Shelf Life: Fight Club

By all accounts, 1999 was one of the best years in film history, featuring an amazing glut of debuts and career-defining follow-ups from a rich and varied roster of directors who are steadily working some ten years later. For example American Beauty, which was also released in ‘99, was one of the first films revisited in our “Shelf Life” series, and it seemed most likely to lose its luster, especially given its Oscar win and almost universal critical acclaim, but thankfully the film sustained most of its initial appeal and impact.

Fight Club, meanwhile, faced markedly more polarizing reactions from audiences and critics, although like Alan Ball’s film it captured a moment in the zeitgeist that made it important almost regardless of how good it was. Ten years later, Fox Home Entertainment just released the film on Blu-ray in a gorgeous new set, and after a decade of conspicuous consumption and ironic detachment, it’s time to see whether the weight of its message or meaning still holds relevance.

The Facts: Released on October 15, 1999, David Fincher’s Fight Club is an adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel of the same name, adapted by screenwriter Jim Uhls. Its incendiary deconstruction of contemporary culture and the narcotizing effects of consumerism, particularly on men, was met with mixed reactions: some hailed it as a brilliant social commentary, while others condemned it as empty provocation, or worse, irresponsible.

Regardless, the film eventually earned $100 million domestically against its $63 million budget (reportedly $17.5 million of which went to star Brad Pitt), and enjoys an 80 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was nominated for only one Academy Award, for Sound Effects Editing, but it was also nominated for several awards by different critics groups including the Online Film Critics Society, and subsequently netted several awards for its DVD release, which featured several commentaries and featurettes exploring the world within the film.

What Still Works: While during its original release the film was deliberately, perhaps even conventionally reactionary (“f*ck Martha Stewart!”), it really serves as a powerful reminder that contemporary consumer culture is still designed to satisfy us in superficial ways and ultimately distract us from the human connections and more visceral accomplishments that prove more meaningful. Particularly with the benefit of hindsight, the film’s analysis of overmodulated consumption, broken down to the details and objects in our life that supposedly define us, is especially potent, and deserves to be revisited as a reminder to remain vigilant against that kind of complacency.

fight2

Meanwhile, I think especially now the film escapes being mere provocation or dangerous advocacy because it ultimately acknowledges that these characters are trading one oppressive structure for another, and that even the intentional absence of order eventually creates its own organized sense of routine, if not full-fledged cultural mores (hence Project Mayhem, the “space monkeys”‘ blind devotion to their anarchic causes, etc).

In terms of the performances, Pitt and Edward Norton are both really terrific as, essentially, the same guy, albeit in different iterations of his self-confidence, much less self-awareness. Fincher, coming off of the menacing polish of The Game, finds a gorgeously gritty aesthetic that really brings the narrator’s oblivious self-examination to life, and creates a truly subversive and valuable portrait of what is essential schizophrenia, filtered through both movie-star sheen and the thematically-reinforced, exacting opposite of stardom’s supposed “importance” – namely, that all of that beauty and truth is as illusory as anything else.

What Doesn’t Work: Surprisingly little, although the unwieldy structure, oddball rhythms of the storytelling and its eventual descent into (self-) destruction seem more shocking in the context of real-life events like 9/11, not to mention our culture’s subsequent escape even further into conventional, comfortable forms of entertainment. There’s lingering resonance to the destruction of the banks at the end of the film, both in terms of domestic and international terrorism and the current state of our economic system, but it’s subjective whether that’s a virtue or a shortcoming for film, since it certainly isn’t the film’s fault.

Otherwise, there is a degree to which the idea of white guys bemoaning their pampered, IKEA-sustained existence feels, well, so 1999, and that their reaction feels like a more than slightly self-indulgent rebellion that people with constructive minds wouldn’t act out. But as a parable and a perhaps necessary reminder of the complacency and boring blandness that can come from a life lived within the lines – and in light of the fact it’s meant not to be taken literally - Fight Club still transcends such criticisms.

