Fight Club (1999)

An insomniac office worker looking for a way to change his life crosses paths with a devil-may-care soap maker and they form an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more...

Director:

David Fincher

Writers:

Chuck Palahniuk (novel), Jim Uhls (screenplay)

Stars:

Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter

Top 250 #10 | Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 5 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Edward Norton	...	The Narrator
Brad Pitt	...	Tyler Durden
Helena Bonham Carter	...	Marla Singer
Meat Loaf	...	Robert 'Bob' Paulson (as Meat Loaf Aday)
Zach Grenier	...	Richard Chesler
Richmond Arquette	...	Intern
David Andrews	...	Thomas
George Maguire	...	Group Leader
Eugenie Bondurant	...	Weeping Woman
Christina Cabot	...	Group Leader
Sydney 'Big Dawg' Colston	...	Speaker
Rachel Singer	...	Chloe
Christie Cronenweth	...	Airline Attendant
Tim De Zarn	...	Inspector Bird (as Tim de Zarn)
Ezra Buzzington	...	Inspector Dent

Storyline

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.

---

Plot Keywords:

fight | club | support group | out of control | office | 

---

Taglines:

How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for disturbing and graphic depiction of violent anti-social behavior, sexuality and language

Details

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 October 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

El club de la pelea

Filming Locations:

421 W. Eighth Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$63,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,177,219 (UK) (12 November 1999)

Gross:

$37,023,395 (USA) (25 February 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox 2000 Pictures, Regency Enterprises, Linson Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

139 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director David Fincher shot 38 takes of the scene between Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and The Narrator (Edward Norton) in Lou's Bar after The Narrator's apartment has blown up. Each take was filmed with two cameras, and for every individual take, Fincher would give the actors a rough idea of what to do, and they would improvise most of the dialogue. The scene as it exists in the finished film is made up of segments from numerous different takes and much of the dialogue, especially Tyler's dialogue, was completely ad-libbed on set.

---

Goofs

When The Mechanic (Holt McCallany) sprays the Seminary Student (Matt Winston) with a hose, the camera briefly shakes because the cameraman was laughing uncontrollably.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
[Tyler points a gun into the Narrator's mouth]
Narrator: [voiceover] People are always asking me if I know Tyler Durden.
Tyler Durden: Three minutes. This is it - ground zero. Would you like to say a few words to mark the occasion?
Narrator: ...i... ann... iinn... ff... nnyin...
Narrator: [voiceover] With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels.
[Tyler removes the gun from the Narrator's mouth]
Narrator: I can't think of anything.
Narrator: [voiceover] For a second I totally forgot about Tyler's whole controlled demolition thing ...

---

Crazy Credits

The three police officers that try to cut off the narrator's testicles are credited as Officer Andrew, Officer Kevin and Officer Walker. Andrew Kevin Walker is the screenwriter who wrote Se7en and 8MM. He also worked uncredited on David Fincher's The Game and on one of the drafts of Fight Club. However, his contribution to the Fight Club script was not enough to warrant a credit by current WGA rules. Director David Fincher named the officers Andrew, Kevin and Walker, as a way of surreptitiously giving Walker a credit.

---

Connections

Referenced in An Evening with Kevin Smith (2002)

---

Soundtracks

"SVARGA"
Composed by Azam Ali, Greg Ellis
Performed by Vas
Courtesy of Narada Producations, Inc.

User Reviews

Generally positive comments

This film, is basically, at least in my opinion, one of the greatest films ever, period. I read the book afterwards, and equally enjoyed the book. The film is definitely for younger people, the critics of films, in general are older, so they cannot appreciate this film. The film defines the younger generation, only younger people can relate to it, however, older people(middle aged+) can appreciate the art of the film, the beauty of the camera work, as well as the excellent acting. The film, in every aspect is fantastic, it begins with a rather humorous narration, from a person we grow to know as, "narrator". It goes about to show how he lives, and his way of life. In these scenes alone, movie lines that will go down in history are said, and it's only the first twenty minutes. The film tends to progress faster and faster as the film continues. We delve into the narrators psyche, and find that he is not unlike most people in this world, he has a tendency to say to people what they want to hear, even if it is not the truth in it's entirety. Almost all folks can relate to the main character, and he feels to be a real human, not a character in a story. This, is partially due to the excellent directing, as well as book, but it is mostly due to the fantastic performance by Edward Norton. It, in my opinion is an Oscar performance. Bradd Pitt gives his best performance to date, he is definitely an excellent coworker with David Fincher, they seem to share a common thread when it comes to film making I suppose. I have full intention of purchasing this film when it is released on VHS and DVD. Do yourself a favour, see this film, if that is not an option, at least read the book. If you are younger and feel unrest with society, this is the film.