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From the Venice Film Festival, the Bosnian Witch Doctor examines FIGHT CLUB and the festival!
For Today's (Wednesday's) Update, Click Here, as AICN is experiencing technical difficulties with the front page!!!
Hey folks, Harry here. Ok, so the first review for FIGHT CLUB was back on February 25, 1999 here on AICN. It was a rave. Then yesterday, Variety reviews the film in Venice... another rave. Meanwhile, Bill Mechanic, head dude at FOX, has allegedly been heard to say that this is the best movie FOX has ever released. So... when and where would the backlash come in from? From across the see, our old friend Alexander Walker, remember him? He was the first to review EYES WIDE SHUT. Alexander Walker... the same man that led the charge to ban CRASH from England as well as some other heinious anti-film activities... But... while he may very well be a deluded person... he does have an opinion... and he's raging against the FIGHT CLUB in his THIS IS LONDON article about the Venice screening of FIGHT CLUB (CLICK HERE TO ACCESS ALEXANDER WALKER'S REVIEW) He rages about the film with sentences like, "The movie is not only anti-capitalism
but anti-society, and, indeed, anti-God." And apparently... all the meaning of the film was lost upon him... but fear not... Our own Bosnian Witch Doctor was in place and has written up quite a piece on it. BUT... he also wrote quite a bit about other VENICE FILM FESTIVAL items like it's history, EYES WIDE SHUT, Etc. For your convenience, I've enlarged the TITLE for FIGHT CLUB into a much larger font so you can easily scan for it, if you need to. Have fun....
FIGHTS AND FASCISM IN LIDO, VENICE
Two days ago, curtain fell on the 56th edition of the Venice Film Festival, the review - or
Mostra - of international cinema which had originally been established by Mussolini to showcase
the superiority of Italian culture. Sure enough, its Fascist origins are more than evident in
the ugly, grandiose design of the Casino, the building at Venice's Lido that this year housed
most of the Festival's proceedings. (Last year, Casino's Sala Perla had been undergoing
extensive refurbishments that have almost doubled its number of seats and turned it into the
principal screening theater for films in competition and some of the more interesting titles
from other programs.) I'm not sure how enjoying it was to be surrounded by totalitarian
architecture in the eleven days of the Festival; I did get to see almost 50 films - out of
those, more than 30 at the Sala Perla, so apparently I got used to it for the duration,
although in the day since I returned to my shoddy abode in the wildernesses of the Balkans I
have been extensively tired. Totalitarian forms, even those of regimes long gone, still oppress
me, I guess...
But those kinds of sentiments were hardly in evidence at the Festival itself; only an Austrian
film in competiton - NORDRAND by Barbara Albert - and a Croatian film touched upon the issues
involved in the Balkan conflicts of this decade, but as both were rather pedestrian efforts, I
won't waste your time expounding upon them. No, the Mostra was this time remarkably
well-focused. Re-orchestrated by its new director, Alberto Barbera (last year, the previous
director resigned, following a demand by Italian Ministry of Culture to award the Golden Lion
to an Italian film), the Festival program included about 160 films, a sizeable downsize from
previous years, all rather similar in theme and content - which was not wars, and definitely
not politics. Thus the only real connection with what I still consider the main social upheaval
of late 20th century was the person of Emir Kusturica, the enfant terrible of Yugoslav cinema,
who had won the Best Director award in Venice just last year with the wildly comedic cop-out
that is WHITE CAT, BLACK CAT. Kusturica was the chief of the jury that this time made sure the
prizes went into the right hands, with but a few understandable omissions.
So it is with reasonable contentment that I look back on the 56th Mostra. While AICN is
engrossed in the parallel unfolding of the Toronto Film Festival - made very attractive in
recent years for many reasons, not the least being a much larger supply of funds - there were
more than enough gems in store at the waterlogged event that is still, and always will be, the
oldest running film festival in the world. Sure, Venice could have been better organized, and
less expensive, and more kindly to non-Italians: if you wanted to get a CD soundtrack or a
T-shirt from a film (and those goodies were in remarkably short supply), you practically didn't
stand a chance if you didn't speak fluent Italian - and I don't...
Just about the only piece of
merchandising I procured for myself was a pink bar of soap with a FIGHT CLUB logo on it - and
having seen the film, I have given that soap the pride of place in my hovel. Not even some
future introduction of running water will make me use it. I shall cherish it for my
grandchildren, gathered around the cabin's hearth sometime around 2060 and listening in
wide-eyed amazement how Grandpa actually saw the classic Fincher film at its world premiere,
touching that soap in its cellophane wrapping with religious reverence...
But wait; I'm getting ahead of myself. FIGHT CLUB effectively closed the Festival - there were
several more titles screened afterwards, but of little merit - and a review should start at the
beginning, right?
Maybe. I won't bother you with star appearances and ceremony, that's for sure. Oh, of course
everyone was oh-so-happy to see the likes of Cruise&Kidman, Winslet, Diaz, Judd, Norton or Pitt
- especially the gazillion members of the Italian press, who always seem more eager to hustle
for autographs than to watch films - but I'm not going to waste time on the star system made
flesh. Venice is in any case losing the spotlight as the industry launchpad for European
releases of Hollywood blockbusters, so the stars were fewer and farther between than in
previous years, and as they alwas do their usual press conference / interviews / screenings
schtick - looking mightily annoyed for the most part - I'll leave it up to some other spy to
expound in detail upon those 'gala' aspects of the Fest. Movies were what I went to see; and
here is my spoiler-free account of those movies from the 56th Mostra that I firmly believe
warrant the attention of the indomitable Mr. Knowles and his faithful readers. Part one,
anyway.
