f13.net

This just happens to be my favorite movie of all time and it doesn't have a thread?  :ye_gods:

It is greatness on so many levels.

Yeah, pretty good. I don't understand the weird fascination with younger pre-25-30 year olds with it though. Or just the focus on the "fighting" parts. There is a lot of substance to the story, but it's criminally misinterpreted and/or glamorized into being the exact opposite of what it's trying to communicate.

Even more ironically, the film itself can't help but be a little ridiculous at that point when Brad Pitt speaks Tyler's words and says "We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we'll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won't. And we're just learning this fact. So don't fuck with us."


On another note, Helena Bonham Carter is probably the hottest ugly woman on the planet.

I think that's the brilliance on the movie. It appeals on quite a few levels. There's a depth to it that some watching it probably are just as happy never attempting to understand. It's also extremely funny at times.

And yes, Helena Bonham Carter has kind of a pekingese face. It's really flat, but kinda cute. I group her and Reese Witherspoon together in that department.

It took me a long time to actually see Fight Club, since what I saw from the commercials just did not appeal to me. I thought it was just going to be a bunch of assholes having street fights for the sake of it.


It was not what I expected.  :grin:

In a lot of ways it's an updated A Clockwork Orange, except with a happy ending?

A lot of things came together to make it a great movie, not the least of which is David Fincher's stunning attention to detail.

Hey, didn't Clockwork have a happy ending too?  :grin:

Depends on whether you read the American or the British version.  (I forget now which one the movie took after.)  And what your idea of "happy" is.   :why_so_serious:

Oh lord, no.  I have no problem with the movie as a once-off popcorn flick.  What I DO hate is the endless stream of jackasses that go around saying "you don't like it?  You must not understand Fight Club on as many levels as I do."  Its not the Bible or the greatest thing ever made, its a fucking mildly entertaining movie.  Please stop having sex with its DvD case and go away.

Well, you probably don't understand... seeing that you're always smug and content, and actually think you've accomplished anything in life. In which case, good for you. :oh_i_see:

It does have quite a lot in common with the Bible though. Specifically Ecclesiastes.  :oh_i_see:

Shit, might as well go for broke and give ya three "Oh, I see" emoticons.  :oh_i_see:

I agree mostly :oh_i_see:: it is not a book mostly full of bullshit :oh_i_see:, nor is it premarital sex. :oh_i_see:  However, it was a very enjoyable film with a lot of subtle humor. :oh_i_see: :oh_i_see: :oh_i_see:

I am Triforcer's overdeveloped sense of persecution.

Don't get me wrong, I like the film, but if you'd ever heard a group of first year film majors talking about the movie, you'd understand his line of thinking.

Pro-tip: Throwing in lots of visual metaphors and catchy anti-materialism sayings do not make a movie 'deep' if the most of the movie has fuckall to do with those things.

See:  The Matrix trilogy. 

 :oh_i_see:

They aren't there to make it deep: they are there as wonderful details to a complete story.  Notice how frustrated "Jack" becomes as they are blindly buying into "Tyler's" nihilism bullshit as project mayhem grows.  It made the situation even more entertaining, or at least I thought so.

I don't think it's deep per se (I don't know what is deep, for that matter), but it is applicable to anyone who starts questioning how much of a role consumerism plays in their lives. Not deep, but relevant. And presented in a far more hilarious way than most works that touch on the same subjects. I don't see how anyone could not appreciate it, unless they themselves are deeply entrapped in the kind of shit that the book condemns.

I must admit I came out of the theatre with the thought that the movie was nothing that the commercials made me think it was, and how much bullshit those commercials were to sell short such a great experience.

I still need to read the damn book.

Nice movie, but its the perfect vessel for pretentious art students to show off their Weltschmerz. Which doesn't make the movie worse, its just makes it difficult to talk about it with some people.

Not a dig against people here, just an observation from offline conversations where vapid little fucks that get their whole life financed by daddy drone on about the evilness of consumerism while sitting around in their black expensive clothes and blog about it on their Apple notebooks. "We are al entrapped in this cocoon, you know. We must break free from these constraints society puts us in. Oh, and when we are at it, my father can lay off bitching about my grades all the time."

I can certainly say it is one of my favorite movies. I also read the book and the movie does a decent job of interpreting the book, the ending is a little different, but both are good. I really think that in general the point of the movie is missed by a lot of silly folks and after seeing the movie a dozen times and reading the book twice, I come away with a real mixed view as to what Chuck Palaniuk what getting at. I think that he is just pointing out the overlooked  difficulties of being male in a society that is kinda at odds with what being a male is about. I really hate talking about it, cause I have lots of ideas, but am not smart enough to put most of them into words, or confident enough that any of the ideas have any real validity to them. I do like the work though, but I can see that it is a goldmine of ideas/ quotes for pretentious artsy movie fags and tough-guy douche bags alike.

