Nikoletta Sultisz

Review of a review : Fight Club

In this paper, an analysis of a film review will be presented on the basis of the
following regards: the main ideas and topics of the review, the key arguments
demonstrated by examples, the vocabulary, and the reviews organisation, and lastly,
a personal overall opinion of it.
The subject of the review is Fight Club, a movie from 1999, directed by David
Fincher. The critique was written by Peter Bradshaw, a British film critic and writer,
currently employed by The Guardian. It was published on the 12th of October,1999,
in The Guardian.
The author begins by claiming Fight Club to be revolving around the concept of
males deprivation of their masculinity, or as he puts it: modern consumer society
having allegedly rendered the poor dears' hunter-gathering instincts obsolete. A
highly sarcastic tone is used, most probably to display the authors negative opinion
about the movie in advance. Bradshaw hints, the movie is nothing more than a clich
with the crisis of masculinity theme, the representation of consumer society, and its
controversy.
After the introduction, the characters are analysed; the Narrator, played by
Edward Norton, is described as a pathetic, middle-aged man with a white collar job.
The author depicts his character as a typical subject for films, or at least, he suggests
it is. The other character is also introduced; Tyler Durden, personifying everything
that is macho and mascular, showing an obvious contrast. Even though Bradshaw
does not seem to be a fan of Fight Club, the actors performances are definitely not
diminished by him
Bradshaw does not state anything unfounded, he supports his ideas; for
instance, he also explains where does the film start to become dull. The point when
the Fight Club becomes a sort of anarchist gang is from where the movie is ruined for
him. He claims Fight club to be a dumbed-down extremism, Extremism Lite, nobrainer extremism, childishly fighting against bullshit corporate America that have
taken their testicles away. To be fair, the author does not exclusively show the
destructive, senseless side of the Fight Club, he adds the scene in which Tyler
threatens a Korean student to continue his studies; however, he suggests, the Club
does not turn into a useful organisation by that action. The fight scenes are also
criticised for their unoriginality; the author believes the lack of consequences in these
fights to be irrealistic.
The review is rather informal, using harsh expessions, however it does not
appear to be inappropriate. The vocabulary used might be complicated to
understand, especially for a non-native reader. The article is not strictly organised,
yet it is still easy to follow the main ideas. The arguments are supported by examples
and the author does not stick to his guns and does not completely denigrate the
movie, he also highlights the positive sides, such as the performance and the humour
of it.

Nikoletta Sultisz

My personal opinion of the review is greatly biased, since Fight Club belongs
to my favourite movies; but to be frank, Bradshaw presents his arguments and
problems with the movie in a convincing manner, and in some points I had to agree
with him. Despite that, I would suggest him a second watch, because Fight Club
became a sort of cult-movie for a reason. Moreover, he made one grave mistake: he
forgot the first rule of Fight Club.