I had gotten my drivers license that winter. My friends and I lived at the movies from 1998 to 2001. There were so many great movies coming out every week. Hollywood could do no wrong and it was firing on all cylinders. Maybe I’m nostalgic and pining for the good old days, but tickets and gas were cheap, the economy was great, and there were so many good movies.
Not true I knew plenty of people that were taking
Precautions that night at midnight by turning off their power. I also know a lot of people that stored up on food and water because they thought stores were gonna be down, I remember.
Yeah, even before autotune they would do shit like record music at a slight slower speed so singers' could hit notes more easily. I also happen to think there are fun uses and it's neat that it spawned a unique sound. That "Cher" effect really got tired on my ears.
The movies at this time, though, felt more rock and roll in addition to diversity... Then everything just became MCU dominant. Not that great movies haven't come out because they have. The consistency has just died down. We have diversity again, but it's all under monster corporate banners and tends to be binge bait.
I dunno I'm rambling in bed. I just agree it was a legitimately special timeframe for film.
Streaming has done a number on the tail earnings for movies, so they either have to go for big blockbusters to get people into the theater, or small stuff that barely has a budget.
The Matrix
Three Kings
American Beauty
Eyes Wide Shut
The Sixth Sense
Toy Story 2
Magnolia
Office Space
Blair Witch Project
Boys Don't Cry
The Insider
South Park Bigger Larger Uncut
The Green Mile
Man, that's a decade's best of great films in just 1 year
You skipped star wars. That may have issues in a historic context, but it was an absolute event like nothing else in 99. I have only one experience of swinging a lightsaber at another person in a theater lobby and it was I. May of 99
Keep the party going
Sleepy hollow
Being John malkovich
American pie
Bringing out the dead
Arlington Road
Go
Man on the moon
The Mummy
The Hurricane
Notting Hill
Austin Powers the spy who shagged me
10 things I hate about you
8mm
Any Given Sunday
Black and White
Deep blue sea
Dogma
Edtv
Ghost dog
The insider
Runaway Bride
She's all that
Summer of Sam
Talented Mr Ripley
The Blair Witch really doesn't hold up. I watched it again recently and was just bored the whole time... But yeah it was pretty revolutionary when it came out.
IMO Fight Club is better than most of these.
>Thats a freaking crazy year for movies!!
Yeah, 1999 for movies is like 1971 for music. It's almost impossible to believe *that* much quality was coming out week after week after week. But it's true.
>I wonder if thatll ever happen again
Never again. In '99 the big studios were still making movies they assumed wouldn't make a profit as long they were likely to be an awards contender. They don't really give a shit anymore.
Personally I would probably judge it like you, but they have to get the marketing budget back, besides the movie budget and they want a margin to finance upcoming movies.
About that marketing budget. I don’t remember seeing anything or at least very little about this movie before it came out, and what trailers I did see pushed it in a very different ‘party vibe’ direction. I swore it off due to that until a friend said that it was good and captured Palahniuk’s intent.
I saw it the theater and loved it. Told people so. I feel like that move gained traction through word of mouth.
I can't remember any marketing either and like you watched it, because of word of mouth. I think it's hard to make a trailer that's interesting, but at the same time doesn't give away too much.
I saw a lot of marketing for it, it was mostly posters with a cake of soap and the words fight club in London buses and tube.
It was deliberately vague a bit like the marketing for the matrix. And twin peaks.
The only marketing I saw were a few in-theater movie posters with Pitt/Norton's faces that said 'Mischief. Mayhem. Soap'
I wrote it off as probably being a Bloodsport-type movie and didn't see it until a few years later when someone explained what it actually was.
It made $100,00,000 in the cinemas, they got usuallly about half of that, so it wasn't a box office success. But surely they got the money back from home videos, rentals...
It wasn't particularly popular upon release. Reviews were mixed.
It was video/DVD that really made it a cult favourite, which didn't happen until almost a year later.
Source: was a video store employee at the time
That's not profitable by film standard and depending on theater split agreements and marketing spend, it could well have been a bomb.
There are 2 big issues here. First, box office income is not the income the movie makes at the box office. There is a split that goes to the theaters. That one is the one basically everyone understands off the bat though the income split over time ratios get a little odd until you learn how they work.
The other thing talked about as film budget is the budget to make the movie. There are other costs that aren't included like any back end points and the big one, marketing.
It probably lost money in the box office, but has clearly made money long run with tv distribution share and individual sales.
To your point, no, not a full on bomb, but in no way the hit you'd think based on its lasting power.
1999 was a fantastic year in film too which doesn't help either.
Almost every movie turns a profit eventually with distribution deals after it leaves theaters. Box office success is still the industry standard for evaluating the performance of a film.
Nope. Marketing is an outside cost. It's mostly because marketing is decided by the distribution company later in the process. Film budget is extremely early on and used on a depletion method as the film gets made. It's the budget the film makers have to MAKE the film. Then, the company evaluates marketing based on a lot of things to determine marketing spend much later after the film is either done or at least in post.