That sounds like how I feel when I post in politics.

It's a good movie that for me at least, needed at least 2 viewings. One to just enjoy, the second to find all the small things I missed the first time. Especially the whole thing with Helena Bonham Carter and Brad Pitt never directly talking.

The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club.

I wish more people would adhere to this. 

OK, lets talk about Marla for a second then.  :oh_i_see:

That's my only complaint about the story really... Who the fuck is she? I mean sure, Palahnuik's mostly concerned with male issues, so it doesn't help... But I kind of wish there was a whole book on Marla. I have some Marla acquaintances...my damaged female equivalents, if you will... don't know who the fuck they are either. A book would help. Is there one (not written by Chuck P)?

Oh Marla:

“You know, the condom is the glass slipper of our generation. You slip it on when you meet a stranger. You dance all night, then you throw it away. The condom, I mean. Not the stranger.”

Ok movie, nothing spectacular. I found the twist both predictable and silly. And I agree that the consumerism angle was a bit trite. It's the kiind of movie that doesn't have much to say beyond what comes out of the character's mouths.

I also don't like it when movies pretend to be against something while simultaneously glamorizing it. It seems that half the people who walked out of the theater walked out thinking "a club where you fight would be awesome!" And that's the fault of the movie, not the fault of people not getting it.

You don't walk out of American History X thinking it would be awesome to be a Neo-Nazi.

It's a fine, enjoyable movie with a decent twist that some people think is deep and significant because they've never read anything beyond genre fiction and magazines.

Fight Club was one of those annoying films where I got the "twist" almost immediately. Bit like 6th Sense, I thought it was incredibly obvious within about 30 seconds :/

Still like Fight club, very entertaining and it does bear multiple viewings better than most Hollywood crap.

I don't know if that makes a difference. Consumerism or masculinity are fairly "deep" issues, and deep issues are deep issues no matter where they're being talked about. Who gives a fuck if it's being discussed in a 3 volume series of books, a popular novel, a magazine article, or on Oprah.

If it makes people consider the issues, then great.  But while cultural relativism may be fine for you, it's not for everyone. :rimshot:

For all its flaws and fallacies, someone reading Plato's Meno will have the opportunity to learn and think more deeply about virtue and learning than someone watching Oprah.  But if the only means of provoking moral consideration in a person is a talk show or a platitude-laden magazine article then that is better than nothing.

Similarly, in the case of Fight Club, I'd love it if everybody read Rousseau for a deeper insight into the view that our commercially-driven society strips men of their identity, even of their very masculinity itself.  But Fight Club is fun, accessible and - let's be fair - has done less harm down through the years than the bomb-in-printed-form which was the First Discourse.  Just don't pretend that a person gains as much from even reasoned consideration of one as of the other.

Fair enough.  :-)

Why does genre fiction have to be a casuality in this?

I said (added italics):


Some writers use the medium of genre fiction well to observe or comment upon the human condition.  A great many do no such thing.  That's fine: everyone just wants mindless entertainment at some point.  But someone who only reads books from the Star Wars extended universe, or from the Fire and Ice series, or who only watches Hollywood movies is not going to have a fully rounded set of challenges to their way of thinking.

To leave Fight Club alone for a minute: someone who watches the Matrix may begin to have some half-formed ideas about the nature of reality and its blurring with simulation.  But someone who takes the time to read Simulacra and Simulation will be far more challenged, and will probably emerge with a fuller vocabulary of concepts, even if they disagree with virtually (:rimshot:) everything Baudrillard says.  In fact, especially if they disagree.

Fight Club: Best use of a Pixies song in a film ever.

I liked about the first half of the movie. The whole plot in the second half of the movie is  :uhrr:.

Ed Norton kicking his own ass in his boss's office is some of the best physical acting you'll ever see outside of a martial arts movie.

That right there was the cherry on one of my favorite movie pies ever.

One thing I hate is people saying basically "I hate that movie cause people that think they are smart talk about it a lot!"

Gimme a fuckin' break. Sure, you are great. Sure, you are smart. Please leave us plebs to the Fight Clubs of the world, which was IMO one of the best movies I've seen. A message, great acting, good twist, hilarious and memorable scenes, thought provoking shit, violence, replayability, and overall humor. What more , exactly, do you want out of a flick?

If you mean me, I said that it was good that it got people thinking about such ideas, but I disagreed with the stated idea that reading Rousseau on the same subject was no more challenging or valuable than watching a movie or reading a magazine.