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Fight Club: Rob's Reviews
92 Plays4 years ago
Welcome to the first episode of MGTTM presents the EPU otherwise known as the extended podcast universe. In this debut episode Rob hosts with a special appearance by his brother to discuss Fight Club.
Show Notes
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Transcript
Introduction to MGTTM-EPU
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome, listeners, to another episode of Matt Goes to the Movies.
00:00:17
Speaker
You're probably wondering why I don't sound like Matt, because I'm not Matt.
00:00:23
Speaker
I am Rob Rees.
00:00:23
Speaker
I'm Rob Rees.
00:00:24
Speaker
Matt was nice enough to loan me his channel.
00:00:27
Speaker
We're going to kind of introduce something new.
00:00:29
Speaker
This is the Matt Goes to the Movies Extended Podcast Universe, or MGTTM-EPU for short, which is really not any shorter at all whatsoever.
00:00:40
Speaker
What a welcome returning subscribers to the show.
Collaborations and Emotional Connections
00:00:43
Speaker
And if this is your first time listening to Matt Goes to the Movies, you have to subscribe because we're talking about Fight Club.
00:00:50
Speaker
And it's a film that...
00:00:52
Speaker
I am incredibly excited to discuss.
00:00:55
Speaker
One of the things that has really gotten Matt and I so excited to work on the show that he's got plenty of episodes.
00:01:02
Speaker
He's done solo.
00:01:03
Speaker
There's plenty of episodes we've done together and there's lots of episodes we've done with our friend Harrison from the basement binge.
00:01:10
Speaker
Quick shout out to his show.
00:01:11
Speaker
You can find all of the notes.
00:01:13
Speaker
Matt's going to put those in the show notes here.
00:01:15
Speaker
You can find out a way to check out his show.
00:01:17
Speaker
He's been great to work with.
00:01:19
Speaker
We've done a couple episodes on his channel with the Fast and the Furious series.
00:01:24
Speaker
He's done stuff on Matt Goes to the Movies for the Disney Plus show.
00:01:27
Speaker
So make sure you check out his stuff.
00:01:29
Speaker
But one of the things that we've really talked a lot about is the emotional connection that so many people have to films.
00:01:37
Speaker
and the things that people just gravitate to about movies.
00:01:40
Speaker
And it really got me to thinking a lot about some of the movies that have made lasting impressions on me and some things that I really wanted to talk about and some films I really wanted to review that might be a little outside the normal content chosen by the program director here at Matt Goes to the Movies.
Meet Co-host Eric Greed
00:02:00
Speaker
Matt likes to focus on a lot of things that I love.
00:02:02
Speaker
He loves to focus on comic book movies,
00:02:04
Speaker
Sci-fi definitely dabbles in horror.
00:02:08
Speaker
But some of the films that are maybe ones that have really landed hard with me and stick with me and have made a big impact on my life might fall a little bit out of them.
00:02:18
Speaker
So I wanted to take a chance to really kind of get into some of those and some of those emotional connections.
00:02:25
Speaker
And I started thinking about it and it was something, something became very clear to me right away that I needed to ask a co-host to come on with me.
00:02:35
Speaker
someone who definitely shares many of these connections to the many of these same films.
00:02:41
Speaker
Many of these films we watched together for the first time and it just made a lot of sense to me to invite this person on.
00:02:48
Speaker
So I've got a co-host for this with me and I'd like to introduce him.
00:02:52
Speaker
His name is Robert Paulson.
00:02:54
Speaker
No, it's not Robert Paulson.
00:02:56
Speaker
It's actually my brother, Eric Greed.
00:02:58
Speaker
So
00:02:58
Speaker
Uh, I want to introduce Eric, uh, while Matt might be my brother from another mother, Eric is my actual real brother from the same mom.
00:03:07
Speaker
Uh, so, uh, Eric, thanks so much for coming on the show with me.
00:03:10
Speaker
We're still not a hundred percent positive that you weren't adopted, but, um, yeah, awesome to do this.
00:03:17
Speaker
I love it.
00:03:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:19
Speaker
So Eric, I want you to kind of introduce yourself to the Matt goes to the movie audience.
Eric's Love for Heist Movies and Star Wars
00:03:25
Speaker
Um,
00:03:26
Speaker
What films do you love the most?
00:03:28
Speaker
If people are listening to your thoughts on Fight Club, what films are the ones that you think about that you absolutely have these lifelong connections to?
00:03:40
Speaker
Why do you get into movies?
00:03:42
Speaker
Tell us about your preferences.
00:03:45
Speaker
I am such a sucker for a heist movie.
00:03:49
Speaker
I love a movie about a planned heist.
00:03:55
Speaker
All the Oceans 11, Oceans 12, all that.
00:03:58
Speaker
Can't get enough of it.
00:03:59
Speaker
I'll watch those all the time.
00:04:01
Speaker
Don't care how cheesy things get.
00:04:03
Speaker
They're great.
00:04:05
Speaker
Bank Job, another one.
00:04:07
Speaker
Awesome.
00:04:08
Speaker
Anything heist related, anything Star Wars related, pretty much in all things, it's going to just be Star Wars.
00:04:17
Speaker
If I don't know what else I'm doing, boop, Star Wars, it's on.
00:04:22
Speaker
Yeah, so Star Wars is certainly a big part of the content here on Matt Goes to the Movies.
00:04:27
Speaker
We've spent, in fact, Matt started this channel around just reviewing the Skywalker saga before he decided to expand it to reviewing a variety of films.
00:04:37
Speaker
We just recently completed a total breakdown between Matt Harrison and myself of the entire Star Wars film saga.
00:04:45
Speaker
So in true MGTTM fashion,
00:04:49
Speaker
Eric, I want you to give the listeners your Star Wars rankings.
00:04:53
Speaker
If there's 11 films that have been released theatrically, we're not really talking about the Clone Wars film right now.
00:04:59
Speaker
We're just talking about the live action films.
00:05:02
Speaker
So to give the listeners kind of an idea of your preferences and your take on things, so they have kind of a better understanding of who you are, why don't you go ahead and give us your Star Wars rankings.
00:05:13
Speaker
Start at the bottom and work your way to the top.
00:05:14
Speaker
And by the way, I want to make sure you know that there is one
00:05:22
Speaker
I'm going to pause the recording Cut it off right here And delete it forever Because there is one film That absolutely cannot be rated too high And listeners of this show Certainly know which one I'm talking about So go ahead, don't get it wrong I'm sure you're probably talking about The Last Jedi Oh, you nailed it Yes, that is the film Alright, so let me I'll start, I'll be like Drake, I'll start from the bottom Now we're here I actually have number 11
00:05:51
Speaker
Rise of Skywalker.
00:05:54
Speaker
It was so disappointing to me.
00:05:57
Speaker
And I have to, I guess I'll preface all my rankings.
00:06:00
Speaker
You really, everybody needs to understand that there's context that I have that a lot of people don't.
00:06:07
Speaker
I've read a crap ton of star Wars books, novels that were released way before Lucasfilm sold anything to Disney.
00:06:16
Speaker
and what was considered the expanded universe is now called legends.
00:06:20
Speaker
So it's actually not like technically canon.
00:06:23
Speaker
So I knew a lot of stuff before it became stuff that was not supposed to be known, I guess it was kind of the old forbidden knowledge.
00:06:30
Speaker
So I, I have a lot of background that allows me to appreciate things in a different way that, that other people do, I guess.
00:06:37
Speaker
So rise of Skywalker for me, just that's, that's at the bottom lack of imagination,
00:06:43
Speaker
The plot was kind of scattered and I just felt like they lost the roots.
00:06:46
Speaker
Like it just, this was the most disconnected that I felt from all star Wars universe related material rise of Skywalker bottom for sure.
00:06:58
Speaker
Last Jedi is coming in at number 10.
00:07:02
Speaker
I, uh, well done.
00:07:04
Speaker
This, this show gets to continue.
00:07:06
Speaker
You read it properly.
00:07:08
Speaker
I think the most redeeming quality,
00:07:10
Speaker
of this besides Daisy Ridley is the Praetorian guard fight scene.
00:07:17
Speaker
It's cool.
00:07:18
Speaker
I know that you have feelings about it that don't necessarily rank it as cool, but if you're talking about understanding, you know, the, the George Lucas Kurosawa sort of theme,
00:07:32
Speaker
you know, the Western slash Shogun mashup.
00:07:36
Speaker
It's a cool fight scene.
00:07:37
Speaker
I like it.
00:07:38
Speaker
Everybody's got different weapons.
00:07:39
Speaker
You know, it, it, it just, it brings a lot to the table.
00:07:42
Speaker
It may not be a classically well done fight scene in that sense, but it's entertaining.
00:07:48
Speaker
And that's ultimately what I appreciate the most from all forms of visual entertainment.
00:07:53
Speaker
It's gotta be entertaining.
00:07:54
Speaker
You know, it was like, I like character development.
00:07:57
Speaker
I like really good plot.
00:07:59
Speaker
devices, but you know, if it's, if it's not a heist, it's not a star Wars thing.
00:08:02
Speaker
You really got to be solid on those things.
00:08:04
Speaker
So, um, the Phantom Menace comes in at number nine.
00:08:11
Speaker
I struggle with redeeming qualities here.
00:08:14
Speaker
Darth Maul.
00:08:15
Speaker
Awesome.
00:08:16
Speaker
Ray Park is great.
00:08:18
Speaker
Um, such a, such a cool stunt dude, but, um, there's really a lot of deliberate foreshadowing, which is fun.
00:08:25
Speaker
If you kind of know the whole universe before you watch it,
00:08:29
Speaker
Um, the pod race though, too long, just too long.
00:08:32
Speaker
They could have made that interesting and made it eight minutes shorter.
00:08:36
Speaker
I agree.
00:08:38
Speaker
Attack of the clones comes in at number eight.
00:08:41
Speaker
I really do genuinely love the political stuff, which is probably the biggest negative that a lot of people have with this.
00:08:49
Speaker
It moves really slowly and people just feel like, what the hell?
00:08:53
Speaker
Like my kid didn't understand any of this.
00:08:55
Speaker
You know what I like?
00:08:56
Speaker
That's kind of like a lot of the negative stuff.
00:08:59
Speaker
I loved it because there's so much context.
00:09:02
Speaker
If you, if you know about like Palpatine's rise from being a, you know, some dork from Naboo who was in like the, you know, the, the junior debate club and moved on to, you know, this life in the Senate, there's a lot of stuff that you can appreciate.
00:09:19
Speaker
He, this dude played the longest possible game of chess.
00:09:24
Speaker
The long con started in episode two and,
00:09:28
Speaker
There is some amount of appreciation there.
00:09:30
Speaker
Plus this is the first time we get to see Yoda
The Impact of Star Wars
00:09:33
Speaker
being a badass.
00:09:34
Speaker
He's not just some decrepit 800 year old being of an unknown race.
00:09:40
Speaker
You know, he's the fight with Dooku.
00:09:43
Speaker
It's cool.
00:09:43
Speaker
It's fun.
00:09:44
Speaker
It's, you don't get to see Yoda flipping around, you know, in the OG trilogy.
00:09:48
Speaker
So that's a new thing.
00:09:50
Speaker
It's fresh and it's kind of shocking the first time you see it.
00:09:53
Speaker
So I always appreciate it for that.
00:09:54
Speaker
The Han Solo movie,
00:09:58
Speaker
It's a heist movie.
00:10:00
Speaker
You know, it, it puts it sort of close to the middle of the list, kind of bottom middle of the list.
00:10:06
Speaker
You know, there's no Jedi involvement really, but it still feels like it's in the star Wars universe, which is really important.
00:10:11
Speaker
If you're going to make a star Wars movie, it has to fit.
00:10:14
Speaker
And Alden Ehrenreich straight up.
00:10:17
Speaker
I think he does a great job of playing a young Han Solo.
00:10:20
Speaker
He takes notes.
00:10:22
Speaker
It's tough to do.
00:10:23
Speaker
What,
00:10:24
Speaker
Harrison Ford did in the seventies and, you know, puts it on display, you know, as far as the timeline goes, you know, like 20 years prior to this, you know, 10 years, whatever it is, he does a great job.
00:10:38
Speaker
It's believable.
00:10:38
Speaker
And that's, that's like the most important thing for me.
00:10:41
Speaker
If I'm talking to star Wars, do I believe that this is star Wars?
00:10:44
Speaker
Do I believe this fits in that storyline, that universe?
00:10:48
Speaker
Uh, number six is going to be revenge of the Sith.
00:10:53
Speaker
Um,
00:10:54
Speaker
This is where you first see the kind of the OG trilogy starting to fall into place.
00:10:58
Speaker
They, they start putting all these pieces together and, and dropping some foreshadowing, some hints.
00:11:05
Speaker
Um, this probably has the best lightsaber tools of, of all the pre, uh, prequels.
00:11:10
Speaker
Um, big, big negative I have with this one.
00:11:13
Speaker
And I, this is the, probably the biggest thing that stuck out in my head.
00:11:17
Speaker
I went to see this in the theaters by myself cause I'm a loser, but, um,
00:11:22
Speaker
I felt like they really rushed the end of it.
00:11:25
Speaker
Like they really put like in the last 15 minutes, so much crap to make it connect with episode four, a new hope.
00:11:33
Speaker
We just, it felt rushed.
00:11:35
Speaker
It felt like it was too much.
00:11:36
Speaker
It felt like it could have maybe done a little bit better of a job of planning.
00:11:41
Speaker
So it was still good.
00:11:43
Speaker
There's still the, the, the Obi-Wan fight scene with Anakin is, uh,
00:11:51
Speaker
It's emotional, which is really cool.
00:11:54
Speaker
You know, this Star Wars really does a good job.
00:11:57
Speaker
If you, if you get into it, it does a good job of eliciting a lot of emotion, which I'll get into with my next rating here.
00:12:05
Speaker
New hope it's episode four.
00:12:07
Speaker
This is like the beginning.
00:12:09
Speaker
This is what started it all.
00:12:12
Speaker
I'll never ever forget.
00:12:14
Speaker
The first Star Wars experience I had was the, the VHS, uh,
00:12:21
Speaker
special edition.
00:12:24
Speaker
It was like a gold colored kind of box set.
00:12:28
Speaker
Just even saying VHS has already dated us pretty bad because there are definitely listeners to this show that have never, not only have they never used a VHS, they've likely never touched a DVD or a Blu-ray because everything is streaming.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:45
Speaker
Be kind, rewind means nothing to it.
00:12:47
Speaker
That phrase means nothing to a good portion of the audience right now.
00:12:51
Speaker
But like, that's where...
00:12:54
Speaker
it started for me.
00:12:55
Speaker
That's where my memory, it's the seed that was planted in my heart for star Wars was a new hope.
00:13:01
Speaker
It will always hold some massive weight.
00:13:06
Speaker
Like they could make 2000 more star Wars movies and a new hope is always going to be like top five for me.
00:13:15
Speaker
You know, it's, it's just, that's the effect it has.
00:13:20
Speaker
A lot of it, so much of it, I'm a big music guy.
00:13:24
Speaker
I don't know if you've mentioned it before, but our dad was a DJ.
00:13:28
Speaker
He still is.
00:13:30
Speaker
He's going on almost 50 years now.
00:13:33
Speaker
But music is a big part of my life.
00:13:36
Speaker
John Williams, God bless John Williams.
00:13:39
Speaker
God bless John Williams.
00:13:40
Speaker
Hey, hear, hear.
00:13:44
Speaker
The Binary Sunset, the first time that Luke comes up in the evening,
00:13:49
Speaker
and sees the two sons, the song, you know, it's called binary sunset, you know, it's do, do, do, do that.
00:13:57
Speaker
No matter how many times I hear it gives me goosebumps.
00:14:01
Speaker
It has an impact.
00:14:02
Speaker
It definitely has an impact.
00:14:03
Speaker
It hits me.
00:14:04
Speaker
And it's, it's, that is that, that little couple bars of, of music is star Wars to me.
00:14:14
Speaker
And that's John Williams.
00:14:15
Speaker
I mean, that's the, you know,
00:14:17
Speaker
if we're talking film, I mean, you rarely give props to sound guys, but Holy crap.
00:14:23
Speaker
You know, that's, that's what, that's what new hope is to me is it's the foundation.
00:14:27
Speaker
It's literally the building blocks of the entire property, the intellectual property.
00:14:34
Speaker
So into the top four here, force awakens star Wars is back.
00:14:39
Speaker
Jack,
00:14:40
Speaker
so excited.
00:14:41
Speaker
You know, you hit it.
00:14:42
Speaker
It's like, oh, the prequels were kind of a bummer.
00:14:45
Speaker
They were cool because it was good.
00:14:46
Speaker
It was like new content.
00:14:48
Speaker
I was young-ish so I could ignore a lot of the crap, you know, the stuff that wasn't good and then watch it a bunch of times before everybody ruins it for me and makes me feel bad about liking it.
00:14:59
Speaker
Force Awakens, boom, and it's like, oh, this is like New Hope.
00:15:03
Speaker
It's kind of the same movie.
00:15:06
Speaker
It's just like, you know, 30-ish years later.
00:15:08
Speaker
It's HD.
00:15:10
Speaker
Yeah, but still really good.
00:15:14
Speaker
Loved Kylo Ren's lightsaber.
00:15:17
Speaker
It's something different.
00:15:19
Speaker
It gives you a thing to look at, and it's like, oh, my God, it's like a Claymore.
00:15:22
Speaker
It's like Braveheart.
00:15:24
Speaker
Woo.
00:15:26
Speaker
So much fun with that.
00:15:28
Speaker
Finn and Poe, Dameron, they have really good chemistry.
00:15:32
Speaker
There's a lot of really good comedy there.
00:15:34
Speaker
When Poe is matched with Kylo in the very beginning and he's like, you know, I don't know how this works.
00:15:39
Speaker
Do I talk first?
00:15:40
Speaker
Do you talk first?
00:15:41
Speaker
You know, it's subtle.
00:15:43
Speaker
It's really good.
00:15:44
Speaker
Finn's play with BB-8 and try to impress Rey.
00:15:49
Speaker
Like, that's all really good stuff.
00:15:50
Speaker
It's new because, you know, Star Wars wasn't like a big comedy type of thing.
00:15:54
Speaker
the comic relief was limited to droids and some, some Han Solo, you know, being a scoundrel type of things.
00:16:00
Speaker
But this was like the first time you really get to see legitimate comedic relief and it's good.
00:16:06
Speaker
It's well done.
00:16:08
Speaker
Um, really like that.
00:16:10
Speaker
So number three, it's going to be return of the Jedi.
00:16:14
Speaker
I am not ashamed to say this.
00:16:16
Speaker
I'm a sucker for the Ewoks.
00:16:18
Speaker
I think they're hilarious.
00:16:19
Speaker
Um,
00:16:20
Speaker
I say that's a hot take.
00:16:22
Speaker
Yeah, it is.
00:16:23
Speaker
And I don't care.
00:16:24
Speaker
I'll fight anybody.
00:16:25
Speaker
Don't at me.
00:16:28
Speaker
Ewoks are okay.
00:16:29
Speaker
I, my screen name from what was it?
00:16:33
Speaker
Like sixth grade with the, how age was I?
00:16:35
Speaker
Like 11 or 12.
00:16:36
Speaker
This is like 19, what?
00:16:38
Speaker
96, 97 around there.
00:16:40
Speaker
My, my forever screen name is each, ah, double O seven.
00:16:44
Speaker
You know where the double O seven comes from the, the word each, ah,
00:16:48
Speaker
was because that's the sound that Wicket, the Ewok, made in the Super NES game, Super Return of the Jedi.
00:16:57
Speaker
When you jumped, you go, wicka!
00:16:59
Speaker
That's a classic game.
00:17:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:17:01
Speaker
So, love the Ewoks.
00:17:03
Speaker
My giant Maine Coon cat, he's like 20 pounds and he's a dick.
