Fight Club

Fight Club (known as The Fight Club in Spain and as Fight Club in Latin America) is a 1999 American film based on the novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the protagonist, a "common man", whose name is not revealed, bored with his liberal profession in American society, who founds a "fighting club". clandestinely with a soap salesman named Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt), and becomes involved in a relationship with Marla Singer, played by Helena Bonham Carter.

Chuck Palahniuk's novel was chosen by Laura Ziskin, a producer at 20th Century Fox, who hired Jim Uhls to write the script for the film adaptation. David Fincher was one of four directors considered, ultimately being hired due to his enthusiasm for the project. Fincher developed the script with Uhls and sought help in writing from actors and other members of the film industry. The director and cast compared the film to Rebel Without a Cause from 1955 and The Graduate from 1967. Fincher intended the film's violence to serve as a metaphor for the conflict between generations. young people and the value system of advertising. The director copied the homoerotic overtones of Palahniuk's novel to make it uncomfortable for the audience and prevent them from anticipating the dramatic twist at the end.

Studio executives did not like the film and restructured the marketing campaign to try to reduce potential losses. Fight Club did not meet the studio's expectations at the box office and received polarized reactions from critics, becoming one of the most controversial and discussed films of that year. Critics praised the acting, direction, themes, and messages, but debated the explicit violence and moral ambiguity. Over time, however, reception towards the film has become very positive among critics and audiences, finding critical and commercial success with its DVD release, which made it easier for Fight Club to become in a cult film. It is currently considered by many to be one of the best films of the 1990s.

Argument

The narrator (Edward Norton), who suffers from insomnia and whose name is never mentioned, is an employee of an insurance company. His doctor refuses to prescribe medication and, when he complains that he is suffering, tells him to go to a support group to see what real suffering is like. The narrator attends a support group for victims of testicular cancer and, after convincing them that he too is afflicted with the disease, finds an emotional release that cures his insomnia. He becomes addicted to therapy groups and the charade of pretending to be a victim. However, the presence of Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) bothers him, since he realizes that she is looking for the same palliative for the problems in his life and he fears that she will give him away to everyone, so he negotiates with her to avoid meet at the same meetings.

On the flight back from a work trip, he starts chatting with a stranger who introduces himself as a soap salesman named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). They begin a conversation about nihilism and the importance of doing what one believes is right. Returning to her city and his home, he notices that his apartment has been destroyed by an explosion and calls Tyler, meeting the two at a bar. A conversation about consumerism prompts Tyler to invite the narrator to stay at his house. Although he is initially reluctant, he ends up accepting the invitation. Tyler agrees to let the narrator stay at his house on the condition that he beats him. The two get into a fistfight outside the bar, after which the narrator moves into Tyler's emaciated house. The blows and fights, which end up becoming common between the two, attract onlookers and the fights move to the basement of the bar, where a fight club is formed governed by a series of rules (among which stands out not talking about the fight club). with other people).

Marla overdoses on pills and calls the narrator to help her; He ignores her, however Tyler takes her call and decides to go get her. After they have sex, Tyler warns the narrator to never mention Marla to him. What seemed to be something local becomes an advanced underground fight club, gaining followers throughout the country. More fight clubs form, becoming an anti-capitalist and anti-corporatist organization called Project Mayhem, with Tyler as its leader. The narrator complains to Tyler, since he wants more prominence in the organization, after which the former disappears. The narrator is faced with the death of a member (Bob) of Project Mayhem, and tries to close the organization. He tries to track down Tyler but the search is fruitless. In one of the cities where he searches for him, a member of the project calls the narrator by the name Tyler Durden. After this, the narrator calls Marla from his hotel room and discovers that she also thinks he is Tyler. Suddenly, he sees Tyler Durden in the room and Durden explains that they are dissociated personalities within the same body. Tyler controls the narrator's body when he is asleep.

