David Fincher Month Continues with: 'FIGHT CLUB'

by Joey Paur



David Fincher Month Continues with everyone's favorite David Fincher movie ‘Fight Club' This is a cult classic and is an absolutely fantastic display of film making and story telling. I haven't met a person yet that hasn't seen this film and not like it. If you are not a fan of the ‘Fight Club' I would be interested in hearing your rants on it.

‘Fight Club' was released in 1999 two years after ‘The Game' had come out. The movie stars 2 of the best actors working in Hollywood Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. This is the second time Fincher worked with Brad Pitt on a film. They were insanely terrific in this movie. I loved how whacked out and insane this movie was. It was such a fun ride. The whole movie was just schizophrenic like the characters, which is one of the reasons why it was so brilliant.

The narrator and main character of the film (Norton) is young. Has an easy, well-paid desk job, a condo, Swedish furniture, artistic coffee tables and a fridge full of condiments. Yet he feels emotionally and spiritually empty, and he can't sleep. He eventually finds comfort in going to support groups for leukemia and cancer victims when there's really nothing wrong with him all off a sudden the support groups are hijacked from him by another faker named Marla Singer. It is through all this that he meets a soap salesman named Tyler Durden (Pitt) a man who shows him that not only can he live without material needs but that self-destruction, the collapse of society might not be such a bad idea either.

There are so many great scenes in this movie. It's an insanely dark comedy. You can't help but laugh at some parts even though it is dark and disgusting. For example when The Narrator beats the living shit out of Angel Face and declares the he just wanted to destroy something beautiful. I laugh because of how nuts it sounded. I mean the guy just felt like destroying Angel Face's face, so he did it! Then there is just that nasty ass scene when they are stealing the human fat out of the dumpsters to make soap out of, and the bag breaks and starts spilling out all over them... sick! I remember wanting to puke.

I loved the revelation in this movie when it all comes together at the end when The Narrator discovers that he is Tyler Durden. Its my favorite part of the film to go back and see all the flashbacks of him kicking the shit out of himself. Everything that was building up and being planned was his alter ego, his hidden demon. And then for the fact that even after he realized what was going on, he still couldn't get rid of Tyler! He had to shoot himself in the head to get rid of him! I loved how everything was so well organized for this film to bring out that revelation. There was so much going on and for a director to cover all the bases, and leave no holes in a story like this is an amazing feat. No matter how many times I have seen this film I have never found a hole. So if you could point one out to me go for it. Fincher really paid attention to the detail when executing this film.

Below is a lot of stuff you may or may not know about the Movie. This is all very interesting trivia so it is worth checking out!

- Director David Fincher shot over 1,500 reels of film, more than three times the normal amount

- Brad Pitt's character was originally going to recite a workable recipe for home-made explosives. In the interest of public safety, the filmmakers decided to substitute fictional, dud recipes for the real ones.

- Author Chuck Palahniuk actually found the modified ending in the film to be better than the one he had written in the novel.

- Although he refused to smoke in Rounders (1998) (his character played poker for cigarettes, but did not smoke), Edward Norton did smoke in this film.

- The reverse-tracking shot out of the trash can, an elaborate digitally animated sequence, was the very last shot to be added to the film - as almost an afterthought by the director. It required so much processing time that it almost had to be spliced in "wet" - i.e., fresh from the lab - so that the film could be duplicated on schedule.

- In the short scene when Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are drunk and hitting golf balls, they really are drunk, and the golf balls are sailing directly into the side of the catering truck.

- One of Project Mayhem's acts of vandalism is the destruction of a display of Apple Macintosh computers. The explosion occurs at exactly 84 minutes into the film, an ironic reference to Apple's famous tribute to George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" when they debuted the Macintosh during the 1984 Super Bowl.

- As Tyler jumps into the red convertible outside of the airport a man can be heard yelling, 'Hey, that's my car.'

- The original "pillow talk"-scene had Marla saying "I want to have your abortion". When this was objected, it was exchanged for what we see now: "I haven't been fucked like that since grade school". When those who had protested saw this they were even more outraged and wanted the original line back, but director David Fincher decided to keep the new line.

- The infamous 'soap slam on dish' shot required 41 takes. After the 40th take, director David Fincher realized that the actual soap was sliding out of frame and settled for a fake soap prop.

- Fox originally wanted someone with a name to play Marla after they decided not to go with Helena Bonham Carter. The only other name thrown in was Reese Witherspoon. But Fincher, Witherspoon, and the studio declined saying that she was too young, and Witherspoon said it was just too dark.

- David Fincher took 12 takes of the stuntman rolling down the stairs when the narrator gets thrown down the stone steps in the parking lot by Tyler in their final fight, but the shot used in the movie is the very first take.

- After the copyright warning, there is another warning on the DVD. This warning is from Tyler Durden, and is only there for a second. "If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this is useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all who claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think everything you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told you should want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned... Tyler"

- When a Fight Club member sprays the priest with a hose, the camera briefly shakes. This happens because the cameraman couldn't keep himself from laughing.

- Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter's sex scene is largely computer generated.

- Brad Pitt and Edward Norton actually learned how to make soap.

- Tyler appears in the film at least five times before the Narrator glimpses him on the moving walkway in the airport. In the four appearances, Tyler flashes on screen for just an instant and is only visible when the Narrator has insomnia: - At the photocopier at work; - In the doctor's office, when the Narrator is learning about the testicular cancer support group; - At that group's meeting; - As the Narrator sees Marla leaving a meeting but doesn't follow her. - Tyler shows up as a waiter in the presentation video of a hotel - Tyler is on the opposite moving walkway in the airport when The Narrator says "if you wake up in a different place, at a different time, do you wake up a different person?"

- At the airport, the Narrator says "Could you wake up as a different person?" and the camera follows Tyler.

- When the Narrator is traveling in the beginning of the film, he throws a mint candy into the air and catches it in his mouth. The television then shows a group of waiters that shout "Welcome." Tyler Durden is one of the waiters in the front row.

- When Tyler tells the Narrator that he is leaving, the Narrator has a bruise on his head. When the Narrator wakes up "the next morning" the bruise is gone, obviously indicating that it has been some time that he's been asleep (in actuality he wasn't asleep but went all over the country as Tyler setting up the fight clubs.)

- The Narrator wanders the house while Tyler and Marla noisily have sex upstairs. When the detective calls and the Narrator answers the phone, the sounds of the lovemaking instantly stop.

- When Tyler and the Narrator hit the first car with baseball bats, Tyler hit first, but the alarm is triggered only after the narrator hits.

- In the car scene where Tyler tells Jack to "Just let go!" Tyler is driving, yet Jack gets out of the driver's side door after the crash. This, in fact, was unintentional, and while looking at the dailies Fincher chose to keep it.

- For a brief moment in the beginning of the film, the Narrator can be seen as Tyler's reflection in the window.

 

 
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