I know its the first and second rule but I want to talk about Fight Club. The Rio Theatre played a Late Night screening of this Gen X classic and it not only holds up, it may be getting better with age. It’s enduring coolness was recently verified while me and some friends were on the bar patio and my bud chastized me with “What’s the first rule of Fight Club?” and without missing a beat a hot, nicely dressed woman walking by chastizes him with “You Do Not Talk About Fight Club!” Fight Club lives on, as long as we go on not talking about it. (also SPOILERS WARNING!)
Fight Club is also one of those phenoms where initially a large segment of its fan base utterly missed the point. These were the angsty aggro dudes who bought into the mythos of the testosterone fueled vigilante, toughen up, pseudo-rebellion that is actually being parodied in the film. Its the danger of the charismatic sociopath as a protagonist, A Clockwork Orange being another example. This contingent of Fight Clubers who are immune to irony seem to have dwindled with time. The Rio Theater was packed with people, more then half women, who were eager to revisit the joke of guys getting together to punch each other in the face as a last desperate grasp at manhood.
The biting cynical humour hasn’t lost its edge. In many ways it harkens us back to a pre 9/11 world where being a smart ass cynic wasn’t tantamount to treason. Rewatching Fight Club in the post-post 9/11 world is to show how cowed we’ve become to the culture of control. Try making a film where the climax is the bombing of all the credit company skyscrapers around the country, or where a woman whispers romanticallyin her lovers ear that she wants to have his abortion, or the viscious subverting of the think positive, support group self-help mentality which now seems to reign supreme. Not bloody likely.
They All Fall Down
When I last watched this film in 2010, in the wake of the 2008 financial collapse, the films climax seemed both precient and liberating. We would all have been better off had Tyler Durden carried out his plan, cleared the debt record and wiped out Lehman Brothers and the like. It had always puzzled me why Edward Norton’s character was so resistent to Project Mayhem, I mean, the buildings were emptied and nobody was hurt and it was more a representation of liberation from the unfair debt load increasingly hoisted upon the lower classes rather then actual physical distruction. I guess it was that Norton played Tyler’s reasonable civilized side, that as much as he enjoyed the rebellion, he was at core the domesticated human, whereas Brad Pitt embodied his feral side. Norton couldn’t sleep because this human animal side was denied him by modern, middle class existence, thus Pitt manifested those drives supressed by domestication.
This time it all rang a little different. It’s 2013 and our Great Depression has been dragging on for five years now. So rather then the triumphant stick-it-to-em-ness while watching in 2010, this time it was another moment that shone through. It was Pitt’s speech about his generation not having their war, or their Great Depression, that in place of this was his rebellion against the numbing power of secured complacency. Watching this speech now is to view the passing of the Gen X ethos. Gen Y has its wars, Gen Y has its Great Depression, so as much as the themes of Fight Club are still relevent, this moment exposes a certain preveledged perpective where their acts of vandalism seem petty. Gen Y will not be the screw the system generation, Gen Y will be the take over the system generation. Sorry Gen X, at least we can all agree on disliking the Boomers.
“History calling, Marla speaking, how may I help you?”
Regardless of reading things into it, Fight Club is still awesomely entertaining. The film is flawlessly crafted, the humour sharp, the imagery powerful, the writing is tight.
I also had a genuine Fight Club moment at the screening. About half way through the movie I got really light headed and had to head to the washroom. I splashed my face with cold water to cool down and took a piss. I’m teetering on the edge of passing out so I sit down on the floor by the stalls. Not sure what the deal was, maybe dehydrated, so I sat dranking cold water from my beer glass (I only had 2 I swear!) Now, my hair is frazzled, I’m wearing some old plaid shirt, my fly is down, and I’m struggling to remain concious on the floor by some unflushed toilets with toilet paper strewn about. However, I’m not in an unpleasant way at all so I chat cheerfully with a dude when he comes in to take a piss. Anouther dude comes in, he’s dressed as the office version of Edward Norton with a large hand scrawled note pinned to his chest which I can’t quite read. The first dude leaves and office dude says “How are things sir?” I say I’m fine. “Can I brew you up some coffee sir?” I say no, I have some nice cold water and I should be good to go shortly. “Can I get you some more water sir?” I’m getting low so I accept. He takes my glass, empties it, waits for the tap to run cold fills it and hands it over. “Have a good night sir,” he says and takes off back to the movie. I feel better shortly after and head back myself. Watching the rest of the movie is when I realized why he kept calling me “sir,” its because I was Tyler Durden.
Fight Club will likely be a regular on the Rio Theatre roster, so next time it plays, be sure to check it out.
CineSpeak 