After the shock, the narrator falls unconscious. When he wakes up he discovers that, from the phone records, Tyler made calls while he was blacking out. He unmasks Tyler's plans to cause social chaos by destroying buildings containing credit card company records. In this way, the bank debt files of a large part of the population would be destroyed. The narrator tries to contact the police, but the agents he speaks with are also part of the Project and try to cut off his genitals for revealing the organization's secrets, to which the protagonist manages to escape by taking the gun from one of them. He arrives at one of the buildings to be demolished and tries to deactivate the explosives, but Tyler subdues him and moves to another building to watch the explosion. The narrator, threatened with a gun by Tyler, realizes that by sharing a body he is also holding the same gun. Therefore, he accepts his personality (Tyler Durden) and shoots himself in the cheek, letting his face know that he is another of him since he no longer needs it in his life. Tyler collapses with a bullet hole in the back of his head, so the narrator stops mentally projecting. Later, members of Project Mayhem bring the kidnapped Marla to him, still believing her to be Tyler, so they are left alone. The explosives are detonated, bringing down the buildings, while the narrator and Marla watch the scene holding hands.

Themes

Fincher said that Fight Club was a coming-of-age film, while describing the narrator as an "everyman" type character, of which he outlined his background: "He "He tries to do everything he was taught to do, trying to fit into the world by becoming something he is not." He cannot find happiness, so he travels the path to enlightenment, by which he must "kill" his "parents", his "god" and his "master". At the beginning of the film, he has "killed" his parents, and with Tyler Durden, he does the same to his god by doing things he is not supposed to do. To complete the maturation process, he must kill his teacher, who is Tyler.

According to the director, the character is a "90s opposite" of the archetype of The Graduate (1967): "A guy who doesn't have a world of possibilities in front of him, literally has no possibilities." "He can't imagine a way to change his life." He is confused and enraged, so he responds to his surroundings by creating Tyler, a Nietzschean Übermensch - "superman" - in his mind. While Tyler is what the Narrator wanted to be, he is not empathetic and does not help him make decisions in his life "that are complicated and have moral and ethical implications." Fincher explained about Tyler: "He may treat the concepts of our lives in an idealistic way, but he has nothing to do with real-life commitments as modern man knows. Which is: You're not really necessary for a lot of what's going on." While studio executives feared the play would be "sinister and seditious," the director sought to make it—in his words—"fun," but also " seditious", by including humor to temper the sinister element.

Screenwriter Uhls described the film as a romantic comedy, with the following explanation: "It has to do with the characters' attitudes towards a healthy relationship, which is a lot of behavior that seems unhealthy and harsh between them, but in fact it works for them, because they are both psychologically out of reach." The Narrator seeks intimacy, but is prevented by Marla Singer, who sees too much of himself in her. While Marla is a seductive and negativistic prospect for the Narrator, he instead embraces the newness and excitement that comes with becoming friends with Tyler. He feels comfortable being personally connected to him, but becomes jealous when he becomes sexually involved with Marla. When the Narrator argues with Tyler about their friendship, Tyler tells him that being friends is secondary to following the philosophy they have been exploring. In turn, Tyler suggests doing something with Marla, implying that she is a risk that must be taken. To be removed. As Tyler says this, the Narrator realizes that his desires should have been focused on Marla and begins to move out of Tyler's way.

The suspicious narrator is not immediately aware that Tyler originated from him and is being mentally projected. He also mistakenly promotes fight clubs as a way to feel powerful, although his physical condition worsens as the appearance Tyler's, on the other hand, improves. While Tyler desires "real experiences" of fighting like the Narrator at the beginning, Tyler manifests a nihilistic attitude of rejecting and destroying institutions and value systems. His impulsive nature, which represents Sigmund Freud's "id," conveys a attitude that is seductive and liberating for the Narrator and the members of Project Mayhem. Tyler's initiatives and methods become dehumanizing, as he orders the members of the project with a megaphone similar to those used in the Chinese re-education camps. The Narrator distances himself from Tyler, and in the end, he reaches a point medium between his two conflicting "selves."

