Published at: Oct. 14, 1999, 5:43 a.m. CST by headgeek
Saw FIGHT CLUB a second time tonight, and upon
second viewing found myself in a conundrum of
wanting to talk more about the film and some of what
I’m seeing coming out around the web and the world
about it.
I have been hearing the term ‘porn’ and
‘pornographic’ used in relation to this film and this
really disturbs me. It’s the same feeling I get when
those same terms are leveled upon one of Russ Meyer
and Roger Ebert’s works.... BEYOND THE
VALLEY OF THE DOLLS.
Sure in that film there was nudity and violence, there was... quite a
bit of it really, but the difference between that film
and anything I would begin to deem as pornographic
is the fierce intelligence and wit and humor that is found
throughout that film that more than made up for the depravity seen through it.
It seems to me that from time to time we have a film
that really lays bare a generational shift, a film that
clearly shows us where the fault line between the age
masses lie.
It seems to me that FIGHT CLUB is going to be one
of those films. Now, I am not going to lay this whole
thing upon the statement, ‘Them old farts don’t know
what they are talking about,’ because my father
(geek) loves the film and I've been calling him an old fart for years.
So... What is it? Well, I believe that a very large
portion of this falls upon the outright fear that the film
is too cool for it’s own good. They fear that because
Brad Pitt is soooooo charismatic as Tyler Durden,
that a legion of film-going space monkeys will
descend upon the earth to beat and vandalize society.
The pure media saturation of every teen crime and the
amount of ink and pixels taken up discussing the
smallest minutiae of Columbine has created this very
real fear of what youth gone unchecked can
accomplish. As a result a whole bunch of normally reasonable folks are getting up in arms about this movie. The fear is not about guys getting in brawls. There is more to it than that.
However, for me. I do not see the violence in this
film as being ‘cool’ or without ramifications. This
isn’t BLOODSPORT or STREETFIGHTER.
(AT THIS POINT, THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE
NOT SEEN THE FILM, PLEASE LEAVE THIS
PAGE. TO ADDRESS WHAT I NEED TO HERE, I
WILL BE DISCUSSING SPOILERS THAT YOU....
YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW GOING INTO
THIS FILM. DO NOT READ THE TALK BACKS
ON THIS PAGE, UNTIL AFTER YOU’VE SEEN
THE MOVIE. I CAN NOT STRONGLY SUGGEST
ENOUGH THAT YOU RETURN
TO THE FRONT PAGE OF AICN! TRUST
ME, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU MAY WISH
TO CONTINUE READING... STOP. YOU WILL
NEVER FORGIVE YOURSELF.)
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THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!
Alright, I gave you enough warning....
In the films like BLOODSPORT and
STREETFIGHTER the violence tends to go
unchecked. In World Wrestling Federation you never
get the sense of pain, the breaking of bones.... or the
true horror that comes with ramming a man’s face
into a metal pole.
Peckinpah came under fire for letting the blood fly in
THE WILD BUNCH. However, he felt it was
irresponsible to make death easy. To make a bullet
wound be a clean, blood free hole in the fabric of
your shirt. Death is neat.... No it isn’t. It is also not
beautiful.
This all comes to full steam when we see Ed Norton
fight Blonde Guy. “I felt like destroying something
beautiful,” he says while walking from the gasping destroyed man. Norton doesn’t look cool, he is not an image to emulate. And we see the
results of his unchecked rage when we turn back to see
the horror show before us. The bleeding gums, the
broken cheek bones and the missing teeth. The
swelling and the pumping of blood from the face. It’s
horrific. It’s terrible. It’s repulsive. It’s real. And
I’m not saying this in that, “Whoa man, check this
shit out,” sort of way.
The last real fist fight I had was back right before
Junior High and it was with a friend. We had had a
rough day. I felt he had wronged me. Goofing
around I put him in a headlock. He got pissed, started
hitting me. One thing led to another and I broke his
jaw and nose. I escaped with a couple of bruises and
a cut on my knuckle. But for about 3 weeks I had to
look at my friend and apologize everyday. Everytime
Blonde Guy appears after this scene... for me... I
never want to hit someone again with the intent to destroy.
When I was thinking of being a makeup artist in High
School, I went to the town mortician to see if I could
score some mortician’s wax. I had read in ‘THE
MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES’ that it was
Chaney’s favorite makeup stuff this side of a grease pencil. The mortician took me in
and over about a 3 to 4 week period showed me all
manners of damaged in death human beings. It is not
a pretty thing. One makeup artist I met told me he
collects autopsy photos so he can strive for realism.
It’s sick. It’s morbid. But... sometimes it’s necessary
to get the details. This is one way that it should be
done. Isn’t the only way. I can yell and scream about
how horror and action were everybit as horrific and
thrilling prior to the advent of color. But ya know.
Red is needed for both blood and roses.
Check out Kirk Douglas’ face by the end of
CHAMPION or Deniro’s through RAGING BULL.
Personally, in my mind’s eye I remember those faces
in color for some reason. And it was horrific. Why do I remember it in color? Because the imagination is even stronger than that which is shown.
Alot of the damage in this film is done with sound
and editing. I’m not sure how long we linger upon
Blondie’s destroyed face, but I believe it’s about a
second. Had we seen the reverse throughout that
beating. Blondie’s face as the fists came whirring
down upon him. Shattering and destroying his good
looks for all time. Fincher wisely lingers instead on
the rage upon Norton’s face. The same face we saw
weep the sorrow of his own inner demons into Bob’s
bitch tits.
