Fight Club Beats Other Movies into the Dirt

When it first came out on October 15th, Fight Club was a box-office disappointment. It only brought in $11,035,485 its first week. After its release on DVD, however, Fight Club’s popularity boomed. Quickly, it found its way into the hearts of the public.

The plotline of Fight Club is unlike any other, but begins as any other movie would. It begins with man -The Narrator as many have called him. Playing The Narrator is Edward Norton, a growing name at the time of the movie’s release.

The Narrator is just your typical automobile company employee, bored with life itself. He suffers from insomnia and his doctor refuses to give him medication and instead tells him to visit a support group for testicular cancer.

Fascinated by the many support groups, The Narrator goes to every support group possible. By going to them, he finds himself able to sleep peacefully every night. That is until The Narrator meets Marla Singer, who is played by Helena Bonham Carter. After he finds that she attends every support group he does, his sleeping pattern is again wrecked.

Deciding to focus more on his work, The Narrator takes part on a business trip and that is how he meets Tyler Durden, the attractive, smooth-talking man played by Brad Pitt. The Narrator and Tyler kick it off and later find themselves meeting each other at bars.

One night, Tyler and The Narrator decide to beat each other up for the heck of it, and do so in a parking lot. The fight gained many watchers and soon other men were willing to fight, too.

This is how the underground fight clubs began, and they soon escalated into something much more than a few punches. As the popularity of the fight clubs begin to skyrocket, The Narrator finds out much more about himself then he really wanted to know.

Bringing the screenplay to life was director David Fincher. His other works include, Se7en, The Game, and later The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Fincher was not the first director chosen to film Fight Club. In fact, he was fourth in line.

Peter Jackson, Bryan Singer, and Danny Boyle were chosen first to direct, but they all declined due to projects they all were currently working on. So Fincher was asked, but at first, according to imbd.com, “was reluctant to work with 20th Century Fox again after his negative experiences making Alien 3 (1992).” After a meeting, however, Fincher decided to take on the movie.

Also in the back of the line was Edward Norton. Matt Damon and Sean Penn were almost considered over him. Fincher wanted Norton as the actor for The Narrator, having been impressed by Norton’s appearance in The People vs. Larry Flynt.

Norton was an excellent choice for the role. His monotonous voice suited The Narrator’s personality very well and his lines were spot-on. Lou Lumenick of the New York Post even wrote, “Edward Norton gives another extraordinary performance.”

According to an interview between Norton and Graham Fuller, Fincher mailed the novel, Fight Club to Norton, and Norton read it in one sitting. He then agreed to star in the movie. “I found myself relating to [The Narrator’s] self-indulgent but valid sense of complete dislocation.” Norton said in the interview.

Pitt also read the novel and enjoyed it, agreeing to star in the film. He was the first choice for the movie, due to the fact that he was a big name and would bring in viewers. Not only that, but he had previously worked with Fincher in the movie Se7en.

Pitt’s performance was one to smile at. He played the cocky, “cool guy” part well. Pitt has the talent to display many emotions behind one simple face and brought Tyler Durden’s character to life. His hand-work was also spot on, making his fighting scenes seem realistic.

“Pitt's best work since A River Runs Through It,” Jeff Miller of the Houston Chronicle said.

Helena Bonham Carter was the last to be casted and things weren’t looking to well for her. She was the very last choice for the movie, and if it weren’t for Reese Witherspoon saying the movie was, “too dark” and declining the offer, then Bonham Carter wouldn’t have been casted.

In the end, she was casted as Marla Singer and she portrayed the role well. Bonham Carter really enjoyed acting in this film and really got into her character. According to International Movie Database, she even had her make-up artist do her make-up left handedly, because she thought Marla’s make-up wouldn’t be spot on and perfect.

Bonham Carter is known for her darker acting pieces, such as having her voice in Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. Fight Club also adds to the list of her darker roles, and she portrays Marla’s drug addicted and extreme ways with excellent, on-the-dot acting.

Completely supporting all of Fincher’s decisions, author of the novel Fight Club, Chuck Palahnuik thought the cast well suited his characters. Though he was all for the adaptation, Palahnuik had no interest in writing the screenplay.

That’s why Jim Uhls was hired for the scripting, doing a decent job in transforming the book into a novel. Many of the changes made were necessary, because Laura Ziskin, President of Production at Fox 2000 Pictures thought that most of lines were, “exceedingly disturbing,” according to imbd.com.

“[Fight Club] may also be yet another example of a book that was just fine as a book -- that didn't need to be made into a film.” Rob Gonsalves of eFilmCritic.com had to say on the transition of book to movie.

Palahnuik disagreed, though, seeing the movie as something far much better than his novel, according to the International Movie Database. He stated that he found the film to be an improvement on his book.

Another improvement on Fight Club would be the DVD release. When released on May 18th, 2000, Fight Club proved to be a hit after all. It quickly upped in the charts in the best movie of all time lists, receiving #4 on Total Film’s 100 Greatest Movies of All Time in 2005.

Fight Club is, indeed, one of the greatest movies of all time. With its dramatic plot twist and series of hidden messages, you can never get enough of watching this film. Every time you re-watch it, there is something more to learn. This movie should be on your shelf, if not already in your DVD player.