So, without further ado, here are the films, listed in terms of their - well, coolness...
UBERCOOL
EYES WIDE SHUT - oh, but you know that already. Venice did provide the European premiere of the
last piece of factual evidence to the divinity of Stanley; I took the time to see it twice
within 12 hours of arriving to the Mostra, something I never do with such a crowded schedule,
and I can't wait to see it again. What struck me the most about it - if there is any point in
describing the already-discussed - is how wonderfully open the movie is at the end, how any
kind of rational closure - especially the one given by Sidney Pollack's character at the end -
actually fails to fully explain it... EWS is a magnum opus, alienating and engrossing at the
same time, and the best depiction of a personal odyssey in the God's oeuvre. The orgy scene,
which I understand you didn't get to see in its original form thanks to the wonderful Mr.
Valenti - is competely enthralling: and Jocelyn Pook's music (based on some songs my mother
used to sing to me in my childhood) deftly turns it into a theatre of mysteries. I do believe
that the aborted initiation of Cruise's character will haunt me for years to come... as will
the realization that God is dead, that cold, slimy feeling I got when the shivers ended after
leaving the cinema. EWS is a brilliant piece that will outlive its detractors to claim its
position in the pantheon of the best films of the decade; more than anything, its worth was in
amply in evidence in almost all other films screened in Venice, since it introduced several
themes that were evident throughout.
Of course, I'm talking about Trials&Tribulations of Married Life (herefrom referred to as Theme
#1), and Identity Crisis (Theme #2). Those two issues, along with Abusive Parents (Issue #3)
formed the bulk of the subject matter at Venice this year - and showed how a "hermit" in
"exile", who hadn't made a film in 12 years, was still very much in touch with the spirit of
our times. But whereas other films dealt with those themes in a particular time and place,
Kubrick has - by virtue of recreating New York in London, and refusing to bow to the trends of
the day, from cinematography to editing - made a truly timeless piece which won't cease to
amaze and provoke with the passage of time. Gods do have that knack for immortality, after
all...
FIGHT CLUB
FIGHT CLUB. Well, that's what you want to read about, after all, right? Let me be the first to
say, boys and girls, that you better get ready for what Fincher has in store for you, because
here is the only other film from this year's crop that I believe with absolute certainty will
be looked upon as a hands-down classic down the time. And I'm not talking only about the
selection at Venice, I'm talking about 1999 as a whole. Sure, I haven't seen most of the stuff
Harry is so turned on by, but FIGHT CLUB did leave me completely stunned and mesmerized, just
like SEVEN did some four years ago... You know the feeling, the one you get all too rarely, the
feeling that you have seen an unmistakeably defining piece of cinema that will outlive its
theatrical run to really claim its place in film history. SEVEN had that quality - and FIGHT
CLUB is a superior film.
Now, let me digress for a moment. I had seen THE MATRIX the day before I left for Venice, and
after all the hype AICN and other media - web-based or not - generated around it, I was really
prepared to see the masterwork of the caliber I just described. Bud the Wachowski's film failed
me, albeit gloriously: I couldn't get over the contrast between the amateurish, mind-numbingly
slow and overexplanatory dialogue sequences, and the hyperactive action setpieces; more than
that, I couldn't get over the fact that this kind of story has been done much more smartly and
much more involvingly in any number of cyberpunk stories and novels of the last 20 years - 40,
if you count in Philip K. Dick. THE MATRIX was, thus, just a spectacular rehash of concepts and
themes done better elsewhere, and it did leave me cold. Being cool is not just a function of
adrenaline, which THE MATRIX sure knows how to pump; but then, I don't expect even Harry to
agree with me here, even if I do assure him that I love great action scenes as much as the next
guy, perhaps even more.
What FIGHT CLUB does in this context is provide the same level of viscereal impact (no, higher:
NOBODY frames and shoots and cuts with quite the same mastery as Fincher does) with an equal
level of intellectual complexity. We're not talking about some laughably stupid McGuffin as
'robots creating a virtual universe so their human batteries would have somewhere to THINK to
live' -- which never even answers a) what is wrong with nuclear power plants, b) when have we
been really getting our electricity from the sun anyway, and c) why do human batteries even
need higher brain functions -- that can bring down any concept, regardless of any mastery of
its execution. No: THE MATRIX is a cool film, but bad SF; FIGHT CLUB gives it a run for its
money as far as visuals go, but achieves something richer and stranger. In short, it's a
blindingly innovative comment on our times, our pre-milennial anxieties, frustrations and
projections, the role which violence plays in America today, and ways in which perception
shapes the world around us. Everything that THE MATRIX (and DARK CITY, another splendid film
defiled by bad SF) tried to say, FIGHT CLUB shouts out loud, probably because Fincher&Co. were
smart enough to understand that the whole concept of "the world is not what it seems to be" is
not primarily a science-fiction concept, but rather an age-old philosophical one.
Of course, everyone's going to be talking about violence and violence only upon the film's
release. There's no escaping that, thanks largely to Valenti-inspired misinterpretations of
movie violence that the press have been feeding upon ever since Columbine happened. But the
real issue - which FIGHT CLUB addresses, unlike most previous violent films (and their
detractors) is: where does this violence come from? What makes it so appealing, and conversely
so appaling, in the world of today? Previously limited to governments and criminals, violence
has now become the domain of high school students and militant citizens: how come? What is it
in today's world that makes it generate violence on those frighteningly quotidian levels? We're
not at the level of Dirty Harry anymore: violence is no longer a containable threat. It has
become something vastly more threatening: perhaps the only way a powerless individual can still
face the system. More than that: the only way a person who lives in today's mind-numbing,
hypocritical, all-pervading, gray, corporate world can still feel powerful and alive. And,
consequently: violence is the ultimate trip.