What’s The Verdict: Fight Club is a really terrific movie and I am genuinely relieved to say that it holds up beautifully for the most part. Not only was it the first movie that I bought on DVD, but it was an important one in my adult, intellectual maturation, particularly in discovering that as conceptually appealing as such reckless behavior might be, it ultimately serves as mush as a prison as any other philosophy or paradigm. I think I still prefer Fincher’s previous film, The Game, if only because it was just so shocking and cathartic when I first saw it, but Fight Club is a wake-up call and a punch in the gut that needs to still be felt.

by Todd Gilchrist

Have you ever confused a dream with life

or stolen something , you did’nt need

Felt that your dead already?

I dream of a new world

Sick so sick , I am

There was a Street, Star

Oh, how much emotions did it have

How to be well in this? Well? Healthy?

Save yourself from yourself for some time, see what happens.

You find a new you, or the old one, the one you had forgotten about already.Try it, it’s worth it.

And hey common, what do you have to loose?Something you are not sure about anyway?

Gods, Demons and the others

We have it all in ourselves

By loosing everyone and having only what one could carry

we found more then we had ever seen

Then we became new

Rebirth, they call it sometimes

I put it Re-Birth….as Re for recycle

36 days till christmas = a time to sleep and the time for us

no time to be sick, every minute is precious

common, I want to live with you.-.

A Woody Allen film

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

For my love, Barcelona

*

Broken Embraces

For my love, Lanzarote

Something with that woman:D

This is the final image for the Fightclub Halloween challenge. As usual there’s loads I could have done to this, but I wanted to use this more as an experiment in inking in Photoshop since I’d never really been that successful with it before. I’m quite happy with the result too.

Voting is open for this right now so pop on over here to cast your votes.

Little bit more work on the character design before I get to work on the final sketch. Just added a few more scars and scratches in, in my quest for the perfect Pepper zombie. Beginning to think she’s looking like something out of Dead Snow, must be the helmet.

So, onto the final, and after many sketches, thumbnails and doodles (none of which survived the bin, which is something I rarely do, but they were BADDD!), this is what I finally came up with.

I wanted to show her mindlessly beating the ‘brains’ out of Tellyhead, this is the only way I could see her beating an inorganic opponent. I’m hoping she looks mindless enough.

I’ve decided I’m going to ink and colour this, rather than just paint it. I really need to practice my inking in PS, I’ve never been happy with my attempts in the past. I’m not really sure what I feel I’ve been doing wrong, it might be that I miss the old feeling of a pen on paper for inking, but hey ‘Get over it!’. This seems like a perfect image to practice with. Let’s see if I can learn soemthing from it.

This is a film series documenting the many similarities that Hollywood movies have in common with the attacks on 9/11.

Images are used under the Fair Use act.

Two things that you need to keep in mind when viewing this series:

1) All media was released prior to September 11th, 2001.

2) Films are created in a 100% CONTROLLED environment. If something is on the screen, you can bet it was meant to be there

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3- The movie “Fight Club”

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

There are more of this series – they can be found on You Tube… but already in these first 6 parts there is more than ample evidence – somebody knew something…

The new Halloween monthly (well, three weeks now) challenge is now on in the ImagineFX forums. The challenge is to redesign one of your previously beaten characters as a zombie, then take vengeance on the opponent who beat you. My Sgt Pepper was in the second ever round of Fightclub and was beaten by Chris Scruff’s Tellyhead. She never really lived that down so this seems like a good time to get her own back. Here’s my redesign so far:

This’ll be my first ever zombie pic, so really looking forward to doing it.

The worst kind of Monday is a Monday like today. Outside it’s grey and rainy and unfriendly and dark. Looking outside right now is like looking at my bank statements 3 weeks into the month. You kind of sigh with resignation because there’s nothing you can really do except endure.

Go straight back to bed. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200

The best kind of Monday is a Monday like today, when you can stay the fuck in bed. That was impressive, check that out, italics, it’s taken me two weeks of blogging to figure that out. Fuck, I’m smart.

Right now, in a perfet world, I’m doing this, writing like I am now, exept I’m still in bed and I’m getting paid a shitload for it. That’s the goal people. I’ve always suspected that if I stuck with writing, really worked hard at it, relentlessly, I could end up doing something pretty sweet. This blog is my attempt at sticking to a writing routine, no harm in that right?

But for the sake of my readers, I’ve decided to add a ‘Character Bios’ page to the site. That way I’ll make it so you can just click a hyperlink whenever someone is mentioned, click that person’s name and get a rad bio of that character. That way we all get to know one another in a close, intimate way and we become pals for life. I’ll try add the first one tonight and then add one a day until everyone’s up there.

