Year: 1999
Running Time: 139 Minutes
Rated: R
SRP: $34.99
Studio(s): 20th Century Fox
Release Date: November 17, 2009

Film/Feature: A+
Fight Club was heralded by modern and contemporary critics and masculine film buffs alike, as a modern American classic, ten years ago for its relevance and its harsh comment on this country’s way of life. With the 10th Anniversary blu-ray release, it was a proper time to revisit Fight Club to see whether or not that kind of immediate reaction aged well over time.

Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Fight Club looked at how susceptible ordinary people can be while working in soul-sucking careers. Though it’s not the career paths, but rather our dependency on the consumer cycle of the world that sucked the most of us. Slaves to insurmountable debt, slaves to the things we feel the need to buy, eventually makes us slaves to our jobs; Fight Club is as timely now more than ever. As a nation, we’re worse off than in 1999: iPhones, Blackberries, hybrid cars, XBOXs or PS3s, Costco memberships, Widescreen LCD TV’s, casual Fridays, country club lifestyles and the retro fashion revival of the 80′s. Yeah, it’s that last one that puts us over the edge. Two market crashes and a shortage of jobs, those things that consumed our free time, also consumed what was left in our bank accounts. Our belongings would eventually own us, and whether you agree with that philosophy or not, there’s nothing stopping the one-direction moving walkway.

David Fincher faithfully adapted Palahniuk’s fiction novel in a way that plucked a universal chord among many film buffs widespread across the country. Though supported by the studio, Fight Club took a life of its own, mostly on DVD. Its cynical and prophetic ways were razzed nationally by critics who felt it was the shining example of the downfall of cinema. Quite the contrary, it endured and the fascination spread like a resilient epidemic popping up in art houses on an annual basis. People liked what the film said, where it went, and who drove behind the wheel. Fight Club attacked the culture that generations built their worlds around, it targeted corporate brands and put a cynical choke hold on liberal media after they tried to strike it down with conservative criticism, and therefore in some insane ironic imitation of art, gave legitimacy to Tyler Durdenisms. It’s a story of men getting back to the basics and tearing down the system, piece-by-piece, sticking it to the man, but who also lost sight of what was right in front of them.

Ten years ago we were introduced to Edward Norton’s nameless schlub, a young professional with no emotional connections. Be becoming a support group voyeur, he lived through other people’s sorrow. He was an addict and needed saving and found it in his antithesis, a part-time soap salesman/part-time anarchist, Tyler Durden. Played by Brad Pitt, Durden becomes the good Shepard, the Yoda for frat boys with too much testosterone. With his newfound friend, Norton and Pitt’s alter egos massage their masculinity by pummeling the flesh of each other and similar lost men, looking to feel something–anything. Durden dominates Norton’s character, like a boy who masters the controls of a remote controlled plane, performing stunts, assigning homework for an anarchist’s way of life, full of simple mantras and maxims. Armed with a legion of dolts, that could only be derailed by a woman.

Helena Bonham Carter played an arousing adversary named Marla, whose odd behavior and blithe disregard for others is initially met with a bad taste of cigarette butts and typhoid fever. You wanted to damn her feminine ways; rid yourself of her compassionate heart and silence her incessant moans of delight. But as Norton’s character spirals into his own darkness, the resistance towards Marla turns into sympathy; especially after a dramatic U-turn.

Fight Club is its own support group, for those who bought into its cinematic brilliance from our couches. It’s never as good as the first time you went to Fight Club–well, you know why–you had to fight. While none of us could ever truly wrap our heads around Norton’s nameless character, nor his sickness, we continue to come to the Fight Club to watch him fulfill his destiny. The Fight Club support group may have an improved new look and a brand new sound in blu-ray, but it will still surround you with its big manly bitch tits for you to cry in and give you an outlet to destroy something that’s beautiful. Besides, 10 years later, it’s still cheaper than going to a movie, and there’s still the free coffee.