As anyone who has read the Chuck Palahniuk novel can attest to, there is no way FIGHT CLUB
actually endorses any of those views. But it does represent them and argue about them in a
very, very compelling way: it says that violence seems to be the only way out of impotence for
the familiar overeducated, overtly lucid Generation X-er. Everything that had seemed limp and
lifeless about Generation X actually does have a lot of frustration just waiting to start
bursting from its seams: FIGHT CLUB depicts, elaborates and takes this to unexpected heights,
thanks to the unique simbiosis of cinematic and narrative genius that Fincher has finally
proven he has.
Why is this better than SEVEN? Because it features Meat Loaf with a HUGE PAIR OF TITS?
No: it
is denser, faster, better shot and edited than literally anything in contemporary cinema, and
it does feature a plot twist to end all plot twists, leaving the likes of THE MATRIX wallowing
in the implications of the genre it does not fully understand. But this is not a plot twist
that puts a different spin on just the film and its internal issues, the way even SEVEN or THE
GAME did: this twist comes earlier in the narrative, a good half-hour before the end, and it
forces you to think outside of the bundaries of the movie itself, to reinvent for yourself your
own comprehension of the world you live in. The parallel impotence and omnipotence of the
American male (but not only male, just most prominently male) have never had such a compelling
parallel life onscreen: this is everything from Freud and Jung to Douglas Copland and Timothy
McVeigh rolled together in a tight, explosive package.
As for the how's: Jeff Cronenweth's cinematography is more brilliant than anything seen so far
in a Fincher film: no small feat, considering those films were all visual benchmarks. Simply
put, his images are clearer, better composed and more luminous even than the excellent works by
a Darius Khondji or a Harris Savides, and even when they are cut at a machine-gun pace, they
never fail to profoundly enrich the story and ambiance.
Rob Bottin's work surpasses even the
victims in SEVEN for its stark realism: I don't honestly know if he switched to silicone or is
still using foam latex, but his appliances do look completely convincing, and Fincher trusts
them to the point where they become storytellers of equal stature. His is the only work that
will give the TPM team a run for their money at the Oscars, and Bottin does deserve to be
recognized for more than TOTAL RECALL anyway. Alex McDowell, the designer of THE CROW, manages
this time to completely distance himself from artificiality and create the richest canvas for a
Fincher movie yet...
And, finally, the music. Apparently, there is not a soundtrack to FIGHT CLUB yet - at least, I
didn't get it, perhaps because of the language barrier. In any case, I won't mind shelling out
$20 (the price of a CD here) for it, when it hits the stores: the work of The Dust Brothers
here - Michael Simpson and John King - really provides the first viable aural alternative to
traditional orchestral scoring thus far. Lukas Kendall and Film Score Monthly regulars will
embrace it, I hope: I've long had the feeling that samples and dubs are the most pliable form
of contemporary music, and thus the one most suited to scoring, but I haven't heard them
utilized in a film properly until now. So even here FIGHT CLUB is groundbreaking.
The actors - let's just say that Pitt has never been more charismatic and devillish, Norton
more compelling, and Bonham-Carter so, well, contemporary. Anything more, and I'd be giving
away the plot, and depriving you of some true treats.
Anyway, FIGHT CLUB is engrossing from the
very first shot - and boy, is that a shot: visual effects sporadically betray their CG origins
- but just barely so. The work of Blue Sky, Buf Compagnie, Toybox, Digital Domain (the said
main title, done by Kevin Mack), EFilm and Gray Matter is indeed very competent, but at the
same time is not used for spectacle only: Fincher, the ILM veteran, uses his FX as narrative
devices more constantly and more innovatively than just about any other contemporary director.
Throw in a dark, dark, twisted and decidedly un-PC sense of humor (especially in the first few
reels - & reel changes), and you get a film that is cool, cool and smart, smart. Go see it for
yourself.
COOL
But this section will have to wait a day or two. I have to do justice to titles such as Woody
Allen's SWEET AND LOWDOWN (his least self-centered work in ages), Stephan Elliot's EYE OF THE
BEHOLDER with The Ewan and Ashley Judd, Harmony Korine's subversive Dogme 95 title JULIEN
DONKEY-BOY, and other stuff like BEING JOHN MALKOVICH which some of you have already seen.
Right now, I have to rush off to a production meeting at the local Bogumil temple, so expect
another report in a day or two.
Signing off,
Your Bosnian Witch Doctor
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Contemporary soundtrack for this fim is such a smart move, so refreshing to see a step away from what could have been another Trainspotting/Pulp Fiction type collection soundtrack. The fact that its the Dust Brothers is even more exciting, man i love there work on Pauls Boutique.
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has anyone ever noticed how brad pitt seems to always star in movies that are just very cool. not in the conventional way but in a dark arty way. it seems like he chooses movies that not much smiling is involved in.
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At last someone else who didn't think that The Matrix was all that good. I thought I was the only one.