00:17:08
Speaker
His name is Wicket.
00:17:10
Speaker
Okay, that comes directly from this.
00:17:14
Speaker
Return of the Jedi is awesome.
00:17:15
Speaker
Salacious Crumb gets a ton of screen time.
00:17:18
Speaker
He's the little rat thing that hangs out with Jabba the Hutt, if you don't know.
00:17:22
Speaker
He's hilarious.
00:17:23
Speaker
His little laugh kills me.
00:17:27
Speaker
The barge, Jabba's barge in the Dune Sea with the Sarlacc pit.
00:17:31
Speaker
That whole scene is awesome.
00:17:33
Speaker
That's the most screen time that Boba Fett gets in the entire saga.
00:17:37
Speaker
if you discount the Mandalorian, it kind of sucks because it makes him kind of look like a punk.
00:17:43
Speaker
You know, it is what it is, but you know, it's, it's a really cool scene.
00:17:49
Speaker
All kinds of stuff happens.
00:17:51
Speaker
This is Luke Skywalker at his, you know, baddest level at that point in the series.
00:17:57
Speaker
It was really, really awesome to see him with the green lightsaber and, you know, the Rancor fight scene, that's all fun.
00:18:03
Speaker
It's great.
00:18:03
Speaker
It's, you know, the return of the Jedi is always going to be,
00:18:08
Speaker
probably top five for me, no matter what happens.
00:18:10
Speaker
Um, so then at number two, we have empire empire is number one for like everybody.
00:18:17
Speaker
And I respect the hell out of that because it is in terms of what was available at the time.
00:18:25
Speaker
Empire is the best.
00:18:27
Speaker
No, no doubt.
00:18:28
Speaker
It was dark.
00:18:30
Speaker
It was the darkest of the, the original trilogy.
00:18:33
Speaker
They, it was the best use of villainy.
00:18:36
Speaker
And the best use of villainous, I don't know if that's a word, but villainous music.
00:18:40
Speaker
You have the Imperial Death March, you have the Emperor showing up, and there's so much trepidation that's associated.
00:18:50
Speaker
Like, oh man, the Rebellion's kind of getting their asses kicked here.
00:18:54
Speaker
This is bad.
00:18:56
Speaker
What are they going to do?
00:18:57
Speaker
And there's a ton of focus on the subterfuge of the stuff that happens behind the scenes.
00:19:03
Speaker
You don't really know
00:19:04
Speaker
exactly the details of what's going on, but you know that it's a bad outcome for Luke and the rebels and it's really well done.
00:19:12
Speaker
Again, God bless John Williams.
00:19:13
Speaker
The Imperial Death March is one of the best pieces of composition ever.
00:19:17
Speaker
I'll put that against Beethoven and Mozart and Chikovsky.
00:19:20
Speaker
I really, I mean, I will.
00:19:22
Speaker
And again, I'll fight anybody who disagrees, you know, whatever.
00:19:26
Speaker
Number one, this might be controversial.
00:19:28
Speaker
I don't know.
00:19:29
Speaker
I really don't know.
00:19:29
Speaker
I don't really participate in like forums and stuff, but Rogue One is...
00:19:35
Speaker
It's leaps and bounds.
00:19:36
Speaker
It far surpasses every Star Wars piece of content because it's Saving Private Ryan in Star Wars.
00:19:45
Speaker
It's a gritty war movie, and it's kind of a spy thriller at the same time.
00:19:52
Speaker
I mean, Diego Luna does such a great job.
00:19:57
Speaker
of conveying that, that urgent spy, my life could end at any moment.
00:20:03
Speaker
And every single thing that I do is the most important thing I've ever done.
00:20:06
Speaker
Like that comes through so much through him in the character of Cassian and, or, and then K2SO Alan Tudyk.
00:20:14
Speaker
Brilliant is a voice.
00:20:17
Speaker
The comedic timing of that movie is, is really different in, in terms of what, what else you see in star Wars.
00:20:25
Speaker
K2SO is hilarious, but totally like unintentionally.
00:20:28
Speaker
I mean, he's kind of like a sarcastic jag off, but you know, he's a droid.
00:20:33
Speaker
It's what it is.
00:20:34
Speaker
And they just blame it on, you know, it's faulty programming or whatever.
00:20:37
Speaker
And then you've cheered in way.
00:20:39
Speaker
Who's Donnie Yen is, he is who he is.
00:20:44
Speaker
If you know anything about Kung Fu movies, he's legendary.
00:20:48
Speaker
Such a good character.
00:20:48
Speaker
People knew Donnie Yen because that guy is a bad-ass.
00:20:53
Speaker
Ip Man.
00:20:54
Speaker
If anybody has the ability to stream things, Ip Man, I'm pretty sure it's on Prime.
00:20:58
Speaker
It's on Netflix, I think.
00:20:59
Speaker
Okay, so there's like three or four of them.
00:21:02
Speaker
Watch them all.
00:21:03
Speaker
There's one of them he fights Mike Tyson.
00:21:05
Speaker
For the love of God, watch them all.
00:21:07
Speaker
He fights Mike Tyson.
00:21:09
Speaker
Ip Man is so, so high on the list of kung fu movies.
00:21:15
Speaker
Please watch them all.
00:21:16
Speaker
But Rogue One, it's my thing, man.
00:21:20
Speaker
It's a heist.
00:21:21
Speaker
It's, you know...
00:21:23
Speaker
They're breaking into Scarif, the planet that has all the, you know, it's like the biggest server and hard drive that the Empire has.
00:21:33
Speaker
This is where A New Hope starts.
00:21:36
Speaker
It's right after it.
00:21:38
Speaker
You know, they got the plans for the Death Star and, you know, really one of the best parts.
00:21:44
Speaker
It sucks because it's at the very, very end and it's kind of lame to like pick the last three and a half minutes of a movie.
00:21:50
Speaker
It's like one of the best parts, but
00:21:52
Speaker
again, with context, knowing star Wars, knowing how things line up, the scene at the end of rogue one, when, when Vader ignites his saber as he's approaching the, the airlock of the Tana V4 and he just wrecks the hell out of everybody.
00:22:11
Speaker
Oh, it's epic.
00:22:11
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:22:13
Speaker
You know, I, I'm a, I'm a kind of a deranged person.
00:22:17
Speaker
I, I tend to favor the, you know, the,
00:22:19
Speaker
the dark side in star Wars worlds or like the evil guys, you know, I root for the bad guys sometimes, you know, if you're a mortal combat guy, I really liked Baraka, uh, you know, the, the violence, it's all, it's all more in my wheelhouse.
00:22:33
Speaker
And so Vader just igniting that saber, it's just, it's darkness.
00:22:37
Speaker
And then all of a sudden it's red and you know, that he's about to just hit dingers and drop dong on everybody.
00:22:44
Speaker
And he, he,
00:22:47
Speaker
does and it's really really well done and the again the the urgency that they convey Rogue One has so much urgency about it you know there's so many scenes where you're just like holy crap like I'm on the edge of my seat it's such a such a great movie if you know nothing about Star Wars you can watch Rogue One and appreciate it as a great film if you do like Star Wars you can appreciate that there's like no Jedi action whatsoever and it fits in the Star Wars universe and it's still fantastic um
00:23:17
Speaker
With some setup, there's a lot of, again, books, they produce so much.
00:23:21
Speaker
They create a lot of backstory and help drive things.
00:23:25
Speaker
But Rogue One is my top.
00:23:27
Speaker
It's my number one.
00:23:29
Speaker
So I wanted to definitely hear your rankings and get them officially recorded in the annals of the Matt Goes to the Movies listings because that's sort of part of the tradition of this network.
00:23:43
Speaker
So I've got your 11 to 1 Rise of Skywalker, Last Jedi, Infinity Menace, Attack of the Clones, Solo, Revenge of the Sith, New Hope, Force Awakens, Return of the Jedi, Empire Strikes Back, and Rogue One.
00:23:57
Speaker
When I had done this same exercise with Matt and Harrison, which certainly check it out on the channel, you can find it.
00:24:03
Speaker
There's two different episodes.
00:24:04
Speaker
We go really in-depth on these.
00:24:07
Speaker
But I think it's really part of the reason I wanted to do this, A, is because Eric's really been into Star Wars,
00:24:12
Speaker
as much as I love the films and the games and the shows, I haven't spent as much time getting into the extended universe and the, the, the novels and such as he has.
00:24:22
Speaker
So I think it's just, like I said, it's a great way to kind of get a gauge on a person's preferences and if they're like you or not.
00:24:29
Speaker
And he rated last Jedi properly.
00:24:31
Speaker
So just to run,
00:24:33
Speaker
Just to run mine up the list real quick, I have Attack of the Clones at 11, Last Jedi at 10, Phantom Menace at 9, Solo at 8, Rise of Skywalker at 7, Revenge of the Sith at 6, Force Awakens at 5, Return of the Jedi at 4, Rogue One at 3, because I'm too much of a coward to actually rank at number 1, New Hope at 2, and Empire Strikes Back at 1.
00:24:56
Speaker
So really those, those rankings are very, very close for the most part.
00:25:01
Speaker
They really are.
00:25:02
Speaker
We didn't talk about this before, but no, we didn't.
00:25:04
Speaker
No, we didn't.
00:25:04
Speaker
It's almost like we grew up in the same house or something like that.
00:25:09
Speaker
So like I said, those will be up.
00:25:12
Speaker
You can, you can check those out.
00:25:14
Speaker
We'll have those posted on Facebook.
00:25:16
Speaker
We'll have those posted on Instagram.
00:25:19
Speaker
You can kind of see how those rankings line up with what Matt Harrison and myself had already done prior.
00:25:26
Speaker
So now you've got an idea of who Eric is.
00:25:29
Speaker
Um, let's, let's get back into fight club.
Introduction to Fight Club Discussion
00:25:32
Speaker
And this is a film that gets remembered for a lot of different things.
00:25:37
Speaker
Um, one of the things that it absolutely gets remembered for is just, it's over the top, extreme machismo and violence.
00:25:47
Speaker
Um, that's absolutely one of the things that, um,
00:25:54
Speaker
it will always be remembered for.
00:25:55
Speaker
And you think about, I actually looked this up earlier, the phrase toxic masculinity has been around a lot longer than you realize, but it's only been used frequently really since like 2010.
00:26:08
Speaker
So it wasn't really a common thing, but it's absolutely a phrase that if this film was being made today, people would say about this film, Rotten Tomatoes, the critics have it at 96.
00:26:19
Speaker
The audience has it at 95.
00:26:23
Speaker
which is really amazing.
00:26:26
Speaker
It's definitely been remembered better.
00:26:28
Speaker
It really didn't perform well at the box office when it first came out, which is pretty incredible to think about.
00:26:35
Speaker
One of the things that I'd kind of forgotten about, so in my preparation to do this, I rewatched the film somewhat recently, and I pulled it off my shelf because I do own this film on DVD.
00:26:47
Speaker
And the special edition that I have has this really cool insert
00:26:51
Speaker
that has a lot of quotes about the film.
00:26:53
Speaker
And this is a film that doesn't shy away from what it is.
00:26:58
Speaker
There's definitely some pretty scathing reviews of this film out there.
00:27:01
Speaker
And they really embrace it in a way that I think most films wouldn't even bother to.
00:27:08
Speaker
So the inside of the DVD insert, which really is, as more and more things go to streaming, like this, that'll be kind of one of the things that gets lost.
00:27:16
Speaker
You know, I think,
00:27:17
Speaker
The fun DVD menu, like when you actually click on it, it says, I am Jack's movie.
00:27:21
Speaker
You know, like those kinds of things as streaming completely takes over and physical media becomes a relic of the past.
00:27:28
Speaker
Little clever things like that are going to get lost.
00:27:30
Speaker
And I think that's kind of a bummer.
00:27:32
Speaker
But going through the DVD insert, you know, they've got some different quotes.
00:27:35
Speaker
And I've got David Anson from Newsweek here.
00:27:37
Speaker
He says, this is not a movie that can be easily dismissed or forgotten.
00:27:41
Speaker
Fight Club is the most incendiary movie to come out of Hollywood in a long time.
00:27:46
Speaker
That's hard to argue with.
00:27:48
Speaker
The next one they quote is from Roger Ebert, the late Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, probably the most famous film reviewer ever.
00:27:58
Speaker
You know, him with Siskel, you know, Siskel and Ebert were incredibly influential and popular and probably the only two film critics most people can remember.
00:28:08
Speaker
And certainly the two thumbs up model is certainly a big hallmark of what people remember about them.
00:28:15
Speaker
So Roger Ebert says, Fight Club is the most frankly and cheerfully fascist big star movie since Death Wish, a celebration of violence in which the heroes write themselves a license to drink, smoke, screw, and beat one another up.
00:28:31
Speaker
I didn't pick up really a lot of fascist undertones in this.
00:28:34
Speaker
If anything, it's much more anarchy than it is fascism.
00:28:37
Speaker
It's a rejection of rule.
00:28:40
Speaker
It's a rejection of order.
00:28:42
Speaker
Certainly a rejection of authority.
00:28:44
Speaker
So I'm not really sure where Ebert gets off on calling it fascist.
00:28:48
Speaker
That just, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
00:28:50
Speaker
Um, and there's, think about this next one.
00:28:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:28:55
Speaker
So this is Kenneth Turin from the LA times, a witless mismatch of whiny infantile philosophizing and bone crunching violence that actually thinks it's saying something of significance.
00:29:06
Speaker
That's, that's a scathing review.
00:29:09
Speaker
That's a review that really cuts right to the bone.
00:29:13
Speaker
Um,
00:29:13
Speaker
And this is a film that's okay.
00:29:15
Speaker
Boomer.
00:29:16
Speaker
That's, that's the right answer.
00:29:17
Speaker
I mean, that's the same for Roger Ebert too.
00:29:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:22
Speaker
You think about how scathing those reviews are.
00:29:26
Speaker
And this is a film that flips it the double bird and includes it on their DVD insert.
00:29:32
Speaker
Like that's not, yeah, that's a Tyler Durden full on move right there.
00:29:37
Speaker
Like that's just like a bad, that's insane.
00:29:40
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:29:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:41
Speaker
These old people hate this.
00:29:42
Speaker
They're not your cat.
00:29:43
Speaker
That's great.
00:29:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:45
Speaker
That's it.
00:29:45
Speaker
And this is actually, the DVD insert is kind of full of it.
00:29:48
Speaker
So I think if you happen to have a copy of this on your shelf, go find it because it's really interesting.
00:29:57
Speaker
Our next segment is called Teaser Trailer.
00:30:00
Speaker
And if you've clicked on this review...
00:30:04
Speaker
If you downloaded this episode, if you're listening right now, there is a very high percentage chance that you have seen this film.
00:30:11
Speaker
I believe a lot of people have seen this film.
00:30:13
Speaker
However, I got to imagine there's at least one person right now who's listening to this, trying to figure out if they should watch Fight Club, or maybe you've heard about Fight Club as this great movie that a lot of people get into, and you're trying to decide if you should take the time to watch it.
00:30:27
Speaker
So
00:30:28
Speaker
This next segment is called teaser trailer.
00:30:30
Speaker
And Eric, I want you to go first.
00:30:32
Speaker
If somebody has never seen this film before, spoiler free, what would you tell them to entice them to watch it?
00:30:41
Speaker
Well, I guess if you are not the type to watch a movie more than once, then I wouldn't recommend it.
00:30:47
Speaker
It's, it's a, it's one of those ones that you don't get a full appreciation of on the first watch.
00:30:54
Speaker
It's, it's really the second, third, fourth,
00:30:57
Speaker
because there's a reason why the critical acclaim was sort of stagnant and inconsistent.
00:31:04
Speaker
And then it became a cult classic.
00:31:06
Speaker
There's, you know, all the movies you can call cult classics, they follow the same formula as far as initially they don't get received very well.
00:31:16
Speaker
And then everybody loves them because they've watched the crap out of them multiple times.
00:31:19
Speaker
So if you're not a multiple watcher type of person, then maybe it's not for you.
00:31:25
Speaker
If you were born at all in the 1980s, maybe a little bit before that, that's pretty much all I need to say is, yeah, you're going to be into it because you're going to understand that your whole entire life was dictated by what the television told you.
00:31:41
Speaker
And you might be angry about that because you were maybe promised a certain type of life based on what marketing said and you weren't
00:31:51
Speaker
delivered what you know you expected and and so you might work some crappy menial white collar ish low-end job where you're not valued and you have some anger and i mean this this movie really lets it out it you know it it it plays up that part of the the generation x angst and
00:32:14
Speaker
just really kind of gives you an outlet.
00:32:16
Speaker
Like you watch it and you feel good.
00:32:18
Speaker
Like, wow, you know, these guys are saying the crap that has, has crossed my mind.
00:32:22
Speaker
You know, there are words that are coming out of their mouths that have been in my brain.
00:32:28
Speaker
There's a connection there.
00:32:29
Speaker
I would say that's, that's probably the best thing I could say.
00:32:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:34
Speaker
I think those are all really good things.
00:32:36
Speaker
And what's interesting is about a movie called fight club.
00:32:39
Speaker
There's really not that many fight scenes.
00:32:41
Speaker
When you think about the total number of fistfights in a movie called Fight Club.
00:32:48
Speaker
Six to eight around there.
00:32:49
Speaker
I actually should have counted, but I didn't.
00:32:53
Speaker
I think you're high.
00:32:54
Speaker
I actually think your number is a bit high because there's not that many.
00:33:01
Speaker
It's about so much more than that.
00:33:03
Speaker
There are some all-time great lines, and we're going to get to that in a little bit, but
00:33:08
Speaker
Um, some great performances by Edward Norton.
00:33:11
Speaker
This was, um, again, getting back to the theme of why we're doing this episode in the first place, talking about just a love of film and the films that have stuck with us throughout our entire lives.
00:33:22
Speaker
This was my first exposure to Ed Norton.
00:33:25
Speaker
And I believe this was probably my first exposure to Brad Pitt.
00:33:29
Speaker
And prior to this movie, and I guess even during this movie, um,
00:33:35
Speaker
I sort of only thought of him as this pretty boy that all the kids in my class had the button of him from Legends of the Fall or something like that.
00:33:42
Speaker
I think that was his breakout movie.
00:33:44
Speaker
He had the long hair and he was this pretty boy.
00:33:47
Speaker
I was like, who is this guy?
00:33:50
Speaker
You see this movie and you realize, actually, this guy can act.
00:33:53
Speaker
He's really good.
00:33:56
Speaker
Ed Norton, too.
00:33:57
Speaker
The character development is what really separates this from
00:34:02
Speaker
the reviews, they don't really touch on that.
00:34:04
Speaker
And without spoilers, it's very skillful the way they develop Brad Pitt and Ed Norton, you know, as separate characters.
00:34:13
Speaker
It's very, very well done.
00:34:15
Speaker
And we got to, we got to talk about how a lot of Obama Bonham Carter, uh, HBC.
00:34:20
Speaker
Holy cow.
00:34:21
Speaker
She's fantastic in this.
00:34:23
Speaker
Even when she's not saying a word, she's a foil for both characters.
00:34:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:29
Speaker
She's incredible.
00:34:30
Speaker
Um, so really the film revolves around those three, those three actors.
00:34:35
Speaker
And those are three credible actors.
00:34:37
Speaker
Um, the editing in this movie is incredible.
00:34:40
Speaker
It's fantastic.
00:34:41
Speaker
Cinematography is a noteworthy.
00:34:44
Speaker
It's, it's well-bunned.
00:34:46
Speaker
The lighting, the score, the music.
00:34:49
Speaker
I mean, from a technical standpoint, this movie does so many things well.
00:34:53
Speaker
Um, so
00:34:55
Speaker
that's it.
00:34:56
Speaker
That's the teaser trailer segment from here on out.