Video: A
For the first time Fight Club is seen in high definition on a 1080p AVC-encoded transfer in the original 2.40:1 aspect ratio, and I do declare that this is a transfer that would make Jack proud. Fight Club has always had this designed look of a gritty, messy and imperfect look. And all of that is maintained, but detail has taken a step upward. The texture of skin and the pores are clearly visible. From well-aged leather and wool to a flannel shirt bought at the thrift store, the texture of clothes are easily distinguishable, despite all of the tunnel dark sequences. In one scene, I noticed the color of Edward Norton’s eyes have this blue-ish green color that I had never previously never saw before. Some of the other visual notes I rave about are the shine on liquid, sweat, and blood; the reflections in see-thru glass, even being able to see through Brad Pitt’s amber shades. The dark locations cast dozens of shadows on people’s skin and the delineation, and overlapping of those shadows are clearly reproduced. Blacks are intensely deep, and some look more vibrant, more colorful than when I first remembered seeing it on DVD. For example when Tyler picks up Marla from her apartment. The green glow from the hallway lights bouncing of the sickly green walls really shines. There are no obnoxious post-enhancement effects, artifacts or haloing. Grain is present but is purposely placed so to give a manly, weathered look and this transfer preserves Fincher’s vision.

Audio: A+
Okay now we’re getting to my favorite part of this release. Fight Club on blu-ray sports a 5.1 English DTS-HD Dolby TrueHD audio track; I believe I’ve died and gone to Durden Heaven. To say this audio track is explosive would be understating it. It gets in your grill, it rattled your ear drums, and it triggers your other senses. Your nose will flare, your mouth will drool, and the hair on your neck will have a collective hard-on. It’s incredibly immersive, full of subtle sounds that recreate each location on screen, inside your viewing room. From the opening title sequence to the Dust Brothers score, to the closing scene with the Pixies, your head will morph into a rattle as the music swirls around your head.

There are three scenes I want to point out. The first is the transition from Chapter 8 into 9, where Jack character is talking about his “Single Serving Life” when his plane rips in half. The winds come tearing through and roar past your head, your subwoofer sounds as if it rips a hole in your floor. Mind-blowing, I tell you. In Chapter 27, Tyler drives the stretch car into a parked car and launches off the edge of the road. You can feel the weight of both cars on the impact, all of the glass breaking and flying in every direction, a large tree scraping by and the rain dropping into puddles after the car comes to a complete stop. Finally, all of the scenes in the actual Fight Club itself, create this Colosseum environment, where the crowd noise such as the spitting, the buzz of the lights, the echo of Tyler’s voice, the sound levels distortion; all of it, add more expression to these scenes. You’ll be able to explore these scenes more in-depth in the extras. But it’s not all about the crazy sound effects. A lot of it is atmosphere. There’s a ramping up of the music in dream sequences, or internal thoughts, the sleep-inducing quiet of a desk job. Ren Klyce was nominated for an Oscar in Sound Effects Editing and it’s well-deserved. This is one of the most exciting soundtracks I’ve heard this year. Folks, this is the reason you get a blu-ray player.

Other audio selections include: 2.0 English, 5.1 DTS French, 5.1 Dolby Digital Spanish and Portuguese tracks; subtitles are available in English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Cantonese, and Mandarin.

Extras: A+
Exclusive to Blu-Ray
Since this is an anniversary disc and you’ll be trying to determine if you want this or not, I’m pushing the Blu-Ray exclusives up before the DVD extras, which have been ported over from the fine 2-disc collection. Also note that all of the extras and film fit on one disc, so when I commonly gripe about packing more on less, this is what I’m talking about folks. Also there is a big of a gag that Fincher put in that is best experienced by just loading the disc up. I’m sure by the time you read this, it will have been spoiled on the internet, but just remember back when Fight Club was first released how poorly it did and the bad reception it got from critics, as well as what was playing at that time.

A Hit in the Ear: Ren Klyce and the Sound Design of Fight Club HD is a cool interactive feature where after hearing one of Fincher’s right hand men, sound designer Ren Klyce talk about trying to find and create those perfects sounds. Klyce recalls how they created the perfect sound for that thrusting punch to match the ghastly images on the screen. In the interactive experience, you get to hear the difference in tweaking the audio in two different environments as well as being able to tinker with each channel in your home theater setup, with four scenes: Welcome to Fight Club, Angel Faces Beating, The Crash, and Tyler’s Goodbye.

Flogging Fight Club HD (9:58) is brief look at Spike TV’s honoring of Fight Club’s 10th Anniversary by its acceptance into the “Guy Movie Hall of Fame.” Half of it is a five-minute clip montage of the film, but the rest of it is Fincher, Pitt and Norton writing their acceptance speech, performing their speech which included laughing at the least-flattering taglines by critics, highlighted by Pitt reading a quote from Kenneth Turan of the LA Times and saying, “He is a cock.”

Insomniac Mode: I am Jack’s Search Index is another user-friendly feature that allows a user to sift through all of the topics and then where ever these topics are discussed, you get a listing of all of them, and you can skip directly to that reference. Fox also categorized each commentary track so you can peruse and cherry pick what you want to hear in each commentary. For example if you want to jump to a story involving IKEA and the Soundtrack liner notes, you can go right to that point of the Fincher commentary instead of trying to remember what chapter that may be in.

