American Cinematographer - September 2000 - 24

by Chris Pizzello

Fight Club
2.40:1

(16x9 Enhanced),
Dolby Digital 5.1
and Dolby Surround 2.0
20th Century Fox, $34.98
After

slipping Fight Club into the
DVD player, the viewer is greeted with
the usual copyright warning that stub¬
bornly resists the fast-forward function.
But it quickly becomes apparent that
something is off. The screen flickers, and
there

seems

to some sort of interference

studied shot-by-shot
editing classes. Remotecontrol jockeys will have a lot of fun
freeze-framing five different instances in
restroom could be

in film school

the film in which Durden has been

subliminally spliced into scenes (for just
frame) before his initial introduction.
Fight Club is packaged on two
disks. The first features the movie (deliv¬
ered in a lively, super-sharp transfer and
punishing Dolby Digital 5.1 sound) plus
separate commentaries by Fincher; Pitt,
Norton and Helena Bonham Carter along
one

suddenly the text has become a
confrontational screed. It's a clever

with Fincher; screenwriter Jim Uhls with

conceit:

host of

-

Fight Club's resident anarchist,
Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), has gotten his
greasy mitts on the DVD. It's also the
perfect introduction to one of the most
subversive films ever to be green-lit by a
major Hollywood studio.
Fight Club is a strange brew:
bone-crunchingly violent one minute,
arty the next; blackly comedic yet deeply
serious; chock-full of dangerously anti¬
social notions, but ultimately highly
moral. Once the viewer gets past the
initially dire prospect of repeated
lectures by Pitt (admittedly spectacular
as Durden) on How to Really Live, Fight
Club looks like it might live up to its ambi¬
tious goal of becoming the seminal film
about our deeply dysfunctional times.
At the very least, the film is a
nonstop visual marvel that doesn't just
reward but requires multiple viewings.

Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk; and a
crew members, including Cronen-

weth. All of the commentaries

are

worthy and interesting, but the writers
deliver the most illuminating observa¬
tions. Fight Club is a movie of provocative
ideas, and who better to explain them
than Palahniuk, the scribe who came up
with this demented stew? He offers the

rather

unsettling information that much

of the deviant behavior in the film is
based
-

on

which

his real-life
means

exploits with pals

there

are

G-rated films

circulating out there spliced with single
frames from porno films. Meanwhile,
Norton and Pitt observe that whenever
the film presents a product
violence is imminent.

placement,

The second disk offers an almost
fetishistic amount of behind-the-scenes
material. The most unique and interac¬
tive feature allows viewers to track how

Jeff Cronenweth's bruise-hued cine¬

several

matography contrasts the dull, desatu-

on-screen

took shape by

phere of the subterranean fight clubs.

offering an
comparison of the story¬
boards, Fincher's initial location scout
and then the actual filming. Elsewhere,
there are deleted scenes, in-depth expla¬
nations of special effects, full cast and

Director David Fincher's visual story¬

crew

rated shades of narrator Jack's (Edward

Norton) soulless corporate existence
with the warm, almost sensual atmos¬

been more kinetic -
the sequence in which Durden's droogs
threaten a police commissioner in a hotel

telling has

never

scenes

bios, a discussion of the distinctive
production design, and a surprisingly
exhaustive look at the film's promotional
campaign, which was probably too
American Cinematographer - September 2000

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