Fight Club examines the anguish of Generation of that generation as the first raised through television, which had "its value system largely dictated by advertising culture" and was told that one could achieve "spiritual happiness through home furnishings." His character walks through his apartment while visual effects identify his many IKEA belongings, of which the director stated: "It was just the idea of living in this fraudulent idea of happiness." Pitt gave his opinion: "It's a metaphor for breaking through the isolation you've put around you and experiencing pain... as a way to begin to connect with the fact that you are not defined by the things around you, that you are able to feel it and live through it »

The work is parallel to Rebelde sin causa (1955), as both investigate the frustrations of people who live in the system. The characters, after having suffered social emasculation, They reduce us to "a generation of spectators", in the words of Louis Hobson (1999). An advertising culture defines the "external signifiers of happiness" of society, which causes an unnecessary pursuit of material goods that replaces the most essential search for spiritual happiness. The film references Gucci, Calvin Klein and the Volkswagen New Beetle, for example. Regarding the vehicle, Norton said: "We hit it... because it seemed like a classic example of a baby boomer generation marketing plan that sold the culture back to us." Pitt explained the dissonance: «I think there is a self-defense mechanism that prevents my generation from having a real honest connection or commitment to our true feelings. We are rooting for teams that play with a ball, but we are not going to play there. We are so worried about failure and success, as if they are all that is going to sum you up in the end.

According to the director, violence in fight clubs does not serve to promote or glorify physical combat, but rather to allow participants to experience feelings in a society in which they are otherwise numb. The fights tangibly represent resistance to the impulse of being "locked up" in society, and Norton mentioned that they serve as a means to remove the "fear of pain" and "confidence in the material meanings of their self-esteem", allowing those involved to experience "something valuable." When the struggles evolve into revolutionary violence, the film only half-accepts Tyler's dialectic, as the Narrator retreats and rejects his ideas. Fight Club deliberately shapes an ambiguous message, whose Interpretation is left up to the audience. Fincher mentioned in an interview shortly after the premiere: "I love the idea that you can have fascism without offering direction or remedy. Isn't the goal of fascism to say, “this is the path we should follow”? But this film couldn't be further from offering "some kind of solution."

Main cast

Brad Pitt and Edward Norton played the roles of Tyler Durden and the narrator, respectively.

Producer Ross Bell met with actor Russell Crowe to discuss the possibility of playing the role of Tyler Durden, while Art Linson, who joined the project late, interviewed Brad Pitt. Linson was the chief producer, so the studio decided to give the role to Pitt instead of Crowe. Pitt was looking for a new film after his starring role in Do You Know Joe Black? (1998), in addition to the fact that the studio believed that Fight Club would be a greater commercial success with an actor of his level. Finally, Fox hired him for a salary of $17 million. On the other hand, for the role of the unnamed narrator, the studio wanted a "sexy" performer, with a certain appeal, with the aim of increasing commercial possibilities. Matt Damon and Sean Penn were considered, although Fincher opted for Edward Norton thanks to his performance in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996). Other film studios offered Norton leading roles in films in development such as The Talented Mr. Ripley and Man on the Moon, He was even contracted to participate in Runaway Jury, but finally John Cusack replaced him in said production. 20th Century Fox proposed to Norton the sum of $2.5 million, and although he could not immediately accept the offer, since he still owed a film to Paramount Pictures, he obtained the job after signing a contract that stipulated that he would appear in a future film of the producer for a lower salary.

In January 1998, 20th Century Fox announced that Pitt and Norton would star in the film. They both prepared by taking lessons in boxing, taekwondo, grappling, and even soap making. Pitt visited, volunteer, to a dentist to chip the front teeth so that the character would not have perfect teeth, although the pieces were restored once filming was finished. Likewise, for the role of Marla Singer, Janeane Garofalo was considered as first option. Fincher initially stated that he turned it down because he objected to the sexual content of the film, while in an interview in 2020, Garofolo revealed that she accepted the role, but was ruled out because Norton believed she was not a good fit., producers considered Courtney Love and Winona Ryder, as well as Reese Witherspoon, whom Fincher opposed on the grounds that she was too young. He chose to audition with Helena Bonham Carter based on her performance in The Wings. de la paloma (1997). In this way, the main cast was formed as follows:

• Edward Norton as the Narrator: assists several support groups and adopts several aliases.
• Brad Pitt like Tyler Durden: a soap seller that meets the Narrator.
• Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer: a woman the Narrator knows in support groups.
• Meat Loaf as Robert Paulson: Meets the Narrator in a testicular cancer support group.
• Jared Leto as "Angel's face": a conscript of the club of struggle.
• Zach Grenier as Richard Chesler: the head of the Narrator.