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Am I the only one who's getting sick of hearing how "mind-numbing", "corporate" and evil the 90s are? People keep telling me that we're living in a depraved age, and I just have to look at them like, "what"? Because it's obvious to anyone with an actual sense of history that the modern era sucks less than about any other period in history. Think of it, not only are we all croaking from disease and war before age 30, we don't have the axe of nuclear armageddon hanging over our heads. Crime is down and prosperity is up, but we nonetheless have this vast crop of would-be artists out there who insist on manufacturing angst when there really isn't any cause for any. So even though I've heard how good "Fight Club" is, I'll probably still be pissed at it just because I'm *so* sick about seeing whining Gen-Xers bitching about their cushioned lives.
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That's supposed to be, "Not only are we *not* all croaking before age 30..." Thanks.
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talk about reverse psychology, the way this dumbass walker disses the movie makes me wanna see it even more.....
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Sep 14, 1999 7:12:30 AM CDT
I haven't heard "Fight Club" discussed yet as an update of "Heat
by pope buck 1
...with Brad Pitt in the Christian Slater role and Edward Norton as Winona Ryder. Discuss.
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Hmm. Looks like a fairly typical Alexander Walker rant. He and Chris Tookey (I think he's the crit for the Daily Mail - which is from the same stable as AWs paper) seem to believe that they are on some crusade to protect us from such 'evil' films. As the time comes close for Fight Club being put to the BBFC (the British Board of Film Classification - performs much the same function as the MPAA ratings board) I imagine that they will be orchestrating as much hysteria as possible through their respective newspapers - not that these newspapers need much prompting when it comes to trying to stem "the tidal wave of filth" (one of their favorite phrases). It will be interesting to see if the BBFC blinks - they held their nerve with Crash, but if the pressure mounts, I wonder if they will again - especially if the government jumps on the bandwagon (and let's face it, if they think it's a popular thing to do they will).
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Mixed in with a lot of crying and self-pity.
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Good post. I agree that this is pretty much the best era in history in which to be living, and yet it is because of this current prosperity that we can start to examine some of the deeper issues, some of the problems that have always been around and that will only start to become better if we discuss them. Just because things are very good doesn't mean there's nothing wrong with the world, or indeed that things may not get worse at some time down the line. We *do* live in an unhealthily consumeristic society, and that could prove our downfall in the long term just as surely as war or fascism. "The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance." That said, neither of us has seen "Fight Club"...maybe it's a criticism of Gen-X whining, as you put it.
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I'd like to thank Alanis Morrisette, in the form of grunter, for chiming in. What in the hell are you so bitter about? You know what the difference between those Silicon Valley whiz kids and people like you and me are? They aren't sitting on their asses typing in a discussion board using pseudonyms. They shut off their TV's, they quit surfing the net, and attempt to do something to better themselves. I have news for you, the Net isn't the only way to get rich. Sure the news likes to focus on it, but they only do because of their quick rise in the market. Would you decry the Red Hat group for their efforts? They have made billions in an attempt to better the computer industry with new technology. This country gives us the opportunity to succeed in such ways, but you have to take that first step. You seem to think that these great ideas are handed out to a select few that know the secret handshake. As for the impact of this movie, let's see, you want something life-affirming. Here's one for ya, sex!! That's right! Good old-fashioned humping. And if your having trouble getting that then try writing or painting or building a model airplane. If you are looking to a movie or a book to make you stand up and say, "I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" then you are in for a very long, boring life. Instead of looking for someone to create a revolution for you, why don't you go out and intiate your own personal revolution. Not everyone is as pissed and bitter as you are. So switch from CBS to NBC and stop watching the stock report. Oh, and if being a Republican means not being someone like you then I'm voting GOP in 2000. So if you'll excuse me, my cell phone in my SUV is ringing. I hope it's that new leather sofa I bought from IKEA!
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Thank you for an eloquent rebuttal to Grunter. Sounded like whining to me as well. Dude (Grunter), grow up. Jeez, I can win the hard knocks showdown with a lot of folks. Then I meet someone with a far worse existence and I think "man, life is GOOD!" Kwitcherbellyachin already! I have no huge student loans because I didn't do college; Uncle Sam had need of me in VietNam. I have no degree. I own my 2nd home, which was custom built. In the decade of 80's, I bought 13 new cars in 10 years two of them..SUVs!! Did I inherit? Win a lottery? Push ass? Deal drugs? NO! I WORKED MY ASS OFF!!! I've done everything from slinging burgers to selling cars to emptying bedpans. Fight Club was a good book; it is likely a good movie. But, a catalyst for societal change? Naw. Sure, some deluded crybabies will use the film as justification (read: excuse) for performing gross or unspeakable acts. Cool. I haven't served jury duty in a while, I'm available.
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Corbin, maybe it's just me, but I feel like Fight Club has less to do with Gen-Xers whining about their cushioned lives and more to
do with the emasculation young men today feel BECAUSE of their cushioned lives. Yes, absolutely, our generation has it easy. We've never had to fight for anything
the way our parents and granparents did, and we're constantly being reminded of this.
We've never had a Vietnam or a WWII. We were raised very sheltered creatures, and this has left us numb- we take our lives and our freedoms for granted because we've never had them threatened. Our parents fought to ensure we wouldn't have to, and now belittle us for never having had to fight. This, combined with the countless conflicting ideas of what modern masculinity is supposed to be, combined with the constant dumbing-down and
flattening-out of our consumer culture, is where Fight Club comes from. I've often caught myself whining about the state of my cushioned life, and then quickly wished I could spend a day
in Sierra Leone to shut myself up.
That's Fight club. It's not a complaint that things are bad, it's a concern that things have never been nearly bad enough.