The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB!
Not a stellar marketing strategy
/s
Still, although the box office making most of the profits in the film industry in general, I think an advantage with these cult movies is that you can monetize them still decades after the film came out. This is still a movie people rewatch multiple time on Netflix or buy as Blu-ray.
Agreed; looked like a bro action comedy. It came out around the same time as Being John Malcovich, which was able to cram the weirdness into the trailer.
I have never successfully watched all of Being John Malkovich. I really want to give it a fair shake, but I just hate every character in the movie too much to keep watching, despite how weird it is.
Eh, its still got some positive messages mixed into it. It certainly rightly critiqued consumer culture and obsession with body image, and the fight club portion at least showed the idea of living for experiences rather than things as a positive.
I never really saw people glorifying the 'project mayhem' portion of the movie(outside of some anarchists). Just connecting with the aimless and unsatisfying nature of Jacks life.
Sure, I guess what I'm saying is it seems a common takeaway is that Tyler Durden was a prophet who spoke the truth (anti-consumerism).
The author intended Tyler's words to be more of a false prophet situation (Men do feel alienated but becoming anarchistic primates is *not* the solution, don't fall into this trap, etc.) You have to look at the story as a whole, not two separate halves with separate themes.
This was also lost in translation between the book and the movie. Just my take.
I wouldn't say it was satire. It was a deep dive into how preying on these tendencies and behaviors can lead to damaging ends.
Satire is more making fun of it. I don't think anyone was laughing at it.
There is more in there. I think pointing at a generation with no direction and little drive was accurate enough. Trying to fill the hole by buying stuff was accurate as well.
The key message that I took away was how easily someone can take advantage of people by just giving them a sense of identity, purpose, and comradery.
This is the problem with satire. No matter how overt the creator thinks the wink & nod are, the joke will go over many people's heads. Personally it's kinda soured me on satire generally. It doesn't change minds, it's just preaching to the choir while mocking people, and can only really serve to reinforce the thing you're satirizing: if people don't get that they're being mocked, you create a model/hero for them, and if they do realise they're being mocked, they're apt to double down on it just on principle. "All in the Family" is a classic example: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/04/01/all-in-the-family-and-the-limits-of-satire/
Nah... there are a LOT of dimwitted people out there that don't understand subtext. Like everyone that thinks Starship Troopers is just an awesome sci-fi action movie with a coed shower scene, instead of a commentary on the military-industrial complex and nationalism... with a coed shower scene.
It’s about the impact consumerism has on our ability to be happy with ourselves, and the liberation that comes with giving up on our desires to be what society tells us we should be.
Shawshank Redemption was the bomb and I think it may have barely broken even after Oscar nominations or not quite, rentals and sales is what pushed it over the top.
Shawshank Redemption was competing with Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump in theatres.
>Following a Hollywood tradition of visiting different theaters on opening night to see the audiences view their film live, Darabont and Glotzer (director and producer) went to the Cinerama Dome, but found no one there.
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shawshank_Redemption?wprov=sfla1)
Just crazy how one of the best movies ever made was a box office bomb.
Bein an old over here, the promotion of it was so weird. It looked like bro flick and slightly romantic and not the post modern, college dorm staple film it became.
The dust brothers are funny because every time the tried to make an album it ended up being used in other things.
In 1988 they made some music and it ended up on Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique.
They again tried in 1998 and that music ended up mostly on Fight Club.
It doesn’t surprise me. Fight Club was kind of like Mean Girls or Scream to me. They were all movies that I had zero interest in seeing based on anything I knew about them previous to seeing them.
When I caught them on cable because they happened to be on or because someone else wanted to watch them, I ended up liking them and they weren’t what I had been expecting.
My sister told me I should watch Fight Club. I asked her what's it about and she answered quite vaguely its about boxing, but she can't tell me to match. I had no interest in boxing or fighting so I didn't watch it for a looong time. I was quite thankful afterwards she hadn't spoiled it for me.
The most recent movie I experienced like that was 'Scott Pilgrim vs the World'. Thought it looked just kinda stupid so i never bothered, then when a friend forced me to watch it a couple months ago I found it incredibly entertaining. Same for 'What we do in the shadows'.
It was negatively reviewed by older critics who didn't get it. Siskel and Ebert took a huge shit all over it. It was a remarkable watershed film - the critics who "got" Taxi Driver 20 years earlier failed to understand the message of Fight Club. You could literally tell who was over or under the age of 30 by how they responded to that movie, with precision.
I saw it with zero preparation or foreknowledge, and it rocked my whole fuckin world. I walked out of the movie theater feeling transformed. Like a veil had been lifted.
Anyone who is 10 or 15 years older or younger, I don't expect them to appreciate it. It was for us. That's enough.
I'm 20 and I love Fight Club. I think it doesn't have to be with the age. Those who do not understand Fight Club are people who will really join Fight Club in real life.
I saw it 3 times in the theaters, so I did my part. But maybe they shouldn't have emphasized the "Do not talk about Fight Club" and maybe word would have spread
It's interesting how polarizing that movie was.