00:34:58
Speaker
We're going to be talking about things that will absolutely spoil this movie for spoiler alert, spoiler alert, because man, there's a, we didn't tell you there's a big one.
00:35:11
Speaker
Um, and I kind of want to talk about this story in particular.
00:35:14
Speaker
And, and it's actually because of this story that we chose to do this episode
First Experience Watching Fight Club
00:35:19
Speaker
first.
00:35:19
Speaker
We chose this film for the first episode of Rob's reviews.
00:35:24
Speaker
Um,
00:35:25
Speaker
This film came out in 1999.
00:35:28
Speaker
At some point, so I would have been a senior in high school by the time this story takes place.
00:35:34
Speaker
You would have been eighth grade, I think, right?
00:35:35
Speaker
Eighth grade, yeah.
00:35:36
Speaker
Well, yeah, we weren't in school at the same time.
00:35:38
Speaker
Yep.
00:35:39
Speaker
So you're in eighth grade.
00:35:42
Speaker
Our mom and dad were somewhere else.
00:35:45
Speaker
So...
00:35:46
Speaker
I drove into the grocery store.
00:35:48
Speaker
This was back when, so thinking about throwback, not only did we watch this on VHS, we rented it from the video store.
00:35:56
Speaker
The grocery store video area.
00:36:00
Speaker
Those definitely don't exist anymore.
00:36:01
Speaker
This is well before Redbox.
00:36:03
Speaker
So rented it, brought it home.
00:36:05
Speaker
This is before Blockbuster.
00:36:07
Speaker
I mean, they really wasn't.
00:36:08
Speaker
Well, Blockbuster was a thing, but they were prevalent.
00:36:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:12
Speaker
It wasn't.
00:36:12
Speaker
They just weren't in our town.
00:36:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:15
Speaker
So we rent this movie.
00:36:17
Speaker
We're watching this movie because we'd heard the hype.
00:36:19
Speaker
Didn't know anything about it.
00:36:20
Speaker
This was long before the internet was going to ruin things for you.
00:36:24
Speaker
This was like, you heard about this from your friend who was kind of bad.
00:36:28
Speaker
Like he was a little bit bad.
00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:32
Speaker
so they get to the twist.
00:36:34
Speaker
They get to the twist where you realize the narrator is Tyler Durden.
00:36:39
Speaker
And, and it took us a second and we're like, wait, what?
00:36:43
Speaker
And then they really go into it.
00:36:45
Speaker
And then you realize he is Tyler Durden the whole time.
00:36:50
Speaker
It's that's, that's the big reveal.
00:36:52
Speaker
That's the big twist.
00:36:54
Speaker
I stood up and walked over to the VCR and I hit pause.
00:36:59
Speaker
And we just kind of looked at each other and went,
00:37:02
Speaker
what the hell just happened?
00:37:04
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:37:05
Speaker
Like, wow.
00:37:07
Speaker
And I cannot think of another movie I've ever watched.
00:37:11
Speaker
I'm going to be 39 in four days from the day we're recording.
00:37:15
Speaker
I can't think of a single time I've watched a show, watched a movie, been playing a video game, been reading a book, been listening to an audio book or a podcast, or I've literally had to pause the interaction with
00:37:31
Speaker
entertainment media that I was engaging with to process what just happened.
00:37:37
Speaker
Please keep in mind audience that to pause the VCR, you may not have had a remote where you could do this from your chair.
Analysis of Tyler Durden
00:37:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:48
Speaker
You couldn't just ask Google or Alexa or Siri to do it for you.
00:37:51
Speaker
Like you actually had to physically get up and do this action.
00:37:54
Speaker
Stand up and press a button.
00:37:56
Speaker
And, and then it was the whole like, you know, hold up.
00:37:59
Speaker
Hey, Hey,
00:38:00
Speaker
And then you have to dissect and it's like, Oh my God, I'm looking at this screen.
00:38:05
Speaker
And by the way, you know, if you don't have like a forehead VCR at the time, it's all wonky and scattered looking like you can't really pause something and actually see what's happening.
00:38:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:38:15
Speaker
It kind of looks like you've got a YouTube clip.
00:38:17
Speaker
That's a, that's buffering, buffering, but trying to play at the same time.
00:38:21
Speaker
It's hard to describe this crap to people who don't know, but we're sitting there and you know, his,
00:38:30
Speaker
17 ish old brain and my 14 ish old brain is trying to figure out.
00:38:34
Speaker
Cause there's not a lot of, by the way, you know, this is pre 2000.
00:38:37
Speaker
There's not a lot of discussion about mental health at this point.
00:38:40
Speaker
Like it's, there's a, there's a huge stigma to it.
00:38:43
Speaker
Obviously like everybody who has some kind of mental health thing is a crazy person.
00:38:47
Speaker
There's a psychopath or schizophrenic and you just think they're criminal and that's it.
00:38:52
Speaker
You don't know that like there's plenty of people who have mental illness who can function, you know, at a normal rate in daily society.
00:38:58
Speaker
That's not really,
00:38:59
Speaker
well advertised in our lives at that time.
00:39:02
Speaker
And this dude is clearly off his rocker.
00:39:07
Speaker
And they're telling you dude from the beginning, who's a huge dork is now this really tough, you know, is the Germans say Uber mentions that the alpha male is this top dog.
00:39:18
Speaker
Oh, the ultimate alpha male.
00:39:20
Speaker
Badass.
00:39:20
Speaker
I mean, he even says it.
00:39:21
Speaker
I look like you want to look.
00:39:22
Speaker
I fight like you want to fight.
00:39:24
Speaker
Um, everything about screw like you want to screw maybe different words, but,
00:39:29
Speaker
It's a projection, but again, it's thematic.
00:39:33
Speaker
It all fits.
00:39:34
Speaker
It's this commercialization.
00:39:36
Speaker
It's the marketing of the ideal image, and it fits.
00:39:42
Speaker
It works.
00:39:43
Speaker
It goes through this whole movie, and if you really kind of break it down, disassemble it, and examine the parts of it, you see the completed product throughout from the very beginning to the very end, and it's really well done.
00:39:58
Speaker
So, so nice, you know, and when you rewatch it, it becomes very obvious that not only is Tyler Durden, the stand in for the narrator, uh, he's intended to be the stand in for the viewer who's watching it, who wishes he was ripped.
00:40:15
Speaker
Like Brad Pitt is in this movie that, you know, dresses the way that he does can pull off sunglasses at night, the way that he does.
00:40:25
Speaker
cares about nothing the same way that he does, you know, he's just kind of has not a care in the world.
00:40:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:40:30
Speaker
Devil may care attitude, you know, exactly.
00:40:34
Speaker
Has no real obligations.
00:40:36
Speaker
Just seems to be able to come and go as he pleases.
00:40:40
Speaker
Um, is not worried about a boss is not worried about his taxes is not worried about an upcoming election in any way.
00:40:47
Speaker
Um, it becomes obvious on rewatches how much Tyler is supposed to be the stand in for much more than just the narrator.
00:40:54
Speaker
Um,
00:40:55
Speaker
it's, it's really kind of, kind of, kind of interesting.
00:40:58
Speaker
And that's where, you know, once you, once you've seen the big reveal, once you've seen that twist for the very first time, this is a movie like you had said earlier, you have to watch a second time to truly get it and to truly enjoy it.
00:41:13
Speaker
There's levels.
00:41:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:41:15
Speaker
There's levels.
00:41:16
Speaker
Like there's so much that the movie projects as like a message that's in conflict with what it actually stands for.
00:41:23
Speaker
you know, Tyler just talking about, you know, just his bad-assery, right?
00:41:29
Speaker
He, this dude doesn't care about anything.
00:41:30
Speaker
There's so much about his throwaway attitude.
00:41:34
Speaker
You know, there's a scene where he talks about, you know, like, Oh, where's your car?
00:41:37
Speaker
And Tyler says, what car?
00:41:38
Speaker
Cause he stole this thing and then ditched it.
00:41:40
Speaker
Like it's so much against the commercialized marketed single use throwaway idea.
00:41:48
Speaker
But Tyler is that cavalier throwaway type of guy.
00:41:53
Speaker
who is against that very same concept.
00:41:55
Speaker
There's just so much that's in conflict in this movie.
00:41:58
Speaker
It's kind of hard to reconcile.
00:42:00
Speaker
You really can't in one watch.
00:42:02
Speaker
You can't appreciate this movie the way that it's supposed to be done.
00:42:05
Speaker
It's, it's, it's, it's complex.
00:42:09
Speaker
Something that Matt had said, he had just recently reviewed the dark night.
00:42:13
Speaker
And I certainly encourage everybody.
00:42:15
Speaker
If you haven't had a chance to a watch that film, please go do it.
00:42:18
Speaker
It's, it's an incredible film.
00:42:19
Speaker
But if you haven't had a chance to listen to that episode yet, do that as well.
00:42:23
Speaker
He's talking about how the Joker doesn't care if you beat the crap out of him.
00:42:30
Speaker
He's got other goals.
00:42:32
Speaker
He's got other things he's driving for.
00:42:34
Speaker
And that's Tyler.
00:42:37
Speaker
You think about the scene where they're in the basement and Lou comes down and just wails on him.
00:42:44
Speaker
Uh, cause that's, yeah.
00:42:45
Speaker
Cause that's, that's the sign on the door.
00:42:47
Speaker
It says, he was tavern and he's fricking Lou, you know, he comes down and just beats the crap out of Tyler and Tyler lets him because he's got a goal in mind.
00:42:53
Speaker
He has something, he's already three steps ahead of him.
00:42:56
Speaker
He already knows what he's going to do.
00:42:57
Speaker
He doesn't care.
00:42:58
Speaker
It's multiple steps ahead.
00:43:01
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:43:02
Speaker
There's layers to it.
00:43:03
Speaker
He's losing on purpose and he's laughing.
00:43:07
Speaker
You know, it's, it's number one, it really, the immediate effect is to incite Lou.
00:43:11
Speaker
and to create emotion in everybody who's watching.
00:43:15
Speaker
Right.
00:43:15
Speaker
And then it, and it's very much like the Joker, you know, you think about how the Joker sows chaos and sows anarchy.
00:43:22
Speaker
Some people just want to watch it for the ones.
00:43:25
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:25
Speaker
Just want to watch the world burn.
00:43:27
Speaker
And that's kind of Tyler.
00:43:28
Speaker
And,
00:43:29
Speaker
it wasn't really until my most recent rewatch and then having listened to Matt's breakdown of the dark night that I really made that connection that there are so many Joker and Tyler Durden parallels that if you want to start going down that rabbit hole, you could absolutely have a lot of fun with that.
00:43:46
Speaker
You know, and it, to be honest, this is like a really deep dive and maybe some people will get this, but it's Calvin and Hobbes reference, but the ends justify the means.
00:43:57
Speaker
That's an ethical argument that Calvin has with Hobbes at some point in those comic strips, but that's Tyler.
00:44:06
Speaker
The end result is exactly acceptable as long as the things that you do leading up to that lead up to it.
00:44:15
Speaker
Whatever you have to do before you get to that goal, it's acceptable because your goal is noble.
00:44:22
Speaker
Him losing and getting his ass kicked by Lou
00:44:26
Speaker
was to create some loyalty with his immediate following right there.
00:44:31
Speaker
Everybody's like, he has to tell them, he throws his hand up, tells them to back off because they're all ready to die for him right then and there.
00:44:38
Speaker
That's not enough.
00:44:39
Speaker
It's really, it's not enough.
00:44:41
Speaker
He could have said, go get him and maybe six guys die.
00:44:46
Speaker
You have a pistol.
00:44:46
Speaker
How many guys can you kill with that?
00:44:48
Speaker
Even if it's 20 rounds, maybe five, six, seven, eight guys die before they overwhelm you.
00:44:56
Speaker
could have done it, but he didn't, he didn't want them to do that.
00:44:58
Speaker
He wanted them to sit there and watch him get beaten to a pulp.
00:45:03
Speaker
And then he flipped it and it was, it was instant.
00:45:05
Speaker
It was so fast.
00:45:06
Speaker
Nobody saw that coming.
00:45:08
Speaker
Everybody thought, wow, what's going to happen here?
00:45:10
Speaker
I was in suspense the first time I saw it.
00:45:12
Speaker
Like, what is, what is really happening right now?
00:45:15
Speaker
He's just letting himself get beat.
00:45:17
Speaker
Like we just, we know this dude is hard.
00:45:18
Speaker
He's carved out of stone and he's just letting this fat Italian guy who thinks he's a mobster just, you know, smack him around.
00:45:26
Speaker
And then he flips it.
00:45:27
Speaker
He flips it.
00:45:28
Speaker
And then he's, you know, it's one of the great lines.
00:45:30
Speaker
You don't know where I've been Lou.
00:45:32
Speaker
And he kind of scares him.
00:45:33
Speaker
Cause he's just hacking and puking blood into this guy's face.
00:45:38
Speaker
And it was stuff that he created.
00:45:40
Speaker
It was kind of, you know, his comeuppance.
00:45:41
Speaker
It was like,
00:45:42
Speaker
you've made this and now you're suffering.
00:45:44
Speaker
It's the consequence of what you did, which by the way, we, we plugged and definitely talked about the, the brilliance of a lot of the technical craft of filmmaking in this with editing and, and visual effects and, and music for sure.
00:45:59
Speaker
So well done.
00:46:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:46:01
Speaker
Can we talk about the disaster makeup in the blood effects and things like that in most of the scenes?
00:46:06
Speaker
I mean, that's gory.
00:46:07
Speaker
It's,
00:46:08
Speaker
It's gory.
00:46:09
Speaker
It's believable, though, and that's where it kind of turns you off a little bit, and that's actually part of the appeal of the movie for me, because it's like, ew.
00:46:18
Speaker
It's beautiful at times and ugly at other times.
00:46:22
Speaker
I believe that.
00:46:22
Speaker
That's kind of what he would look like.
00:46:24
Speaker
He's just spitting and hacking all over Lou and all he wants.
00:46:30
Speaker
It's gross, yeah.
00:46:31
Speaker
It is.
00:46:31
Speaker
It's sick, because he's kind of over-exaggerating his gagging, but
00:46:38
Speaker
you know, and he's saying, you don't know where I've been, which is really funny, but like at the time, you know, it's not, if you understand, like it's kind of a, an indirect inference to, he could be positive for some, some terrible virus, you know, that is sexually transmitted or blood transmitted.
00:46:54
Speaker
And yeah.
00:46:55
Speaker
Cause you think about it, 1999 when this came out, um,
00:46:59
Speaker
HIV was definitely more of a concern and much more of a disease people talked about than today.
00:47:05
Speaker
I mean, obviously, as we sit here in 2021, people are talking about COVID.
00:47:09
Speaker
There was definitely much more conversation around AIDS at the time than there is today.
00:47:15
Speaker
And unnecessarily negative place type feelings about that because it was...
00:47:22
Speaker
unlikely but the fact that he's bringing it up you know it adds an element to lose mindset where he's like i'm an italian meatball guy and i don't i just assume that everybody that's not part of my family is you know gross and and below me and so this guy's some scummy street kid and
00:47:40
Speaker
He's bleeding all over me.
00:47:42
Speaker
Maybe he's got the bug and now I'm infected.
00:47:45
Speaker
And so I'm going to give him whatever he wants.
00:47:47
Speaker
And that was, that was the beautiful gift that Tyler gave to all of his companions slash followers.
00:47:54
Speaker
You know, he doesn't want to see them as that, but that's what they are.
00:47:57
Speaker
Oh no, it's a cult.
00:47:58
Speaker
It's definitely a cult because immediately after that is when he hands out homework assignments, homework assignments, doing, and this exactly really ratcheting up project mayhem.
00:48:06
Speaker
And that's, that's, that's the, like the one, a,
00:48:10
Speaker
of his deliberate loss in that fight.
00:48:13
Speaker
He, he said, I want you to start a fight and I want you to lose.
00:48:18
Speaker
And it was, he was setting the example, right?
00:48:20
Speaker
Like he's grooming them.
00:48:21
Speaker
He's showing them, this is what I want you to do.
00:48:24
Speaker
And they're all following in lockstep without questioning.
00:48:28
Speaker
And you know, the first rule project mayhem is you don't ask questions, but you don't know that at the time.
00:48:33
Speaker
Cause I don't think project mayhem has been established yet, but,
00:48:36
Speaker
He's showing them that I'm willing to do this, and he's leading from the front.
00:48:42
Speaker
It's a big deal.
00:48:43
Speaker
He's showing them that this is what I'm willing to do, and I expect you to be willing to do the same.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:48:51
Speaker
So I want to move on to another segment.
00:48:55
Speaker
We're going to call this segment Book to Big Screen.
00:48:58
Speaker
And this is an adaption.
00:49:02
Speaker
Not a lot of people necessarily know this, but Fight Club was originally a book.
00:49:07
Speaker
The author's name is Chuck Palahniuk.
00:49:09
Speaker
And the book was really not overwhelmingly purchased.
00:49:15
Speaker
This wasn't like a bestseller that everybody and their brother had read.
00:49:19
Speaker
Oprah did not recommend, no.
00:49:22
Speaker
This doesn't seem like this is going to hit Oprah's bestseller list.
00:49:24
Speaker
No, I don't think so.
00:49:27
Speaker
this isn't something like Jurassic Park or the Da Vinci Co.
00:49:30
Speaker
that everybody was reading and you just knew was going to get turned into a film adaption.
00:49:35
Speaker
Or the girl with the dragon tattoo or Hunger Games.
00:49:40
Speaker
Yeah, Hunger Games, absolutely.
00:49:41
Speaker
You just knew that something like Twilight.
00:49:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:45
Speaker
Twilight.
00:49:45
Speaker
I'm sorry.
00:49:48
Speaker
Sorry, everyone.
00:49:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:51
Speaker
Let's not go down that road.
00:49:53
Speaker
So Book to Big Screen, I want to talk about some of the major differences between the book and the film.
00:49:59
Speaker
And what's interesting is when you look at interviews with the author, Chuck Palahniuk has actually said he prefers the film version in the ways that they changed it.
00:50:11
Speaker
Eric, you've read this book, though.
00:50:12
Speaker
It's been a long time, though, right?
00:50:15
Speaker
It's been decades at this point because I probably read this when I was pretty close to early high school, 15, 16, around there, and I'm 35 now.
00:50:24
Speaker
It's been a couple decades.
00:50:26
Speaker
It's been a long time.
00:50:27
Speaker
I did read it.
00:50:29
Speaker
I will say with a caveat that the book that I read was a paperback, and it was printed with –
00:50:37
Speaker
Brad Pitt and Ed Norton's face is on the front of it.
00:50:41
Speaker
It's very similar to a movie poster with the pink bar of soap that's got Fight Club carved and embossed in it.
00:50:48
Speaker
So it was a commercialized cover.
00:50:52
Speaker
It's the same book that Chuck Palahniuk wrote.
00:50:56
Speaker
It was marketed towards, hey, this movie was awesome.
00:50:59
Speaker
Read the book that it was based on.
00:51:01
Speaker
That was kind of the angle of it.
00:51:03
Speaker
And a lot of people may or may not know this, but the author wrote a sequel fairly recently within the last few years that looks at the narrator's life after the events of the original book.
00:51:15
Speaker
I've, I started reading the book at one time.
00:51:18
Speaker
I didn't get very far into it.
00:51:20
Speaker
Life happens.
00:51:21
Speaker
It's one of those things that's on my, it's on my list of things to do.
00:51:24
Speaker
I just haven't gotten to it.
00:51:26
Speaker
Like I've got a hundred things like that.
00:51:28
Speaker
So, and that's part of the,
00:51:29
Speaker
Honestly, for me, that's one of the joys of doing podcasts is, and I've said this on Matt's show before, is that it gives me an excuse to go back and rewatch things that I've been meaning to get to for a long time, that I just haven't been able to.
