Fight Club

Entertainment is a risky proposition. It doesn't matter if the risk is taken by a stand up comedian willing to face silence from a crowd or a trapeze artist working without a net, we as the viewers are impressed by the amount of effort required in creating the act and the level of danger in its presentation - unless it crosses the line into self indulgence.

Fight Club's creation was a high wire act. It combined effort in its crafting and danger in its content. It was a risky film to produce and poorly handled could have hampered the careers of Ed Norton and Brad Pitt.

It was released in 1999, which I believe marked the slow demise of a short golden age of film. An age where studios were more willing to spend money on quality writing and actors were more interested in their craft than their box office appeal. It was during this mini golden age we had such gems as Pulp Fiction, The Usual Suspects, 12 Monkeys, Fargo, The Big Lebowski and American Beauty. The end of this era was boldly stamped by the release of American Pie.

I know I have warned you before, but I must make it clear now. I will talk about spoilers from this point on.

Fight Club is a masterpiece. It is a movie that demands repeated viewings and has one of the best "Wait... what?" moments ever. Often the second viewing follows immediately after the first. Which is where you move past the "Tyler = Narrator" thing and listen to the actual message.

Unfortunately, I was told the twist of this movie prior to seeing it. Who does this? If you're going to get someone to see this movie, surely you say to them, "I can't tell you anything about this movie because the first rule of Fight Club is that nobody talks about Fight Club."

I missed this on in the cinemas because the trailers focused on the scenes of action and violence. It's like the marketing people didn't get the message of the movie at all. Which is quite ironic - that an anti establishment, anti consumerist movie is misunderstood by the people whose jobs it is to sell said movie.

So, on to the age to see this movie.

First, if you can't handle the violence of an MMA cage fight, you're too young to see this movie. The violence is presented in a way that is realistic. People are hurt, they wince in pain, they need first aid and they have scars that last. They get knocked down and don't get back up again and this can be confronting if you've been raised on a diet of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, Statham or anything starring a wrestler. This is not an action movie where Bond hits the bad guy in the face and he smiles. Nobody has ever done that in real life.

Second, if you haven't had a job and you don't know the pressures of conforming versus the limitations of a paypacket, you're too young to see this movie. You just won't understand if Mum and Dad are paying all your bills and you haven't done the maths to figure out how many hours it will take to pay for a new iphone while you're flipping burgers at McD's.

Finally, you have to have parents that are cool with you watching the content. And that's a pretty big ask. I would not be comfortable watching this with my parents, but I would be ok with discussing it with them afterwards.

Most countries have this movie rated at 18+. I would be ok with my kids watching this when they are around 20.

Over to you...