I watched Fight Club in its entirety for the first time. Previously I think I watched maybe 80% of it, but I needed to see the entire thing.
I always thought the film was a mindless re-hash of Palahniuk's trash writing; then, one fine day, I saw the last 20 minutes of it. Oh -ooh! Trapped in a device of my own making. Well, I was absolutely fascinated by Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, and Brad Pitt. I did not know what was going on beyond what was immediately on the screen, but it did not matter - I often prefer watching things without the "canned" version of "reality" : the script, so I can try and make sense of it without any other inputs and preconceptions.
I saw some bizarre parallel to The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, the dream world of a mad man interspersed with the real world. Being a calligarista, this obviously made me warm to the film. Caligari is an important film and mirror of its time, and suddenly I saw Fight Club aspiring to the same pedestal.
See the film. Remember that it was made in 1999. That is very important: pre-2001, pre-2008 financial collapse. Very important.
I shall talk about it later when you have. I don't like lecturing people about things. They should go out and do it themselves; then we can have a discussion, not a sermon or a lecture.
I am going to have to read the book, too, and I suppose I'll have to admire Mr. Palahniuk's writing...
I strikes me that cinema might be the best medium for this Poesis, Greek for " a making" - the root of the word "poetry". There is some philosophical babble, but it is kept to a minimum in the film. The philosophy rightly comes through in action, character, brief speech, and settings. Now the book, being a wordy entity by definition, might have too much pretentious chatter; I have to find out.
This is the other important aspect of Fight Club, however: the concept of the right medium for a poesis ( let's pronounce it poy'-ay-sis... I hate the words Art and Work of Art ), thinking how cinema differs from literature and from painting and from music, etc. It tells us something important about ourselves and how we see the world.
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6 comments:
My initial impression of the movie was "I don't like this." Lately--honestly, before I read your post--I've been thinking I should give the movie another look. My son really likes it, and thinks me strange for not agreeing with him. Looks like I must give this another look.
Wish I could say I didn't lecture people. It's a failing. :-(
NOT one of my most fav movies, however, the film DOES include one of my most fav movie quotes. HA! (I'm a hardcore quote junkie) Too long for my mind's memory files though, (hence the delayed comment), had to wait until I got back home in order to find it in my notes..
"I see all this potential, and I see it squandered.
Go#damnit--an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables--slaves with white collars.
Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.
We're the middle children of history, man.
No purpose or place.
We have no Great War.
No Great Depression.
Our great war is a spiritual war.
Our great depression is our lives.
We've all been raised on television to believe one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods and rock stars, but we won't.
We're slowly learning that fact.
And we're very, very pissed off."
Baysage:
My first impression also. However, once I saw part of it, I had to find out more.
It is mordant, ironic, and prophetic... not bad for starts...
I'll give you a hint: brush up on you acquaintance with John Brown before the Civil War for a quick course in terrorism, domestic or otherwise.
Passerby:
I like the part of the quote beginning with " We're the middle..." and ending at " ...is our lives."
The rest of it is too many words, too preachy. The only reason for using so many words is that the artist is afraid that the audience will not understand.
Well, I can assure you that even an enormous brain like mine took years and years to undertand this film! ( And the book, too, I suppose eventually.)
There is something here that moves me deeply, and it is not the violence of fights.
The film "Caligari" was a memory of World War I. "Fight Club" was - and is - a looking forward to the future.
And if you were to watch it again - remembering it was made in 1999 - I think you'd know, everyone of you reading this, pretty much exactly what I mean.
I have no reaction to it in the terms of "favorite" or "unfavorite". My entire relationship with the movie was something else; I mean, it started out with me being "amazed" by the last 20 minutes - the only part I happened to see.
I've already got "Fight Club" on my Netflix list up on top. My son was here this weekend and I must say, gloating about the fact that his old man has at least tacitly admitted that he had the superior movie appraisal skills in this instance.
By the bye, Passerby--like that?--I like the mid-part of that quotation also. The whole quote just whets my appetite for rewatching it with some attention.
I started to read some Palahniuk. The local library does not have "Fight Club", so I'm reading some stories.
I must say, so far I do not like them. And that may be what happens:
The people involved in a film transform the idea... and history itself transform our viewing...
Which is why it's worth another look.
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