00:51:44
Speaker
As much as I love Fight Club, like I wouldn't have watched this earlier this week otherwise, and it's just a great excuse to interact with movies that I love, that I just haven't really had a great reason to have to pull up.
00:51:57
Speaker
So I wanna talk about some of the major differences.
00:52:00
Speaker
And one of the first ones that comes up is the narrator choosing to stay with Tyler.
Book vs. Film: Fight Club
00:52:05
Speaker
Now, in the book, the film actually, it shows him calling Marla first.
00:52:10
Speaker
And that's kind of a great scene, and I think it really works.
00:52:13
Speaker
After she doesn't answer, he calls Tyler and ends up hanging out with Tyler at the bar and staying with him.
00:52:22
Speaker
Now, he doesn't actually call Marla in the book.
00:52:25
Speaker
And when he does hang out with Tyler, he just actually asks him.
00:52:29
Speaker
as opposed to the scene where, you know, Tyler says after three pictures appear, you still can't ask, just ask.
00:52:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:52:36
Speaker
Yes.
00:52:36
Speaker
Would it be a problem?
00:52:37
Speaker
And he says, would it be a problem for you to ask?
00:52:39
Speaker
Like, that's a great scene.
00:52:40
Speaker
So I think it's, I think it's a great early introduction to, to Tyler's character and just how that relationship kind of the first time he's confrontational with him.
00:52:53
Speaker
You know, like when they meet on the plane, it's a, it's, it's kind of friendly and, and,
00:52:59
Speaker
jovial, you know, the first like kind of somewhat abrasive thing that he says is, you know, like, he's like, it's very clever.
00:53:06
Speaker
And he's like, Oh, thank you.
00:53:07
Speaker
And Tyler says, how's that working out for you?
00:53:11
Speaker
You know, well, I guess keep doing it.
00:53:13
Speaker
You know, that's like the kind of the first thing where it's like, Oh, this dude is not the same as everybody else.
00:53:19
Speaker
But yeah, when he's, you know, he's really, he's very direct and confrontational with him about, you know, is it so hard to ask, just ask, you know,
00:53:28
Speaker
it's important.
00:53:29
Speaker
It's a good part.
00:53:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:30
Speaker
I think it was a good change.
00:53:32
Speaker
Another change, Chloe, who is at the end of her life at one of the support groups.
00:53:38
Speaker
It's kind of a tough scene to watch really.
00:53:42
Speaker
And in the film, we see her basically just begging for anybody to have sex with her one last time.
00:53:50
Speaker
It's,
00:53:51
Speaker
It's kind of tough to watch.
00:53:52
Speaker
It's really dehumanizing in a lot of ways.
00:53:54
Speaker
The narrator describes her as what Meryl Streep's skeleton would look like if you made her smile.
00:54:01
Speaker
It's dark.
00:54:01
Speaker
There's some dark humor here, which you may or may not appreciate, but it's well done.
00:54:08
Speaker
It's in the name of art in the film.
00:54:11
Speaker
It's not
00:54:13
Speaker
you know, superfluous or excessive.
00:54:15
Speaker
I don't think definitely dark comedy throughout this film.
00:54:18
Speaker
And I actually just sidebar, I don't think this film gets credit for being as funny as it is because everybody just thinks about, you know, shirtless Brad Pitt punching somebody.
00:54:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:27
Speaker
The seriousness of what, you know, what it,
00:54:30
Speaker
is blamed to be, you know, versus what it really is.
00:54:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:33
Speaker
There's a lot of really funny moments in this film.
00:54:36
Speaker
So getting back to Chloe, um, in the book, uh, she only talks about it directly to the narrator, uh, much less humiliating than, than how it's, uh, than how it's presented on film.
00:54:47
Speaker
Um, I kind of, I don't know.
00:54:48
Speaker
I could go either way on that one, although it is a funny scene, the way it's presented in the movie.
00:54:52
Speaker
Um, the next one is Bob had bitch tits.
00:54:57
Speaker
And when Bob dies,
00:55:00
Speaker
Um, in the film, it's, you know, he gets shot in the head, uh, in serving project mayhem, uh, destroying a cafe and some art in the process.
00:55:10
Speaker
Um, in the book, he actually, uh, dies robbing money from a pay phone, which is much less interesting.
00:55:17
Speaker
And, and I think the film version is a lot better.
00:55:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:20
Speaker
Well, I mean, you know, if you're listening right now, raise your hand if you even know what a pay phone is or what a pay booth is.
00:55:27
Speaker
Right.
00:55:28
Speaker
You know, it's, it's something that's,
00:55:30
Speaker
largely disappeared in the last couple of decades.
00:55:32
Speaker
It's, it's obsolete.
00:55:33
Speaker
You know, I remember calling mom and dad on the pay phone and saying, Hey, practice is over.
00:55:39
Speaker
Come get me.
00:55:40
Speaker
You know, it was my pay phone at our high school.
00:55:42
Speaker
And, uh, you know, my kids will never make a phone call using a pay phone.
00:55:47
Speaker
It will never happen.
00:55:48
Speaker
They don't know what Bill and Ted's bogus journey and Bill and Ted's excellent adventure.
00:55:53
Speaker
Oh, wow.
00:55:54
Speaker
Yeah.
00:55:54
Speaker
You know, those are throwbacks, but that's about phone booth.
00:55:57
Speaker
So like, yeah, that's an update.
00:55:59
Speaker
Well, kids think Superman changes into from Clark Kent to Superman.
00:56:03
Speaker
If phone booths don't exist anymore, where would he gotta be a closet, right?
00:56:07
Speaker
Like everywhere.
00:56:07
Speaker
Everybody's got closets now, you know, people have closets.
00:56:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:13
Speaker
Um, so going on to the next change, we're going to look at how the narrator and Tyler Durden first meet, um, in the film, it's an incredibly iconic scene.
00:56:22
Speaker
It's, it's one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
00:56:24
Speaker
They meet on the plane, and they talk about how they have the same briefcase and the single-serving friend and that whole thing.
00:56:30
Speaker
We just referenced the part where we said how they're working out for being clever.
00:56:33
Speaker
Oh, it's incredible.
00:56:34
Speaker
Yeah, it's a good exchange.
00:56:35
Speaker
The book has them meeting on a beach in just a very different scene altogether.
00:56:40
Speaker
That doesn't fit, does it?
00:56:43
Speaker
It's darkness, right?
00:56:44
Speaker
This movie is literally pretty much dark the entire time.
00:56:48
Speaker
There's nothing about a beach that would make me think Fight Club.
00:56:52
Speaker
No, no.
00:56:53
Speaker
No, I think this was another really good change.
00:56:56
Speaker
In the book, another change, the narrator ends up in a fight that hurts him so badly that his cheek gets kind of like a permanent hole in it throughout the rest of the story.
00:57:06
Speaker
First of all, for the VFX team in 1999 to have to contend with that is a lot more than they need to do.
00:57:14
Speaker
And it doesn't really add anything.
00:57:16
Speaker
So I don't think this is one of those changes that really would have made much of a difference one way or another.
00:57:21
Speaker
It would have been like...
00:57:24
Speaker
an hour and a half worth of movie time that they would have needed to have like edited Ed Norton's face to have a hole in his face, you know, like that's, that's significant.
00:57:34
Speaker
That's a lot of work.
00:57:35
Speaker
That's a lot of CGI.
00:57:36
Speaker
That's a lot of animation.
00:57:37
Speaker
That's a lot of money to pay for what I think was fairly low budget, you know, cause this was not a, if you cancel the like actor fees, this was not like a, you know, huge production.
00:57:50
Speaker
No, I don't think.
00:57:52
Speaker
And like you said, it wouldn't have added anything to the film.
00:57:55
Speaker
You know, there's some some part of your idea of, you know, Chuck Palahniuk saying like, oh, you know, the film was much better than book.
00:58:03
Speaker
Maybe it's a humble brag because usually that's not the way things go.
00:58:05
Speaker
But it's kind of true.
00:58:08
Speaker
You know, it's yeah.
00:58:10
Speaker
Creative people very rarely can separate themselves from the work to the point where they could ever admit that somebody adapted their work and did it better than they did.
00:58:21
Speaker
I don't see Mariah Carey ever saying that somebody who covers one of her songs could ever say that they sang it better than she did.
00:58:28
Speaker
That's just something you just couldn't ever fathom happening.
00:58:33
Speaker
I want to get to the next one, and this is kind of an interesting one.
00:58:38
Speaker
There's a great scene where
00:58:40
Speaker
and it plays out a couple of times, uh, but it starts with them kind of, you know, uh, in Tyler's bathroom talking about, uh, who would you fight?
00:58:50
Speaker
Um, great.
00:58:51
Speaker
There's some, some really, it's a really great ad because it wasn't in the book at all.
00:58:57
Speaker
Um, you know, they talk about fighting, you know, the narrator says he'd fight his boss.
00:59:01
Speaker
Um, Gandhi's in there.
00:59:03
Speaker
Abe Lincoln's in there.
00:59:06
Speaker
It's really kind of an interesting, and I think it's a great scene because it shows the two of them really bonding, and it really shows the narrator leaving behind his perfect little Ikea life and really embracing the shithole life that Tyler is living
Hypothetical Celebrity Fights
00:59:23
Speaker
in.
00:59:23
Speaker
And you see this as a clear moment.
00:59:25
Speaker
This is flipping.
00:59:26
Speaker
There's angst.
00:59:28
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:59:28
Speaker
I'm going to ask you.
00:59:29
Speaker
You can fight anyone.
00:59:31
Speaker
Who do you fight?
00:59:33
Speaker
if it's right now, like, you know, forget that this was a 1999 question.
00:59:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:39
Speaker
Right now I would fight Donald Trump.
00:59:42
Speaker
I don't think that would take a whole lot.
00:59:45
Speaker
I think that fight would be over pretty quick.
00:59:47
Speaker
I'm sure it would because I have, you know, I have, I have minimal training.
00:59:50
Speaker
Let me be honest.
00:59:51
Speaker
I have minimal in martial arts.
00:59:55
Speaker
Besides you and me, you know, mixing it up here and there throughout our entire lives.
00:59:59
Speaker
But,
01:00:00
Speaker
I would just love to beat the hell out of that dude.
01:00:02
Speaker
That's all there is.
01:00:03
Speaker
That's it.
01:00:05
Speaker
I'm going to go Gordon Ramsey.
01:00:07
Speaker
That guy just seems like he's got a punchable face.
01:00:10
Speaker
He's got it coming, right?
01:00:12
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:13
Speaker
I don't like smugness.
01:00:14
Speaker
I don't like people who are condescending and just mean for the sake of being mean.
01:00:18
Speaker
That's just not me.
01:00:19
Speaker
That dude acts like he's never been in a fight, which is, that's part of the problem, I think.
01:00:23
Speaker
Oh yeah.
01:00:24
Speaker
You can tell people who've never been in a fight.
01:00:26
Speaker
He's never had his ass kicked.
01:00:27
Speaker
There's just no way.
01:00:28
Speaker
Right.
01:00:28
Speaker
Cause you don't talk like that if you've never had your ass kicked.
01:00:31
Speaker
No.
01:00:32
Speaker
Uh, so historical figure, if you could fight any historical figure, who do you go with?
01:00:37
Speaker
I'm fighting Pol Pot.
01:00:38
Speaker
If you know about history, you know, this dude's responsible for like hundreds of thousands.
01:00:43
Speaker
It's genocide.
01:00:44
Speaker
You know, it's the Khmer Rouge and just hacking people up with machetes.
01:00:48
Speaker
It's, he's a terrible person.
01:00:49
Speaker
I'd fight him.
01:00:51
Speaker
I'm sure he's probably five foot, nothing one front kick to his chin and it's probably over.
01:00:56
Speaker
And I feel really great.
01:00:58
Speaker
So I'm going to go Joseph Stalin.
01:01:01
Speaker
Also another terrible human being from history.
01:01:04
Speaker
A genocidal F head.
01:01:05
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:06
Speaker
Yeah, a maniac.
01:01:07
Speaker
Yeah, killed a lot of people and certainly had a lasting negative impact on the world.
01:01:13
Speaker
See, I think Stalin would be a fairly tough fight.
01:01:16
Speaker
I think that dude's probably pretty tough.
01:01:19
Speaker
Well, just being Russian.
01:01:20
Speaker
I'm saying prime Stalin.
01:01:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:01:22
Speaker
You grow up, it's cold, right?
01:01:24
Speaker
Like, it's minus 30 every day.
01:01:26
Speaker
Yeah, and it's dog-eat-dog.
01:01:27
Speaker
You don't get to be...
01:01:29
Speaker
you know, basically the dictator of a communist nation by like being a nice guy.
01:01:33
Speaker
Like he's like, cause your, your dad knew somebody.
01:01:36
Speaker
No, you're like, you're fighting for that.
01:01:38
Speaker
Right?
01:01:38
Speaker
No, he's, he's absolutely placed poison in somebody's goblet at some point in his life.
01:01:43
Speaker
He is absolutely slit somebody's throat from behind.
01:01:45
Speaker
Like there's no doubt in my mind.
01:01:46
Speaker
So he's tough.
01:01:47
Speaker
He's asleep with one eye open type of dude too.
01:01:50
Speaker
You know, like, Oh yeah.
01:01:51
Speaker
Sneaking up on him.
01:01:52
Speaker
That's all face to face.
01:01:54
Speaker
And then, uh, that's a good pick.
01:01:56
Speaker
Yeah, I like that pick, actually.
01:01:58
Speaker
If you could fight any celebrity, who would it be?
01:02:01
Speaker
All the Kardashians at once.
01:02:06
Speaker
If your last name is Kardashian, I'll fight you right now.
01:02:09
Speaker
I'll give you my address.
01:02:11
Speaker
Just find a way to direct message me, and we'll do this.
01:02:15
Speaker
It doesn't have to be on film, but I'm going to enjoy it no matter what.
01:02:19
Speaker
You deserve to be beaten.
01:02:23
Speaker
If I could fight any celebrity, it's going to be Skip Bayless.
01:02:25
Speaker
I don't like trolls.
01:02:27
Speaker
dude, dude says provocative things for the sake of trying to be provocative.
01:02:31
Speaker
I don't think he doesn't.
01:02:32
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:32
Speaker
He doesn't even believe what he's saying.
01:02:35
Speaker
I've wanted to karate chop him in the throat so many times.
01:02:38
Speaker
And this is going back to like when I was in college, this is, this is a long time.
01:02:42
Speaker
It was like 13 years ago that I've wanted to just kick him in his teeth.
01:02:47
Speaker
Cause he's just a dick for the sake of it.
01:02:49
Speaker
And man, I can't accept that.
01:02:52
Speaker
If you're going to offer a sports personality, you gotta be, you gotta be like,
01:02:56
Speaker
Genuine.
01:02:58
Speaker
And I don't think it's genuine.
01:02:59
Speaker
I support that 100%.
01:03:02
Speaker
So moving on to book to big screen.
01:03:06
Speaker
One of the other changes, when Project Mayhem really starts to get things rolling, we definitely see in the film the narrator being very concerned about how far it's going and the direction it's taking.
01:03:19
Speaker
He's not even fully aware necessarily of Tyler's involvement.
01:03:23
Speaker
He's not really sure entirely what's going on.
01:03:28
Speaker
In the book, it's just not really strong.
01:03:33
Speaker
The narrator doesn't really show the level of concern to Project Mayhem and the level that they're taking it to.
01:03:41
Speaker
In fact, he's actually going along with it from the start.
01:03:44
Speaker
So I kind of think for the sake of drama in the film, I feel like this was a better change.
01:03:48
Speaker
Eric, what do you think?
01:03:49
Speaker
It brings so much...
01:03:52
Speaker
Cause there's, there's, there's a couple of points throughout this where you notice some frustration on the part of the narrator, frustration with Tyler, frustration with Marla, frustration with how things are going.
01:04:05
Speaker
There are, they plant seeds of betrayal and where he feels like, you know, things are happening without his approval where like Tyler's saying, you know, this doesn't belong to any of us.
01:04:16
Speaker
This belongs to all of us.
01:04:17
Speaker
And, you know, he, he just feels like he's been left out and you know, it's,
01:04:22
Speaker
the irony of it is that, you know, he's doing all of this on his own without his own knowledge.
01:04:28
Speaker
It's, you know, it's, it's interesting, but that, that, that wedge that exists between him and Tyler, it really shows up with project mayhem, even though he's kind of a willing participant, like the, the recruiting of the guys, you know, he comes out and he's beaten him with a broom and tell him, get off my property.
01:04:45
Speaker
And, you know, he accepts what Tyler says.
01:04:47
Speaker
If they're, you know, too young, you tell him they're too young, too old, too old, fat, too fat.
01:04:52
Speaker
you know, he gets out there and he takes right into it and he's part of it.
01:04:55
Speaker
And then all of a sudden, then he tells Bob to come back.
01:04:58
Speaker
And I love that.
01:04:58
Speaker
He's like, no, Bob, seriously.
01:05:01
Speaker
And if like, if you know, after the fact, like, you know that him and Tyler are the same person, then you know that that scene is Tyler saying, you're, you're too old fat man.
01:05:12
Speaker
Your tits are too big.
01:05:13
Speaker
And then he walks back in the house and,
01:05:15
Speaker
But in real life, like that is said, but then he's still there.
01:05:20
Speaker
He's still standing there and Bob walks away.
01:05:21
Speaker
And then he's, it's the same guy saying, no, no, Bob, seriously stay, you know, like, so Bob got to witness both personalities, you know, in that moment.
01:05:30
Speaker
And that's cool.
01:05:31
Speaker
And that's why it's important to watch this more than once.
01:05:33
Speaker
Cause you really need to see it after, you know, what the reveal is the big plot reveal, but you know, it's,
01:05:41
Speaker
It's so important that the drama to the movie exists because of the hesitation of the narrator and the frustration of the narrator.
01:05:50
Speaker
And the fact that he doesn't know.
01:05:53
Speaker
We share his ignorance.
01:05:56
Speaker
As a viewer, the first time you watch, you really don't know what the hell's going on as much as he doesn't know.
01:06:02
Speaker
And you know what he knows.
01:06:04
Speaker
So you're kind of following along at the same pace and you share his confusion and his frustration.
01:06:09
Speaker
And it's like, when, why would Tyler be such a dickhead and start this whole huge thing without telling him about it?
01:06:16
Speaker
You know, it's, um, it really does.
01:06:21
Speaker
It's one of those things that you have to just watch this a second time with the full knowledge of what you know from seeing it the first time that, that makes you look at all of these scenes and, um,
01:06:31
Speaker
I think especially anytime the narrator and Marla are together.
01:06:35
Speaker
Oh, it's so important.
01:06:37
Speaker
Oh my God.
01:06:38
Speaker
The before and after, like the first time you've watched it, I would love to be able to go back and take notes before I knew this movie.
01:06:48
Speaker
My impressions were the first time.
01:06:50
Speaker
Cause it is like you try to like project your brain back to, okay, I don't know, actually know this fact.
01:06:55
Speaker
and watch it.
01:06:56
Speaker
And, you know, so I just watched this, you know, this week to, I actually watched it last week and then you talked about, Hey, let's do this.
01:07:04
Speaker
So I watched it again and took notes.
01:07:06
Speaker
So I'm, I'm uniquely positioned where I'm, I'm trying to watch it ignorantly and, and pretend like I don't know what's happening, but at the same time I do know what's happening.
01:07:16
Speaker
So I'm trying to write like two different perspectives at the same time.
01:07:19
Speaker
And the, the stuff with Marla is really, that's somehow,
01:07:26
Speaker
it's kind of like your offensive line in football.
01:07:28
Speaker
It's like the unsung hero.
01:07:29
Speaker
It is the thing that dictates how the movie runs.
01:07:33
Speaker
You don't know it because you're not watching it.
01:07:35
Speaker
Like you don't, you don't pick apart the interactions with Marla as a huge driving force of the film, but it really is.