After that post yesterday I didn’t go back to sleep, I decided instead to tidy the entire flat with lots of encouraging words but not much physical effort from Jenni-fuh. J-Rab had to go to the airport to meet up with her cousin who was in transit for a few hours, so I figured I’d use the time to straighten things up and do some scripting.

I’m scripting an animated TV show, I don’t wanna give too many details over the interwebs where people can steal it and stuff, but Wopna and I decided a few months back that we were going to combine his skills as a designer and animator and mine as a writer to make the pilot episode of an animated series.

We scripted the pilot and it turned out pretty good I thought, pretty funny. This took us about 2 months. Then after that Wopna started the storyboarding, and so far he’s sketched out about 8 shots in four months and has made it all the way to page 2 of the 33 page script.

Frustrates the fuck out of me. What we’ve got is so good, it has so much fucking potential and we work really, really fucking well together creatively, probably the best I’ve ever worked with someone else, but since we’ve hit the storyboarding part of our project, NOTHING has happened.

It’s a repeating pattern in my life. That’s also why this blog is important, it’s something I can do by myself, I don’t have to rely on a goddamn soul and that’s why it’s going to succeed where everything else I’ve tried so far has failed.

Tarddog in action

So anyway, I did get some scripting done yesterday for the episode after the pilot (episode 1? episode 2?) but wasn’t that happy with it. Mostly I was just going through the motions, just putting words to paper. The magic, in most cases, is in the editing and re-editing and re-re-editing of your work. The first draft is just a way of getting it all out, a lump of raw creativity, only after you’ve done that can you start to whittle it down to something you actually like.

I studied English at varsity for four years and got my honours, and a side-effect of studying and analysing and criticising so many novels is that I am seriously cirtical of anything I put down. It has to be perfect, it has to move me in some direction, otherwise I hate it and want to tear it up and burn it.

We ended yesterday in the coolest possible way by veging on the couch and first watching Men in Black II and then The Girl Next Door. MIB II was a real shocker, just kinda bounced around all over the place, wasn’t funny, and then ended. The Girl Next Door was actually surprisingly good though.

No girl I've ever lived next door to has ever looked like this. EVER.

Any movie has to follow a certain structure in order to appeal to a mainstream audience, it’s something I’ve studied in my own capacity over the last two years, and while I still need a lot of practise recognising and analysing it in the movies I watch, I can spot the major turning points as they happen.

What I like is when a movie flows and reaching those points happens in a natural and unexpected way, The Girl Next Door did this with a lot more proficiency than typical high-school, teen-fest movies. When a movie very clearly just forces the storyline to get to those points, it feels clumsy and lazy to me. Watch Zack and Miri Make A Porno for an example of a movie that just moves from one disjointed point to another simply to satisfy basic story structure.

The only thing worth watching in this movie is Miri

It has funny parts, but generally fails because it relies on predictable and cliched plot devices to advance the story. I could give you the two sentences that set the story up and you’ll guess the concluding one in a second.

My top 3 movies of all time right now are:

1. Fight Club

Because we are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world

2. Memento

Because I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning, even if I can't remember them. I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world's still there

3. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Because I came up with a new game-show idea recently. It's called The Old Game. You got three old guys with loaded guns onstage. They look back at their lives, see who they were, what they accomplished, how close they came to realizing their dreams. The winner is the one who doesn't blow his brains out. He gets a refrigerator

I love those fucking movies. Time to pull my head out my ass though, time to hit the grindstone.

Later party people!

-ST

I wrote this first:I really hit her?

What was going on?Where did the drugs attack me? Why could’nt I shut up and go home. Or fall asleep.Why did I have a bad trip. Where did it come from? Memory loss, everything is black.Only some clips of walking— walking in panic— cold–sadness—- everything was so cold—- everything was wrong— people do not look at me—- why do you walk here..I dont want anyone around—//….but I actually think that there was nobody//I do remember the fact that I was in panic at one point.Real big Panic. Where it was, or why, I do not know….Do I want to know? I run away from people who tryed to reach me…I had no real coat on and it was freezing outside.I went hysteric.