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As soon as I found out David Fincher (probably the most under rated director ever) was making Fight Club, I went out and read the book. Then I did something I so rarely do.
I read it again.
Then the impossible happened. I read it a third time.
Why? This is not the greatest book ever. Why am I obsessed with reading the damn thing?
Because this book takes you somewhere nothing else I have ever experienced takes you. This is material that I believed right then, could spawn the greatest movie in the history of cinema.
Fincher, I think, is the only man alive comparable to Kubrick (who is the greatest, fullstop). Even with only 3 films to his name I'll say that, because all 3 are truly excellent. Seven is the best film of the decade thus far (that I've seen any rate). The Game suffered only from the Happy ending (but you can read it that he does actually die, and the party after is his heaven, but any way). And Alien3. This was the ultimate end to the Alien films. Had they ended there, in 10 years time the true brilliance of Alien3 would have been seen by all. But probably not now, due to the awful resurrection.
This man is now in control of the closest I know to a perfect movie experience. This movie will change those who see it. It changed me reading it, and I'm sure the film will change me more.
And this idiotic British geezer (I can't remember the prick's name), he's caused so much stupid shit over here, it's unbelievable. He made an uproar about Crash (excellent film I feel). Trying to get it banned and shit like that. What an idiot. That's the kind of film that would not have appealled to a mass audience, and would have disappeared. No-one, except those familiar with Cronenberg's work, and those interested in art cinema, would have bothered to see this film. Then suddenly, when they try and ban it, every poor schmuck on the street wants to see it. And they don't get it.
I'm so glad about this small minded fool's attitude towards Fight Club. It shows me that Fincher has been faithful to the book. And therefore, a truly great cinematic experience I expect. Granted, I'm more likely to be disappointed now, but I just can't see it.
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As far as the Dust Brothers providing "the first viable aural alternative to traditional orchestral scoring thus far", well, hmmmmm....... this is a man who hasn't seen Run Lola Run.
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Fight Club has a U.K. release date of 12th November. I hope it makes it, it will be interesting to see if it does, and will be interesting to see what Walker and co. do about it. Their campaign to ban Crash was self defeating. I wonder if they will be so gloriously stupid again. -
This is an incredibly weak month for film on theater and video, I need my fix quick. By the way Alexander Walker's a huge shmuck and I could care less about anything he ever has to say from Eyes Wide Shut or anything else.
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I'm constantly amused by the "things are better, so we shouldn't complain" theory. Question: you are starving while others throw food away. They give you an old, rotted piece of meat that makes you sick. Should you then complain and try to change things for the better? Or should you simply accept your lot as "better" and even "deserved"? Hmm? Yeah, things are better in some ways, but they're also worse in some ways, and there's absolutely NO REASON to stop trying for change. Sure, you're living past thirty, but many others--such as the underclass in India, those starving as the result of capitalist-converted single-product economies, or even (if you don't know) inner-city black youth--who do not. in this country, there is a health care crisis that we don't want to acknowledge, whole geographic areas that are living in what we consider "third world" conditions (as dictated by infant mortality and literacy rates), and the top 1% of the population has as much total wealth as the bottom 40%. Do you honestly think those 100 million people aren't working hard? Is that why they're living in poverty? I know the view's nice from the suburbs, but out in the real world, honey, things look a little bleaker. Because we've abandoned the public school system as "unworkable" there's millions of people who, no matter how hard they work, can't get out of poverty; even middle-class families have to work two jobs and longer hours to achieve the same standard of living they could twenty years ago. Are we living in an age of prosperity, then? And what about outside the US? Believe it or not, other countries, and other people, exist; our consumer decisions have consequences beyond us, and beyond our borders. The continual exploitation and mistreatment of prison, child, and abusive labor conditions for barely a subsistence wage is patently not something we can say is OK and leave it at that. Are these people better than when they grew their own crops for their own food? Or did we simply come in and impose an industrial society on theirs that effectively locked them into a certain mode of production from which they can no longer escape, and vomited pollution into their land? At best, they're the same as they were in agrarian times, and by any measure these are not beneficiaries of the wonderful, peaceful, beautiful age we all like to think we live in (and since when are we not living under the threat of nuclear weapons? hello? did they just fucking disappear? what do you think happened to all those warheads the US had during the cold war? have you been reading the newspaper at all lately? India, Pakistan, north Korea, and rogue USSR states are all viable nuclear threats, and in a way Russia never was, since they're much less concerned about the possibility of MAD). What caused this? Corporations, capitalism, and the willing blindness of Americans. I'm not saying I'm immune to this, or that I'm living a guilt-free lifestyle, but fuck, at least I'm admitting to it and working to change it rather than simply pretending it doesn't exist! I have less of a problems with corporations as homogenizers of culture--I'm happy with the wide distribution that art now receives, and think it's valuable for allowing us to recognize our shared interests as a society--but I do think this aspect of their existence is something that has to be addressed, and in a way Fight Club is. It shows what happens when Americans try to strip away some of their blindness and face a different reality than the one they're used to. In sum: yeah, things are OK. But they sure as fuck could be better. And that's something that art has a responsibility to promote.