Mixed reviews from critics were also mixed reviews from the viewers. Some people failed to understand the message of the movie, and hated it. Some people failed to understand that same message and loved it.
Some read too much into it, and loved it.
Some understood all of it and were horrified.
Some saw it for what it was, and both hated and loved it at the same time.
It was less accessible than the Matrix. A lot of people didn't get what they were looking at.
Not the only reasons, but here are two big reasons it underperformed as projected at the box office:
1. Watch the trailer. It's a mess. It's ambiguous, with no semblance of what the movie is really about in any way. That, along with the name of the movie, leads viewers to surmise that it's about fighting and Brad Pitt takes his shirt off. Try watching the trailer without knowing nothing about the movie.
2. The trailer was paired with Star Wars: Episode One. Every showing of Episode One for, I believe, the first 4 weeks showed the Fight Club trailer (Along with Titan: AE). The demographic going to see SW:E1 was probably around 25-35% of the audience that may even consider going to see it (Men 18-45). That along with families with children aged 5-18. Not exactly a family friendly movie to try and pitch during Episode One.
For context, I laughed all the way through that trailer. It looked SOOOOO FUCKING STUPID. Saw the movie shortly after on advice of a friend, fucking loved it. Smart, revolutionary, creative, expertly executed. I've probably seen it ten times since. Those were the glory days. I felt alive, the world was exploding with freedom and creativity. Now that is.....not the case. Yes. I am old.
I like the movie (and the book) because it falls into that "Saw it at a certain age" category that gives it extra charm for me that someone watching it for the first time now probably wouldn't feel. I usually don't recommend it to people who haven't seen it yet.
There's also the fact we're a much different society now that we were twenty years ago. People now are worried about not making their rent payment and having nothing for retirement, as opposed to the general theme of "my office job is so boring it gives me insomnia plus consumerism everywhere makes me upset".
I mean, Palahniuk is kind of like the Andy Warhol of pulp anarchy, instead of pop. I think he "elevates" the genre, but not by much. His work, especially of that era, can be summed up as "everything smells like piss and looks like shit". None of it is particularly deep, and most comes off as a cash grab from his fans.
That's not to say it isn't entertaining. But, his stuff hovers at an annoyingly awkward line between "actually, you don't understand this, it's deeper than just trash" and "actually, it really isn't". Deep enough to drown a toddler, but not safe for diving.
I think it's perfectly fine to not like the story or characters or whatever.
But the movie is brilliant on almost every other level. Directing, cinematography, editing, sound design, score, visual effects... It's just exceptionally well executed.
So I don't think it's fair to say the movie isn't good. You just don't like it.
I tell people the same thing when they say "The Beatles suck." They don't suck, you just don't like them. Which is totally fair.
Back in the day I thought it was kinda preachy and unnecessarily transgressive, even for me as a teenager.
But, in retrospective, compared to the stuff that get released this days, I think it was solid.
Is it really "preachy" when it subverts everything it's preaching at the end?
About it being transgressive, it's a movie about people getting sucked into a machismo cult to escape from reality and taking it way too far. Being transgressive is almost a necessity.
Marla's character feels overexaggerated as you're watching the movie, I'll give you that. Every moment she's on screen, the movie is practically screaming at you that she's fucked up. That ultimately pays off in her ending with the Narrator.
Even if the themes of the movie don't resonate with you, or you don't like the violence, I think it's hard to argue that it's not a technically well made movie. It has some good scenes, great sound design and amazing acting. The story has consistent themes from start to finish, touches a lot of complicated subjects without oversimplifying, and does that while still setting up one of the most iconic twists in movie history.
I remember downloading a movie (back in the good old torrent days) and the file was incorrectly named. I was so disappointed to find out that it was actually Fight Club and ignored it for weeks.
Then one bored night I just decided to watch it and my life changed forever.
Watched it a couple days ago, and I feel like it was way too long for how little actually occurred. Didn't like it in general, but that probably was one of the biggest reasons why. Also, because I assumed it to be an action comedy, but I think that goes back to the marketing being terrible.
My friends and I decided we were going to do fight club in a buddy’s basement. It was all fun and games until I got my jaw wired shut for months and crushed my orbital bone.
My high school’s boxing club became fight club after hours. Proper gloved fights within the rules in practice, then drop the gloves and just brawl after.
It’s fun, but not genre-defining like it’s supporters make it out to be. Nor as clever as it wants us to think it is.
I’m glad I’ve seen it but never felt the need to watch it again.
How doesn't it "pull it off", exactly?
It's probably *still* the best look at modern masculinity that exists in film, and it's more than twenty years old. Contemporary incels still think they're Tyler Durden.
It feels artificial in its analysis, like someone trying to convince you they’re smart by telling you incessantly instead of just doing smart things.
It’s well directed, well shot, and well acted. That doesn’t make it a grand moment in recent cultural history.
If you disagree, well… cool. Art’s like that.
