Search - Fight Club [Special Edition]

In this darkly comic drama, Edward Norton stars as a depressed young man (named in the credits only as "Narrator") who has become a small cog in the world of big business. He doesn't like his work and gets no sense of reward from it, attempting instead to drown his sorrows by putting together the "perfect" apartment. He can't sleep and feels alienated from the world at large; he's become so desperate to relate to others that he's taken to visiting support groups for patients with terminal diseases so that he'll have people to talk to. One day on a business flight, he discovers Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a charming iconoclast who sells soap. Tyler doesn't put much stock in the materialistic world, and he believes that one can learn a great deal through pain, misfortune, and chaos. Tyler cheerfully challenges his new friend to a fight. Our Narrator finds that bare-knuckle brawling makes him feel more alive than he has in years, and soon the two become friends and roommates, meeting informally to fight once a week. As more men join in, the "fight club" becomes an underground sensation, even though it's a closely guarded secret among the participants. (First rule: Don't talk about fight club. Second rule: Don't talk about fight club.) But as our Narrator and Tyler bond through violence, a strange situation becomes more complicated when Tyler becomes involved with Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), whom our Narrator became infatuated with when they were both crashing the support-group circuit. Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club was directed by David Fincher, who previously directed Pitt in the thriller Seven. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Edward Norton - Narrator
Brad Pitt - Tyler Durden
Helena Bonham Carter - Marla Singer
Meat Loaf - Big Bob Paulson
Jared Leto - Angel Face

1999	Best Sound Effects Editing (nominee)	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie	Ren Klyce
1999	Best Sound Effects Editing (nominee)	Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie	Richard Hymns

Though the six-month wait for Fight Club's DVD release nearly drove many of the film's fans crazy, 20th Century Fox gets it right the first time. Instead of releasing a bare-bones disc first and a beefier version months later, this feature-filled, double-disc package transforms David Fincher's caustic, pitch-black satire from one of 1999's most controversial films into one of 2000's best DVDs. A pristine 2.40:1 anamorphic, widescreen transfer and Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound get the first disc off to a great start, preserving all of the visual and sonic details that make the film rewarding on repeat viewings. Four entertaining and informative commentaries -- one by Fincher, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, and Edward Norton; a separate commentary by Fincher; another by -Fight Club novelist Chuck Palahniuk and screenwriter Jim Uhls; and one by visual effects supervisor Kevin Haug, costume designer Michael Kaplan, production designer Alex McDowell and cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth -- are an audio crash course in directing, acting, and special effects techniques. Though the features on the first disc might be more than enough for many viewers, the second disc rewards diehard Fight Club fans with a bonanza of bonuses that would be overwhelming if they weren't neatly organized into five categories. "Work" digs even deeper into the film's technical achievements and provides in-depth explanations of some of the film's most impressive and involved effects, such as the opening credits' ride through the narrator (Edward Norton)'s brain, the dream-like plane crash and sex sequences, and the photogrammetry technique used in other key scenes. "Missing" presents seven cut scenes and alternate takes, including Marla's (Helena Bonham Carter) infamous "I want to have your abortion" scene and other, more subtly different sequences that lend insight into the choices made while constructing the film. "Art" features galleries of the storyboards, pre-production paintings, costumes, and makeup (an especially impressive and funny section -- the "before" and "after" makeup designs look like reconstructive surgery in reverse). And if the disc's other features are primers on filmmaking, then "Advertising" is a run-through of basic marketing concepts. The promotional galleries include publicity stills and artwork, Internet-only commercials, the theatrical teaser and trailer, and a whopping 17 U.S. and international TV ads, some of which seem to be for slightly different, yet related films (in an attempt to appeal to viewers put off by the film's violence, the "Girl's Club" commercials make Fight Club look like an offbeat romantic comedy). A transcript of Edward Norton's appearance at Yale University's Film Society also addresses his and Fincher's concern about how the film's violence should or could be interpreted. Finally, "Crew" profiles the cast and crew and includes biographical blurbs on everyone from Fincher to the Dust Brothers, whose own commentary and score track unfortunately had to be jettisoned due to lack of room. Indeed, the set uses every available milimeter of space on the discs and the packaging to enhance the viewer's experience. The beautifully designed fold-out case includes the booklet "How To Start A Fight," which features quotes from Palahniuk, Uhls, the production team, and Fox 2000 executives about the process of turning the cutting-edge, underground novel into a big-budget, big-studio picture. In a clever move, the booklet also mixes in excerpts of positive and negative reviews from writers ranging from Roger Ebert and Kenneth Turan to anonymous cyber-critics, highlighting Fight Club's polarizing effect. But even the film's harshest critics would have to concede that the the time, care and details put into the DVD set the standard for the format. Fight Club fans, meanwhile, will find weeks' worth of lovingly obsessive features and information to pore over. Though it was originally planned to be a very simple relase, thankfully this densely packed set gives one of Fox's most interesting films of the '90s the treatment it deserves. ~ Heather Phares, All Movie Guide

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