Marathon of Corruption/Social Revolution

Tonight's marathon is one of the riskiest marathons thus far. All of the films in this lineup are great films and do share a similar feel of darkness, rebelliousness, and a feeling of being grand and epic in its' form of storytelling, but trying to connect the storylines all together have been tricky. We have four different movies that deal with a new social revolution: the birth of Facebook, followed by the legal wars it erupted by it's creator Mark Zuckerberg, a journalist searching for a missing person whose been gone for 40 years, aided in his search by a computer hacker whose viewed as a social outcast, and the final film deals with themes of anarchy and identity change with an insomniac worker forming an underground fight club that evolves into a form of terrorism. We have on tonight's menu:

The Social Network 2010, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2011, and Fight Club 1999

Most of these are helmed by legendary director David Fincher, who also directed Alien 3, Seven, The Game, Panic Room, Zodiac, and Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Fincher is well known for making dark crime thrillers and psychological mind games. The Social Network showcases his trademark filmmaking styles such as fast cuts, heavy sophisticated dialogue, deep character depth and transitions. The film is shot like a music video, giving it a lot of style to go with it's intelligent script and powerful themes such as friendship, loyalty, greed, and betrayal. Most importantly, Social Network represents a cultural revolution. The birth of facebook had such an impact on pop culture that it revolutionized our daily lives in ways we didn't think were possible. Through the corruption that the creators of facebook endured at the hands of Mark Zuckerberg, we have all benefitted from this new kind of social lifestyle. The second entry in the marathon, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, continues the dialogue driven concept of Fincher's storytelling, except this time focuses on a journalist searching for a woman who's been missing for 40 years, aided in his search by a young socially outcast computer hacker. Fincher uses a lot of techniques from Social Network including the same composer, same music video style of cinematography, and character depth to make you feel for the characters and find them compelling. In the case of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you feel for Rooney Mara's character Lisbeth Salander when she experiences sexual abuse and corruption at the hands of her legal guardian. Her sweet vengeance on her guardian is definitely the most rewarding scene of the film, giving you a great deal of satisfaction. This is the first in what one hopes will be a fantastic trilogy of films if the filmmakers decide to remake the two Swedish sequels that came with the original film. The final film of the night brings the themes of corruption, social revolution, and identity change all together with Fight Club. It can be debated as being the finest film of Edward Norton and Brad Pitt's careers. If the Dark Knight is the 2000's dark masterpiece, then this was the 90's version of that film. Themes of anarchy and revolution run rampant here.

It may seem that all of these movies, while brilliant, may not come off as being comparable immediately, but when you think about the themes of the films, they do work together or compliment the other film nicely.