Fight Club Review

Fight Club (1999) is regarded as one of the best films ever made, and rightly so. It is the perfect blend of gritty cynicism and extreme disdain for contemporary capitalist society.

One of my lecturers said that she thought it was the most overrated piece of misogyny she had ever seen. While it is clear that Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) was written by men and used as romantic motivation for The Narrator (Edward Norton), on a more interpretive level, her appearance symbolizes conformity—or rather, anti-conformity. Marla is the heart of the anarchist movement, and subsequently, The Narrator.

Roger Ebert called this movie "macho-porn," and I could not agree with him more. It is long-form sardonic erotica with a heavy dose of male aggression. These factors are what drew the audiences in, but the stylized message against the corporate lifestyle is what they stayed for.