I watched my all-time favorite movie for the first time in a couple years last night.

Fight Club is one of those movies from that magic year of 1999 when US cinema peaked, IMHO. American Pie, American Beauty, Dogma, The Matrix, The Mummy, Notting Hill, October Sky, Office Space, The Sixth Sense, and Star Wars: Episode 1 were all released in 1999. As a colleague once put it, "1999 was the year were almost every week during the summer you were blown away by a new movie.". And from the list above, every movie but Star Wars was not a sequel. Now you can argue that Episode 1 wasn't a great movie, but the hubbub surrounding it's release went on for literally months.

So I was in the mood to watch a movie last night that I hadn't seen in a while, and quickly thought of Fight Club.

Back in 1999, I wasn't even sure I was going to even see the movie. I even let a work colleague spoil the end of the movie for me because I wasn't sure I'd go see it. Brad Pitt to me was too much of the pretty boy at the time even though I thought he was great in the movie Se7en. In hindsight, I do regret knowing the twist at the end, but in all honesty I don't think it spoiled the ride, that's how well crafted the movie was.

When I did finally go see it in the theater, I remember walking out of the movie at the end in a stupor. So much to digest, so much to contemplate. The movie talked to me in a way that no other movie has or has since. And no it wasn't the nihilism, or absurdity, or even the obvious shock factor that hooked me. It was the not so underlying message about why do we do the things that society tells us to do. The idea that when we chase the dream of owning things, things end up (to quote the movie) "owning you". And that happiness is somehow a given if you have everything in life. I think my parents generation (very early baby boomer) aren't as afflicted by the current world's ADD behavior because life back then wasn't just simpler. It was because they valued and cherished simpler things longer.

A friend of mine just recently pointed me to a YouTube link of a comedian who told a story of recently taking a flight on a plane. The plane had Wi-Fi as most airlines are starting to carry. A technology that has really only been common for less than a year. So on this flight the Wi-Fi was down and the person sitting next to the comedian starts to get irate and launches into a "This Stinks" tirade. The comedian of course makes light of the fact that they are flying 7 miles up and on-the-Internet. Something that no one would have ever considered 10 years ago. It was just a great example of the current times in which we live that points back to really the core message of the movie.

Don't get me wrong. I realize Fight Club is not a movie for everyone. I would never let any of my children see the movie until they were 17. Bob, and his extra sized parts... The bloody fights and violence... Everything out of Marla Singer's mouth... and even the social terrorism is not kosher to all in today's post-9/11 world. However, the reason for absurdity isn't just for the sake of comedy. All the way back to Shakespeare, writers and playwrights have used absurdity to stick a magnifying glass up to things that we usually take for granted and rarely question. Audiences are smart enough to realize this even if it is on a subconscious level. That's why TV like The Daily Show and outlets like The Onion make us laugh as well as make us think. They point something out to us that we typically don't think twice about.

I'd like to think that I was irrevocably changed by seeing the movie. Yes, there have been times that I have been sad or depressed since seeing the movie. And sometimes over very minor things. But I feel like it is because of Fight Club that I really see the world through a different lens. When a 2 hour movie can do that to you, you know you have found something great.