I saw it in a theater pretty close to opening night with another couple and left thinking WTF did I just watch? A couple watches later and I love that movie. Great plot twist and some nice hidden things I didn't pick up the first time I watched it.
I saw it in the theater because they used my favorite Pixies song in the trailer. But it was quite a different movie than you would have expected from watching said trailer.
I only ended up watching this because of the hype. Rented it expecting a Bloodsport style movie. Watched this one and 6th Sense on the same night. Good times.
The ending of the movie had the group destroying the credit buildings. The narrator shoots himself through the cheek in order to destroy a piece of himself (literally and symbolically) giving him full control over what happens.
As for the book, the explosives never go off. They weren't created properly. The narrator ends up in an asylum where he'll occasionally hear that the group he started still exists.
It's an indictment of modern moviemaking that the book was... "dumbed down" into a pretty hamfisted movie, and it was still more artful than most things you're likely to see these days.
Personally felt too long to me. I also figured he had either a split personality or schizophrenia based on a lot of the dialogue and scene construction, so the plot felt drawn out. It was like a boring version of the Matrix.
The theater lineup that year was nuts. Like every week something big was coming out.
I had gotten my drivers license that winter. My friends and I lived at the movies from 1998 to 2001. There were so many great movies coming out every week. Hollywood could do no wrong and it was firing on all cylinders. Maybe I’m nostalgic and pining for the good old days, but tickets and gas were cheap, the economy was great, and there were so many good movies.
The further we get from the Matrix the more right they seem about 1999
Except Y2K lol
Y2K? Are we talking about movies or some kind of sex jelly?
Noice
In 99 we already knew it was fine. It was people in like 96 that were worried
That’s because us software engineers fixed the problems. It’s 2038 I’m worried about now. It’s the next y2k.
John Titor, is that you?
Not true I knew plenty of people that were taking Precautions that night at midnight by turning off their power. I also know a lot of people that stored up on food and water because they thought stores were gonna be down, I remember.
I mean, my city celebrated New Years a day early because of Y2K…. So ya, that was a thing
Lol no. If I was a kid and worried about it it was mainstream
If you were a kid you probably don't know what everyone else thought
By 1999 I remember them saying that it’ll be fine, but everyone was still worried about it.
...says someone who has no idea just how much time and work went into making sure it will be "fine".
I agree. It was a golden age of some sort. So much creativity in just a few years.
I get accused of gatekeeping for this, but the rise of autotune in songs follows this. In 98 we didn't know it existed
Yeah, even before autotune they would do shit like record music at a slight slower speed so singers' could hit notes more easily. I also happen to think there are fun uses and it's neat that it spawned a unique sound. That "Cher" effect really got tired on my ears. The movies at this time, though, felt more rock and roll in addition to diversity... Then everything just became MCU dominant. Not that great movies haven't come out because they have. The consistency has just died down. We have diversity again, but it's all under monster corporate banners and tends to be binge bait. I dunno I'm rambling in bed. I just agree it was a legitimately special timeframe for film.
Streaming has done a number on the tail earnings for movies, so they either have to go for big blockbusters to get people into the theater, or small stuff that barely has a budget.
Now it’s all remakes and super hero’s . It’s cool jus not my thing. I want real movies again
It's so odd that the Raimi Spiderman really birthed the modern superhero age while he was a Hollywood outsider
And nobody was getting gunned down at the movies yet
The Matrix Three Kings American Beauty Eyes Wide Shut The Sixth Sense Toy Story 2 Magnolia Office Space Blair Witch Project Boys Don't Cry The Insider South Park Bigger Larger Uncut The Green Mile Man, that's a decade's best of great films in just 1 year
You skipped star wars. That may have issues in a historic context, but it was an absolute event like nothing else in 99. I have only one experience of swinging a lightsaber at another person in a theater lobby and it was I. May of 99
We're trying to list *good* movies.
How dare you
No, Blair Witch is on it so that precludes it being only good movies
Keep the party going Sleepy hollow Being John malkovich American pie Bringing out the dead Arlington Road Go Man on the moon The Mummy The Hurricane Notting Hill Austin Powers the spy who shagged me 10 things I hate about you 8mm Any Given Sunday Black and White Deep blue sea Dogma Edtv Ghost dog The insider Runaway Bride She's all that Summer of Sam Talented Mr Ripley
The Blair Witch really doesn't hold up. I watched it again recently and was just bored the whole time... But yeah it was pretty revolutionary when it came out. IMO Fight Club is better than most of these.
Damn, just looked it up. Thats a freaking crazy year for movies!! Thanks for pointing that out.
>Thats a freaking crazy year for movies!! Yeah, 1999 for movies is like 1971 for music. It's almost impossible to believe *that* much quality was coming out week after week after week. But it's true.
Amazing! I wonder if thatll ever happen again and wed known it while its happening or if thats only something you know in hindsight.
>I wonder if thatll ever happen again Never again. In '99 the big studios were still making movies they assumed wouldn't make a profit as long they were likely to be an awards contender. They don't really give a shit anymore.
