Blood and Guts
One of the problems some people have with Fight Club is the bloody violence and the transgressive idea of self destruction. Do you think the grisly elements are unneccasary and decensitize us to violence or do they serve a purpose?
I think it definetly pertains to the Narrator 's attempt to reconnect with the masculine community in a meaningful way, which needed to be through dangerous and painful trials to test and expand his manhood (the lye burn, the car accident, the homework assignments). After all, men aren't born, they're raised and the darkness of the story expresses how grim a task it is to become a real man in today's society.
It probly would make it more accessable to some people, altho isn't part ofthe idea of it all to push what people see as acceptable? And to say and show what might offend? As harsh as it sounds....
Anyway my main point is, if the film was originally make in that mid-ways style you said, it would probly be too lame to appeal to all the people it's reached now, and too weird still for all the people it repulses.
interesting question
i think we also have to look into the fact of escalation: it starts out with the loss of material things, then to the primordial fist fighting then to a club then to expansion of the idea. the grit of the fighting serves the purpose of the driven characters, shows there will. very necessary, i think. though so many of the scenes were so stupidly fucking dark. i mean the lighting. i think that a lot of people just couldnt get passed the blood fights enough to see a focus, or that there was any focus. just angst for angst. so i guess maybe youre right, that if the fighting was toned down, more who didnt like the movie, or "get" the movie, would have probably better understood the message. then again, if it was made with less angst, we probably wouldnt have liked it enough to really get the message either.
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