Fight Club (1999)

In this article, we will be looking at 2019’s book “1001 Movies to See Before You Die” and going through each film in a random order that I have chosen. We will be looking at what constitutes this film to be on the list and whether I think this film deserves to be here at all. I want to make perfectly clear that I won’t be revealing details from this book such as analyses by film reporters who have written about the film in question, so if you want the book itself you’ll have to buy it. But I will be covering the book’s suggestions on which films should be your top priority. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that everyone reading this article has probably watched many of these movies anyway. But we are just here to have a bit of fun. We’re going to not just look at whether it should be on this list but we’re also going to look at why the film has such a legacy at all. Remember, this is the 2019 version of the book and so, films like “Joker” will not be featured in this book and any film that came out in 2020 (and if we get there, in 2021). So strap in and if you have your own suggestions then don’t hesitate to email me using the address in my bio. Let’s get on with it then.

Fight Club (1999) dir. by David Fincher

I'm not going to lie to you, the first time I watched this movie I was not all too impressed but I came to appreciate it over the time and years. It took me about five years to really appreciate this movie for its style rather than its eye-rolling storyline. I do think that the most important thing to me in this movie was always the cinematography. Starring Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter and based on the book by the incredible writer, Chuck Palahniuk, this film may not have taken off too much at the box office, but has left a legacy of being appreciated by several different demographics of audience members.

"Fight Club" was premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September the tenth of that year and would open in the USA and Canada on October the fifteenth. When the film opened, The Times Newspaper stated that: "...it touched a nerve in the male psyche that was debated in newspapers across the world." Admittedly though, some people actually felt like hitting their head off a wall. This ties in very well with what I felt the first time I ever saw this film. But, it does grow on you.

Roger Ebert thankfully weighed in on this movie as well, stating that "Fight Club was: "visceral and hard-edged", but also "a thrill ride masquerading as philosophy" and finally added that it was "beloved by most, not by me."

Cineaste also weighed in on the film and said:

"Many critics praised Fight Club, hailing it as one of the most exciting, original, and thought-provoking films of the year."

But in the same sentence it seemed that they also stated:

"While Fight Club had numerous critical champions, the film's critical attackers were far more vocal, a negative chorus which became hysterical about what they felt to be the excessively graphic scenes of fisticuffs ... They felt such scenes served only as a mindless glamorisation of brutality, a morally irresponsible portrayal, which they feared might encourage impressionable young male viewers to set up their own real-life fight clubs in order to beat each other senseless."

So we don't even know who Cineaste are being negative towards anymore it seems.

With a 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics' consensus stands at stating "Fight Club" is a film of: "Solid acting, amazing direction, and elaborate production design [that] make [the film] a wild ride."

Though it did not make too much of a profit, "Fight Club" went on to be one of the most controversial films of its decade and it led to real fight clubs being initiated in real life. But one thing I have always found terribly ironic about the film is all the corporate merchandise that was released after marketing the film. I don't know, it seemed like the opposite of the message the film was portraying.