`FIGHT CLUB' OPENS AMID FEAR OF COPYCAT URBAN TERRORISM.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Reaction to this weekend's opening of the controversial and violent movie ``Fight Club'' ranged from moralistic revulsion at the blood-spurting scenes to concern that it will encourage urban terrorism.

``What this movie is going to do is inflate a lot of guys' egos, and it'll probably make kids want to go out there and try to copy it,'' said Ken McLeod, who saw the movie on opening day Friday at the Fallbrook Mall General Cinema in Woodland Hills. McLeod said he ``wouldn't recommend the movie to (his) children or anyone else's.''

Nationally syndicated radio talk show host and former New York Post film critic Michael Medved echoed the sentiment.

``I feel the movie is both disgusting and dangerous,'' said Medved, who is heard on KIEV-AM (870) in Los Angeles. ``I've been reviewing movies for just under 20 years, and I would say, without hesitation, this is the most irresponsible big studio film I've ever seen.

``It's not just that it glorifies and encourages male aggression and guys fighting one another in the basements of bars. The fundamental problem is that it encourages urban terrorism. Many people say it will encourage another Columbine. My concern is it will encourage another Oklahoma City.''

In the film, adapted from Chuck Palahniuk's novel, swaggering Brad Pitt persuades Edward Norton to join a club in which macho wannabes vent their frustrations by beating each other senseless with their bare knuckles. Fight clubs become a part of every major city's underground in the film, with memberships primed to commit terrorist acts against a shallow, materialistic society.

On opening day in Woodland Hills, reactions were mixed.

``Oh my god, it was really freaky,'' said Andrea Lazarus as she walked out of the theater. To her the movie seemed like a satire.

To McLeod, the movie was unrealistic in its glamorous portrayal of fighting.

``Real fights aren't fun,'' said McLeod, a karate expert. ``Nobody likes to get hit, and it's ridiculous to make it look like fun.''

But moviegoer Leonardo Ugalde called the film a strong statement on contemporary urban frustrations.

``The violence was secondary,'' he said. ``It was about showing the dark side of society and the kind of consumers we've become. It was the best David Fincher movie I've ever seen.''

Phil Boatwright is a Hollywood film critic and West Coast editor for the Dove Foundation, which promotes family values in entertainment. He said ``Fight Club'' attempted to make a statement about men being more than just the content of their wallets.

But the ``film bombards the viewer with countless hostile images, revealing a depressive existence, while subjecting us to profanity and obscenity, brutal physical violence, including many bloody, bare-fisted boxing matches, and two graphic gunshot-to-the-head wounds,'' Boatwright said.

Boatwright said the film depicts abusive lifestyles, much drinking and smoking by Pitt and Norton, and a harrowing midair plane collision.

``Our highest rating for a movie is 5 for violence, and it gets a 5 for violence and a 4 for language,'' said Dick Rolfe, chief executive officer of the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Dove Foundation. ``It's what we would consider way over the top.''

In the wake of the Columbine tragedy and calls by politicians and religious leaders for Hollywood to keep a rein on its violent images, the movie provides an easy target to critics who say Hollywood is out of control.

``In terms of violence itself, Hollywood is becoming self-destructive by producing destructive movies,'' said Rolfe, who released a study earlier this year that surveyed 2,380 movies, finding that G-rated movies were eight times more profitable than R-rated movies.

``It tells me Hollywood is heading in the wrong direction,'' Rolfe said. ``They say it's for creative integrity, but frankly I think it has much more to do with ego and shock value. The investors are going to begin holding studios accountable for making these wild, outlandish movies that push the envelope.''

Robert J. Thompson, professor of film and television and director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, said the movie demonstrates that people who thought the Columbine tragedy was going to have a ``chilling effect'' on Hollywood were wrong.

But Thompson doesn't agree with those who want to censor the creative spirit of writers and movie makers.

``I've always believed an artist doesn't have to justify his work,'' Thompson said. ``I'm nervous in a society where a storyteller or filmmaker must be called to the board to justify their stories.''

Thompson said he's not comfortable with the notion that movies and television ``tell people what to do.''

``Long before there was television and film, there was violence on this planet,'' he said. ``We managed World War I, World War II, Hitler, the Civil War and the Spanish Inquisition, and none of that can be blamed on TV.''

Thompson admits a small percentage of people may try to imitate what they see in ``Fight Club.''

``After `The Deer Hunter,' people played Russian roulette,'' he said. ``But for us to change the way we tell stories to protect us from this tiny number of people who might do something stupid, strange or deviant is to reduce ourselves to silence.''