01:07:45
Speaker
And you don't know it until after the fact, it's kind of like watching the instant replay and, and, you know, Chris Collinsworth idiot's face is talking about something that happened and he's drawing pictures.
01:07:55
Speaker
And you're like, wow,
01:07:56
Speaker
how did this guy who I swear is dumb watch this in real time?
01:08:00
Speaker
And now he's telling me about it.
01:08:02
Speaker
You know what?
01:08:02
Speaker
He's still dumb, but like you, you still get it.
01:08:07
Speaker
Like, and so the, the Marla thing, she is, she's probably the most important character in the movie.
01:08:12
Speaker
She dictates how this movie goes.
01:08:14
Speaker
What I think is really interesting is that when you watch it from the perspective of forcing yourself to watch it,
01:08:22
Speaker
that you don't know the twist and you look at Marla's reactions to the narrator from the time that she and Tyler, you know, Tyler quote unquote, start sleeping together.
01:08:32
Speaker
And you look at her interactions with the narrator.
01:08:36
Speaker
There's so many of those that are, are very just, it's, it, you buy that the narrator isn't involved with her because we know that Marla has, uh,
01:08:48
Speaker
challenges.
01:08:49
Speaker
We know that she's, she's got some mental health, right?
01:08:52
Speaker
Yes.
01:08:52
Speaker
She's definitely got mental health problems.
01:08:54
Speaker
She would see it in 2021.
01:08:56
Speaker
We, with our, you had talked about it earlier.
01:08:59
Speaker
You know, we have a very different understanding of mental health today than we do at this time.
01:09:05
Speaker
Um, which is maybe where some of the angst of Gen X really came from.
01:09:09
Speaker
Um, the narrator, um,
01:09:11
Speaker
in 2021 might have never actually gone through this whole process.
01:09:15
Speaker
He, you know, you think back to like how his doctor treated him when he said, you know, I'm in pain, I need help.
01:09:21
Speaker
He said, choose some Valerian root.
01:09:23
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:25
Speaker
And get real sleep.
01:09:27
Speaker
Like he would have recognized, I think you need to see counseling, you know, and this whole film would have never happened.
01:09:34
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:35
Speaker
Yeah, but the way that Marla's interactions with the narrator and you don't believe that they're engaged in this relationship, a lot of it is just to do with the fact that you know that Marla's got some problems.
01:09:45
Speaker
You know Marla's got some issues.
01:09:47
Speaker
So you never suspect anything.
01:09:49
Speaker
And I think that speaks to two things about this movie that are just so good.
01:09:53
Speaker
First of all, the writing.
01:09:55
Speaker
And second of all, the performances of these actors.
01:09:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:09:59
Speaker
It really...
Important Characters and Plot Twists
01:10:01
Speaker
It's the character development we're talking about.
01:10:05
Speaker
Technically one guy, but two extremely unique developed characters from one guy.
01:10:14
Speaker
And the movie is told from the perspective of one for a short bit.
01:10:19
Speaker
And then the perspective of two, but you don't know it that it's from two different perspectives that are the same until the very end.
01:10:28
Speaker
And it's like, Oh my God, this all makes sense.
01:10:31
Speaker
And Helena bottom Carter, brilliant.
01:10:35
Speaker
And again, I feel like she's probably the, cause she's, she's the foil to both of them.
01:10:41
Speaker
but you don't know it, you know, and it's just, it's concealed and it's just well done and just believable the whole time.
01:10:46
Speaker
But after the fact, you're like, wow, I should have known.
01:10:49
Speaker
Like that's the, that's the, like the real key to me is after the fact you're like, wow, I really, how did I not know?
01:10:54
Speaker
How did I not recognize it?
01:10:56
Speaker
You know, when Tyler says like, you know, you promise you don't talk about me with her.
01:10:59
Speaker
You know, he makes him say it three times.
01:11:01
Speaker
He's like, Oh, that's three times you promised.
01:11:04
Speaker
you just take that as like a quirky bit that, you know, that's part of his character.
01:11:08
Speaker
He's just kind of a goof.
01:11:10
Speaker
And, uh, you know, but then after the fact you realize like, Oh, this is, he said this because that's the non-dominant personality that, that is, is factoring in as the primary role right now.
01:11:23
Speaker
He's telling him, don't have a conversation about this personality because then you're going to understand what's going on.
01:11:28
Speaker
And you're going to know that I don't really exist.
01:11:31
Speaker
And I'm a figment of your imagination.
01:11:33
Speaker
And,
01:11:33
Speaker
that's going to make everything fall apart.
01:11:35
Speaker
You're going to, I gotta say, if you want to, if you want to pick kind of one thing about this movie, that's a little bit unrealistic, or it makes you wonder how the narrator never truly caught on what was going on.
01:11:50
Speaker
Marla never calls him Tyler or says his name as Tyler until after we, the audience know the twist of,
01:11:59
Speaker
So if you want to maybe nitpick something and, and look, if you want to explain it, I think there's an in universe explanation for it in that the Tyler personality blocks that from his, his ability to receive.
01:12:14
Speaker
Right.
01:12:15
Speaker
I think that's cause he's blocking so much other stuff, right?
01:12:18
Speaker
Like, you know, they even say like, sometimes you are, you viewing me from your perspective and sometimes you're me viewing you from my perspective.
01:12:27
Speaker
That part, that's all... Maybe it's kind of cheap and a cop-out.
01:12:33
Speaker
It's like a throwaway type of explanation.
01:12:35
Speaker
Also, keep in mind, Tyler's the one that left the gas on and set up the napalm and everything else that blew up his condo that set a lot of these wheels in motion.
01:12:43
Speaker
The things that he loved the most, the things that defined him.
01:12:46
Speaker
The things he owned that end up owning you.
01:12:49
Speaker
If you look at it, disassociated personalities literally means that they don't know that they exist outside of each other.
01:12:56
Speaker
you know, like that it's a legitimate diagnosis, diagnosis of, of mental health conditions.
01:13:02
Speaker
So like, yeah, it's entirely plausible and believable that that's happening.
01:13:07
Speaker
And perhaps it's just sort of a plot device that makes the movie work, you know, but it's also, I mean, I, I don't really, I mean, you can criticize whatever you want, I guess, but it, it works for me because it doesn't bother me.
01:13:21
Speaker
Like I feel like if you,
01:13:23
Speaker
If you want to pick at it, you can, but I think it's, I think it's explainable.
01:13:28
Speaker
All right.
01:13:28
Speaker
So a couple other changes from the book to the big screen in the book, Marla actually calls out the narrator at one of the support groups and saying he doesn't have cancer in the film.
01:13:41
Speaker
It doesn't happen.
01:13:41
Speaker
I'm not sure.
01:13:42
Speaker
Would that have really added anything for you if they had put that in?
01:13:46
Speaker
Well, no, cause he's always going to go to fight club, right?
01:13:48
Speaker
Like he's always going to separate from the support groups.
01:13:52
Speaker
And I think,
01:13:53
Speaker
part of the thematic material here is that, you know, Marla is the opposition in the early part of the movie.
01:14:03
Speaker
She's the wedge between him and his happiness because his happiness is based on the support groups where he can cry.
01:14:09
Speaker
And, you know, he says when people think that you're dying, they really listen instead of waiting for their turn to speak.
01:14:15
Speaker
For their turn to speak.
01:14:16
Speaker
Yeah.
01:14:17
Speaker
And so like he's talking about if, if there's another faker present, I can't cry.
01:14:22
Speaker
I can't release.
01:14:23
Speaker
You know, he refers to Marlis as a tourist and, you know, he just, she's, she's the villain.
01:14:30
Speaker
She is the antagonist in his storyline.
01:14:34
Speaker
And so if she outs him like in the book, I don't think that brings anything to the film.
01:14:40
Speaker
You know, it would be like a, just a different way for him to move away from the groups, you know, cause the groups don't,
01:14:49
Speaker
really add anything.
01:14:50
Speaker
It's kind of a setup.
01:14:52
Speaker
It's a backstory.
01:14:55
Speaker
I made a note about the first 30 minutes or so of the movie.
01:15:01
Speaker
If you only watch it one time and you don't know anything about Ed Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, or Brad Pitt, you're going to find the first 32 minutes to be very dull and lame, and you may not watch beyond that.
01:15:14
Speaker
But after the 32 minute and 14 second mark where
01:15:18
Speaker
where Brad Pitt says, I want you to hit me as hard as you can, the movie changes.
01:15:22
Speaker
But those support groups, that's all, it's just a setup.
01:15:26
Speaker
So I don't think that the difference in the book and the film changes much in terms of, I think it's a great thing in the film where they don't do that, whereas the book, it's probably kind of, it's kind of a just, you know, it's ho-hum.
01:15:41
Speaker
You know, I think it was an interesting point that you just brought up.
01:15:44
Speaker
If you only watched the first 32 minutes, up until you're, and you're right, there is absolutely a change in this movie from the time he says, I want you to hit me as hard as you can.
01:15:53
Speaker
It completely changes and it never slows down from that point on.
01:15:57
Speaker
People watch movies differently
Evolving Movie Watching Experiences
01:15:59
Speaker
now.
01:15:59
Speaker
People watch TV differently now than they ever did.
01:16:02
Speaker
When this movie came,
01:16:07
Speaker
If you're not watching it in the theater, you're renting it or you're buying it on home video.
01:16:13
Speaker
You're coming home.
01:16:14
Speaker
You're popping it in the VCR.
01:16:15
Speaker
And you're watching the whole thing.
01:16:17
Speaker
It's still an event, right?
01:16:19
Speaker
It's nighttime.
01:16:20
Speaker
Your home buzz and activities have ceased.
01:16:24
Speaker
Everybody's homework is done.
01:16:26
Speaker
Nobody is talking on the home phone.
01:16:28
Speaker
There are landlines back then where you actually pick the phone up and talk on it.
01:16:34
Speaker
Everybody is gathered in one central location.
01:16:37
Speaker
The lights are dimmed.
01:16:38
Speaker
Your surround sound is cranked.
01:16:41
Speaker
And you're all experiencing this, and there are no interruptions.
01:16:44
Speaker
There's nothing to distract you from it.
01:16:46
Speaker
But I feel like a lot of people now, if they're going to watch something they've never seen before, there's a lot of people who watch movies or watch TV shows on their phone on their lunch break at work.
01:17:00
Speaker
That's me.
01:17:01
Speaker
Yeah.
01:17:03
Speaker
Not going to lie.
01:17:03
Speaker
I do that sometimes too.
01:17:05
Speaker
But if, if you're the kind of person that's like, Oh, I want to hear what the buzz about fight club is about.
01:17:10
Speaker
I've never seen it.
01:17:10
Speaker
I'm going to, I'm going to give it a go.
01:17:12
Speaker
And by the time you throw your food in the microwave and you sit down and let's say you've only got half an hour for your lunch break.
01:17:19
Speaker
So you're really, by the time the phone loads everything and you're sitting down and ready to go and you get through the credits, like you've got maybe 25, 20 minutes of the film that you're going to watch.
01:17:31
Speaker
if that's how you start this movie, you may not choose to like pick it back up.
01:17:37
Speaker
Cause it's like, it would be tough.
01:17:39
Speaker
It would be tough to, I mean, like if you're thinking about it from a lot, you know, now people are the, the high rate of consumption and the short limit on content, you know, it's 24 minute bites of content at a time.
01:17:57
Speaker
if you think about it in terms of like a TV show and like a movie short series, you know, a mini series, that first episode, that's what that is.
01:18:06
Speaker
That's the first, you know, half hour or less.
01:18:09
Speaker
The first episode is kind of crap.
01:18:11
Speaker
You know, it's not a good, it's not a very good pilot.
01:18:13
Speaker
It's, it doesn't set up the movie for what it really is.
01:18:17
Speaker
It's not a good representation.
01:18:18
Speaker
It's not a good leader.
01:18:19
Speaker
It's not a good pilot.
01:18:21
Speaker
If you have watched it and understand it and you've seen it a few times, then the first 30 minutes or so,
01:18:28
Speaker
it appreciates in value.
01:18:30
Speaker
It actually becomes much better because you get like, Oh, they really were like, there's a ton of foreshadowing in this movie.
01:18:38
Speaker
There's so much to mention this, like three times that two frames of Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden show up, you know, in the office.
01:18:45
Speaker
I want to say, I think there's like two or three times that there's just like two or three frames of him that just flip right.
01:18:51
Speaker
Well, they do that like splice, you know, where they, it's part of the gag.
01:18:55
Speaker
It's, it's kind of meta.
01:18:56
Speaker
It's a, you know, it's a self-reference where the,
01:18:58
Speaker
Tyler has a night job where he's, you know, switching reels at a movie theater, but he splices one frame of porn into a, like a child's cartoon type of movie.
01:19:07
Speaker
And, you know, they show it and it's like, the cartooning.
01:19:11
Speaker
And then, ah, like, you know, it's like a moan.
01:19:12
Speaker
And it's like everybody, they don't know that they saw it, but they saw it, you know, but that's, that's Ed Norton the whole time.
01:19:18
Speaker
It's because he's an insomniac, you know?
01:19:20
Speaker
And so it, it fits.
01:19:22
Speaker
It's really, it's very cool.
01:19:25
Speaker
It's just, you know, the beginning is not great until after you've seen it.
01:19:31
Speaker
It's kind of like a really good line or spirit that has matured with age.
01:19:37
Speaker
You appreciate it more after you're done with it than you did when you had it.
01:19:43
Speaker
So the final difference in book to big screen here, the ending.
01:19:50
Speaker
In the book, Tyler's plant,
01:19:52
Speaker
is to be inside the building as it explodes around him.
01:19:56
Speaker
The whole point of this is he wants to be a martyr for the cause.
01:20:00
Speaker
Yeah.
01:20:01
Speaker
And it really doesn't seem necessary.
01:20:06
Speaker
Um, you know, I, I'm not sure that it's really needed.
01:20:09
Speaker
I don't, I don't feel it misses anything.
01:20:11
Speaker
Um, including that iconic final shot was, was definitely a big change because, um, on the book, the narrator is in a mental institution.
01:20:21
Speaker
Um,
01:20:22
Speaker
and you find out that there's different members of project mayhem that they're still out there.
01:20:27
Speaker
You know, they're still carrying on those wishes of, of Tyler Durden waiting for him to come back.
01:20:32
Speaker
You know, it's, it's very much a cult and it's the cult of Tyler.
01:20:38
Speaker
There's obviously, like I said, there's a, there's a sequel that's been written.
01:20:42
Speaker
But the ending of this movie, it's the narrator's got no pants and he's just standing there in his socks, holding Marla's hand and, and watching as these buildings fall.
01:20:52
Speaker
To this day, anytime I hear the song Where Is My Mind by the Pixies, I can only picture this scene.
01:20:59
Speaker
It's the only thing I think of anytime I hear this song.
01:21:03
Speaker
I'm not even sure I'd ever heard that song before I'd seen this film.
01:21:07
Speaker
So it's like one of those things that's permanently engraved in my memory when this song comes on.
01:21:14
Speaker
And that's kind of the whole point of this show is to talk about these long-lasting things
01:21:20
Speaker
film attachments and and we have about the films that we've kind of carried with us throughout our lives and um and we all have them and and that's kind of why we we chose fight club to be the first one that we we do um anything on that you want to you want to tag on eric definitely so like you know memory just briefly not a psychotherapist or brain type of guy but
01:21:45
Speaker
smell.
01:21:46
Speaker
The sense of smell is associated with memory, like super tight, right?
01:21:49
Speaker
But like, for us, it's really, it's sound, it's music.
01:21:52
Speaker
It's, you know, think about songs that have, no matter what you hear it and it immediately takes you back to a period of time.
01:22:01
Speaker
Right.
01:22:02
Speaker
So,
01:22:03
Speaker
that's like snow informer for me.
01:22:05
Speaker
I'm back in elementary school and I think I'm awesome.
01:22:08
Speaker
You know, like, yeah.
01:22:09
Speaker
So the Pixies, you're right.
01:22:11
Speaker
It's that's, it's, it's, I don't, I don't want to say obscure, but lesser known type of nineties, you know, grunge ish kind of, you know, it's not, it's not, it's, it's, but it's different.
01:22:25
Speaker
It's kind of like a British, like a stone roses twist on that.
01:22:31
Speaker
And it's great.
01:22:32
Speaker
And you're right.
01:22:33
Speaker
seeing the sort of CGI buildings collapse.
01:22:36
Speaker
And I don't think that they altogether made that not deliberately look sort of produced.
01:22:44
Speaker
You know what I mean?
01:22:44
Speaker
Like, I don't think that they went out of their way to make it look as perfectly as possible.
01:22:49
Speaker
Because what about Fight Club do you think is perfect?
01:22:51
Speaker
You know what I mean?
01:22:52
Speaker
Like, nothing about it really is.
01:22:53
Speaker
And if there is some kind of representation of perfection, it's being mocked.
01:22:58
Speaker
So I think that that's deliberate, but yes, that Pixie song, I mean, and by the way, please do explore the Pixie's discography because they're great, but that song, I will eternally associate with watching buildings collapse from Ed Norton's perspective with his blown out face and Marla being there.
01:23:17
Speaker
And it's a lasting impression.
01:23:19
Speaker
And that's, that's really what this is.
01:23:21
Speaker
You know, the whole film is, is multiple things that, that really just hit home with me.
01:23:26
Speaker
And,
01:23:27
Speaker
the music is a big part.
01:23:28
Speaker
And I think part of it is maybe just kind of growing up in a DJ type of family where music was everything.
01:23:34
Speaker
And you, you really loved all genres and eras, obviously, except for country.
01:23:40
Speaker
And, you know, so like, I remember just starting the movie off while I'm taking notes, the beginning, the intro, it's, it's such a manic type of song.
01:23:53
Speaker
It really sets the tone for,
01:23:55
Speaker
holy crap, this is going to be fast paced.
01:23:57
Speaker
This is going to be, you know, if you know already and you're listening to it, you're like, wow, this is bad for mental health.
01:24:04
Speaker
You know, this song is just super fast.
01:24:07
Speaker
It's, it's, it's chaos in it.
01:24:10
Speaker
You know, it's like a reverse.
01:24:12
Speaker
The cinematography is really cool too.
01:24:14
Speaker
Cause like it's, it's, it's in reverse and you're super zoomed into like the inside of a body of a, of an organ and you're coming out of it the whole time.
01:24:24
Speaker
The intro is playing with,
01:24:26
Speaker
you know, you're given the intro credits, your typical, you know, the studio and the producers, the director and blah, blah, blah.
01:24:32
Speaker
But you're, you're coming out of somebody's like sweat glands, you know, you're through their brain and stuff.
01:24:37
Speaker
And, and they do that a couple of different times later in the film.
01:24:42
Speaker
And there's a part where they're like coming out of a garbage can and they're really highlighting the product placement.
01:24:48
Speaker
You know, it's kind of a tongue in cheek about, you know, Starbucks and, and, you know, fast food.
01:24:53
Speaker
And they're showing these, these,
01:24:56
Speaker
very obvious commercial logos that people recognize and it's coming out of a garbage can, which maybe is, you know, some symbolism for like, this is all trash, forget about it.
01:25:07
Speaker
But they do that a few times and they really do like there is a focus and there's a tie in between the sound and the visuals.
01:25:14
Speaker
And I think that's part of, you know, it's not a requirement for a great film, but I think a lot of the great films that I,
01:25:20
Speaker
categorized in my hall of fame, there's a connection between what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing.
01:25:25
Speaker
And it's the score or the, the musical selection is very important for that.
01:25:32
Speaker
You know, you kind of touched on the, the opening.
01:25:35
Speaker
I kind of had forgotten how crazy this movie opens with the barrel of the
Fight Club's Notable Quotes and Themes
01:25:41
Speaker
gun in his mouth.
01:25:41
Speaker
And he says any last words and he, and he kind of mumbles something.
