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Fight Club (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) Review

Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club explores the darker side of mental instability in the form of a dark comedy. The film tells the rather unsettling story of an insomnia stricken man, played by Edward Norton. His life changed one day when he meets a mysterious soap maker named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and, after his apartment room is blown up along with all of his belongings and the little that remains of his personal life, they became inspired to co-create a seedy underground club in which men are invited to attend and to pummel on each other to their heart's content as a form of physical therapy as well as an advanced form of personal male-bonding. Things get complex when a female drifter named Marla (Helena Bonham Carter) who inadvertently gets involved in the mentally deteriorated world that these two men share. Things only get worse when Tyler decides to take the club out onto the streets and then into their homes and into the lives of more political and respected people.


As technically talented as Fincher is, what I admire most about the film is how he doesn't let the visuals tell the story. I know that a lot of moviegoers hate narration, but trust me when I say that it is put to good use here. The sarcastic, bitter, angry voice of Edward Norton that plays over the events helps a lot in driving the atmosphere of the film into it's audience, but it also adds to the humor of the film. Is the film a satire? I'd go onto say that it is as much a satire as South Park is. So then why the slick visuals? Why the sly, cool tone? Why the clever dialogue? Well, to me it all seemed very forced and over-the-top. Nobody in the real world talks like these characters, and it seems pretty obvious that the film knows this. You can tell in the sarcastic narration. I think that people may likely forget that it is Edward Norton's character who is doing the narration and so therefor we're watching the story unfold from the perspective of someone who is obviously crazy. Every person in this film is crazy in one way or another. Much like Terry Gilliam's Brazil, Fight Club shows a world devoid of any sort of normal thoughts of any kind, whether independent or not. What makes the film so bizarre is the fact the thoughts of the main character make sense in the sense that they have rationale to them. However, this is also how the film's humor comes through. The physical appearance of the main character slowly grows worse and worse while the characters around his grow more self-aware, more open-minded, and more like he was at one time. What makes this so funny is the fact that acts and methods these characters use to make themselves happier are so completely irrational and ridiculous that only a fool could ever take it seriously. Not to ruin the plot, but when it comes to illegal acts of vandalism involving public property being destroyed, there comes a point where politics don't seem so important in retrospect since we live in such an interesting and advanced time in the world today.


Looking at this film ten years later, it still has just as much power as it did in 1999 or 2000 or whenever it was when people decided to start watching it. As I said before, David Fincher is a technical talent. His films often hold an incredible amount of visual energy, and Fight Club is no different. The performances are excellent. Edward Norton's performance here is one of his best, as is Helena Bonham Carter. As for Brad Pitt, he does exactly what the role requires from him and kudos to his for being such a good sport for being in this film. I definitely wouldn't call this his best performance. He is required to act in a sub-conscious way that feels full of self-deprecation, and this shouldn't be all that hard for any good actor as long as they are a good sport and they aren't afraid of looking stupid. I prefer his roles in films like 12 Monkeys in which he plays much more deeply troubling and complicated characters. The music in this film works equally as well. It's very dirty, industrial, and overbearing, much like the film itself. However, it is, at times, heavy to the point of absurdity, so it also helps with the humor of the film too. The film just has a tremendous spirit, though I can't say that I actually enjoy watching it. It's full of blood and guts from beginning to end, though it doesn't exactly have a high bodycount. It's often very ugly to look at, which I don't mind except when it gets to the point where it makes the film feel a little too dirty in that way that makes you want to shower. This is also a very very homoerotic film, not just in the fight scenes but also in the way the male characters act around and toward each other. Their mannerisms, as well as their quick little quirks and playful flirtations, get pretty weird after a while. It's about as homoerotic a film as Interview With the Vampire. I can't say that I'm anywhere near as infatuated with it as I was when I was in high school, where any film that tried new things seemed revolutionary and brilliant, and just as well, this film makes it very difficult to take Brad Pitt seriously in most of his other films. None of these things where what I originally loved about this film, however, and the film itself still works great as a comedy. The fight scenes in this film are also excellently choreographed and the gore effects in these scenes are wonderfully done. The final shot of the film may, at once, be considered by some to be an amazing and rebellious shot, but I laugh just thinking about it due to another very brief image in one frame of the shot that occurs just as the credits are appearing.


So overall, Fight Club is still an entertaining film. It's funny, it's dark, and it provides a very honest depiction of mental illness that very few films have the balls to explore. Would I recommend it to everyone? Definitely not. I will say that it's most worthwhile audience would be people who are interested in films about insanity. It's one of the best ones you'll find, or at least one of the best ones that was released in the past couple of decades. The film has developed a strange cult following, reminiscent of the cult audience surrounding American Psycho. These people seem to feel that these two films contain deep philosophical messages about the nature of humanity, but they definitely don't. Sure, there's a lot going on in both of these films, and the characters may have a fascinating level of detail to them, but that does not mean that these films don't offer more than good entertainment and some ideas to think about. I don't think the characters in Fight Club should be taken seriously and I'm astounded that anyone even could take them seriously. It's like saying that Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon was right to rob the bank and that the police were all wrong. Both sides made mistakes and both sides learned things, but that doesn't change the finale of the film. If you're going to watch Fight Club, please don't try to watch it with an open-mind about the characters and the things that they say. Watch it knowing everything that you know now about politics, science, religion, and humanity. I'm sure that the film will have the desired effect on you.

Fight Club (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) Overview

"'Fight Club' pulls you in, challenges your prejudices, rocks your world and leaves you laughing" (Rolling Stone). Brad Pitt ("12 Monkeys", "Seven"), Edward Norton ("Primal Fear," "American History X") and Helena Bonham Carter ("Mighty Aphrodite," "A Room With A View") turn in powerful "performances of which movie legends are made" (Chicago Tribune) in this action-packed hit. A ticking-time-bomb insomniac (Norton) and a slippery soap salesman (Pitt) channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until a sensuous eccentric (Bonham Carter) gets in the way and ignites an out-of control spiral toward oblivion.

Fight Club (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) Specifications

All films take a certain suspension of disbelief. Fight Club takes perhaps more than others, but if you're willing to let yourself get caught up in the anarchy, this film, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, is a modern-day morality play warning of the decay of society. Edward Norton is the unnamed protagonist, a man going through life on cruise control, feeling nothing. To fill his hours, he begins attending support groups and 12-step meetings. True, he isn't actually afflicted with the problems, but he finds solace in the groups. This is destroyed, however, when he meets Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), also faking her way through groups. Spiraling back into insomnia, Norton finds his life is changed once again, by a chance encounter with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), whose forthright style and no-nonsense way of taking what he wants appeal to our narrator. Tyler and the protagonist find a new way to feel release: they fight. They fight each other, and then as others are attracted to their ways, they fight the men who come to join their newly formed Fight Club. Marla begins a destructive affair with Tyler, and things fly out of control, as Fight Club grows into a nationwide fascist group that escapes the protagonist's control.

Fight Club, directed by David Fincher (Seven), is not for the faint of heart; the violence is no holds barred. But the film is captivating and beautifully shot, with some thought-provoking ideas. Pitt and Norton are an unbeatable duo, and the film has some surprisingly humorous moments. The film leaves you with a sense of profound discomfort and a desire to see it again, if for no other reason than to just to take it all in. --Jenny Brown

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Labels: Collectors, Edition, TwoDisc