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But I suppose geeks want geek movies. ULTIMATE GEEK MOVIES (in relative order): The Usual Suspects, Braveheart, Se7en, Empire Strikes Back, Die Hard, AlienS, The Abyss, Blade Runner, Pulp Fiction and Predator. Ultimate UN-GEEK movie: TITANIC. Directed by the Director of TWO geek movies! NO!!!!!! Anyway, like most hyped AICN movies, Fight Club will probably fizzle. I mean, in real life, how many people did you run across that LIKED Blair Witch Project? But on here it was the Second Coming. Sixth Sense was mentioned A LITTLE, and it kick butt. Matrix was mentioned like ONCE, and it kicked butt. BTW, why does this guy keep ripping on the Matrix in order to review Fight Club? That's like saying "Spagetti is good because lima beans suck" I like this site, but the reviews blow. Just my opinion!
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You missed my point entirely. I'm fully aware that the vast majority of the world is an oppressed, exploited, and diseased place--and that's why I think the whole idea of middleclass white Americans beating the shit out of each other to get at something "deeper" is lame! The artists of this generation have forfeited dealing with the Real World out past the backyard in lieu of a crapload of pseudo-introspective navel gazing, rendering their day to day problems in flatteringly apocalyptic terms. Granted, these people have as much of a God-given right to bitch about their lives as anyone else, even if from outside it may look a little silly, but I just wish they wouldn't paint themselves as being oppressed helpless victims in the same language that one would describe, say, the people of East Timor. (Though all of this said, I still think FIGHT CLUB is going to be quite cool.)
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Actually, I didn't miss your point entirely, I don't think. But granted, I was also not responding solely to you. However: a) I directly responded to your claims that "not only are we all not croaking from disease and war before age 30, we don't have the axe of nuclear armageddon hanging over our heads. Crime is down and prosperity is up..." Whether I missed your "point" or not is irrelevent in this case; I was directly responding to the evidence you were producing to support this claim. b) the main characters in Fight Club are described by Walker as "predominantly blue-collar, working- class casual workers." Thus it's presumably not the whining of people who have led a coddled life, but rather people who have had to work hard, as Ninja Nerd, for example, would like "whiners" to. So if your point was to say that Fight Club represents the hollow laments of spoiled gen-x'ers, the movie contradicts this analysis. c) I think you missed *my* point. If it's a critique of capitalism and the corporate system it *does* affect these people in other countries whose lives are being ruined by the institution being criticized. For us as Americans to sit here and say that this amounts to "whining" is to deny the implications of our actions and of the system we seem to love so much. For some to say that because a work of art will not directly cause a revolution serves to both deny any social commentary in art and to deny the historical evidence of such works as Uncle Tom's Cabin and Mein Kamf. The people in Fight Club aren't painting themselves as "oppressed helpless victims"--it's a parable meant to show, in human terms, the effects modern capitalism has on the human psyche and our capabilities for empathy. If it was set somewhere else, such as East Timor, we could dismiss it as a critique of a specific situation resolvable through political action rather than a critique of a system that directly effects us. As far as I can tell, they're *not* bitching about their lives, they're going around doing horrible things unapoligetically. It's not a complaint; it's simply a representation. These characters do not regret it, because they've lost the capacity for regret. And this loss of empathy and unawareness of the lives of others is what allows us to keep consuming while the rest of the world is bled dry for it. It does all fit together, if you're willing to think about it a little bit. Again, I'm not directing this solely at Jacob; it's also for Ninja Nerd especially, and BadAshe too, to a lesser degree. Sorry for the lengthy posts, but ya got my blood boilin', eh?
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Sep 14, 1999 6:30:13 PM CDT
I don't buy--He didn't like MATRIX but thought EWS was a classic
by taitdog
Eyes Wide Shut was one of the worst films I've ever seen. No pacing, bad acting, horrible script, and stale direction. The idea of the film itself is intriguing and in the hands of Kubrick, it should've been a classic. But he dropped the ball. The Matrix was ten times more satisfying than EWS and all the other cyberpunk items that I've ever been privy to. This guy is probably one of the fools who said eXistenZ was better than Matrix, which is an understatement, since eXistenZ is on par with EWS's level of horribleness. On lighter topics, I can't wait for Fight Club.
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Yeah, this is another Gen X'er whining about how fucked up his life is for public consumption, and let's face it, it's what we're best at.
I'm glad the reviewer mentioned Douglas Coupland. If I was ever going to go out and fucking murder a total stranger, it would be him, he's on the list and it's in such a personal, violent way that I hate him when I get done writing this I could seriously consider acting out my all time fantasy. Not to say that if he ever turns up dead, I did it, but if he did and they find a suspect, I'll gladly say I framed him.
Douglas Coupland represents everything that is wrong with my Generation X. Let me say that again: MY GENERATION X! It's not his, no one who labels something so carelessly gets to keep it.
My Generation X are the people that "Fight Club" was designed for. I'm not sure what Chuck Palahnink. wrote it for, but that's what it became. It's honest, it's brutal and it represents everything that everyone like me is thinking every time we have to deal with someone who drives a car that doesn't make noise, has a beautiful family, or hands us a gold card to pay for something that only costs 3.99.
It so perfectly captures THE FRUSTRATION that I feel towards just about everything.
But, let me flesh this out for you. You can write it off to whining, bitching or whatever the fuck you want. I'm literally past the point of caring about anything other than whether the goddamn movies get put back on the shelf in alphabetical order.
I'm 28. I live with my mother. I got booted out of college because my wonderful Boomer father claimed me on his income taxes and fucked up my financial aid. I work in a video store, I feel lucky when I get ten bucks to buy a fucking t-shirt at Wal-Mart, I don't have credit or the wonderful cards that go with them. I don't even own a car, I drive my mother's. It's an 87 Chevy Spectrum and it makes noise every time I turn right.
