Fight Club (1999) Review

When an insomniac officer worker decides his life must change he just happens to meet Tyler Durden a soap maker and together they form an underground fight club that becomes so much more.

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*25th Anniversary Cinema screening at Cineworld*

The first rule of fight club is … We do not talk about fight club.

The second rule of fight club is … We do not talk about fight club.

Well, for the sake of this review I am going to break those two rules and talk about Fight Club. Released in 1999 and now celebrating its 25th anniversary, I do want to make clear that I have actually watched the film a few times over the years but not back in 1999 as I was way too young. It was originally rated 18, but I did notice that at the cinema on Monday it was downgraded to a 15, something that I don’t think is a good decision but that’s a totally different post.

We follow a man who is pretty sick of his life, albeit content with his condo and purchases from Ikea, I mean come on he tells us all this. The constant travelling for his jobs not helping with the insomnia he suffers, although a quick fix seems to be attending support groups which are for people who are dying of different diseases. Attending these groups gives him the release to then cry and therefore get some much needed sleep, although morally probably not the best idea in the world. He notices a woman named Marla who is pretty much doing the same thing that he is and that would cause some unraveling moments.

Enter Tyler Durden who would really shake everything up and together they would create fight club, allowing men to really let themselves go and beat each other to a pulp. This then progresses to become project mayhem and looks to bring down the establishment and in particular focusing on destroying banks and in particular credit card companies.

The thing is even though 25 years have passed since the release of the film, so many things are still true and can be related with today and I guess that just shows how powerful the film really is and that in society not much really changes for the people at the bottom, always needing something as a release.

Some of the quotes still hit hard and maybe even a bit harder now I have experienced more of life (and been screwed over a few times). Brad Pitt getting the best of these and his performance really is fantastic. As is that of Edward Norton as well, they both work so effortlessly together and really did create something special with director David Fincher. Meat Loaf is the best of the supporting male’s and Helena Bonham Carter is just perfect as Marla, in a film dominated by men she really does grab and demand attention in the best possible way.

I am quite proud of myself for getting through this to then mention the twist at the end, I mean when you know it does get you thinking about the different moments where you can see how we should have at least guessed something wasn’t quite right. But it is still wonderfully done.