I hit her.

Mother Theresa, I hit Mother Theresa.

So I call her in my head, in my world.

And now I know

It was MDMA!

One went first, then me and some others.IT was too much. And this shit what is going around in Estonia, is not good stuff. It is mixed with all kinds of shit. What if one of us died? Fucking hell, now nothing matters, not the things I did, or other did.But only what they did!

To their own friends, not even sayed a word about MDMA or smth else.

Nothing

Fucking Nothing

I have been in coma before

…—so this was dangerous

Ze lijden aan een ernstig slaaptekort vanwege het doorstuiteren op smerige energiedrankjes. Op internet staan filmpjes van vechtende tieners die je ook nog kunt ‘raten’, alsof het maken ervan niet erg genoeg is. De meest populaire sport onder jongeren is comazuipen en in DAG stond op 12 augustus 2009 dat ze dit volgens hulpverleners doen om hun problemen en gebrek aan zelfvertrouwen te ‘verdrinken’. Door het ideaalbeeld dat de media creëren zouden meisjes zich vaak onzeker en dik voelen schrijft Second Sight op september 2008. Ik maak me zorgen om deze kinderen van onder de 15 jaar en ik weet denk ik al waarom die generatie zo gefrustreerd raakt: ze praten niet meer met elkaar! Conversatie vindt wel plaats op internet, maar als ik op straat een groepje zie staan hebben ze allemaal een ipod in hun oor. Met wie moeten deze frusteens hun problemen bepraten? Ik denk dat die kids vooral geen huisarrest moeten krijgen als ze weer eens dronken thuis zijn gekomen, maar een workshop voor zelfwaardering. En heel veel liefde van hun ouders, maar dat spreekt voor zich. Toch?

Lyke.

Here’s my latest final image for the Fighting in the Aisles challenge, with which I came joint second. Hope on over to the main Fightclub blog to see all the results and links to the various stages. Spent a long time trying to get the composition of this to a degree I was happy with, and also keep plenty of action in, it’s always quite difficult with so many characters. I would have loved more time to go back and finish a few details in the pic, I think it lacks texture, maybe I’ll go back at some point and sort it out.

This just had to be the second post on this blog !

“…Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off…” – Tyler Durden

The free for all is still ongoing over on ImagineFX.com, alongside the 2009 Tournament. My character, Smog is currently getting a beat down, as more opponents join in the fracas. There’s still a good couple of weeks yet before the final image has to be in, so plenty of time to think up something cool. Here are my wip images in the meantime. Everyone is trying to do this in comic form so that we have a readable storyline to follow along by the end of it. More later.

Okay first up, this is the first post I’ve done through email, so let’s see how well that works. (And it did, hurray!)

More importantly, the Fightclub Tournament is on over at ImagineFX at the moment, it’s in the semi final rounds at the moment. Basically 12 artist started out each with an originally created character. They were paired off in six rounds for the Preliminarys, and each had to paint a final image with both their characters in combat, at which point everyone on the forums voted for one or other opponent, the winner of which would go through to the semis. Make any sense? If you’re not sure what I’m on about go on over to The Fightclub Blog, and you’ll find all the links to the various fights going on at the minute.
Not only is the tournament on at the moment, but I’ve started a ‘fight in the aisles’ there too. A couple of people were miffed at missing the deadline for the start of the Tournament and were itching for a fight, so we decided that we’d have a freeforall in the audience. So far only two fighters have entered the fray, but entry is open to all and sundry until the 20th July, so feel free to sign up and join in! This is my character Smog and his description:

SMOG
Smog is a lithe, athletic cat burgler, his identity unknown to the authorities, prone to bouts of hot-headedness. He uses cannisters of chemicals on his back to create a noxious cloud of gas from four pipes on his back, while his facemask and googles allow him to breath and see through the fumes. He wears padded leather armour and a light chainmail vest, and his gloves and boots are clawed with Lutetium, allowing him to climb walls, and which also allow for quite a vicious attack. He wears a belt with various other little vials and chemical potions he uses for a number of different tasks.

Nach den beiden letzten, doch eher politisch herausgeforderten Reitern, heute mal wieder etwas lässiges, für den leichten Humor. Sozusagen ein reiner Popcorn-Reiter. Auch mal schön.

