Uh, maybe the shots aren't finished...?Abulafia wrote:Then again, maybe that's the best they could do with what they had?
And, as the short story is only 23 pages long, the film will certainly be an *expansion* of the original source material. Honestly, more than half (and probably closer to 2/3) of the sequences in the two trailers make no appearance in the story itself.Magic Hate Ball wrote:It's not a book, it's a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the film title and character names are the same. You can read it here.
I haven't watched Fight Club in something like five years. The reason I avoid the movie being that I seem to have the exact opposite impression from you: I think of Fight Club as rapidly obsolete, a film that could only have come out of the post-Cold War, pre-9/11 Clinton years. Brad Pitt's monologue that begins the third act of the film, in which he says something along the lines of "Our generation has no cause, no great war" seems to me the exact kind of apathy that allowed Bush to abuse his power unchecked. Now, I realize that the film ends with Norton killing that side of himself, so perhaps my feelings are unjustified. I would probably like the film more if its fans didn't idolize Tyler Durden so fervently. Moreover, I think the case can be made that the film is constantly at odds with itself in that Fincher's aesthetic seems to me the exact image-conscious exercise in fashion that the film claims to despise. But it's rather dangerous to attempt an such an analysis after so many years, so I'll just end by saying that I've always thought of Fight Club as a film that wants to have its cake and eat it too.Person wrote:Last night, I watched Fight Club for the first time in seven (gaps!) years. Is this film really over eight years old? Time has flown like a motherfucker. Fight Club was just a wee bit ahead of its time, I feel and would have had a harder impact had it been a released in 2002-2004. It's a powerful, disquieting story and a brilliantly realised film, I feel. The pitch-black humour is highly amusing. Even back in the 2001, I felt astonished that such a film had came from a major studio, with star actors, a hot director, a $65m budget, etc. It's an incendiary piece of anti-culture, which is often played down or subsumed by the frenetic, maniacal tone that is shot through the main plot.
This is an interesting and worthwhile observation though I don't ultimately agree with it. It is true that Fight Club could only have presented these kinds of sentiments as fact at the time in which it was made. Still, I have long felt that they remain true regardless of the Iraq conflict and are maybe even deepened in ironic potency for that reason. And this is similar to the effects of the US economic crisis. We are told again and again that things are serious now and desperate and different than what they were because of these events but I often feel that these are the sentiments of those who, on some level, want things to be serious, desperate and different because they know that they need to be. For good or ill the direct effect of these incidents have left little apparent impression on the lives of many I know. Riding on the fumes of credit card inebriation and blatant societal indifference can only take one so far but it can be stretched a lot thinner than many cultural gatekeepers recognize, for whatever reason. Hence, Durden's comments about spiritual emptiness still hit home very squarely with me and they resonate more because of what I just outlined--an aggressively maintained willful obliviousness to the collapsing larger cultural context that has been subscribed to. This is certainly different from the environment that bred the novel and film but no less relevant. Perhaps its message is more needed now, if it can be understood through the scrim of satire.Highway 61 wrote:Brad Pitt's monologue that begins the third act of the film, in which he says something along the lines of "Our generation has no cause, no great war" seems to me the exact kind of apathy that allowed Bush to abuse his power unchecked.
Ah, but I think the case can be made that Fincher is well aware of that seeming discrepancy and the dissonance is fully intended. My favorite evidence of this is the cut from the scene on the bus in which Pitt and Norton deride the falsely masculine images of advertising models to the image of Pitt, all lusciously oiled down, rising into frame after a good, solid beat down.Highway 61 wrote:Moreover, I think the case can be made that the film is constantly at odds with itself in that Fincher's aesthetic seems to me the exact image-conscious exercise in fashion that the film claims to despise.
Terrible?rs98762001 wrote:Sadly (and perhaps for the first time ever), Armond is right.
However, Scott Foundas' review in the Voice is a better, more reasoned take, and it perfectly encapsulates the shortcomings of this terrible film (I'd link to it if I wasn't such a Luddite).
Yes. Terrible. My initial thoughts when I first saw this are towards the top of the previous page, but in hindsight I was probably being overly generous to it. Its minor impact at the time has since faded, and its Gump-esque contrivance has subsequently grown even more aggravating. As I mentioned above, Foundas' review really nails it (and he's not even a critic I am usually in agreement with).moviscop wrote:Terrible?rs98762001 wrote:Sadly (and perhaps for the first time ever), Armond is right.
However, Scott Foundas' review in the Voice is a better, more reasoned take, and it perfectly encapsulates the shortcomings of this terrible film (I'd link to it if I wasn't such a Luddite).
That's when the victim was shot once in the left arm, sending others in the theatre running to safety.
Cialella then sat down to watch the movie.
Cialella was later quoted as screaming - "Tyler! Why did you shoot that man?!!"domino harvey wrote:Barmy, don't go to Philly: Man shot for talking during Benjamin Buttontavernier wrote:At least the gunman is a true Fincher fan:That's when the victim was shot once in the left arm, sending others in the theatre running to safety. Cialella then sat down to watch the movie.