Year:
1999
Studio:
20th Century Fox
Movie:
4/5
DVD:
4/5
Teaser
Edward Norton plays a nameless character (the Narrator), a drone with
insomnia who finds a cure by going to various self-help groups ranging
from Testicular Cancer to Sickle Cell Anemia. His tourism is ruined by
Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), a fellow self-help tourist who is
even more blatant about what she does. As if his life isn't weird
enough, the Narrator meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a soap-maker slash
anarchist who is about to ruin his life. But that's not the worst
part...
Movie
"Fight Club" is a movie that would normally get only a three rating
from me but after going through the four documentary tracks I realize
that it is a well made and well thought out movie. Deep down it's a
movie about nihilism and how self destructive people can be -- how your
life can be so blah that hurting yourself makes you feel alive. At
least that seems to be the main point of the movie.
There's another aspect of the movie. Much like "The Sixth Sense" there
is a big reveal near the end that changes a lot of the story up until
then. I totally did not expect it until it was spelled out to the
audience, though if you were paying attention you'd probably have
spotted various weird things. Watching it again you can see how scenes
can be seen from both perspectives.
Actors
This is a movie that shows off Brad Pitt's acting chops. We all knew
already that Edward Norton is a good serious actor, but Pitt never
seemed to do that high profile serious role that makes people sit up
and take notice. Sure he had some award nominations but in kind of
artsy films that no one watches. Known for way too many pre-20th
century literature-turned-into-movie roles, Helena Bonham Carter had a
chance to play the modern and rather messed up love interest.
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DVD
The main DVD contains four commentary tracks. Number one is with
Director David Fincher, where he explains a lot of the background of
the movie and includes a lot of anecdotes. The second one is with
Fincher and actors Pitt, Norton and Carter. This one is more
entertaining and the three actors like to talk and joke about the film.
Writer (of the novel) Chuck Palahniuk and Screen Writer Jim Uhls do the
third track. This is a good one because they talk about what things
made it into the movie and what things were added or changed and why it
was done. Track four is with Production Designer Alex McDowell,
Director of Photography Jeff Cronenwerth, Costume Designer Michael
Kaplan, and Visual Effects Supervisor Kevin Haug and Digital Animator
Richard "Doc" Bailey. Kind of a dry commentary with less talking than
the others.
The second DVD is, compared to the first one, not that impressive. CREW
are the cast and crew biographies. WORK consists Production and Visual
Effects which have short video segments. WORK also has a 5-minute
unnarrated On Location segment. MISSING are six deleted scenes, though
only one is really a deleted scene, the rest are subtle variations to
scenes included in the movie. ADVERTISING has the various trailers and
television commercials, a music video, promotional gallery and a text
transcript of an audience Q&A interview with Edward Norton. ART has
storyboards, visual effect stills, and photos of the house and costumes
and pre-production artwork.
Recommendations
Is this movie for everyone? Certainly not. It's a well made movie that
is disturbing and makes you think. Do I regret seeing it? Not really.
Is it something I needed to see? Not really either. I think this is a
movie aimed at the trench coat and goth crowd. If you fit that type,
you'll enjoy this movie. Otherwise, maybe not. |