Another possible reason for the hatred some exhibit
for this film lies within the subliminal editing
throughout the film. Single frames to three altered
frames at a time. A flash that is supposed the be
beyond the vision to recognize by the human eye.
Some people in the theater didn’t see a single flashing
Brad Pitt. Not once. But he is there. Also there are
strips or banners that say things that flash.... as well as
genitalia. This is so fast that unless your vision has
been tuned by years of MTV.... you may not even see
it. I have counted at least 8 instances where I saw
something flash in the blink of an eye. This may
affect people weirdly. I saw some people react with
confusion at these moments in the film.
The Dust Brothers’ score is sometimes in that
spine-tingly register of discordant tones that I feel are
meant to make you and render you disturbed. This is
not an ‘easy’ bit of mindless entertainment.
Personally I look at the film and see a man that went
to a medical professional to get help and was instead
ridiculed. Slowly he is driven a bit insane, then really
insane. (By the way, this really happened to Charles Whitman... turned out he had a tumor that had gone undiagnosed) He’s charismatic, he creates a following of
people around the basic concept of not being a drone
your entire life.... come with him. But... of course,
this leads these schmucks into an entirely new level of
being a drone... a space monkey.... They’ve traded
following one domesticated animal for a rabid animal.
Yet still they are followers and not attractive followers. They are not shown as receiving any 'greater glory', they are shown as being pathetic mindless zombies.
Watch the scene with Bob’s dead corpse. First off...
the scene becomes very dark because it is important
that we only hear and see the reactions of the people
in the scene. They stand there and look at one of
their fellow space monkeys with his head blown to
bits. Norton... the only semi-thinking man in the
room is horrified by this. Screaming out his true
name. That this was a beautiful human being and
that’s gone now. Instead this regiment of
space-monkeys can only retreat to discipline.
Hell... this could very well be an indictment of every
sort of Green Beret, Special Forces, Marine
training.... Anytime you are taught that if you see a
man go down, he went down for the cause and will go
onto a glorious afterlife.... rah rah rah...
My god, there is even a bit of moral redemption in Ed
Norton’s character. Sure it’s dark, but it’s there. The
sane side of him is Larry Talbot.... “Please... Lock me
up... I turn into a wolf.” He realizes the horror of
what he has done and tries to stop it. BUT.... as
horror and reality goes, sometimes you can’t stop
momentum. This isn't left up to interpretation... it is right there... clear as blue sky upon the screen.
This isn’t a film that has nothing to say. Hell, this
isn’t about creating another Timothy McVeigh... this
is a film about spotting them... recognizing them....
and acting against it early on... before it gets out of
hand.
But come on folks.... Ya have to kind of read
between the lines. You can’t just be a passive
member of the audience. Use that which lies between
your ears, and you’ll hear and see the message here.
It’s not about going out and starting FIGHT CLUB
chapters. That is clearly shown to be the actions of
an insane man in this film. CLEARLY. You have to
trust that others will see that. Sure we have idiots in
society that might latch on to Tyler Durden as some
sort of prophet.
And we have had a man who tried to kill in the name
of Travis Bickle.
We have had a case or two that has been allegedly
tied to Mickey and Mallory.
But do we measure the millions that have not pulled
the monkey see monkey do bit with film, literature
and music? What about all the people in the world
that get turned off by the violence in this film. The
ones that feel they never want to see a film begin to
get near that again. Will those people go out and
begin beating people? That night, will they go home
and beat their wife or children? Or will they be a bit
disgusted?
But how many men have killed for the name and
glory of Jesus Christ? Mohammed? The United
States Of America?
From this film, violence is shown as being an insane
act of destruction... not beauty. It shows how popular
messages can be used to direct that which we fear the
most. If you leave this movie afraid that this could
happen here.... GOOD.... YOU SHOULD BE
AFRAID. That is the whole point. To scare you. To
make you not want to be a space monkey.... another
mindless thoughtless follower.... another brick in the
wall.... a goosestepper.... a fool.
I saw this in a theater filled with the target audience
twice now. Both times the audience reacted in horror
at key scenes, squirmed in key scenes and laughed at
key scenes. They reacted throughout the film.
Afterwards in front of the theater they stood in circles
of 8 and 9 talking about the film. I listened in. No
plans were being hatched. No, ‘God wouldn’t be
cool to start our own Fight Club’ statements. Instead
they talked about how much that looked like it hurt.
How gross it was to make soap from humans. How if
anyone turned the car slicers backwards at a parking
lot that they should be shot.
The only prank that I heard being approved of was
taking an industrial strength electro-magnet into a
Blockbuster Video and destroying their tapes... and
the splicing of genitalia into family films.... but none
of them know where to get 35 mm porn scenes.
Mostly though they were discussing the movie, how
they hated Meatloaf dying, and how gross Blondie
looked. How they wanted the Dust Brothers
soundtrack and that they wanted to see it again
because... well because of the twist at the end. They
think it’ll be a different experience the second time.
So... Have faith in your common man and woman.
Your neighbor is probably not a serial killer. Your
plane will most likely not crash. Your airbag will
deploy. As for the destruction of the debt record...
hell, that idea was born in the sixties and seventies
from groups like SDS and the Black Panthers. That
was well beyond my generation.
Don’t be so scared that it blinds you from great
cinema. Once you begin worrying about what the
common person will do with FIGHT CLUB... well ya
might as well start pulling books off shelves, reinstate
the Hayes Code and never leave your house. This is
just an ideal case of a protagonist actually being a
fully developed three dimensional villain without his
own knowledge.
This is not pornography. This should not be banned.
This is art.