I Am Jack's Ten-Year Tribute to Fight Club

On October 15, 1999, Fox Studios released a controversial, big-budget drama in theaters nationwide. Yet despite taking the box office crown that weekend, the film would end up as a financial disappointment, assist in removing Fox studio head Bill Mechanic, and have critics dismissing it as “irresponsible and appalling.”

Still, a few viewers responded to the film. They were blown away by it. They thought deeply about it. They felt like they understood it because it understood them. Those few would inform their friends, who in time informed their friends, who in time would demand midnight screenings of this “irresponsible and appalling” film.

This incredible word-of-mouth, in time, would turn it into the most-talked-about film of the 21st Century. Which is ironic, given the first two rules of Fight Club are not to talk about it.

Fight Club, adapted from Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, has become, arguably, the Citizen Kane for Generation Y. It combines Salinger-esque narration with a touch of Scorsesian style, with some old-fashioned Nietzschean philosophy thrown into the mix.

For those who have never seen it, Fight Club is narrated by an automobile company employee (Edward Norton) who suffers from insomnia. He finds his emotional release by attending support groups, even though he is not a victim.

Unfortunately, he finds there is another “tourist” who attends all of the same meetings. Her name is Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter). As he cannot attain the vital release he needs with another faker around, the two agree to share the schedule.

With some extra time on his hands, he goes back to traveling around the country, checking on the legality of automobile safety for his stern boss (Zach Grenier). On a business flight home, he meets a friendly soap salesman named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) who gives our protagonist his card.

However, upon returning to his apartment, he discovers that all of it has mysteriously exploded. With nowhere else to go, our lonely narrator calls Tyler. But there’s a catch: Mr. Durden will only allow him to stay with him if the protagonist can hit him as hard as he can.

The rest is cinematic history. And purely up to your interpretation.

Fight Club's influence on modern culture and society has been quite astounding. Young audiences (15 to 35-year-old males, in particular) have enthusiastically responded to the movie’s morals, meanings and mysteries.

Not only is Fight Club a film with tremendous directing, writing, acting, cinematography, production design and sound editing (where it received its sole Academy Award nomination), it’s also a film with ideas.

Masterfully directed by David Fincher (Se7en), it's has got a lot more on its mind than its grimy, blunt title would have you believe.

The film speaks about consumerism, capitalism, nihilism, disease, violence, sexuality, feminization, trauma, personal identity, and ultimately, the human condition in ways more sordid, sharply funny and surprising than any cinematic offering I can think of.

All praise aside, Fight Club is most notable for its twist ending. Some find it brilliant, others deem it pretentious, nonsensical and silly.

The final revelation has provoked much debate. What does it all mean? How is it even possible? The film’s truest fans have found themselves re-watching the film, looking for answers to explain the final revelation in every image, every line of dialogue, every stylistic effect. Tyler Durden has turned into the “Rosebud” of 21st century cinema.

Honoured film critics and historians didn’t give the film a second glance during its short-lived theatrical release many Octobers ago. Yet, they are increasingly reexamining and evaluating Fight Club as its popularity and influence spreads through the masses.

Today, the film turns ten years old. And it’s as relentlessly provocative, thematically rich and cinematically dazzling as it’s ever been.

Here’s to ten years of breaking the first two rules of Fight Club!