extreme then. Yet today, the idea of being owned by our things, by corporate personhood, being career-obsessed makes some sense, in a very big way. We sit and watch that thinking become distorted and perverted, violent and anarchist once it’s distilled down and applied as Project Mayhem. The fight against the power grab by the working person against the political elite becomes the very thing it claims to be against.

The narration and dialogue in “Fight Club” is poetic and philosophical. It’s clever, thoughtful, and engaging. I watch with closed captioned and found my self engrossed in the beauty, cadence and rhythm of the script.

“We cook your meal. We Haul your trash. We connect your calls. We drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not $@#€ with us”

“I felt like destroying something beautiful.”

“Quit trying to control everything and let go! Let go!”

The set and script is full of clues as to the twist at the end. From Tyler Durden’s “cigarette burns” through the film, to the file folders labeled “disinformation” and “mischief” hanging in the kitchen of the headquarter’s, the set is intelligently crafted.

“Fight Club” takes real cultural concerns against the subjugation of the masses and morphs those ideas into domestic terrorism, which ironically uses manipulation to get its average citizens to turn into zealots. The second rule of Project Mayhem, after all, is “You do not ask questions.” Yet “Fight Club” beats us into asking questions about ourselves, our priorities, and our own humanity.