01:25:44
Speaker
And then we revisit that later and we get this really cool meta moment where he's like,
01:25:49
Speaker
I still can't think of anything as, ah, good flashback humor.
01:25:53
Speaker
It just kind of touches on just the overall, like, I would call this movie crazed energy at different points.
01:26:02
Speaker
I mean, that first 32 minutes, if you've never seen it before, it's one thing.
01:26:08
Speaker
But from the time you lock in, it's a slingshot just throwing you through this thing, and wild things happen, crazy things happen.
01:26:18
Speaker
That intro, it's...
01:26:19
Speaker
It's like 200 beats per minute.
01:26:21
Speaker
I mean, it's fast-paced, and it's like a manic person's heartbeat.
01:26:27
Speaker
You just did three rails of cocaine, and you're ready to go.
01:26:31
Speaker
It's boom, boom, boom, boom.
01:26:33
Speaker
And it kind of sets it up to the narrator.
01:26:35
Speaker
You know this is going to be a movie that's heavily narrated throughout.
01:26:40
Speaker
And I'll tell you what's really interesting, too.
01:26:42
Speaker
So you see the intro to this movie, and then this is how crazy this movie is.
01:26:46
Speaker
The intro happens.
01:26:48
Speaker
Tyler's got the gun in his mouth.
01:26:49
Speaker
he says any last words by the time you get back to that point of the movie later on, you completely forgot.
01:26:57
Speaker
That's how the movie started.
01:26:58
Speaker
Yeah.
01:26:59
Speaker
I think how wild that is.
01:27:00
Speaker
Like you don't even remember.
01:27:02
Speaker
Let me drop it that way.
01:27:03
Speaker
You forget it.
01:27:04
Speaker
Let me drop this with you.
01:27:06
Speaker
That's the very first element of foreshadowing that they introduce.
01:27:10
Speaker
And it's within seconds of the intro.
01:27:13
Speaker
It, he says, uh,
01:27:15
Speaker
I know this because Tyler knows this.
01:27:18
Speaker
That means literally nothing to you the first time you watch it.
01:27:22
Speaker
But after you've seen the entire thing, and if you were to watch that entire movie and then start it over from the beginning, you're going to be like, oh my God, this all makes sense.
01:27:31
Speaker
How did I not see it?
01:27:32
Speaker
How dumb am I that I didn't catch that?
01:27:34
Speaker
It was right in front of my face the entire time.
01:27:36
Speaker
That's the first part.
01:27:37
Speaker
And he says, it's three or four times throughout the movie, he says stuff that gives you this huge
01:27:46
Speaker
baseball bat to the skull.
01:27:48
Speaker
We're trying to set this up.
01:27:49
Speaker
But you clearly don't know.
01:27:53
Speaker
Because why would you?
01:27:54
Speaker
Because they don't present it as such of a psychological thriller.
01:27:58
Speaker
Because it really isn't.
01:28:00
Speaker
But that's an element of a film like that that they've sort of inserted.
01:28:05
Speaker
Again, it's very manic.
01:28:08
Speaker
But then it sets it up again with the narrator.
01:28:11
Speaker
There's so many cool
01:28:13
Speaker
subdued throwaway like quotes and lines where, you know, again, we say that he's got the gun in his mouth and it's an observation.
01:28:20
Speaker
It's very self-aware, but it's just an observation.
01:28:23
Speaker
It doesn't really drive the movie, but it makes, it has value.
01:28:27
Speaker
He says, you know, with a gun in your mouth, you only speak in vowels.
01:28:31
Speaker
Like, Oh, you know what?
01:28:32
Speaker
That's probably true.
01:28:34
Speaker
But like, by the time, not that I've ever tested that theory before, but sure, I'll go with it.
01:28:38
Speaker
Like by the time you've processed that in your brain, they've already moved on to the next thing.
01:28:42
Speaker
And I think that that's,
01:28:44
Speaker
I have to give them credit for that being somewhat deliberate because it really is keeping your brain moving and you never really settle on anything for too long.
01:28:52
Speaker
And again, I think it's sort of just the design and it's part of what makes the film so great versus the book.
01:28:58
Speaker
The book kind of moves pretty slowly, but like the movie you, the first part of it is again, if you have never watched it, the first part, it drags, it kind of sucks.
01:29:08
Speaker
But after the fact, it really does appreciate and value.
01:29:10
Speaker
And you can sort of understand that this is intense.
01:29:15
Speaker
And you don't get that.
01:29:18
Speaker
You were put on edge.
01:29:19
Speaker
It's kind of like you were sort of maybe suffering a little bit in the same way in the mental health field as this guy is, you know?
01:29:28
Speaker
Absolutely.
01:29:29
Speaker
I think that's a great point.
01:29:30
Speaker
You mentioned a couple great lines.
01:29:33
Speaker
You mentioned a lot of really iconic lines from this movie.
01:29:36
Speaker
As I think about the great films that I have this attachment to, again, that's the whole reason we're kind of doing this show.
01:29:47
Speaker
Like I said, Matt, he's covering a lot of great stuff.
01:29:49
Speaker
I've had such a great time jumping on with him.
01:29:53
Speaker
Most of what he's been doing on his show has been stuff within the last several years or stuff that's brand new.
01:29:59
Speaker
Obviously, going back to the early 70s for Star Wars and coming forward,
01:30:03
Speaker
But we wanted to really touch on some of these films that you and I grew up with that have just been huge momentous things that have impacted our whole lives and our films that we find quoting regularly are from the 90s and the early 2000s or even are older than that.
01:30:20
Speaker
And some of the things that I think about that truly make a film iconic and truly make a film long lasting and have an impact on a person are the lines of
01:30:32
Speaker
The film lines.
01:30:33
Speaker
There's people who absolutely speak in movie quotes.
01:30:36
Speaker
So we're going to call this segment Notable and Quotable.
01:30:40
Speaker
And I've got a list of some of the iconic lines.
01:30:43
Speaker
Now, if you go to IMDB, one of the cool features about that site is they've got a section that has just some of the great quotes, and you can vote them up and down and stuff like this.
01:30:54
Speaker
There's 209 entries from this film alone.
01:30:58
Speaker
That's a lot.
01:31:00
Speaker
That's a lot.
01:31:00
Speaker
Now, are all of these pure fire?
01:31:03
Speaker
No, but I want to throw a couple out and I want to see if we can have at least at least 80 of them have to be great.
01:31:09
Speaker
Right.
01:31:10
Speaker
Like out of that many.
01:31:11
Speaker
Yeah.
01:31:12
Speaker
So we're going to do something that's going to be incredibly challenging because what I want to do is I want to try to see if we can come up with.
01:31:19
Speaker
three.
01:31:20
Speaker
Like if we can agree on three that are the top three lines from this movie, and I'm going to, I'm going to throw a couple out and we'll see what stays and what goes.
01:31:28
Speaker
I'm going to have a hard time with this.
01:31:30
Speaker
It's going to be nearly impossible with this movie.
01:31:32
Speaker
So the things you own end up owning you.
01:31:36
Speaker
How about that one right out of the gate?
01:31:38
Speaker
I mean, I have to take like some as a grownup now, you know, I'm 35.
01:31:42
Speaker
I'm, I feel like I'm fully grown up at this point, maybe physically more as grown as you're going to get really.
01:31:47
Speaker
Right.
01:31:47
Speaker
But like,
01:31:48
Speaker
I hate leaving my house.
01:31:50
Speaker
Why do I hate leaving my house?
01:31:52
Speaker
Well, why do I hate leaving my house?
01:31:54
Speaker
Forget the fact that I mostly hate like human interaction, but all my crap is here.
01:31:59
Speaker
All the crap that I have bought is here.
01:32:01
Speaker
I pay a mortgage.
01:32:02
Speaker
I pay a lot of money for this house.
01:32:03
Speaker
Why would I ever want to leave it?
01:32:05
Speaker
I want to enjoy it.
01:32:05
Speaker
You know, let me spend as much possible time as I can in this house that I pay for all the time.
01:32:10
Speaker
And you know, so like,
01:32:12
Speaker
It's, I get it.
01:32:13
Speaker
Xbox is there.
01:32:14
Speaker
All of your Legos are there.
01:32:15
Speaker
All of your star Wars stuff is there.
01:32:16
Speaker
Why would you go elsewhere?
01:32:17
Speaker
I've, I have multiple TVs.
01:32:19
Speaker
I can only watch one at one time, but who cares?
01:32:21
Speaker
I have all of them here and I could watch them in any room.
01:32:23
Speaker
And like, it's just, you know, everybody likes to sit on their own throne, you know, in the morning or after work, whatever your schedule permits, all the stuff that I enjoy the most is here in my house.
01:32:35
Speaker
And you know, what did George Carlin say?
01:32:37
Speaker
A house is just a place to keep your stuff where you buy out and go out and buy more stuff.
01:32:42
Speaker
That's it.
01:32:43
Speaker
That's the theme of this movie though.
01:32:44
Speaker
It really is.
01:32:45
Speaker
Like, and so the things that you own end up owning you.
01:32:48
Speaker
That's exactly right.
01:32:49
Speaker
It discourages, like my stuff, my love of my stuff.
01:32:53
Speaker
It discourages me from leaving because if I leave, then I can't protect it.
01:32:57
Speaker
If I leave, I can't enjoy it.
01:32:58
Speaker
And that's what, that's marketing.
01:33:00
Speaker
I feel like,
01:33:01
Speaker
I feel like this, that line right there, at least for the first 30 minutes is kind of the theme of the film in a lot of ways, the things you want.
01:33:08
Speaker
A hundred percent.
01:33:09
Speaker
He, I mean, they do a whole like visual tour through a spread and then Ikea catalog where they're popping up.
01:33:16
Speaker
It's, it's so it's again, the cinematography is it's unique.
01:33:20
Speaker
You don't see that, you know, really, especially in that time period it's, it's different and it's cool.
01:33:26
Speaker
Um,
01:33:27
Speaker
But that's a great line.
01:33:28
Speaker
That's an iconic Tyler Durden line.
01:33:31
Speaker
It's very much in line with the themes of the movie, the angst from Gen X and the consumerism, anti-capitalism stuff.
01:33:40
Speaker
It's perfect.
01:33:41
Speaker
Yeah.
01:33:42
Speaker
So the next quote, I'm going to give another Tyler quote, kind of summarizes almost like the middle third of the movie.
01:33:49
Speaker
I'm going to kind of paraphrase because it's a long quote, but basically says, man, I see in Fight Club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived.
01:33:55
Speaker
I see all this potential and I see squandering.
01:33:57
Speaker
an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables, um, advertise, uh, advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs.
01:34:04
Speaker
We hate so we can buy shit.
01:34:06
Speaker
We don't need.
01:34:07
Speaker
That's a good one right there, by the way.
01:34:09
Speaker
Um, we're the middle children of history, man.
01:34:11
Speaker
Slaves in white collars is what he says.
01:34:13
Speaker
Yep.
01:34:14
Speaker
He says we're the middle children of history, man.
01:34:17
Speaker
I really feel like, and again, neither of us are part of Gen X, but when you think about the Gen X angst, that's kind of it right there.
01:34:24
Speaker
No purpose or no place.
01:34:25
Speaker
We have no great war, no great depression.
01:34:29
Speaker
Our great war is a spiritual war.
01:34:30
Speaker
Our great depression is our lives.
01:34:32
Speaker
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.
01:34:41
Speaker
That's the entire...
01:34:43
Speaker
bit that creates fight club that turns into project mayhem.
01:34:47
Speaker
I think, I think that's a really good one.
01:34:48
Speaker
He, he validates the anger and then he builds on it.
01:34:52
Speaker
Right?
01:34:52
Speaker
Like, so it's, it's, you know, the Dennis Leary bit, I thought I was going to be the starting center field of the Boston red Sox life sucks.
01:34:58
Speaker
Get a helmet.
01:34:59
Speaker
Yeah.
01:34:59
Speaker
He dealt with it differently than, than Tyler Durden dealt with it in all of his followers dealt with it, where it was like, I was promised this type of life and it wasn't delivered to me.
01:35:11
Speaker
I did all the things that you said I should do,
01:35:13
Speaker
And here I am, I'm a maitre d, I'm a, you know, film real tech, I'm a waiter, you know, I'm a cab driver.
01:35:24
Speaker
It's a blue collar type of job for rich white collar type of people who look down on me and don't even see that I have a face.
01:35:33
Speaker
So yeah, we're pissed.
01:35:34
Speaker
Like we were told this is how you have to live from the greatest generation, right?
01:35:38
Speaker
Like, you know, it was, it was people who were supposed to respect and had this plan and,
01:35:42
Speaker
everything worked out great for them.
01:35:44
Speaker
And now we're like, Hey, we don't really have that same type of experience.
01:35:47
Speaker
We're coming off of, you know, a lot of weird political stuff, some really great music.
01:35:54
Speaker
And, you know, we're now landing on some really great music.
01:35:58
Speaker
You know, that's the nineties.
01:35:59
Speaker
That's the birth of grunge baby.
01:36:02
Speaker
And grunge and gangster rap.
01:36:04
Speaker
I mean, for me, the nineties are the best John best era music for me.
01:36:07
Speaker
You can't start from any, you know,
01:36:11
Speaker
Decade starting with a zero and ending with a nine and be better than 90 to 99.
01:36:15
Speaker
You just can't.
01:36:16
Speaker
It doesn't exist.
01:36:17
Speaker
Nope.
01:36:18
Speaker
And I'll fight you if you disagree.
01:36:19
Speaker
But that's part of it.
01:36:22
Speaker
It's really there's so much emotion because it was like we were promised this.
01:36:26
Speaker
We were told this.
01:36:26
Speaker
We were told what was right.
01:36:28
Speaker
We were told what was wrong.
01:36:30
Speaker
And we did all this stuff that was right.
01:36:31
Speaker
And here we are still –
01:36:34
Speaker
we're kind of, we feel like suckers, you know, we feel like we're, we lost and it wasn't fair and it was rigged and now we want to do something about it.
01:36:42
Speaker
Yeah.
01:36:42
Speaker
Uh, I think that's, you know, in terms of defining the themes of this film, uh, that's another really strong quote.
01:36:48
Speaker
Uh, I got another one I'm going to throw your way.
01:36:50
Speaker
And this is another one that I think I really liked in this movie.
01:36:53
Speaker
Um, it's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.
01:36:57
Speaker
Um, for anybody who's ever rock bottom in their life or really had something just,
01:37:03
Speaker
just a series of events go wrong.
01:37:06
Speaker
I feel like that's one that reaches out to a lot of men.
01:37:08
Speaker
I think that again, when you think about how cults start, when you think about how it's possible that anybody could believe some of the nonsense that some people believe that get them all whipped up and willing to do insane things on behalf of a central figure.
01:37:27
Speaker
One of the big things that you always find is you find a charismatic leader
01:37:31
Speaker
who's a phenomenal public speaker, who can really ride a wave, build energy, and cause people to do things that they themselves would not typically do.
01:37:44
Speaker
It builds that mob mentality and just drives that energy.
01:37:49
Speaker
You see that with so many cult figures.
01:37:52
Speaker
You see that in our modern time.
01:37:54
Speaker
Not getting too deep down that road, but I really think that's another really good one.
01:38:00
Speaker
I want to throw another dirt and quote your way.
01:38:03
Speaker
Listen up maggots.
01:38:04
Speaker
You are not special.
01:38:05
Speaker
You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake.
01:38:07
Speaker
You're the same decaying organic matters, everything else.
01:38:10
Speaker
Yeah.
01:38:11
Speaker
Um,
01:38:12
Speaker
again, when he's building a cult and everybody shaves their head and they all wear their two black socks, you know, two pairs of black socks, one pair of black boots, you know, he levels the playing field, right?
01:38:22
Speaker
It's the great equalizer.
01:38:24
Speaker
We're all the same.
01:38:25
Speaker
Nobody like how dare you feel inferior to the guy who has the $1,200, you know, suit and you know, is wearing the $800 shoes and you know, you can barely make it to the next month's rent.
01:38:39
Speaker
He's still,
01:38:41
Speaker
He still poops.
01:38:41
Speaker
You know what I mean?
01:38:42
Speaker
Like everybody poops.
01:38:43
Speaker
It's kind of like it's a more adult sort of mature version of that, but it's still the same message.
01:38:52
Speaker
We're all human beings.
01:38:53
Speaker
We all have the same type of makeup in terms of chromosomes and DNA and things.
01:38:59
Speaker
And you're not better just because you make more money.
01:39:02
Speaker
That's what he's saying is you're not special for any reason at all.
01:39:08
Speaker
we're all the same.
01:39:08
Speaker
And so you have an obligation to bring everybody down to this level.
01:39:13
Speaker
And that's, I think, part of the darkness of it is that it's the, you know, the barrel of crabs where they're, you know, one crab tries to escape and all the crabs are grabbing ahold of them, bringing them down because they're trying to climb up.
01:39:25
Speaker
That's where part of this, this, you know, it's kind of a, I don't know if you want to get political, it's the weird dangers of communism type of thing.
01:39:33
Speaker
But
01:39:35
Speaker
It's the, you know, if anybody climbs too high, you should, they should be brought down.
01:39:38
Speaker
That's, that's part of that message.
01:39:41
Speaker
Yeah.
01:39:43
Speaker
I feel like I'm giving you nothing but Durden quotes here.
01:39:45
Speaker
You're not your job.
01:39:46
Speaker
You're not how much money you have in the bank.
01:39:47
Speaker
You're not the car you drive.
01:39:49
Speaker
You're not the contents of your wallet.
01:39:50
Speaker
You're not your khakis.
01:39:51
Speaker
You're the all singing, all dancing crap of the world.
01:39:54
Speaker
I love that last one.
01:39:55
Speaker
You're the all singing, all dancing crap of the world.
01:39:57
Speaker
Yeah.
01:39:58
Speaker
Again, I think this is just more of more of the same of what we've been saying.
Humor and Foreshadowing in Film
01:40:01
Speaker
It's reality check, right?
01:40:02
Speaker
Like, you know,
01:40:03
Speaker
check yourself before you wreck yourself.
01:40:05
Speaker
You just, because you may have, may have done a good thing.
01:40:07
Speaker
Doesn't make you superstar status.
01:40:09
Speaker
You know, there's just so many great ones from this.
01:40:14
Speaker
Do you have a favorite line just off the top of your head when you think about a great fight club quotes?
01:40:19
Speaker
Oh, I mean, there's so many, I mean, just for the purposes of like comic relief, you know, and you may not even realize, again, there's so much of this that you don't even realize it in real time.
01:40:28
Speaker
It's, it's only out of the fact.
01:40:29
Speaker
And,
01:40:30
Speaker
I think, again, there's so many themes that go through this, like talking about Tyler splicing in single frames of porn.
01:40:37
Speaker
If you didn't know this, it's a little bit of an Easter egg, maybe not that well kept of a secret, but throughout the movie, if you watch, there's plenty of little quick blips of Tyler or maybe some male genitalia that you can see throughout the movie.
01:40:55
Speaker
you know, just randomly placed.
01:40:56
Speaker
And I'm sure there's a database that has all of these, you know, exact frames listed in terms of their time.
01:41:03
Speaker
Um, but there's so many cool little comedic things quickly.
01:41:09
Speaker
Uh, the Bob had bitch tits.
01:41:12
Speaker
It's very early in the movie.
01:41:14
Speaker
This is,
01:41:15
Speaker
Again, this is like – it's kind of a setup for how the movie is going to go.
01:41:19
Speaker
But like it starts off with the introduction to – I know this because Tyler knows this.
01:41:23
Speaker
Like this whole kind of violent gun in your mouth scene.
01:41:27
Speaker
And then he starts talking about this something to do with Marla.
01:41:30
Speaker
And he introduces the idea of Marla Singer.
01:41:33
Speaker
But then he goes to Bob and Bob had bitch tits.
