When '' Fight Club '' premiered at the 56th Venice International Film Festival , the film was fiercely debated by critics . A newspaper reported , " Many loved and hated it in equal measures . " Some critics expressed concern that the film would incite copycat behavior , such as that seen after '' A Clockwork Orange '' debuted in Britain nearly three decades previously . Upon the film 's theatrical release , '' The Times '' reported the reaction : " It touched a nerve in the male psyche that was debated in newspapers across the world . " Although the film 's makers called '' Fight Club '' " an accurate portrayal of men in the 1990s , " some critics called it " irresponsible and appalling " . Writing for the '' Australian '' newspaper , Christopher Goodwin stated : " '' Fight Club '' is shaping up to be the most contentious mainstream Hollywood meditation on violence since Stanley Kubrick 's '' A Clockwork Orange '' . " Janet Maslin , reviewing for '' The New York Times '' , praised Fincher 's direction and editing of the film . She wrote that '' Fight Club '' carried a message of " contemporary manhood " , and that , if not watched closely , the film could be misconstrued as an endorsement of violence and nihilism . Roger Ebert , reviewing for the '' Chicago Sun-Times '' , called '' Fight Club '' " visceral and hard-edged " , but also " a thrill ride masquerading as philosophy " , whose promising first act is followed by a second that panders to macho sensibilities and a third he dismissed as " trickery " . Ebert later acknowledged that the film was " beloved by most , not by me " . He was later requested to have a shot-by-shot analysis of '' Fight Club '' at the Conference on World Affairs ; he stated that " s eeing it over the course of a week , I admired its skill even more , and its thought even less . " Jay Carr of '' The Boston Globe '' opined that the film began with an " invigoratingly nervy and imaginative buzz " , but that it eventually became " explosively silly " . '' Newsweek '' s David Ansen described '' Fight Club '' as " an outrageous mixture of brilliant technique , puerile philosophizing , trenchant satire and sensory overload " and thought that the ending was too pretentious . Richard Schickel of '' Time '' described the mise en scène as dark and damp : " It enforces the contrast between the sterilities of his characters ' aboveground life and their underground one . Water , even when it 's polluted , is the source of life ; blood , even when it 's carelessly spilled , is the symbol of life being fully lived . To put his point simply : it 's better to be wet than dry . " Schickel applauded the performances of Pitt and Norton , but criticized the " conventionally gimmicky " unfolding and the failure to make Bonham Carter 's character interesting
56th Venice International Film Festival
56th Venice International Film Festival
Fight Club