Fight Club is the kind of film that can make you squirm, belly laugh, and think, Thats profound! in the space of a few minutes.

Starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, this is, on a superficial level, a flick about underground boxing, or if you prefer, brawling clubs.

No money changes hands, no betting occurs, and the pugilists only compensation is the thrill they get from kicking butts.

A cult develops that externalizes violence to the surrounding society, targeting various establishment symbols, such as TV and electronics stores, public officials, and office buildings.

Just when you think, Now, theyve gone too far, the plot twists to make you question nearly everything youve seen to that point. The real and unreal start to unravel, and you wonder if youve been played for a chump.

Here are a few of the points that I draw from this movie that are of special interest to the martial artist:

(1) You can prevail if you decide to take a battle, a disagreement, or a cause to the extreme. Even certified tough guys, including the mobsters you see in the film, can be intimidated and will back down if they believe their adversaries are crazy enough to do anything.

(2) Men are seeking gender clarity and reaffirmation of their core instincts. The forced feminization of males during the past several decades has created role confusion and dissatisfaction among males as well as females. Fighting, however you construe this term, provides a forum for men to be tested and to learn who they are on a deep, primitive level.

(3) Men were not minted for the purpose of wearing neckties and performing nerdy roles inside of sterile office buildings. Our most natural inclination is to be hunters, not custodians.

(4) Women will tolerate a great deal from men who are in touch with their basic instincts, and theyll relentlessly toy with or destroy those who arent.

(5) To borrow a phase from General Stonewall Jackson: One courageous man makes a majority.

You might like this movie simply because of its unpredictability.

I like it because its characters are onto something.

Take the exchange between Pitt and Norton on the plane, where Norton hands Pitt an obscure compliment that Pitt decodes on the spot, and then Pitt incisively asks:

Hows that working out for you?

What? Norton responds, puzzled.

Cleverness. Is that working for you?

With this brief exchange, Pitt implies, Youre a wimp.

Cleverness, indirection, and cute word play dont make you a man, so cut the crap and dont fool yourself.

Men, whether they realize it or not, are attracted to the martial arts partly because modern society provides few opportunities to be completely nonverbal, to escape the endless symbolism and etiquette that informs professional and personal lives.

With a fist headed toward your teeth, theres no time to talk; only to act.