01:41:35
Speaker
And then it's like a record scratch.
01:41:38
Speaker
Yeah.
01:41:39
Speaker
back up, let me start over.
01:41:40
Speaker
And then there's just, it's just more chaos.
01:41:42
Speaker
So like, it just really, that first part, it's, it's, it's just hits you with so many things at once.
01:41:49
Speaker
And it's like, wow, this is, this movie is going to be a little bit wild.
01:41:52
Speaker
And then you go to the airplane scene when he meets Tyler Durden for the first time, there's a plethora there, you know, when he talks about, you know, how's that going?
01:42:00
Speaker
Being clever, you know, the single serving friend thing, but like the ultimate one is, you know, Tyler just kind of, he's a little bit dismissive, right?
01:42:07
Speaker
Like he's just kind of,
01:42:09
Speaker
like he doesn't really commit to being friendly with this dude.
01:42:13
Speaker
He's cordial, but he doesn't really say like, I'm going to be an influence in your life type of stuff.
01:42:18
Speaker
But he's, you know, gets up and says, now a question of etiquette.
01:42:21
Speaker
As I pass, do I give you the crotch or the ass?
01:42:25
Speaker
And,
01:42:26
Speaker
as she, you've watched this happen.
01:42:28
Speaker
It's, you know, it's like funny.
01:42:29
Speaker
Cause it's like, Oh yeah.
01:42:30
Speaker
When you do at some point make a subconscious or deliberate decision when you walk past somebody to give them the front of the back, you know what I mean?
01:42:38
Speaker
Like, which one's worse?
01:42:39
Speaker
Like that's the thing I'm trying to figure out.
01:42:42
Speaker
Cause you do that.
01:42:43
Speaker
You do that mental math, right?
01:42:45
Speaker
Yeah.
01:42:45
Speaker
Is it like, does it matter if it's a male or a female person?
01:42:48
Speaker
And if you yourself are male or female, I don't want to get into that equation, but in the film,
01:42:54
Speaker
He gives the narrator the ass, right?
01:42:56
Speaker
And I think that it probably plays into the machismo.
01:43:00
Speaker
It's almost sort of a Latino machismo thing where it's like very, very anti anything that could possibly perceive as homosexual, right?
01:43:10
Speaker
So he definitely gives him the rear end.
01:43:13
Speaker
And then as he passes the flight attendant, which at the time, by the way, everybody, they were referred to as stewardess.
01:43:21
Speaker
Um, but that's, you know, that's not how they are referred to now as a flight attendant.
01:43:25
Speaker
He very deliberately, and again, maybe first, first watch, you don't notice this, but after a couple of watches, you know, the character of Tyler, he very deliberately scoots past her.
01:43:37
Speaker
She's facing a row of seats and her rear end is facing him.
01:43:41
Speaker
He gives her the crotch versus the ass, you know?
01:43:43
Speaker
That's not by accident.
01:43:45
Speaker
That's all very deliberate.
01:43:47
Speaker
That's gotta be conscious.
01:43:48
Speaker
That's funny.
01:43:48
Speaker
And continuing with the, the airport and airplane stuff, when the narrator finds out that his luggage has been held by security.
01:43:58
Speaker
And by the way, again, everybody, this is all pre nine 11.
01:44:01
Speaker
This is pre TSA.
01:44:02
Speaker
There used to be like actual airport security and they were not very well regulated or were they very well trained.
01:44:08
Speaker
So, you know, this is going to be,
01:44:10
Speaker
foreign to you to watch this part of stuff but he talks about his baggage was vibrating and you know because he thinks that it's a bomb so the narrator's like was it ticking and the guy's like no modern bombs don't tick and he starts talking about you know nine times out of ten it's an electric razor and then he's on the phone this whole time too which is so like so typical of the movie where everybody's just sort of nonchalant and dismissive of everything else and he says you know nine times out of ten it's an electric razor but
01:44:40
Speaker
Once in a while, he whispers, it's a dildo.
01:44:44
Speaker
And he's like, of course, it's company policy, never to assume ownership.
01:44:48
Speaker
We have to use the indefinite article, a dildo, and it's never your dildo.
01:44:54
Speaker
So it's just like, that's such a throwaway scene.
01:44:58
Speaker
It doesn't matter.
01:44:59
Speaker
Like it literally has no.
01:45:00
Speaker
You can absolutely cut that scene from the movie.
01:45:02
Speaker
It makes no him losing his luggage impact on the whole thing.
01:45:06
Speaker
has no bearing on the outcome of the movie.
01:45:08
Speaker
Like his apartment exploding, that has a sort of a plot device.
01:45:11
Speaker
It moves it towards a direction, right?
01:45:13
Speaker
But his luggage being gone, it's sort of just more, oh, woe is me.
01:45:18
Speaker
It's more Eeyore.
01:45:19
Speaker
My life is terrible, negative stuff.
01:45:23
Speaker
But like that was hilarious.
01:45:26
Speaker
So those are things that stick out to me.
01:45:29
Speaker
Another great one.
01:45:30
Speaker
I am Jack's colon.
01:45:31
Speaker
I get cancer.
01:45:32
Speaker
I kill Jack.
01:45:33
Speaker
I kill Jack.
01:45:33
Speaker
Those are all the Jack stuff.
01:45:35
Speaker
Yeah.
01:45:35
Speaker
And they, that carries out through, right.
01:45:37
Speaker
You know, the narrator says like, I'm Jack's, you know, burning rage or, you know, whatever it is.
01:45:43
Speaker
He does reference that.
01:45:44
Speaker
It's cool.
01:45:45
Speaker
They actually, I feel like they could have maybe leaned into that one a little bit more.
01:45:50
Speaker
They might have been able to throw... Like I said, they do it on the DVD menu.
01:45:53
Speaker
They do it in a lot of the... In fact, I'm looking at the back of the pamphlet right now.
01:45:58
Speaker
It says Jack's Chapters, and it's got all the DVD chapter titles on it.
01:46:04
Speaker
Yeah, I could have gone for a little more of that and would have really enjoyed that.
01:46:08
Speaker
I think one of my favorite lines is towards the end when
01:46:11
Speaker
they're at the van and the narrator shoots at him and he says, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa.
01:46:15
Speaker
Okay.
01:46:15
Speaker
Now you're applying a gun at your imaginary friend.
01:46:20
Speaker
It's so well delivered by, by pit.
01:46:24
Speaker
Um, it's just, well, cause he's clearly frustrated, right?
01:46:27
Speaker
Like, cause he's like, he's like throwing a tantrum.
01:46:30
Speaker
And again, he's self referencing that he's imaginary, but he's still throwing a tantrum, you know, like it's, it's, there's so many cool little, like,
01:46:39
Speaker
mental checks where your like brain is sort of verifying and questioning something at the same time.
01:46:44
Speaker
And again, it's just, it all goes with the conflict of this movie.
01:46:49
Speaker
There's just constant conflict, whether it's in your own head or whether it's in the movie or it's both at the same time.
01:46:55
Speaker
It's just so effective.
01:46:58
Speaker
And you know, there's a couple more, like again, it's the, it's the foreshadowing and it kind of just reconfirms itself throughout.
01:47:05
Speaker
There's like when he's fighting his, uh, one, I shouldn't say fighting.
01:47:09
Speaker
when there's their homework assignment, you know, they have to lose a fight and the narrator goes into his boss and he pretty much just tries to blackmail him.
01:47:16
Speaker
And then boss tells him like, you know, you're fired.
01:47:19
Speaker
Get out of here.
01:47:19
Speaker
Screw you.
01:47:20
Speaker
And then he starts beating the crap out of himself.
01:47:22
Speaker
And Ed Norton does a great job with this too, but it pauses for a moment.
01:47:26
Speaker
And it says, for some reason, I thought of my first fight with Tyler and you don't have, I swear to God, nobody who watched this for the first time understood the impact of that line.
01:47:39
Speaker
until way at the end with maybe 20 minutes left in the film where they're replaying the beginning stages of his involvement with Tyler, where it shows him fighting himself.
01:47:50
Speaker
And that's exactly what he's doing.
01:47:51
Speaker
And then there's, you know, another line where he's talking about, you know, he's in a state of perpetual deja vu where he's like running around later in the film, trying to chase after Tyler based on what his plane tickets said.
01:48:06
Speaker
And he just feels like he's, he's already been there.
01:48:09
Speaker
And, you know, it's great because we're just in the dark as the narrator is until the ending.
01:48:19
Speaker
And they gave you all the clues to figure it out.
01:48:23
Speaker
And they did such a great job of concealing it that you don't know until the end.
01:48:29
Speaker
Fantastic.
01:48:29
Speaker
I think that's, I think we've got a lot of them.
01:48:31
Speaker
Anything else for notable and quotable that we want to make sure you throw out any, any good lines that I, that I didn't remember anything you find yourself quoting?
01:48:40
Speaker
I mean, I guess the one thing was Marla that, you know, in the movie, the scene where, you know, the first sex scene.
01:48:47
Speaker
Oh yes.
01:48:47
Speaker
Let's let's talk about that because I think that is one of the great stories of this film.
01:48:52
Speaker
So yeah,
01:48:54
Speaker
In the scene.
01:48:55
Speaker
It's kind of R-rated, just as a pre-warning to everybody.
01:48:58
Speaker
Yes.
01:48:59
Speaker
It might be triggering.
01:49:02
Speaker
She's describing to the narrator the previous night.
01:49:06
Speaker
Oh, no, I'm sorry.
01:49:07
Speaker
I have that backwards.
01:49:08
Speaker
Tyler's describing to the narrator and the things that come out of her mouth.
01:49:14
Speaker
And she says the line that she has not been fornicated like that since grade school, which is among the worst lines you can possibly think of in any movie ever.
01:49:23
Speaker
The entire reason that line is in the movie is because the original line is her saying to Tyler, well, she says, I want to have your abortion.
01:49:33
Speaker
And the studio said, no.
01:49:36
Speaker
Studio said, you can't do that.
01:49:37
Speaker
We can't have that.
01:49:39
Speaker
So the director agreed to change the line, but he said he would do it on one condition, that whatever he changed it to, they could not make him change again.
01:49:48
Speaker
For whatever reason, the studio agreed, and that's how you end up with a line
01:49:53
Speaker
Like I haven't been quanticated like that since grade school, which I think is way worse than I was.
01:49:59
Speaker
It actually is worse.
01:50:01
Speaker
And, you know, I wanted to say they consider it worse based on, again, just remember everybody, 1999, this when this came out.
01:50:09
Speaker
So, you know, this is being filmed in the late nineties and being presented to studio for approval and stuff like that.
01:50:16
Speaker
Like there were different, different things happening in the world and very different things.
01:50:22
Speaker
Different political views, social norms, and things like that.
01:50:27
Speaker
It was a different type of environment.
Favorite Scenes and Personal Reflections
01:50:30
Speaker
There's a lot of stuff in this movie that you probably wouldn't be able to put in a film in the 2020 decade.
01:50:37
Speaker
So we're going to move on to favorite scene and skippable scene.
01:50:41
Speaker
Obviously, it's a movie we love a lot.
01:50:44
Speaker
So trying to nail it down to a favorite scene might be tough.
01:50:48
Speaker
So if you've got to do more than one, go ahead and do more than one.
01:50:51
Speaker
And is there a skippable scene?
01:50:53
Speaker
So even in great film, there's going to be something where, ah, gee, I could really do without that.
01:50:59
Speaker
Or it's the scene where if you got to get up and refill your beverage and add a little more bourbon in, that's the scene you choose to go refill your cup.
01:51:07
Speaker
I'm going to go ahead and go first.
01:51:09
Speaker
Favorite scene for me is the reveal because there's not another movie that hits a twist like this as hard as it does.
01:51:17
Speaker
and executes it as well as it does.
01:51:19
Speaker
That's had an impact on me the way that this one does.
01:51:21
Speaker
So to me, my favorite scene is, is absolutely the reveal.
01:51:24
Speaker
Doesn't he even say like full stop, return your tray tables to the upright position.
01:51:30
Speaker
Like, doesn't he like, I mean, they, they really hit you over the head with it.
01:51:34
Speaker
You know, like it's like, yeah, they pause the movie and the narrator also joins in and says, stop thinking for a moment and boom, here it is.
01:51:43
Speaker
Yeah.
01:51:44
Speaker
So to me, that's my favorite scene.
01:51:45
Speaker
And as far as skippable scenes, scenes I'm going to get up to refill my beverage on.
01:51:51
Speaker
When the narrator absolutely demolishes Jared Leto.
01:51:55
Speaker
And actually, if you don't recognize it, that is Jared Leto, the blind guy.
01:51:58
Speaker
I didn't know that until I researched this a little bit to take some notes.
01:52:02
Speaker
I was like, wait a second.
01:52:03
Speaker
Really?
01:52:04
Speaker
He's a build actor in this.
01:52:06
Speaker
And I was like, wow, I never knew that at the time.
01:52:08
Speaker
And really probably until last week when I saw his name, I was like, oh, I didn't even know that this dude was in this movie.
01:52:14
Speaker
So yeah, when he when he kind of goes ham on him.
01:52:19
Speaker
that to me, like, I just don't need it.
01:52:21
Speaker
Like, it's a bit much.
01:52:23
Speaker
It was gratuitous.
01:52:24
Speaker
I mean, it fits the movie.
01:52:26
Speaker
Get a great line from Tyler, where'd you go, psycho boy?
01:52:28
Speaker
And he, and he's got, it's kind of cringy when he says, I wanted to destroy something beautiful.
01:52:33
Speaker
Like, that's a little cringy to me.
01:52:35
Speaker
The other scene that I'm not a huge fan of, of watching overall is when they, when they grab the police commissioner or whatever the dude is, and they basically jump him in the bathroom and they're, they're threatening to cut his balls off.
01:52:48
Speaker
Like,
01:52:49
Speaker
That, to me, is just kind of not a huge fan of that.
01:52:53
Speaker
It kind of just makes your skin crawl, and I don't enjoy it.
01:52:56
Speaker
So, I mean, there's some really great character stuff that's happening where he's talking about who these people are.
01:53:03
Speaker
We cook your meals.
01:53:04
Speaker
We drive your taxi cabs.
01:53:06
Speaker
Keep you safe at night.
01:53:09
Speaker
We guard you while you sleep.
01:53:11
Speaker
He tells him not to mess with them.
01:53:13
Speaker
That's all good stuff.
01:53:14
Speaker
I probably could have done... I probably would have liked that scene better if it was just kind of a general threat.
01:53:20
Speaker
How about you?
01:53:21
Speaker
Do you have a favorite scene or a skippable scene where you get up to put more bourbon in your glass?
01:53:26
Speaker
I'll start with a skippable because I've said it a couple times, but for me, this movie really doesn't start until the 32 minute and 14 second mark when Tyler says, I want you to hit me as hard as you can.
01:53:42
Speaker
This is when that movie really takes off.
01:53:44
Speaker
This is when it defines itself.
01:53:47
Speaker
Everything before that, your first watch, it's kind of crap.
01:53:51
Speaker
It's not very good.
01:53:52
Speaker
And to be honest, it's, it's valuable for your second, third, fourth, fifth watch where you're like, Oh wow.
01:53:57
Speaker
You know, this, there's a lot of character development.
01:54:00
Speaker
There's a lot of, uh, you know, foreshadowing and plot set up and stuff that it is important, but like,
01:54:07
Speaker
for a movie like this, for me that I've seen literally dozens of times, that's all forgettable.
01:54:13
Speaker
Like there's a couple of lines that I really appreciate and want to see if it's on, I'm going to pay attention to it.
01:54:19
Speaker
But now that I have like an eight month old, I'm going to put this on and I'm going to kind of do it like while I'm heating up a bottle or while I'm getting her set up in her high chair where I don't need to pay attention to it because nothing that happens in that first 30 minutes really matters to me.
01:54:34
Speaker
So like, that's kind of all throw away for me.
01:54:37
Speaker
Um,
01:54:38
Speaker
All right, how about your favorite scene?
01:54:39
Speaker
Favorite scene, it's got a couple quotables in it.
01:54:44
Speaker
The one on the airplane is great when he first meets Tyler because that's a marquee in terms of how the movie goes.
01:54:53
Speaker
This is the foil.
01:54:56
Speaker
These two play off each other.
01:54:58
Speaker
This is the setup.
01:55:00
Speaker
When he talks about the oxygen gets you high, it's right here on the card.
01:55:04
Speaker
They're all calm as Hindu cows.
01:55:06
Speaker
The line calm as Hindu cows can be applied to anything.
01:55:09
Speaker
Oh, that's great.
01:55:10
Speaker
That's a classic.
01:55:11
Speaker
If you're familiar with any type of global anything, you understand that Hindus revere cows.
01:55:17
Speaker
That's why they refer to things as the sacred cow.
01:55:20
Speaker
You know, it's something that cannot be sacrificed or it is sacrilege.
01:55:24
Speaker
So like something being, you know, as calm as a Hindu cow means that they have no worries.
01:55:29
Speaker
So like, that's a great line and it's an awesome scene.
01:55:32
Speaker
Love whenever they're down in the basement of Lou's tavern and Lou shows up and you know, he's talking about like, Oh, we have an agreement with Raymond or whoever the guy is.
01:55:42
Speaker
And he's like, Oh, he's home with Brooklyn carbon.
01:55:44
Speaker
He doesn't make decisions here.
01:55:46
Speaker
Sign out front says Lou's tavern.
01:55:48
Speaker
I'm effing Lou who the F for you.
01:55:50
Speaker
You know, it's, it's super like caricature meatball, Italian mob guy.
01:55:56
Speaker
Right.
01:55:57
Speaker
Like, and at some point we're going to get into good fellows and talk about that.
01:56:00
Speaker
And it's going to be awesome.
01:56:01
Speaker
But like, this is like a caricature of that.
01:56:04
Speaker
And he's got his, his, you know, six foot eight henchman next to him with a, you know, a handgun and Tyler's super nonchalant about it.
01:56:13
Speaker
He's like, you know,
01:56:15
Speaker
you know, how much you getting for all this?
01:56:16
Speaker
He's like, nothing.
01:56:17
Speaker
My club is free to everyone.
01:56:18
Speaker
He's like, Oh, isn't that something?
01:56:19
Speaker
He's like, it is actually, you know, Tyler's like very, very sort of communist about it where it's like, you know, this is for everyone.
01:56:27
Speaker
And you know, he is very free and inviting him.
01:56:30
Speaker
Like you should join our club.
01:56:32
Speaker
Andrew friend, you know, I love how he includes the dude who's holding the gun, pointing it at him.
01:56:37
Speaker
And then he gets the crap kicked out of him and he lets it happen.
01:56:41
Speaker
And he's laughing and he's kind of like playing it up.
01:56:43
Speaker
Like, Oh, you know, I actually, I didn't get that.
01:56:45
Speaker
You know, he's like, Oh, I get it.
01:56:47
Speaker
I get it.
01:56:47
Speaker
I get it.
01:56:48
Speaker
Nope.
01:56:48
Speaker
I lost it.
01:56:48
Speaker
I'm sorry.
01:56:50
Speaker
It's just, you don't expect that as a, as a viewer again, first time watch, you don't see that coming.
01:56:56
Speaker
And I, if nothing else, if a movie keeps me on my toes, I appreciate it.
01:57:01
Speaker
And so then he, he flips it right.
01:57:03
Speaker
And he, and he literally flips Lou over and he gets on top of him and he's bleeding and hacking all over him.
01:57:08
Speaker
And they even cut away and show one of the guys who is a member of fight club puking because of the, the nasty, dark crimson blood that's dripping all over Lou's face.
01:57:20
Speaker
And Brad Pitt says, you don't know where I've been Lou.
01:57:22
Speaker
And like, that's,
01:57:24
Speaker
It's really funny because it's kind of like the big scary warning.
01:57:28
Speaker
It's like the after-school special, the reefer madness.
