>Eric, you have a lot of people who agree with you; on the other hand, many
>do not. In addition to the others I've mentioned, Chicago Tribune critic
>Michael
>Wilmington thought it was a really good movie and satire.
Is that the blurb-charlatan Wilmington whose exclamation-point-punctuated raves appear on about every third movie poster for Hollywood tripe? I can't see how he would know satire if it bit him on his studio-softened rear-end.
>The question I want to raise is, *why* do you think it's fascistic?
>Because of the organized violence by dolts who follow a charismatic leader?
>Because it suggests men should be "masculine," whatever that may mean?
Well, sure, I guess. To the second question, Fincher makes it pretty clear what he thinks being masculine means. The pat response to me saying this might be that Norton opposes this vision and in the end defeats it. But does he? It seems to me that he objects to not being the leader and not being informed of the direction of the movement rather than to any of its goals or tactics; his quarrels with the violence are purely personal, not with their content. And the fact that automatic-redemption is foisted on him, that he doesn't have to go through any struggle to receive it, ultimately makes fascism a more paltable option than whatever it is Norton represents in the end.
Which is not to say that what I expect from art is parable; I don't. But any work of art, especially one that is trying to do the things that Fight Club is attempting, does require a certain internal morality. (To Yoshie: "morality" shouldn't be confused with "moralisitic," a distinction that you don't seem able to quite grasp.) The artist should have a clear understanding of the world he is creating. Fincher doesn't, and his incoherence and confused statements end up glorifying facsism and killing his movie.
I do think there is a way to make a movie that shows the allure of fascism, that explores, as you say, Peter, the dolts who follow a charismatic leader into violence, but to do this without endorsing it requires a sharp aesthetic and a clear comprehension of the world you are sketching. As you say, Kubrick does this with A Clockwork Orange--though I wouldn't exactly characterize it as "fascist"--and succeeds because he has a vision and clear moral stance. The same can be said of Roberto Rosellini's Open City, which is the best and fullest cinematic condemnation of fascism that I have seen. Just as Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will is the best hagiography of it. Either way, politics aside, these films are great art. Fincher's no artist, merely a sheperd of Hollywood celebrities--a fatal flaw when you are trying to make Big Statements like Fight Club is.
Finally, I object to what seems to be the consensus view that this film, along with American Beauty, is an accurate depiction of the psychology of men today. I'm sure Faludi loves this outlook, seeing as how its themes of alienation and confusion dovetail nicely with her new book. But I think it's a mistake to assume that because a few bored, white, suburban, middle-class men are having a new crisis that the same crisis is effecting all men.
>So you're saying the satire doesn't work. And the frightening statement is?
That when Hollywood scans the landscape of fly-over country, from 30,000 feet, this is what they perceive; or, more scary, that this is what feel themselves.
>And the movie touches on the dehumanizing effects of corporate culture when
>Norton's character describes his job. If I remember correctly, he performs
>cost/benefit analysis on automobile defects, calculating whether the number
>of lives lost are worth a recall.
Again, the movie only "touches" on these things; it never coalesces into a whole, or into a critical evaluation or full representation of them. This failure, a sin of omission not commission, lends credibility to the turn toward fascism: his creation of a black-clad, skinheaded army hell-bent on destroying the banking system (read: Jewish-owned).
>Granted, the movie doesn't provide any answers
Oh, but it does. And quite unsettling ones at that.
Eric