This time I complain about the endings to The Prestige! while admitting that I'd like Fight Club better if it was a TV show. If you would like to read the full thing go to BBT.
IMO the basic problem with Fight Club is that it attempts to combine a subjective POV, an unreliable narrator describing a nonexistent character, and images that conform to the narrator's fantasy. Film makes images too physical and literal for that to work. Hitchcock complained that the book of "Psycho" cheated with sentences (not in Norman's voice) like "Mother did this," "Mother said that." FC is filled with similar outright cheats where the characters BOTH interact with either the physical world or third parties, and it has just as many loose ends, where you're left scratching your head, saying "that's odd." I have 10 or so key examples of this but I don't want to flood your post...
I enjoy dystopias but the movie takes itself too seriously to capture the outrageous fun of the comic (the violence and language is incredibly tepid), and tries to disguise directionless writing as camp. It's how "Mad Max" might have turned out had it been written by MTV VJs.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 01:47 am (UTC)Now do "Tank Girl."
Tank Girl
Date: 2008-04-02 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 12:25 pm (UTC)Don't laugh, Prestige, you're next!
--G
no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 03:29 pm (UTC)