In addition to the main cast, Fight Club also featured the participation of other actors, such as Thom Gossom Jr. in the role of Detective Stern, a police officer who investigates the explosion of the Narrator's apartment. Additionally, Bob Stephenson appears as an airport security officer who detains the Narrator, along with Peter Iacangelo as Lou, owner of the bar where the fight club takes place, and David Andrews as Thomas, a member. from the testicular cancer support group. Eion Bailey played the role of Ricky, a member of the project, and Holt McCallany played the role of a mechanic.

Production

Development

In 1996, the novel Fight Club, written by Chuck Palahniuk, was published, and before that, a Fox Searchlight Pictures employee sent a preliminary version of the work to the company's creative, Kevin McCormick. He ordered that the book be reviewed to see the possibilities of making a film adaptation, but it was finally rejected. McCormick then sent it to producers Lawrence Bender and Art Linson, who also rejected it. However, Josh Donen and Ross Bell saw potential and expressed interest, so they arranged unpaid readings of the script with actors to determine the length of it. The producers cut sections to reduce the running time, which was initially almost six hours, and then recorded the short version of the dialogue. Bell sent the result to Laura Ziskin, head of Fox 2000, who after hearing the tape bought the rights to the novel from Palahniuk for $10,000.

Ziskin initially considered hiring Buck Henry to adapt the script, due to similarities to his work on The Graduate. Jim Uhls pressured Donen and Bell to take on the task himself, and They finally chose him over Henry. On the other hand, Bell maintained contacts with up to four directors, and among all of them he considered Peter Jackson as the best option, but he was too busy with the filming of The Frighteners (1996) in New Zealand. Likewise, they sent the book to Bryan Singer, but he did not even read it, which Danny Boyle did, although he finally opted for another film. For his part, David Fincher even tried to buy the rights to the novel and spoke with Ziskin about directing the film, and although at first he had doubts about accepting to work for 20th Century Fox - due to a bad experience directing Alien 3(1992)—, he met with the head of the studio, Bill Mechanic, to resolve the misunderstandings. In August 1997, the company announced that he would finally be in charge of adapting the novel to film.

Uhls began working on the first draft of the script, which did not include the use of voice-over, as the industry perceived it as something that had been abused in the past. When Fincher joined the project, he thought that it did require that technique, as he believed that the humor should come from the Narrator's voice, so as not to be "sad and pathetic." Fincher and Uhls worked on the script for six to seven months, and by 1997 they already had a third draft that rearranged the story and left out some elements of the novel. When Pitt began working on his character—Tyler Durden—he became concerned that he was too one-dimensional, so Fincher sought the help of writer-director Cameron Crowe, who suggested giving him more ambiguity. The director also hired screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker to assist in the production, while inviting Pitt and Norton to help review the script, with the group completing five revisions in one year.

For his part, Palahniuk praised the film adaptation of his work and how the plot was more streamlined. He recalled how the writers debated whether audiences would believe the novel's plot twist, which Fincher supported including, arguing that "if he accepts everything up to this point, he'll accept the turning point." If they are still in the movie theater, they will keep it." The novel contains homoerotic themes, which were added in the film to make the audience feel uncomfortable and to accentuate the surprise of the changes in the plot. Likewise, the The part in which Tyler takes a bath while the Narrator is nearby is an example of this; The phrase "I wonder if another woman is really the answer we need" was added to suggest personal responsibility rather than homosexuality. Another case is the opening scene in which Tyler inserts a gun barrel into the mouth of the Narrator, who He finds redemption at the end of the film by rejecting Tyler's dialectic, a path that diverges from the end of the novel, as he is committed to a mental institution. Norton drew parallels between this salvation and that of The Graduate i>, saying that the protagonists of both find a middle position between two divisions of themselves. Fincher thought the novel was too infatuated with Tyler and changed the ending to move away from him: "I wanted people to love Tyler.", but I also wanted them to accept their defeat.