01:57:30
Speaker
You talk about these parents.
01:57:31
Speaker
You don't know where they've been.
01:57:33
Speaker
He's really playing into that.
01:57:35
Speaker
That's 100% the Gen X thing.
01:57:37
Speaker
And he gets them.
01:57:40
Speaker
He gets them to say, you can use my basement.
01:57:44
Speaker
And as he leaves, and again, in real life, Tyler's face is screwed up, man.
01:57:49
Speaker
He's got a broken nose, maybe missing some teeth.
01:57:53
Speaker
possible orbital fracture, which is like one of the most painful things ever.
01:57:57
Speaker
And he says, thanks Lou.
01:58:00
Speaker
Appreciate you.
01:58:01
Speaker
You too, big guy.
01:58:02
Speaker
And this is, it's so funny because it's, it's subdued.
01:58:06
Speaker
It's subtle.
01:58:07
Speaker
It's not obvious.
01:58:09
Speaker
And I love it.
01:58:10
Speaker
It's a great scene.
01:58:11
Speaker
I love it.
01:58:15
Speaker
I'm going to move on to, um, our final segment, uh,
01:58:21
Speaker
On Matt goes to the movies.
01:58:23
Speaker
We typically write things out of five reels.
01:58:27
Speaker
Now this is a little bit different because we're talking about movies that are in our all time for us that we have an irrational attachment to that nobody would convince us otherwise.
01:58:39
Speaker
So for us to say, yeah, it's five reels, like, well, yeah, no shit.
01:58:44
Speaker
So for purposes of Rob's reviews,
01:58:48
Speaker
Um, we're talking about different films.
01:58:50
Speaker
So we got to come up with some different criteria.
01:58:52
Speaker
So I want to talk, uh, we're going to call the segment rewatch ability rating and pantheon points.
01:58:59
Speaker
So rewatch ability rating.
01:59:01
Speaker
First, I want you to tell me, um, you know, how rewatchable is this really?
01:59:07
Speaker
Um, is it, so a five is I would watch it start to finish every time I'm locked in four.
01:59:13
Speaker
I put it on and I play with my phone in between scenes that I love three,
01:59:18
Speaker
It's a background noise while I'm doing housework.
01:59:20
Speaker
Two, you know, it's a film I enjoy, but I don't go out of my way to watch it again.
01:59:24
Speaker
Number one, it just doesn't hold up the way I remember it.
01:59:28
Speaker
So give it your rewatchability ranking and then your Pantheon points.
01:59:32
Speaker
Where does this rank in the overall Pantheon of your favorite films of all time?
01:59:37
Speaker
Not necessarily have to give it a rating.
01:59:39
Speaker
Do you see this movie in your top 10?
01:59:41
Speaker
Do you see it in your top five without having to really write these things down?
01:59:46
Speaker
Fight Club is...
01:59:48
Speaker
Absolutely Hall of Fame.
01:59:49
Speaker
I mean, hands down, top 20, top 15, probably top 10.
01:59:56
Speaker
If I sat down and really wrote it out, it would be really close in that realm.
02:00:03
Speaker
Like rewatchability on your scale.
02:00:06
Speaker
Like I'm going to remember Surf Ninjas as a one.
02:00:13
Speaker
There's a blast from the early 90s.
02:00:16
Speaker
It was awesome.
02:00:17
Speaker
Like when I was...
02:00:18
Speaker
10, but like I watched it again when I was in high school.
02:00:22
Speaker
Cause I thought like, Oh yeah, this movie was so great, man.
02:00:25
Speaker
That movie sucked.
02:00:25
Speaker
It was just, it was bad, you know?
02:00:28
Speaker
So it's, it's certainly in the, at least the four, four and a half, five, maybe probably because I've seen it so much, so many times, you know, I wouldn't be in source old by it.
02:00:41
Speaker
If I happened to have it on in the background while I was doing things.
02:00:45
Speaker
However,
02:00:46
Speaker
There would be points in this movie where I would absolutely turn off the vacuum, turn off my wife listening ears and focus exactly on what was happening on the television because it is that good.
02:01:02
Speaker
It is that valuable to experience it again and again and again, no matter how many times I see certain parts of this movie, it still hits me the same way that it did the first time or at least very close to that way that I felt.
02:01:16
Speaker
I was mesmerized by this movie.
02:01:18
Speaker
So many things rang true to how I felt as a teenager in the late 90s, early 2000s, and watching it again as I grew up.
02:01:28
Speaker
It never really changed at all to the negative.
02:01:33
Speaker
If anything, I grew to appreciate more parts of this movie.
02:01:39
Speaker
If it's a two-hour-ish movie,
02:01:43
Speaker
And as a teenager, I appreciated a total of 45 minutes of it.
02:01:47
Speaker
You know, as I grow older and now as an adult, I appreciate pretty much the entire thing because at some point, every minute of this movie touches on some part of my life where I can kind of associate it.
02:02:01
Speaker
Even if it's not exactly how I felt, I can still understand like I had friends that felt this way, or I can sympathize with
02:02:09
Speaker
with what's going on in this circumstance because of my life experience.
02:02:14
Speaker
It's very raw.
02:02:14
Speaker
It's very genuine and it doesn't pretend to be something that it's not.
02:02:20
Speaker
There's like, it's just such a cool thing.
02:02:24
Speaker
There's so much that's in conflict, but it still agrees with itself.
02:02:27
Speaker
Like you have a character who's,
02:02:29
Speaker
extremely self-aware, but still being self-centered at the same time, you know, like talking about how he, he's being sort of sarcastic describing all of the stuff that he loves and buys from Ikea.
02:02:43
Speaker
It's like poking fun of himself, but at the same time, validating how great his existence is because of the stuff that he has, you know what I mean?
02:02:50
Speaker
So like, that is sort of a weird theme that goes throughout.
02:02:53
Speaker
And I just, I think that it adds,
02:02:56
Speaker
it's kind of like the matrix for me where every time you watch it, you kind of pick up something different from it that you didn't see the first 12 or 13 times that you saw it.
02:03:07
Speaker
I just, I really, I can't recommend, you know, watching this multiple times.
02:03:12
Speaker
You know, there's a lot of music people, you know, they talk about like the first listen on an album.
02:03:16
Speaker
It's not great, but like the fourth or fifth where you're like, wow, these guys are deep.
02:03:20
Speaker
This is awesome.
02:03:21
Speaker
You know, that's this, that's, that's the exact, this is the film equivalent of,
02:03:25
Speaker
a Pink Floyd record that you didn't like the first time or a Led Zeppelin record that you didn't like the second or third time, but like the ninth time was like, wow, this kicks ass.
02:03:34
Speaker
That's this.
02:03:35
Speaker
If you don't get it the first time, that's okay.
02:03:37
Speaker
It doesn't mean that you're a dunce when it comes to movies and it doesn't mean that you're a square.
02:03:43
Speaker
Watch it more times.
02:03:44
Speaker
And you know, if it's not your thing, then it's not your thing, but yeah,
02:03:47
Speaker
A lot of people think that it's their thing.
02:03:49
Speaker
I'll say that it's not, it's not artificially inflated by weird cult status.
02:03:55
Speaker
It's a hundred percent deserving of, of its ranking in terms of that.
02:04:00
Speaker
So you've got it as it's a top 10 movie for you in your Pantheon and you'd call it about four and a half.
02:04:05
Speaker
Ranking and your rewatchability rating Yeah that's solid I'm 100% watching this start to finish You know at a minimum But I may not be present for the entire thing But I'm certainly paying attention to most of it Yeah So quick plug you mentioned The Matrix If you're listening to this And enjoying this so far I definitely recommend checking out the rest Of the content here on Matt Goes to the Movies This is the first edition of the Extended Podcast Universe For the MGTTM
02:04:36
Speaker
We covered this, actually.
02:04:37
Speaker
We covered all three of the Matrix films earlier through, so definitely go back, search those episodes.
02:04:44
Speaker
Check them out.
02:04:44
Speaker
It was really a lot of fun.
02:04:47
Speaker
Matrix Reloaded is a better film than you remember.
02:04:50
Speaker
I'm just going to throw that out there and not get too deep into it.
02:04:54
Speaker
I think what's interesting to me, when I'm watching something that I've seen before, we're such...
02:05:02
Speaker
damn slaves to our phones anymore, right?
02:05:05
Speaker
Like, can you walk, can you go 10 seconds of having to wait for anything without immediately reaching for your phone?
02:05:12
Speaker
Like if I'm standing in line at McDonald's and I'm waiting to order and there's two people in front of me, my hand immediately grabs for my phone.
02:05:20
Speaker
Like that's just, that's just how it is.
02:05:22
Speaker
I can barely walk from the front of a place to the back of a place and not just reach forward and check for stuff.
02:05:27
Speaker
It's not just entertainment, right?
02:05:29
Speaker
Like it's not just to occupy your time.
02:05:31
Speaker
For me,
02:05:32
Speaker
being who I am, it's to like prevent small talk, you know, like I push, I push the button for the elevator and I'm on my phone instantly, not because I want to look at the thing, but like if the doors of the elevator open and there is a human being standing there who doesn't get out, I now have to step on.
02:05:51
Speaker
I've committed to riding this elevator already by pushing the button and being there when the door opens.
02:05:55
Speaker
I now have to get on this elevator.
02:05:57
Speaker
And if I happen to know this person, there's an 80% chance they're going to say something to me.
02:06:02
Speaker
But if I'm on the phone, maybe they think, Oh, he's engrossed.
02:06:06
Speaker
He's involved.
02:06:08
Speaker
I will just keep my stupid comments about the weather or this job to myself and let him do his thing on his phone.
02:06:15
Speaker
So it's, it's a deterrent for human interaction, which it's a shame, but it is what it is.
02:06:20
Speaker
So, you know, we're,
02:06:22
Speaker
You know, my larger point is we're attached to our phones.
02:06:25
Speaker
We're so obsessed with our phones.
02:06:26
Speaker
And it's become so integrated into our daily lives.
02:06:30
Speaker
I'm literally recording this on my phone as we speak.
02:06:33
Speaker
And I think you are too.
02:06:34
Speaker
Yeah.
02:06:36
Speaker
Yeah.
02:06:36
Speaker
Good luck trying to ever separate ourselves or pry these things out of our hands.
02:06:41
Speaker
So if I'm watching something I've already seen and...
02:06:46
Speaker
I pick my phone up at something that's maybe not great.
02:06:49
Speaker
And then I find myself setting it down and not picking it back up.
02:06:53
Speaker
Usually for me, that's something that's pretty good.
02:06:57
Speaker
And that's where I'm going to actually give this the same rating you did under watchability
Fight Club's Modern Relevance
02:07:01
Speaker
rating.
02:07:01
Speaker
This to me is four and a half.
02:07:03
Speaker
I, uh, I found myself reaching for it once or twice.
02:07:07
Speaker
And then I definitely just 100% set it back down and I'm just glued in.
02:07:12
Speaker
I'm locked.
02:07:12
Speaker
There's,
02:07:13
Speaker
there's so much going on.
02:07:15
Speaker
It's so hard to turn away from this movie.
02:07:17
Speaker
I find it incredibly rewatchable.
02:07:19
Speaker
So I'm going to, I'm also going to go four and a half Pantheon points without really writing this down.
02:07:26
Speaker
And, and, and look for, I actually don't want to have to ever write down my top 10 because that's not really fun.
02:07:33
Speaker
You know, you really got to start getting into like, Oh gee, that was this better than this.
02:07:37
Speaker
You really got to start ranking things.
02:07:38
Speaker
Like,
02:07:39
Speaker
That's really hard.
02:07:40
Speaker
Yeah.
02:07:40
Speaker
It's like picking your favorite kid, right?
02:07:42
Speaker
I mean, I only have one kid, so it's easy for me.
02:07:44
Speaker
So it's easy for you.
02:07:45
Speaker
Yeah.
02:07:45
Speaker
It's very easy for you.
02:07:46
Speaker
And frankly, it's easy for our mom and dad.
02:07:48
Speaker
Cause I think that answer is pretty obvious, but I digress.
02:07:52
Speaker
You are fake news anyways.
02:07:54
Speaker
So in an overall Pantheon, I can easily see this, not just in my top 10, it's probably, you know, top seven.
02:08:01
Speaker
Would it crack the top five?
02:08:02
Speaker
I don't know if it does or not, but if I really forced myself to, to sit down and do it, could it be top five?
02:08:09
Speaker
It wouldn't surprise me if it actually was.
02:08:11
Speaker
I'll tell you what though, you know, talking about just phones in general, I'll tell you what I would love.
02:08:17
Speaker
So this film comes out in 1999.
02:08:19
Speaker
I would love to hear what Tyler Durden has to say to his assembled Fight Club members, you know, before they go full Project Mayhem.
02:08:30
Speaker
I would love to hear what his thoughts are on people's obsessions with their phones.
02:08:35
Speaker
I would die to hear him talk about social media
02:08:38
Speaker
Can you imagine the kind of rant Tyler Durden would do on TikTok?
02:08:43
Speaker
Just think about that for a second.
02:08:45
Speaker
Tyler Dern's opinion on TikTok.
02:08:47
Speaker
He's on TikTok mocking TikTok, right?
02:08:51
Speaker
Oh my God, that would be... Where do you think, on the political spectrum, do you think they're full-on Green Party?
02:08:59
Speaker
Where do you think they fall?
02:09:01
Speaker
I think they're too far in anarchy.
02:09:04
Speaker
I think they're a total rejection of all things.
02:09:07
Speaker
All government.
02:09:10
Speaker
I would say they lean pretty heavily on anarchy, but
02:09:13
Speaker
It's just not really a, they don't fit.
02:09:15
Speaker
And I guess maybe that's the point.
02:09:16
Speaker
They really don't fit.
02:09:18
Speaker
There's not a mold.
02:09:19
Speaker
It's a rejection of authority.
02:09:20
Speaker
It's a rejection of anybody in power.
02:09:23
Speaker
It's a rejection of, of a lot of norms.
02:09:26
Speaker
So it's, you know, you know where they fit.
02:09:29
Speaker
They fit with the nihilists from the big Lebowski.
02:09:34
Speaker
At some point of another show.
02:09:35
Speaker
We'll discuss.
02:09:36
Speaker
Yeah.
02:09:37
Speaker
Got another one.
02:09:38
Speaker
Yeah.
02:09:39
Speaker
Yeah.
02:09:43
Speaker
another, another film in my, towards the very top of my Pantheon right there.
02:09:48
Speaker
Um, if you've enjoyed this, uh, certainly we would love to hear from you.
02:09:53
Speaker
Uh, the way you can get in touch with, with Matt goes to the movies is by email, MG TTM podcast at gmail.com.
02:10:00
Speaker
So basically it's just the, the initials of Matt goes to the movies podcast at gmail.com.
02:10:08
Speaker
Um,
02:10:09
Speaker
If you'd like to see more episodes of Rob's Reviews, let Matt know.
02:10:14
Speaker
He's our program director here at Matt Goes to the Movies.
02:10:19
Speaker
If you don't want to hear more of Rob's Reviews, just keep that damn emo to yourself.
02:10:23
Speaker
Don't be scared of negativity.
02:10:24
Speaker
We don't need that.
02:10:25
Speaker
You don't understand.
02:10:26
Speaker
This gives me an excuse to sit in my gaming lounge and drink bourbon without any influence from my wife.
02:10:35
Speaker
Don't take that away from me.
02:10:36
Speaker
Please give me these two hours.
02:10:37
Speaker
Don't you take that away from me.
02:10:39
Speaker
Also, you can check out the show on Facebook.
02:10:42
Speaker
The show also has its own Instagram page.
02:10:44
Speaker
And as much as I got done making fun of it, Matt does have a TikTok page as well.
02:10:48
Speaker
I don't think he does as much with it, but certainly active on the socials over at Instagram and Facebook.
02:10:55
Speaker
Also, you can email the show as well.
02:10:59
Speaker
Definitely want to check out the upcoming episodes.
02:11:02
Speaker
Matt Harrison and myself, Harrison from The Basement Binge, which is another great show.
02:11:06
Speaker
I definitely recommend checking out.
02:11:08
Speaker
Matt Harrison, myself, we've been covering all the Disney Plus shows.
02:11:12
Speaker
So we did all of season two of The Mandalorian.
02:11:15
Speaker
We did all of Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
02:11:17
Speaker
We did all of WandaVision.
02:11:19
Speaker
We're currently doing Loki.
02:11:21
Speaker
We're going to get ready to record the third episode very, very soon.
02:11:25
Speaker
We're going to be bringing you the recap of that every week.
02:11:27
Speaker
So please make sure you check that out.
02:11:29
Speaker
Matt's working on, he just released The Dark Knight.
02:11:31
Speaker
It's a great episode.
02:11:32
Speaker
I just got a chance to listen to it.
02:11:35
Speaker
I don't know when he's going to do the dark night rises.
02:11:37
Speaker
I know that's coming very soon.
02:11:38
Speaker
He's got a lot of the great stuff.
02:11:40
Speaker
Like I said, also check out Harrison show, the basement binge.
02:11:43
Speaker
I had the opportunity to jump on with him for two of the episodes for fast and the furious.
02:11:48
Speaker
He's doing the entire fast saga.
02:11:50
Speaker
I was able to make time to jump on for the first and the third Matt's been with him for all of the episodes.
02:11:56
Speaker
I believe he's going to be on for all nine as the ninth film comes out.
02:12:00
Speaker
So that's so cool.
02:12:01
Speaker
A good friend of the show.
02:12:02
Speaker
Yeah.
02:12:03
Speaker
it's given me a great excuse to get caught up because I had actually not seen anything past fast.
02:12:08
Speaker
I know.
02:12:09
Speaker
Oh, whoa.
02:12:10
Speaker
I was going to say, I felt like I dropped off after like six or so, but you're, no, I was way behind.
02:12:16
Speaker
I was a clown for that.
02:12:18
Speaker
I was too slow and too casual.
02:12:20
Speaker
I was not able to keep up with it.
02:12:23
Speaker
It dipped a little bit, but then it picked up and became very awesome.
02:12:26
Speaker
Like it was no longer a mockery of itself.
02:12:28
Speaker
It actually got real serious and really good.
02:12:32
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm still behind.
02:12:34
Speaker
I still got to get caught up because I want to make sure I listen to their breakdown.
02:12:36
Speaker
So please check that show out as well.
02:12:41
Speaker
Yeah, we love hearing from the listeners.
02:12:43
Speaker
We love hearing some feedback, what you like, what you'd like to see us cover.
02:12:47
Speaker
Eric, we just spent two hours breaking the first two rules of Fight Club.
02:12:50
Speaker
Because we talked a whole lot of stuff about Fight Club.
02:12:55
Speaker
To be honest, I'm not shocked at all because –
02:13:00
Speaker
maybe just a backstory, anybody who doesn't really know us from growing up, we pretty much speak in code at all times.
02:13:08
Speaker
We're capable of having a full discussion in nothing but movie quotes.
02:13:12
Speaker
Like we could literally discuss like current events, but only using movie quotes from the nineties and early two thousands.
02:13:18
Speaker
So that's, and this one was one of them.
02:13:21
Speaker
That's exactly why we are the way we are, why we like what we like.
02:13:24
Speaker
It's, it's just a really great, you know,
02:13:28
Speaker
characterization of us and our relationship.
02:13:31
Speaker
So I'd love to do this again.
02:13:32
Speaker
This was pretty kick-ass.
02:13:34
Speaker
And you know, if you guys like it, cool.
02:13:37
Speaker
If you don't tell me why, and maybe I'll change something.
02:13:39
Speaker
Don't expect much though.
02:13:41
Speaker
That's my wife.
02:13:44
Speaker
So once again, listeners, thank you so much for joining the Matt goes to the movies extended podcast universe.
02:13:50
Speaker
This has been Rob's reviews on fight club.
02:13:53
Speaker
Have a good night.