dear julia,

my first rose scholar event for the semester was watching fight club–as you well know since i brought you along! i’d seen it once before so it was nice to catch some of the lines of dialogue and use of the mis en scene that foreshadow the film’s conclusion. naturally most of that had gone over my head on my first viewing a few years ago. i stand by what i said when we finished the movie the other night. while fight club is undoubtedly a good movie, and very well made, it’s a weird one to have as your favorite. whether or not it embraces or satirizes anarchism and violence is likely a fruitful topic of discussion for students of film, but nevertheless i doubt i’m alone in thinking that i walked out of the movie with more desire to get in a fight than when i walked in. this to me speaks to a certain fetishization of violence and hyper-masculinity–even if the film is, beneath the surface, rejecting that perspective. i certainly see the arguments for it being a commentary–a critique–on what it depicts of course. to that end though, you and i often discuss the nuances between merely depicting something morally reprehensible and saying something about that morally reprehensible activity through the depiction. so what do you think julia, if fight club‘s commentary works so subtly that you need to speak with someone with a PhD in film to fully grasp how, does the film really succeed at conveying its message? (or as the saying goes, if you have to explain a joke then isn’t it not a very funny joke?) then again, maybe this line of questioning is exactly what fincher intended–that you could get out of fight club what you put into it so to speak. from my experience with a couple of his other movies, i certainly enjoy his work. of the other movies in his canon i’ve watched–the social network, se7en, zodiac, and gone girl–all were impeccably made films. (i’ve read that the game is good too; we should add it to our list of movies to see at some point) with those films though, while they were each challenging, the challenges felt like they were driven from the characters, not the film itself if that makes sense.

love,

rob

p.s. where is my mind by the pixies is a great song–and a well chosen one for fight club‘s closing credits–but i still think gouge away is my favorite pixies song. the guitars hit you harder in gouge away than edward norton hits jared leto in fight club.