Filming

The studio directors, Mechanic and Ziskin, thought of an initial budget of 23 million USD for financing, but at the beginning of production, this was increased to 50 million. New Regency paid half, although during filming, the project rose to $67 million, so director and executive producer Arnon Milchan asked Fincher to reduce costs by at least $5 million. The director refused, to which Milchan responded to Mechanic with the threat of abandoning the project, to which the latter sought to reaffirm his support by sending him tapes of the filmed parts. After watching three weeks of filming, Milchan reinstated New Regency's financing, and the final budget was set at around $63 million.

The fight scenes are heavily choreographed and the actors were required to "give it their all" to capture realistic effects such as being beaten. Makeup artist Julie Pearce, who had worked for the director on The Game (1997), studied several pay-per-view mixed martial arts and boxing matches to accurately portray the fighters. So, he designed an ear to represent the loss of cartilage, citing as inspiration the fight in which Mike Tyson ripped off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear. Makeup artists designed two methods to create sweat on the spot: by vaporizing mineral water over an ear. layer of Vaseline and using the unadulterated water for "wet sweat." Loaf — who plays the role of a club wrestler with gynecomastia — used a harness weighing more than 40 kg to simulate breasts for the role, while wearing shoes with heights of about 20 cm in his scene with Norton to appear taller.

Filming lasted 138 days, during which Fincher filled more than 1,500 rolls of film, three times more than usual for a Hollywood work. The filming locations were all located in and around Los Angeles, in addition to in a Century City studio. Production designer Alex McDowell built more than seventy sets, while the exterior of Tyler's house was built in San Pedro, and the interior in the soundproof studio, which was given a deteriorated air to illustrate the fractured world of the characters. Singer's apartment was based on photographs of the Rosalind Apartments, located in lower Los Angeles. The final production was made up of 300 sets, 200 locations and visual effects, so years after its release, the director compared it to his less successful and complex film, Panic Room (2002): «I felt like I spent all my time watching trucks load and unload be able to roll three sentences. There was too much transportation.

Cinematography

Fincher used the Super 35 format for filming as it gave him maximum flexibility in composing shots. He hired Jeff Cronenweth as cinematographer; His father, Jordan, worked for the director in the production of Alien 3, but left halfway through filming due to Parkinson's disease. Fincher explored various visual styles in his previous films Seven (1995) and The Game, so Cronenweth drew elements from both for Fight Club. They used a garish style, making the characters "shine." The scenes featuring the Narrator without Tyler are realistic and bland, and Fincher described the shots with him as "more hyperreal in a deconstructed sense, a visual metaphor for a Where does the narrator go? On the other hand, the filmmakers used very desaturated colors in the costumes, makeup and art direction. Bonham Carter used an opalescent look to portray her nihilistic and romantic character, while Fincher and Cronenweth took aspects of American Graffiti (1973), which portrays nighttime exteriors in a mundane way while, at the same time, including a wide variety of colors.

The team took advantage of natural light and the environment while filming in the outdoor locations. The director looked for several approaches; for example, choosing several urban locations where the city lighting can be seen in the backgrounds. He and the team also relied on fluorescent lighting in other locations to maintain the element of realism and illuminate the characters' wounds. Likewise, Fincher made sure that the scenes did not have too much light so as not to see too much of the characters. eyes, citing the technique of cinematographer Gordon Willis as an influence. The film was filmed mostly at night and the director filmed the daytime scenes in shady locations, while the crew equipped the basement of the bar with work lighting to create shine in the backgrounds. He avoided using complex camera work techniques for the early fight scenes and instead opted for fixed camera. In later fight scenes, Fincher moved the camera from the point of view of a distant spectator to that of the fighter.

