At one point I guess I didn't really have a favorite movie. I liked a lot, but couldn't narrow it down to one. It finally dawned on me though, that Fight Club was and is without a doubt, my favorite. See, I'm not one of those people that watches movies over and over again. I'll watch a good movie in the theater and again when it comes out on DVD, but then I don't want to watch it for a while. In fact, even with movies I really like a lot, it sometimes takes me months or years before I want to watch them again. That's not the case with Fight Club though. Every time someone suggest we watch it, I'm always in. I'm sure there are limits. I wouldn't watch it every day or anything. But I could watch it a lot. Why? Because it's just so good.
I had a writing professor who said she hated Fight Club. She predicted the twist ending early on in the movie, thought it was stupid, and cut it off. And actually, I predicted the ending of Fight Club the first time I saw it as well. About halfway through I said to my friend, "Hey...maybe Edward Norton is actually _________." As the movie went on and I kept getting more and more clues that I was right, instead of being disappointed, I thought it was great. Since then, I've seen several other movies with a similar ending, but at the time it was really fresh and original.
But Fight Club is much more than just a clever twist. The acting is tremendous. Edward Norton and Brad Pitt are most definitely two of the most under-rated actors in Hollywood. Norton plays the unassuming, slightly nerdy guy perfectly here and he plays him in a way that's three dimensional. The shift he makes towards the end of the movie is believable because you can see hints of it in his character throughout. Brad Pitt, while not quite as consistent as Norton in all his roles, is very adept at playing a character who is slightly off his rocker. See 12 Monkeys for another great example. Add a fine performance by classically trained actress Helena Bonham Carter and a fun supporting role by the man who calls himself Meat Loaf and you have quite an excellent cast.
My favorite part about Fight Club, however, is the dialogue. I've always been a fan of movies where a character narrates the movie by speaking directly to the audience. Maybe it has something to do with my love for post-modern literature, but whatever the case it works for me. And the lines that Norton speaks are just so great. Most of them, from what I can tell, are taken directly from the book the movie is based on and they're quite beautifully written as is the rest of ChuckPalahniuk's prose. "I ran until my veins pumped battery acid. And then I ran some more." You can't beat that. And there's dozens more where that came from. How can you not love a movie that's endlessly quotable? I'm convinced that that's why so many people love Napoloen Dynamite. Some movies are great when you watch them. Some movies are more fun when you quote them later. And some movies are chocked full of fun no matter which way you slice them. Did I mention Fight Club contains some powerful social statements, has plenty of action and dramatic tension, and features some stunning cinematography? Yeah...it's that good.
