tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3139769202527811820.post1416483951852240749..comments2024-01-01T23:38:43.414-08:00Comments on The Oncoming Hope: Criminally Overrated: Fight Clubtheoncominghopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03471519506797609837noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3139769202527811820.post-41707721269586521172010-10-20T12:27:38.365-07:002010-10-20T12:27:38.365-07:00I'm new to this film criticism business, is th...I'm new to this film criticism business, is there a difference between a film ABOUT misogynist people who feel like they deserve some unattainable and ridiculous macho heaven world and a film that tells us that is what we should think and feel about the state of the world?<br><br>Feel free to say no...<br><br>When watching fight club I've always felt like it is a portrait of people (or a person) who feel the things you so heavily criticise, rather than a call to arms that we should do them too. But maybe that is just how I watch it in order to make it enjoyable.<br><br>Basically despite the fact that I personally really enjoy the stylised way the film (and book!) are narrated doesn't mean I agree with the narrator or Brad Pitt when they say stuff.Tom Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00769331034956347171noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3139769202527811820.post-76706143334658593952010-10-20T12:49:04.470-07:002010-10-20T12:49:04.470-07:00There are two issues here I think.From my perspect...There are two issues here I think.<br><br>From my perspective, you are forced to spend 2 hours living in the hateful worldview of a particular character, which I can accept and sometimes even enjoy even when I don't agree with it (take Dostoevsky, for example, or numerous Mafia movies). But the movie takes this whole Freudian id/ego angle, which by its very nature generalizes about the entire male population (as Freud did), not just Edward Norton's character, or a particular sect of society. That's when it stops being a portrait of a person (or people) and comes off as trying to make some sort of larger point, and perhaps I'm oversensitive to that larger point in this film.<br><br>The second thing is, that fakeout ending would make me hate any film, so it just compounded everything I already disliked by a factor of ten.<br><br>Obviously I don't think I am really contributing to the body of academic film criticism here, but my comments are based on a visceral dislike, and in that case I was happy to have that backed up by respected crittics.theoncominghopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03471519506797609837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3139769202527811820.post-41292518574194937582010-10-20T14:58:52.466-07:002010-10-20T14:58:52.466-07:00These criticisms make sense only if you stop watch...These criticisms make sense only if you stop watching before Bob bites the big one. <i>Fight Club</i> is not an endorsement of nihilism, it's an emphatic rejection of it. Tyler Durden may be charismatic and seductive, he may initially seem to be the guy you'd really want to be, but the important thing to take away from this film is that <i>he's a fucking lunatic</i>. His rhetoric of emasculation and neglect is just as childish and ill-conceived as his attempted violent overthrow of consumer culture.<br><br>As to the twist, I do take your point about the violation of the audience's world, but remember who's telling us this story. From the very beginning it's quite explicitly Ed's POV, and at no point do the other characters react to Ed & Brad as if they are separate people. Why should unreliable narrators be restricted to prose fiction?Timhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01146596310417716160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3139769202527811820.post-45139434780485630302010-10-21T00:26:18.967-07:002010-10-21T00:26:18.967-07:00I don't equate twist endings with unreliable n...I don't equate twist endings with unreliable narrators, they're completely different things. Twist endings show the the hand of the AUTHOR, not the narrator, which is why they spoil the narrative. Maybe I do react to strongly to this, because twist endings have ruined quite a few things for me, like Lost, and the entire Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes franchise.<br><br>Separately, unreliable narrators work in film and in literature only when the character has something serious at stake (Rashomon, Usual Suspects), or there's a larger mystery (American Psycho), or it REALLY says something about the person narrating (Invisible Man, We Need to Talk About Kevin). When you have this ridiculous twist ending, you find out that no one had anything at stake, Ed is mentally ill, and so it was all a lie just for the sake of being a lie and that's it.theoncominghopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03471519506797609837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3139769202527811820.post-75452383067154975042010-10-21T14:51:21.958-07:002010-10-21T14:51:21.958-07:00I would say that from Ed's (or Brad's, or ...I would say that from Ed's (or Brad's, or maybe both?) point of view his life was at stake. Not in terms of survival but in terms of sliding into mediocre oblivion, so the 'get a life' sense of the word. <br><br>But if you don't buy it then that won't work for you.Tom Ghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00769331034956347171noreply@blogger.com