The shots with Pitt were staged to hide the fact that his character is a mental projection of the unnamed narrator, so he was not filmed with other people, nor is he shown over the shoulder in the scenes where he gives him ideas to manipulate him. Tyler appears in the background and out of focus, like "a little devil on the Narrator's shoulder." Fincher explained these subliminal scenes: "Our hero is creating Tyler Durden in his own mind, so at this point "It only exists on the periphery of the Narrator's consciousness." Although Cronenweth generally treated Kodak cine film as normal, he used other techniques to change its appearance. Flashing was used on most images taken at night, contrast was narrowed to be purposely ugly, written letters were adjusted to appear underexposed, Technicolor's ENR silver retention was used on a select number of prints to increase black absorbance and high contrast print material was chosen to create a "stepped" look to the print with a dirty patina.

Visual effects

Fincher hired visual effects supervisor Kevin Tod Haug, with whom he had previously worked on The Game. He assigned each of the artists and experts in different facilities to deal with different types of techniques: CG modeling, animation, compositing and scanning. Haug stated: “We select the best people for each type of job, and then we coordinate their efforts. This way, we never had to play on the weakness of either party." Fincher visualized the Narrator's perspective through his own imaginary perception and structured a frame of myopia for the audience, while also using preview images of challenging main and effects unit shots as a troubleshooting tool to avoid making mistakes during actual filming.

The opening sequence is a ninety-second visual effects composition that shows the inside of the Narrator's brain at a microscopic level, the camera retracts outward, starting at his fear center and following the thought processes initiated by its fear impulse. The sequence, designed in part by Fincher, was originally budgeted separately from the rest of the film, but was awarded by the studio in January 1999. The director hired Digital Domain and its production supervisor effects Kevin Mack to do the sequence. The company mapped the computer-generated brain using an L-system, and the design was detailed using renderings made by medical illustrator Katherine Jones. The reverse sequence from inside the brain to the outside of the skull shows neurons, action potentials, and a hair follicle. Haug explained the artistic license Fincher took: "While I wanted to keep the brain moving like an electron microscope photograph, "That appearance had to be combined with the sensation of a night dive, terrifying and with a shallow depth of field." Thus, the shallow depth of field was achieved with the ray tracing process.

Other visual effects include an early scene in which the camera flashes past the city streets to examine Project Mayhem's destructive equipment, which is located in underground parking lots. The sequence was a three-dimensional composite of nearly one hundred photographs of Los Angeles and Century City taken by Michael Douglas Middleton. Likewise, the design of the final scene of the demolition of the credit card office buildings fell to Richard Baily, who worked on it for more than fourteen months. Halfway through the film, Tyler points out a landmark—named as “cigarette burn”—and the scene represents a transition that foreshadows the coming rupture and reversal of the “quite subjective reality” that existed before. The director stated: "Suddenly, it's like the projectionist has missed the change, the viewers have to start watching the film in a completely new way."

Soundtrack

Fincher was worried that groups experienced in composing soundtracks would not know how to properly tie together the tracks of the film, so he looked for a group that had never done something similar. He was interested in Radiohead, but vocalist Thom Yorke declined, as he was recovering from stress from promoting their album OK Computer. He ultimately chose the breakbeat production duo. > Dust Brothers (composed of Michael Simpson and John King), who created a postmodern soundtrack that includes drum loops, electronic scratches and computerized samples. Simpson related: "Fincher wanted to break the mold with everything about the film, and an unconventional composition helped achieve that." The climax and end credits feature "Where Is My Mind?" by the Pixies. List the songs from the original soundtrack in English:

Spanish dubbing

To obtain the film in Spanish, two dubbings were made: one for distribution in Spain and another for Latin America. In the first case, the process was carried out in the Sonoblok studio in Barcelona, while Antonio Lara was in charge of direction. In relation to the dubbing actors, Alberto Mieza (as the Narrator), Daniel García (Tyler Durden), Nuria Mediavilla (Marla Singer), Javier Viñas (Robert Paulson), Ángel de Gracia (“Angel face”) participated, Claudi García (Richard Chesler) and Pepe Mediavilla (detective Stem). For its part, in the Spanish-American version, recorded in Mexico at the Intertrack studio, Ismael Larumbe held the position of director. The main cast was made up of Larumbe himself (the Narrator), Salvador Delgado (Tyler Durden), Sarah Souza (Marla Singer), Roberto Mendiola (Robert Paulson), Irwin Daayan ("Angel Face"), Alejandro Illescas (Richard Chesler) and Armando Réndiz (detective Stem).