I hate my life, I hate that I can't go back to school and I hate everything and anyone who says, THIS IS A TIME OF GREAT PROSPERITY! FUCK YOU!! What the fuck would they know about Jack, Shit, or his brother Charlie? They mak six figures and have never had to visit a charity to get help paying the goddamn rent.
I AM GENERATION X! Generation X is by definition a lost generation. For every motherfucking code writer, web master, AOL employee to point to and say we're turning out alright, there are 500 MORE JUST LIKE ME!
And that brings me back around to Douglas Coupland.
I'm sure that when he was writing GENERATION X, he thought he was capturing something gritty and real and significant.
You know what he really did?
HE LAID THE GROUNDWORK FOR EVERY GODDAMN SITCOM SINCE 1990!!! That's all he did. He didn't capture shit. He's a moron and he doesn't have anything, ANYTHING at all even remotely relavant to say.
He's a wistful little dipshit who drank a lot of coffee and found a publisher who bought in.
He's the fucking POSTER CHILD of Generation X.
What Generation X actually is, is something else entirely. It's a great, big ball of misplaced rage, childhood abuse, misguided lives and the single greatest search for something better that has ever existed on this planet!
I know of at least 250 people who are just like me. We are tired of working for people, we're tired of being told it's our fault and we're tired of taking shit.
HOW THE FUCK CAN IT BE OUR FAULT??? I was a straight fucking A student!!! I DID EVERYTHING I WAS TOLD TO!! And look at the fucking good it did me. I'm about 100 pounds overweight!!!! I make fucking 7 dollars an hour and I'm 2 months behind paying everything!
I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT!
What the fuck did it get me? Nothing. What does being a decent person get me? Nothing. What did busting my ass all through school get me? Nothing. What does busting my ass working THREE JOBS get me? Nothing!
I am not a bad person, I'm not a junkie, I'm not a drunk, I don't expect my life to be handed to me, I'm not STUPID either.
The harder I work, the less I get, the more I try, the harder it gets, the more I plan, the more things go wrong.
What is the point of all this?
THE POINT IS I AM FUCKING PISSED OFF! I'm angry beyond description. I'm pissed I can't save a fucking dollar, because the goddman loan authority rips it out from under me, I'm pissed my fucking father who beat the piss out of me while I young, all the while telling me that "If I put my heart and soul into it, I would succeed." ruined my chance at that worthless fucking slip of paper that among other things says, "YOU ARE ENTITLED TO A BETTER LIFE!!".
But, beyond that, I'm pissed off because I'm pissed off. I don't even know what exactly it is that makes me angry anymore. It's a misplaced and directionless rage.
I was thinking about it the other day.
I'm a textbook postal employee and I'm not even 30.
I'm tired of sitting in the heat and watching other people get the things they want. I'm tired of busting my ass just to stay in the shape I am.
Basically, I'm tired.
That's what Generation X is.
It isn't a lack of initiative, it isn't a lack of ambition. It's one part PARENTS WHO WERE OFF HAVING "ME TIME" and five parts "IT'S YOUR FAULT AND ONLY YOU CAN YOU CAN HELP YOURSELF."
What the fuck does that mean anyway? WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN????
How fucking hard do I have to work? How many fucking interviews do I have to be told I'm just not fucking good enough? How many fucking times do I have to fail before I win?
I am GENERATION X. I'm white, I come from a 'cushioned' middle class background.
I guess I'm typical.
I do know that I want to hurt someone. I want to hurt someone so bad I can't stand it. I want to beat and beat and beat someone into something that's not even in that shape of a person anymore. It's on my mind every single day, in everything I do.
So how do I cope with this? I've lost so many times that the the very thought of winning something, even a fist fight is like the Holy fucking Grail to me.
Well, I read a lot, I go to movies. I punch a big bag.
I know it's just a story, but "Fight Club" is total to me. Total in an important way. It encompasses everything I've thought and felt and puts them into a shape.
I'm not saying that I'm going to go out and start hitting people or blow things up.
But, I'm angry that my only way out is the fucking lottery.
I'M JUST FUCKING ANGRY!
I can't help myself. I've spent every single day thinking, "If I could just manage to save X number of dollars, I could be moving forward again."
There's no point to this rant. It's typical, it's cliched, it's ordinary, it's been said a thousand times over and probably with more flair. I'm not going to lie, I don't think I'm special in any way, shape or form.
But, it's nice that someone has finally gotten something about Generation X right.
And dumb ass Brits aside, I'm happy I'll be able to see it on the big screen. -
Yes, this is a time of great
prosperity. But who is reaping
the benefits? It's not your
average Joe. A few decades ago,
CEOs made about a dozen times as
much as the average worker.
Today, they make over a *hundred*
times as much as the average worker. Chew on that.