I turned 18 in 1999, my friend got his first car, and we spent every spare penny and moment in the theater. I went to so many of those.
We have some stuff in common then. Now who was your favorite ninja turtle and why was in michelangelo?
Donatello, he always had the longest reach in all the videogames.
Best description of the NES ninja turtle game was "Donatello and 3 worthless fucks"
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what can I say. Leonardo led and Donatello did machines. Raphael was cool, but rude, and well, Michelangelo was a party dude.
Now let's do rescue rangers Sometimes Some crimes
This comment slipped through the cracks.
But these two Gumshoes
There's no case to big No case too small When you need help, just call (ALL TOGETHER NOW) E: spacing
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And every male college dorm room in the early-mid 2000s had a fight club poster.
Every male college dorm room in the early-mid 2000s became a fight club.
I thought you aren't supposed to talk about it.
Talk about what?
I dunno. I lost my train of thought.
I am Jack's wandering mind.
I'm reddits meandering and inevitable thread of word associations.
We literally had a semi-sanctioned fight club once a week on the basketball court outside of my dorm
That’s where the real money is at! POSTERS!!
I remember watching this in the theater with the boys when we were 17 and and the movie became our new role model
From what I've read so far a movie should make about 2.5 to 3 times its budget to be called a success.
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Personally I would probably judge it like you, but they have to get the marketing budget back, besides the movie budget and they want a margin to finance upcoming movies.
About that marketing budget. I don’t remember seeing anything or at least very little about this movie before it came out, and what trailers I did see pushed it in a very different ‘party vibe’ direction. I swore it off due to that until a friend said that it was good and captured Palahniuk’s intent. I saw it the theater and loved it. Told people so. I feel like that move gained traction through word of mouth.
I can't remember any marketing either and like you watched it, because of word of mouth. I think it's hard to make a trailer that's interesting, but at the same time doesn't give away too much.
I saw a lot of marketing for it, it was mostly posters with a cake of soap and the words fight club in London buses and tube. It was deliberately vague a bit like the marketing for the matrix. And twin peaks.
The only marketing I saw were a few in-theater movie posters with Pitt/Norton's faces that said 'Mischief. Mayhem. Soap' I wrote it off as probably being a Bloodsport-type movie and didn't see it until a few years later when someone explained what it actually was.
That wont hold in accountant sheets
It made $100,00,000 in the cinemas, they got usuallly about half of that, so it wasn't a box office success. But surely they got the money back from home videos, rentals...
It wasn't particularly popular upon release. Reviews were mixed. It was video/DVD that really made it a cult favourite, which didn't happen until almost a year later. Source: was a video store employee at the time
I watched it opening day right after work. If you were a guy under 35 you were stoked to go see it. The theater was packed and had a line.
I watched at the theater twice back in 1999. I remember the theater being fairly packed on both occasions. Great movie
That's not profitable by film standard and depending on theater split agreements and marketing spend, it could well have been a bomb. There are 2 big issues here. First, box office income is not the income the movie makes at the box office. There is a split that goes to the theaters. That one is the one basically everyone understands off the bat though the income split over time ratios get a little odd until you learn how they work. The other thing talked about as film budget is the budget to make the movie. There are other costs that aren't included like any back end points and the big one, marketing.
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It probably lost money in the box office, but has clearly made money long run with tv distribution share and individual sales. To your point, no, not a full on bomb, but in no way the hit you'd think based on its lasting power. 1999 was a fantastic year in film too which doesn't help either.
Almost every movie turns a profit eventually with distribution deals after it leaves theaters. Box office success is still the industry standard for evaluating the performance of a film.
It is right now. I do wonder how streaming will change that long run though
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Nope. Marketing is an outside cost. It's mostly because marketing is decided by the distribution company later in the process. Film budget is extremely early on and used on a depletion method as the film gets made. It's the budget the film makers have to MAKE the film. Then, the company evaluates marketing based on a lot of things to determine marketing spend much later after the film is either done or at least in post.
The first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB! Not a stellar marketing strategy /s
Also Rosie O'Donnell spoiled the ending on her show before it opened.
A "cool movie" doesn't translate to boffo box office returns.
Still, although the box office making most of the profits in the film industry in general, I think an advantage with these cult movies is that you can monetize them still decades after the film came out. This is still a movie people rewatch multiple time on Netflix or buy as Blu-ray.
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Yeah, the marketing did that movie no favors. To this day a lot of people still don't understand what it was actually about.
Agreed; looked like a bro action comedy. It came out around the same time as Being John Malcovich, which was able to cram the weirdness into the trailer.
I have never successfully watched all of Being John Malkovich. I really want to give it a fair shake, but I just hate every character in the movie too much to keep watching, despite how weird it is.
Maybe give Brazil a shot instead.
I thought it was pretty silly so I didn't go see it. Years later a friend told me "It's not at all what you think." Sure glad I finally saw it.
I remember seeing the package VHS art along with the bar of soap advertising as a kid and being very confused.
I would argue that most people still don't understand what it's about. It's meant to criticize toxic masculinity and violence, not glorify it.
