Back in 1999, I was 28 and much too happy with the world to go see a Brad Pitt movie. So I watched it now when I'm 50 and alone. And I was pleased with the experience: As any good film should, it leaves you shaken and stirred. It awakens inside you the same rage that the hero of the story couldn't suppress anymore.
Although not an action fan, I didn't find the violence gratuitous or sickening, the nudity excessive, or the special effects gimmicky. The twist at the end is both brilliant and extremely valid; and the final scene prescient and timeless on multiple levels: Slice it any way you like, it is we - the conformists, the office crowd, the middle classes - who are afraid of our own power, and never fail to construct a prison for ourselves.
I deducted a star because the final cut should have been edited more vigorously (there's at least 10 - 15 minutes' worth of dead weight in there). And also because the naturally stunning and usually memorable Helena Bonham-Carter is so hung up on looking ugly and sounding American in this vehicle, her otherwise prominent character adds nearly zero depth, nuance or development to the story. Given her role as the narrator's mirror-cum-doppelgänger, she simply fizzles out.
Although not an action fan, I didn't find the violence gratuitous or sickening, the nudity excessive, or the special effects gimmicky. The twist at the end is both brilliant and extremely valid; and the final scene prescient and timeless on multiple levels: Slice it any way you like, it is we - the conformists, the office crowd, the middle classes - who are afraid of our own power, and never fail to construct a prison for ourselves.
I deducted a star because the final cut should have been edited more vigorously (there's at least 10 - 15 minutes' worth of dead weight in there). And also because the naturally stunning and usually memorable Helena Bonham-Carter is so hung up on looking ugly and sounding American in this vehicle, her otherwise prominent character adds nearly zero depth, nuance or development to the story. Given her role as the narrator's mirror-cum-doppelgänger, she simply fizzles out.