Meanwhile, corporations are
pouring countless billions of
dollars into research of consumer psychology, so that they can figure out how better to
manipulate us into buying things
we don't need. Case in point:
unless you *regularly* drive off-road or tow a ton and a half of weight,
you do *not* need an SUV! But the marketing machine has succeeded, and now 15% of us own one. Even if you have been lucky enough to benefit from our prosperity, chances are you have been duped into pouring that money right back into a corporation. -
...I've been on both sides of the GenX fence. My family was very wealthy until I was ten or eleven, and we lost it all due to the oil crash in Alaska around '86 or '87. From then on, we struggled, and struggled hard. My dad was a small-time office supply dealer (it was a hobby when he was prosperous, and how he suddenly actually had to make it *work*) who was starting to get choked out of the marked by warehouse retailers, like CostCo and Office Depot. He worked sixty to seventy hours a week for us to not even quite get by. When college time came around for me, he and my mom had both found new jobs that were able to get them slowly back to their feet, and while it wasn't a lot, it was enough to slash my financial aid for my sophomore year. I fell into the depression trap, and started taking the "Screw it, it's never going to get better" attitude. I started writing bad checks for everything. I ran up credit cards. I stopped paying bills. I stopped going to classes. I gained a lot of weight. I could have found a job while all of this was going on, but I had lost all ambition, all drive. The town I was going to school in was small with a crummy job market for college students, and I was a music major, so I had no real job skills to offer, but that was no real excuse. Eventually I dropped out of school owing the university a ton of money, put on more weight, stopped checking my mail because I didn't want to open the nasty windowed envelopes, and stopped answering my phone because I was afraid of who was on the other end. It was a total downward spiral. I started pulling out of it when I finally got a job selling advertising for the local paper. It got me into a routine, it got me used to a regular paycheck (even if it wasn't much), and it got me interested in life again. I was still way behind in all of my bills, but at least I wasn't getting any more behind. It was a pure stroke of luck when a friend I'd had since third grade of mine called me up, asking me if I'd be interested in a job working for a software company. I knew nothing about the industry, and had had only a minimal involvement with computers over the course of my life - but my friend thought I could learn it quickly. He coached me on some things over a couple of months, and then brought me in to interview. Somehow I got my foot in the door as a tester. Don't ask me how. A year and a half later, still with no degree, I'm still driving a used VW Golf, I still rent, and I still have zilch savings - but I've lost about fifty pounds, I'm not behind in anything, and all of my old bad debt is gone. For 22, I'm more or less at ground zero and able to move up, and I'm extremely happy to be there. It's bizarre to me - I've worked my tail off over the last two and a half years, but there's no logical reason that I should be here and somebody with a post-graduate degree should be barely making ends meet. It's all been being in the right place at the right time for me, and I'm thankful for it. Without sounding like a Bible thumper, all I can say is that my faith is the only thing that kept me from killing myself many times during the bad years. Unfortunately, a lot of GenX-ers have somehow come to the conclusion that God either doesn't exist or doesn't care about them, and as philosophically "enlightened" as that stance may be, I'm of the opinion that it's a big part of why so many are despairing right now. Without that "higher power," there's no inherent reason for anything, so nothing matters. Since nothing matters, why bother caring about anything? Anyway - just my $.02 worth. My experience is hardly representative of what others have gone through, but I've been a member of the hopeless millions. Only for the grace of God did I manage to escape. It certainly wasn't because of anything I accomplished on my own.
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You whiny little faggot bitch! I swear to God I read a lot of total SHIT on this site, but that takes the taco, dickhead!
You still live with your mommy? Boo Hoo. You work three jobs and can't get ahead? Boo Hoo! You did everything you were supposed to? WELL FUCK YOU! I'm not kidding man. It's your own damn fault for riding the system and gambling your life away. Stop whining you bitch! Get a life. AND YOU'RE WRONG!!!! This is a time of great prosperity! I'm only 19 and I'm heading off to college next year. My future is bright and I'm not about to let a loser like you ride my ass into the dirt by trying to poision me against the future!
GENERATION X SUCKS ASS!!!!! YOu're all a bunch of whiny little shits and I hope you all get AIDS and die or save some time and just blow you dumb ass heads off. Fuck you and everyone like you. -
Just when Kubrick bowed out leaving a huge gaping void in the world, I'm so happy to see guys like Fincher poised to at least attempt to fill a little bit of one of his shoes. My only hope is that this movie won't be totally overshadowed by the Matrix... I can already vividly hear my friends telling me how the fighting scenes aren't half as cool as they were in the Matrix. Reminds me of an expression somebody used on AICN one time: The Matrix is like the emperor's new clothes. Everyone's talking about how great it is so you kinda convince yourself to ignore the dopey over-done plot and dialogue. Hey, I did it too. But looking back, it was full of holes and the scifi wasn't half as good as it could have been. Maybe that's the tragedy, that such a great opportunity was wasted, to meld a breakthrough concept with such incredible visuals. But that's where Fight Club will, hopefully, succeed. My worry, like I said, is how most people will compare it to the Matrix. Back when Matrix came out, somebody on AICN said it's the cool movie that Dark City was trying to be. Well you have to draw a distinction between coolness and hipness. Both movies were cool, and I'd admit that Matrix was very hip, but I'm not sure that's a good thing. Sure it fits perfectly into 1998 pop culture... but how will it look in the year 2020? While Dark City's noir look will probably conjure up the same atmosphere, I bet Matrix will be dated. I mean, Shaft was hip for the seventies, but today its humorous. It seems to me Alex Proyas has a little more vision than the Brothers W. And if you're thinking that Fight Club might fall into the same trap, there's a difference between social commentary and socially-current escapism. It's the difference between a period piece like Last Days of Disco or Summer of Sam, and Detroit 9000. Which, by the way, Tarantino had absolutely NOTHING to do with, so how come he gets to put his name bigger than the title on the box? Arghhh that guy bugs me. Oh well enough rambling for tonight.
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In case you didnt realise, not that I like Pitt at all as an Actor or anything...I actually think he sucks but I have to say this!, did YOU MISS "MEET JOE BLACK" !!!
That was a bit of a smiler for a lot of people I talked to...
and that movie when hes Fishing with his Brother? Frig,,,learn your facts....dude,
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