Then there are the films that tap into Fight Club’s criticism of the crumbling American Dream, with God Bless America seeing a spree-killer pluck a monologue straight out of the Tyler Durden book while justifying his violence: “America has become a cruel and vicious place. We reward the shallowest, the dumbest, the meanest and the loudest. We no longer have any common sense of decency.” In American Psycho, another serial murderer longs for the golden days of Americana, with Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman claiming that we “have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.”
Fellow Christian Bale vehicle The Machinist also features a main character who, plagued by insomnia, starts to lose his bearing on what is real and what is imagined. His shockingly emaciated body speaks to the dangers of obsession, a notion brilliantly captured in Black Swan, yet another work playing with duality in order to dig at canonical ideas of good and bad, worthy and unworthy. When speaking of self-harm and pain as a powerful bonding tool, one could look at the Jackass crew, the franchise first popping up on MTV less than a year after Fight Club opened in cinemas.
A quarter of a century on, Fight Club remains just as thrilling a film as it was when it first reached audiences, an almost perfect combination of sharp editing, a memorable score by the Dust Brothers, Jeff Cronenweth’s finely desaturated cinematography and two powerhouse lead performances, with Norton and Pitt respectively delivering some of their best work. It’s easy to see why generations old and new flock to the film, and Dirk is generous in his praise, which encapsulates much of the love for the film on : “Should this film be considered a ‘classic’? Most definitely, but I do think it looks at all the other ‘classics’ with a big ‘fuck you I don’t care’ grin. And it should, because no film like it has been made since.”