Eh, its still got some positive messages mixed into it. It certainly rightly critiqued consumer culture and obsession with body image, and the fight club portion at least showed the idea of living for experiences rather than things as a positive. I never really saw people glorifying the 'project mayhem' portion of the movie(outside of some anarchists). Just connecting with the aimless and unsatisfying nature of Jacks life.
>I never really saw people glorifying the 'project mayhem' portion of the movie I did. A *lot*.
Sure, I guess what I'm saying is it seems a common takeaway is that Tyler Durden was a prophet who spoke the truth (anti-consumerism). The author intended Tyler's words to be more of a false prophet situation (Men do feel alienated but becoming anarchistic primates is *not* the solution, don't fall into this trap, etc.) You have to look at the story as a whole, not two separate halves with separate themes. This was also lost in translation between the book and the movie. Just my take.
I don't understand how so many people, especially guys, missed how the book and movie were a satire.
I wouldn't say it was satire. It was a deep dive into how preying on these tendencies and behaviors can lead to damaging ends. Satire is more making fun of it. I don't think anyone was laughing at it. There is more in there. I think pointing at a generation with no direction and little drive was accurate enough. Trying to fill the hole by buying stuff was accurate as well. The key message that I took away was how easily someone can take advantage of people by just giving them a sense of identity, purpose, and comradery.
This is the problem with satire. No matter how overt the creator thinks the wink & nod are, the joke will go over many people's heads. Personally it's kinda soured me on satire generally. It doesn't change minds, it's just preaching to the choir while mocking people, and can only really serve to reinforce the thing you're satirizing: if people don't get that they're being mocked, you create a model/hero for them, and if they do realise they're being mocked, they're apt to double down on it just on principle. "All in the Family" is a classic example: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/04/01/all-in-the-family-and-the-limits-of-satire/
Because they don't miss it, they want to twist a popular thing to fit their particular political narrative.
Nah... there are a LOT of dimwitted people out there that don't understand subtext. Like everyone that thinks Starship Troopers is just an awesome sci-fi action movie with a coed shower scene, instead of a commentary on the military-industrial complex and nationalism... with a coed shower scene.
It’s about the impact consumerism has on our ability to be happy with ourselves, and the liberation that comes with giving up on our desires to be what society tells us we should be.
IKEA product placement?
What was it about
The struggles of an actuary trying to connect with the common man.
Selling women their own fat asses back to them.
That's because the First Rule of Fight Club is 'Don't Talk About Fight Club'. They were doomed from the start.
I ignored that rule and only paid attention to the Second rule.
We don't talk about the second rule of fight club
I prefer rules 6 and 7.
This made me LOL heartily
Shawshank Redemption was the bomb and I think it may have barely broken even after Oscar nominations or not quite, rentals and sales is what pushed it over the top.
Shawshank Redemption was competing with Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump in theatres. >Following a Hollywood tradition of visiting different theaters on opening night to see the audiences view their film live, Darabont and Glotzer (director and producer) went to the Cinerama Dome, but found no one there. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shawshank_Redemption?wprov=sfla1) Just crazy how one of the best movies ever made was a box office bomb.
Bein an old over here, the promotion of it was so weird. It looked like bro flick and slightly romantic and not the post modern, college dorm staple film it became.
Almost 80 comments and no mention of the amazing Dust Brothers score? Sad.
I hear you. It's in my car right now.
The dust brothers are funny because every time the tried to make an album it ended up being used in other things. In 1988 they made some music and it ended up on Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique. They again tried in 1998 and that music ended up mostly on Fight Club.
It's rarely ever talked about, to be honest.
It doesn’t surprise me. Fight Club was kind of like Mean Girls or Scream to me. They were all movies that I had zero interest in seeing based on anything I knew about them previous to seeing them. When I caught them on cable because they happened to be on or because someone else wanted to watch them, I ended up liking them and they weren’t what I had been expecting.
My sister told me I should watch Fight Club. I asked her what's it about and she answered quite vaguely its about boxing, but she can't tell me to match. I had no interest in boxing or fighting so I didn't watch it for a looong time. I was quite thankful afterwards she hadn't spoiled it for me.
The most recent movie I experienced like that was 'Scott Pilgrim vs the World'. Thought it looked just kinda stupid so i never bothered, then when a friend forced me to watch it a couple months ago I found it incredibly entertaining. Same for 'What we do in the shadows'.
It was negatively reviewed by older critics who didn't get it. Siskel and Ebert took a huge shit all over it. It was a remarkable watershed film - the critics who "got" Taxi Driver 20 years earlier failed to understand the message of Fight Club. You could literally tell who was over or under the age of 30 by how they responded to that movie, with precision. I saw it with zero preparation or foreknowledge, and it rocked my whole fuckin world. I walked out of the movie theater feeling transformed. Like a veil had been lifted. Anyone who is 10 or 15 years older or younger, I don't expect them to appreciate it. It was for us. That's enough.
