STARRING: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf Aday and Jared Leto. Screenplay by Jim Uhis. Based on the book Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Music by The Dust Brothers. Cinematography by Jeff Cronenweth. Directed by David Fincher. Budget $65 million. Running time 139 minutes. Originally released in 1999.
Our narrator, a lonely, un-named, insomnia-suffering insurance investigator (Edward Norton), befriends a soap sales man and radical urban revolutionary called Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) on a domestic flight and the two men become friends and form and underground boxing club called Fight Club. As Tyler encourages our narrator to embrace his masculinity and identity and abandon his capitalistic ideals, the two men become inseparable until the arrival of Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), an nihilistic, chain-smoking, suicide in waiting, young woman who brings raw passion, sex and bizarrely love into the mix, causing a schism between the two men, made worse when our narrator discovers that Tyler is planning an act of financial anarchy that will literally cause the collapse of capitalism.
OMG! What an absolute blast! What an utterly unhinged, manic, relentless roar! What an extraordinary experience! What an exhilarating rambunctious romp! What a brilliant black as tar comedy! And what astonishing performances, none of the cast, from Meat Loaf to Norton, to Bonham Carter to Pitt have ever been better! Brad Pitt then the sexiest man in the whole goddam universe! is an utter revelation, his Tyler Durden is an incredible character, and Norton the straight man of the duo brings a well-needed reality to the proceedings. Fincher directs this with absolute control, it's a film with sure a raw centre that it needs a director like him to manage it and I can't imagine any other director being able to land this beast any better than he does! But he's not alone, the cinematography, which despite being filmed mostly at night is never lost in the murky, inky blackness, the sound track by The Dust Brothers is so raw it positively pulsates through your chest. And the choice of music is note perfect.
This starts off fantastically well, the black humour drips from the screen and the raw energy propels the film perfectly and for the first hour this is note perfect, it sadly begins to slow when Project Mayhem raises it's head and while the film is still fantastically good, it loses its focus as Durden's grand scheme begins to take centre stage. By now everybody in the world must know the 'twist', so I don't feel bad about talking about it here.
HOWEVER. IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN THIS FILM BEFORE (WHAT THE HELL) THEN BE CAUTIOUS THIS BIT CONTAINS A MAJOR SPOILER.
The revelation that the Narrator and Durden are the same man is a brilliant reveal. I can't remember if I knew this going in, but the clues are there if you're paying attention and there's a lovely moment when Marla suddenly realises the truth which is beautiful to behold. The three leads, Norton, Pitt and Bonham-Carter are such good actors and to see the three of them deliver such superb performances is a joy to behold.
Bloody loved this, it does dip, a tad, but not enough to cost it, because this is such an unique cinematic experience, a delight to see it again on the big screen. It's a film that deserves to be writ large, it's radical, raw and revolutionary.
A cinematic masterpiece.
10/10
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