Dazu breche ich mit einer Tradition. Ich gebe einem meiner Geschöpfe einen Namen. Der eine oder andere von meinen Lesern kennt vielleicht die Situation. Man hat irgendwo in einem dunklen Eck, das Maul etwas zuweit aufgerissen und sieht sich mit den, einem gegenüber stehenden, schlagkräftigen Argumenten etwas überfordert. Komme mir jetzt niemand mit der Argumentation, intelligenten, sprachbegabten Menschen, passiert so etwas nicht. Ein mir bekannter, damals noch studierender Jurist, ist sehr sprachbegabt und man sagt ihm Intelligenz nach. Besonders nach einigem an geistigen Getränken. Letzter Punkt, förderte in seiner Jugend aber eher solche Situationen.

Aber zurück zum Thema. In solch einer Lage ist es wünschenswert einen Namen rufen zu können. Von einem Typen, der einen langen Schatten wirft. Egal wie dunkel es ist. Sprich, einen Türrahmen, besser einen Scheunentor, bequem auffüllt. Dazu sollte der Name aus möglichst wenig Silben bestehen. Ein Ruf Richtung eines “Kevin Marc Anton”, funktioniert meist nur bis zum “Kev” und wird dann vorzeitig durch die Diskussionspartner unterbrochen.
Also hat eines meiner Geschöpfe jetzt einen Namen. Einen historisch bedeutsamen, wenn auch oft falsch interpretierten.

Ich wünsche meinen Lesern ein schönes Wochenende und behaltet euren Kopf. Auch in Situationen, die auf den ersten Blick etwas einseitig gewichtet erscheinen.

Well this week’s blog is going to be about what those famous top 10 movies. Now everyone has their own opinions or what they think is hands down the best movies. I know I have my own assortment of movies, but there are so many to choose from.

In this blog for all those who read this, I would like you to put your favorite top 10 movies of all time.

Here are mine (in no particular order).

1. The Usual Suspects – What does 5 guys, a line-up and a name have in common. The plot for the perfect crime.

A crime suspense drama, that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole movie.

2. The Shawshank Redemption – This movie is about a banker named Andy Dufresne, who goes to prison for committing the crime of murder. While in prision he befriends another inmate who creates a bond of friendship, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.

3. SNATCH – Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

4. Fightclub – The rules are simple, rule 1: You do not talk about fightclub, rule 2: You do not talk about fightclub.

“If this your first time at Fightclub; then you have to fight” – Tyler Durden.

5. Edward Scissorhands – A lonely man who has scissor for hands is welcomed into the suburb community. Will the community accept him or shun him away because of his “abnomality”?

6. Amercian Beauty – The tales of a average man named Lester Burham.. Lester, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life, average life to a new direction.

7. Office Space – What life looks like when your working in a cublical job. Where life seems to linger on day by day. A Comedic tale of company workers who hate their jobs and decide to rebel against their greedy boss.

8. Braveheart - A story about a young Scottish rebel, who fights against the trannary and corruption of the evil king of England.

9. Empire Records – A movie that portrays what life is like working in a record store before it goes corprate.

10. Rounders – A story that is narrorated by a man who is well adjusted to the game of “poker”.

Few others: Dazed and Confused, Old School, The Godfather, Se7en, and Animal House.

Well thats my list. It changes from time to time but I’d have to say those are some of my all time favorites.

So I’m curious what’s your favorites?  How do you rank them or why are they your favorites?

That’s all for now movie fanaticz

s4r

Wunschgedanken und Realität:
Am letzten Dienstagabend habe ich den Film Fightclub gesehen. Wieder einmal. Ein Klassiker. Enthusiastisch habe ich mitgefühlt. Mich selbst überwunden und der Umklammerung des Konsums frenetisch den Kampf angesagt.

Am nächsten Tag habe ich mein iPhone verloren. Im Tram M17. Irgendwo zwischen Karlshorst und Schöneweide. An der zweitletzten Haltestelle habe ich das Tram verlassen, den Verlust sofort bemerkt. Bei der nächsten Station das Tram rennend eingeholt, das Telefon war bereits verschwunden.

Zufall?

It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.
Chuck Palahniuk – Fight Club

Fightclub Fail!

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