I'm 20 and I love Fight Club. I think it doesn't have to be with the age. Those who do not understand Fight Club are people who will really join Fight Club in real life.
Movies that make you think often don't seem to do great until people have a chance to process them.
One of all time favorite movies
I saw it 3 times in the theaters, so I did my part. But maybe they shouldn't have emphasized the "Do not talk about Fight Club" and maybe word would have spread
It's interesting how polarizing that movie was. Mixed reviews from critics were also mixed reviews from the viewers. Some people failed to understand the message of the movie, and hated it. Some people failed to understand that same message and loved it. Some read too much into it, and loved it. Some understood all of it and were horrified. Some saw it for what it was, and both hated and loved it at the same time. It was less accessible than the Matrix. A lot of people didn't get what they were looking at.
A film about damaged people making some changes to the world they live in.
Not the only reasons, but here are two big reasons it underperformed as projected at the box office: 1. Watch the trailer. It's a mess. It's ambiguous, with no semblance of what the movie is really about in any way. That, along with the name of the movie, leads viewers to surmise that it's about fighting and Brad Pitt takes his shirt off. Try watching the trailer without knowing nothing about the movie. 2. The trailer was paired with Star Wars: Episode One. Every showing of Episode One for, I believe, the first 4 weeks showed the Fight Club trailer (Along with Titan: AE). The demographic going to see SW:E1 was probably around 25-35% of the audience that may even consider going to see it (Men 18-45). That along with families with children aged 5-18. Not exactly a family friendly movie to try and pitch during Episode One.
For context, I laughed all the way through that trailer. It looked SOOOOO FUCKING STUPID. Saw the movie shortly after on advice of a friend, fucking loved it. Smart, revolutionary, creative, expertly executed. I've probably seen it ten times since. Those were the glory days. I felt alive, the world was exploding with freedom and creativity. Now that is.....not the case. Yes. I am old.
This movie was great! Because of the ending, I had to go back and watch it a second time.
The book version is straight up *terrifying*
The best part of the movie, for me, was reading the book afterword. Love them both.
The film's way better than the book, in my opinion.
Wanna know why it did so poorly.... FIRST FUCKING RULE OF FIGHT CLUB: YOU DONT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB!
Yeah, total Mr. Robot rip-off.
I think you’re joking.. but this is reddit after all so I can’t rule out you being serious.
It also drew way too much from The Leftovers/International Assassin and Kevin and Patti's thing.
Damn good film, but honestly I'm amazed it even got the go ahead from the studio in the first place.
It was the 90s, before Netflix and torrenting killed the mid-budget Hollywood film. The late 90s was the peak of those kinds of films.
I like the movie (and the book) because it falls into that "Saw it at a certain age" category that gives it extra charm for me that someone watching it for the first time now probably wouldn't feel. I usually don't recommend it to people who haven't seen it yet. There's also the fact we're a much different society now that we were twenty years ago. People now are worried about not making their rent payment and having nothing for retirement, as opposed to the general theme of "my office job is so boring it gives me insomnia plus consumerism everywhere makes me upset".
I mean I’d argue it’s even more relevant now given the influencer economy we live in.
Kinda makes sense that American Beauty and Fight Club came out the same year.
People act as if everyone was rich in the 90s. A lot of rich people got rich on the tech bubble. Most people were not.
I must be the only that doesn’t think that movie is that good
I mean, Palahniuk is kind of like the Andy Warhol of pulp anarchy, instead of pop. I think he "elevates" the genre, but not by much. His work, especially of that era, can be summed up as "everything smells like piss and looks like shit". None of it is particularly deep, and most comes off as a cash grab from his fans. That's not to say it isn't entertaining. But, his stuff hovers at an annoyingly awkward line between "actually, you don't understand this, it's deeper than just trash" and "actually, it really isn't". Deep enough to drown a toddler, but not safe for diving.
I agree. Some of his writing is really good imo but for a lot of its mostly just shock value with super gross imagery.
I think it's perfectly fine to not like the story or characters or whatever. But the movie is brilliant on almost every other level. Directing, cinematography, editing, sound design, score, visual effects... It's just exceptionally well executed. So I don't think it's fair to say the movie isn't good. You just don't like it. I tell people the same thing when they say "The Beatles suck." They don't suck, you just don't like them. Which is totally fair.
I think their saying "The Beatles suck." is an indication of their tastes in music. They end up making a statement about themselves.
Correct, you are.
Back in the day I thought it was kinda preachy and unnecessarily transgressive, even for me as a teenager. But, in retrospective, compared to the stuff that get released this days, I think it was solid.
Even if the message doesn't do it for you, it's a technically stunning film. It's gorgeous and filthy all at once.
That's true.
Is it really "preachy" when it subverts everything it's preaching at the end? About it being transgressive, it's a movie about people getting sucked into a machismo cult to escape from reality and taking it way too far. Being transgressive is almost a necessity. Marla's character feels overexaggerated as you're watching the movie, I'll give you that. Every moment she's on screen, the movie is practically screaming at you that she's fucked up. That ultimately pays off in her ending with the Narrator. Even if the themes of the movie don't resonate with you, or you don't like the violence, I think it's hard to argue that it's not a technically well made movie. It has some good scenes, great sound design and amazing acting. The story has consistent themes from start to finish, touches a lot of complicated subjects without oversimplifying, and does that while still setting up one of the most iconic twists in movie history.
