Fight Club

1999

Directed By: David Fincher

Screenplay By: Jim Uhls

Starring: Brad Pitt; Edward Norton; Helena Bonham Carter; Meat Loaf Aday; Jared Leto

Some of you may wonder why I labeled this movie as a comedy; actually, it is more correctly labeled as a dark comedy, an argument for satire could even be made. If you've never stifled a giggle while viewing this film, in fear of the person or persons watching it with you thinking you're deranged for chuckling at such dark content, or if you've never laughed out loud, unafraid of peer pressure and what other people think of you, then you must revisit this movie and the novel. It's definitely a social commentary on consumerism, lending itself to the satire label, and it definitely forces one to laugh at situations one wouldn't normally laugh at in every day life, and if you do not recognize these situations or the message the film makers and the author are trying to impart, then a you just might need to read more satire. If you find yourself offended by the humor or the message, then you just might need to stop shopping to impress and call a therapist. 

When I first watched this movie I didn't know it was based on a novel (I was young and still believed movie producers and screen-writers actually wrote their own material, but we all know most of the good movies, the really good and thought-provoking movies are based on novels), and it wasn't until recently I revisited the idea of reading it. I purchased it a few years back, and due to an unfortunate incident in the middle of last summer, I was bed-ridden for some time so I cracked its cover. My perceptions of this story were already cross-contaminated, of course I envisioned Norton and Pitt and Bonham Carter and all the other actors in the movie, but not being able to create my own mental pictures of characters and events didn't weaken the novels impact. It still hit me hard, still made me re-question everything the movie did when I first seriously started to think about the movie's message, and I realized just how well-done and true the movie mirrored the novel. The endings were slightly different, the novel's ending cut short; the main reason probably was because the novel's ending didn't lend itself to a very dramatic cinematic scene, but the intent of the story remained honest and loyal. The actors' extraordinary performances added to the complexity of this story and to its presentation, and every time I cue up my VHS copy (yes, I never purchased it on DVD because I already had a copy on VHS, and I refuse to buy DVD copies of all my VHS copies until my VHS capabilities become non-existent) I get blown away again and again by the sheer power of the following two hours and handful of minutes.

Fight Club is a 1999 American film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. It is based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. Norton plays the unnamed narrator, who is discontented with his white-collar job. He forms a "fight club" with soap salesman Tyler Durden (Pitt), and becomes embroiled in a relationship with him and a destitute woman, Marla Singer (Bonham Carter).

Palahniuk's novel was optioned by Fox 2000 Pictures producer Laura Ziskin, who hired Jim Uhls to write the film adaptation. Fincher was selected because of his enthusiasm for the story. He developed the script with Uhls and sought screenwriting advice from the cast and others in the film industry. He and the cast compared the film to Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and The Graduate (1967), with a theme of conflict between Generation X and the value system of advertising.

Studio executives did not like the film, and they restructured Fincher's intended marketing campaign to try to reduce anticipated losses. Fight Club failed to meet the studio's expectations at the box office and received polarized reactions from critics. It was cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999. The Guardian saw it as an omen for change in American political life, and described its visual style as ground-breaking. The film later found commercial success with its DVD release, establishing Fight Club as a cult classic and causing media to revisit the film. On the tenth anniversary of the film's release, The New York Times dubbed it the "defining cult movie of our time."