Old Extras

There’s a ton of features I forgot about by looking through this collection of great DVD extras. After being accustomed to seeing everything in high definition though, its too bad we could get to see this stuff remastered as well. Another user detail I found sorely missing out of the DVD extras is a “Play All” feature. First, there are FOUR audio commentaries in all and all of them are well done.

Audio Commentary by:
#1 David Fincher speaks about dealing with studios, how he stumbled on the book and how Fox came into purchasing the rights to the movie, advertising, his favorite parts, and the destruction of buildings at the end was actually the first thing that was done. There are only English and French, Dannish, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles for this commentary.

#2 David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton are in the same room talking about bonding, putting Edward through the wringer, the controversy over Fight Club being labeled a violent film, the dispelling of pro-fascism, their reactions to how slow it took with the public amongst dozens of other things. They yuck it up and is one of my favorite commentaries because I think we get a true sense of working relationship but their friendship. You walk away thinking, “I want to hang out with these guys!” Helena Bonham Carter’s comments, which were recorded separately are added on scenes with Marla or anything else she wanted to chime in on like how Fight Club is as much a generational representation of women today as it is men. There are only English and French, Dannish, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles for this commentary.

#3 Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club) and Jim Uls (screenplay) discuss adapting the novel to film, how Meatloaf’s fat suit violates health codes for Planet Hollywood, benefits of sitting in cancer support groups, the real people the characters are based on, research for the book, the speed at which cancer kills, and other little known facts about the film. There are a lot more moments of silence in this commentary but it’s no less interesting than the other tracks. There are only English and French subtitles for this commentary.

#4 Alex McDowel (Production Designer), Jeff Cronenweth (Director of Photography), Michael Kaplan (Costume Designer) and Kevin Haug (VisualFX Supervisor) cover everything else including five “subliminal Brads”, the look and tone, creating real support groups, Lighting, Costuming, working with Fincher, prank cigarette burns, whether or not the Paper Street house was real or fiction, and the rest of the nooks and crannies not covered in the other three tracks. There are only English and French subtitles for this commentary.

Behind-the-Scenes Vignettes with Multiple Angles and Commentary SD by Kevin Haug (VisualFX Supervisor) Cliff Wnger (Special FX Coordinator) Kevin Mack (Visual FX for Digital Domain), and Richard “Doc” Bailey (Digital Animation Supervisor/Producer). You can choose a segment (Production, Visual Effects, On Location) and then within one of these processes, you can choose various angles and commentary tracks. It’s just another example of the all-access openness that Fincher has on his films.

Seven Deleted and Alternate Scenes SD Chloe and Rupert (00:53), Marla’s Pillow Talk (00:35), Copier Abuse (3:15) Tyler Quits Smoking–with two angles (1:28) Angel face’s beating–with two angles (3:14) Walter (1:39) Tyler’s Goodbye (1:55)

Promotional Gallery
Lobby Cards/Advertising – 21 Stills (1:40) Press Kit – 35 stills (2:50) Stills – 157 Stills (13:05)

Art Galleries
Storyboards for the entire film– 267 stills (22:16), Visual Effects–18 stills (1:25), Paper Street House –37 stills (3:05), Costumes and Makeup –22 stills (1:50), Pre-Production Paintings –50 stills (4:10), Brain Ride-Map –34 stills (2:50),

Transcript of Edward Norton Interview at Yale University October 3, 1999is fine read about his character at 13 screen shots long.

Rounding out the extras are Three Trailers, Two movie theater PSAs, 12 TV Spots SD, Five Internet Spots SD, Dust Brothers Music Video SD (3:32)

Overall Shock Value: A+
After 10 years since the first punch was thrown, I’m still spitting up blood. With big corporate buyouts, massive debt across the country, and the desire to buy-buy-buy, we move closer to a homogenized and mass consumer-centric generation. And of course, buying this blu-ray plays right into that ploy of consumerism. Don’t cha just love irony? This continues to be an American classic, of a cynical breed of filmmaking that speaks to many generations, man and woman, young and old. The blu-ray interactive extras are fun little adventures, but I am always going to lean towards superior sound and picture as the biggest reason to upgrade when it’s deserving. The new DTS-HD soundtrack is as perfect as it gets, and the transfer projects Fight Club as we’ve never seen before. So for that alone, I highly recommend upgrading to blu-ray.