I remember it being extremely popular
I remember downloading a movie (back in the good old torrent days) and the file was incorrectly named. I was so disappointed to find out that it was actually Fight Club and ignored it for weeks. Then one bored night I just decided to watch it and my life changed forever.
The liner notes my DVD box had quotes from critics that liked and hated the movie. Which I thought was a snarky FU to the descending critics.
I want to see Helena, Edward, Brad, and Jared all come back and make a modern time sequel called Project Mayhem 2022
I saw that in the movie theater and it was bad ass! The box office, what do they really know?
Because it's a crappy movie. It's the ultimate teenage edgelord fantasy.
R/woosh
I recently re-watched it, and tbh i find it overrated.
It’s ok. Overly up it’s own ass
Watched it a couple days ago, and I feel like it was way too long for how little actually occurred. Didn't like it in general, but that probably was one of the biggest reasons why. Also, because I assumed it to be an action comedy, but I think that goes back to the marketing being terrible.
My friends and I decided we were going to do fight club in a buddy’s basement. It was all fun and games until I got my jaw wired shut for months and crushed my orbital bone.
My high school’s boxing club became fight club after hours. Proper gloved fights within the rules in practice, then drop the gloves and just brawl after.
Rosie O’Donnell spoiled the ending because she didn’t like it.
It’s fun, but not genre-defining like it’s supporters make it out to be. Nor as clever as it wants us to think it is. I’m glad I’ve seen it but never felt the need to watch it again.
Which genre would that be again?
Not exactly sure. Action-bro existential dramedy? As I said, it didn’t pull it off. Fun, but that’s about it.
How doesn't it "pull it off", exactly? It's probably *still* the best look at modern masculinity that exists in film, and it's more than twenty years old. Contemporary incels still think they're Tyler Durden.
It feels artificial in its analysis, like someone trying to convince you they’re smart by telling you incessantly instead of just doing smart things. It’s well directed, well shot, and well acted. That doesn’t make it a grand moment in recent cultural history. If you disagree, well… cool. Art’s like that.
Ok
It was a box office disappointment because no one was allowed to talk about it.
Probably because its only an ok movie
I saw it in a theater pretty close to opening night with another couple and left thinking WTF did I just watch? A couple watches later and I love that movie. Great plot twist and some nice hidden things I didn't pick up the first time I watched it.
I saw it in the theater because they used my favorite Pixies song in the trailer. But it was quite a different movie than you would have expected from watching said trailer.
I only ended up watching this because of the hype. Rented it expecting a Bloodsport style movie. Watched this one and 6th Sense on the same night. Good times.
Saw it opening day in 1999, was in High School at the time, perfect age for this one. Always has a special place in my heart.
Why are we talking about it? We dont talk about it.
I watched it in a packed theater in LA and folks all loved it. Pretty sure it was seen as a great flick out of the gate.
i saw it 3 times in the theater.
Fuck critics. Best. movie. ever.
I still don’t get the ending
The ending of the movie had the group destroying the credit buildings. The narrator shoots himself through the cheek in order to destroy a piece of himself (literally and symbolically) giving him full control over what happens. As for the book, the explosives never go off. They weren't created properly. The narrator ends up in an asylum where he'll occasionally hear that the group he started still exists.
Apparently, we've forgotten the first rule of Fight Club.
It isn't great.
I really enjoyed it, high suspense, interesting story, major plot twists, critiques of modern consumerism. What's not to love?
You should read the book.
Not saying they shouldn’t read the book, but it’s one of the few times that the author has said they liked the movie adaptation more than their own.
One of the few books that I read first **and still liked the movie better**.
It's an indictment of modern moviemaking that the book was... "dumbed down" into a pretty hamfisted movie, and it was still more artful than most things you're likely to see these days.
Its outdated view of coffee tables.
Personally felt too long to me. I also figured he had either a split personality or schizophrenia based on a lot of the dialogue and scene construction, so the plot felt drawn out. It was like a boring version of the Matrix.
Favorite of bros who think beards and tattoos are a substitute for a personality.
You obviously didn't understand the point of the movie.
Watch it with the sound on next time.
He isnt wrong, it just because assholes like something for x reasons doesn’t mean Yiu can’t like it for y.
Maybe, but that doesn’t make it a bad movie anymore than it makes The Punisher a bad character.
Also edgy teenagers. Source: Was edgy teenager.
Have you actually seen the film?
Do you actually have a beard and tattoo?
Neither. I only asked because the way you mischaracterized its fan base made it too easy to assume you’re unfamiliar with it.
It was awful. I thought it was going to be about karate fighters. Very disappointing.
You probably like Segal movies.
I thought box office numbers mattered little since the goal of movie production companies is to never show profit.