Launch and reception

Commercial

Filming wrapped in December 1998 and Fincher edited the footage early the following year to prepare it for a screening for top executives, who did not receive it positively and feared it would have a low audience. Executive producer Art Linson - who did support it - recalled the response: "So many incidents of Fight Club were alarming that no group of directors could reduce them." However, it was originally scheduled to be released in July 1999, but the date was later changed to August 6, 1999. The studio further delayed the release, this time to the fall, citing a tight summer schedule and a rushed post-production process. Marketing executives at 20th Century Fox faced difficulties in marketing the film and at one point it was considered to market it as an art film. They considered that it was aimed primarily at male audiences due to its violence and believed that not even Pitt would appeal to female audiences, although evidence of Research showed that it attracted more to teenagers.

Fincher refused to let the posters and trailers focus on Pitt and encouraged the studio to hire Wieden+Kennedy to come up with a plan. The advertising company proposed a bar of pink soap with the film's name engraved on it as the main marketing face, which Fox executives considered "a bad joke." The director released two trailers in the form of public service announcements presented by Pitt and Norton, although the studio thought they would not market it properly. Instead, the company funded a large-scale $20 million campaign to provide promotion, posters, billboards, and television trailers featuring mostly fight scenes. Similarly, Fox advertised Fight Club during the World Wrestling Federation's cable broadcasts, which Fincher did not like, believing it created the wrong context. For his part, Linson thought that "ill-conceived" one-dimensional marketing by executive Robert Harper largely contributed to its lukewarm box office performance in the United States.

The studio held the world premiere of the film on September 10, 1999, during the 56th Venice International Film Festival. For the American theatrical debut, the National Research Group was hired for a test screening, which predicted it would gross between $13 and $15 million in its opening weekend. On October 15, 1999, it was released in the domestic market—consisting of the United States and Canada—and grossed $11 million, distributed in 1963 theaters, during its first weekend, during which time it occupied first place at the box office, above Double Jeopardy and The Story of Us. The gender mix of Fight Club's audiences, claiming to be "the ultimate anti-dating movie," was 61% male and 39% female, while 58% of both were under 21 years. Despite the first position at the box office, its opening collection did not live up to the studio's expectations, so much so that during its second weekend it decreased by 42.6% in revenue, with profits of 6.33 million USD. Thus Well, it grossed 37 million from its release in the domestic market and 63.8 million in theaters in other parts of the world, making a total of 100.9 million USD. The disappointing performance at the North American box office soured the relationship between the head of 20th Century Fox —Mechanic— and media executive Rupert Murdoch, which contributed to the former's resignation in June 2000.

The British Board of Film Classification reviewed the film for its UK release and removed two scenes that included "an indulgence in the thrill of slamming a helpless man's face into a pulp." The board assigned it an 18 rating—exclusive material for people of that age or older—limiting the release to adult audiences. The organization did not censor anything else, denying complaints about content with "dangerously instructive information" or that could "encourage antisocial behavior," while describing it as follows: "As a whole, it is clearly critical and sharply parodic of the amateur fascism it partly portrays. Its central theme - male machismo - is emphatically rejected by the protagonist in the final reels. The scenes were restored for a two-disc DVD edition released in the United Kingdom in March 2007. On the other hand, the Release dates in other territories around the world were as follows:

International premiere dates

Country Premiere date Italy 10 September 1999 (Venice Festival) 29 October 1999 (general) United States 6 October 1999 (Westwood, California) 15 October 1999 (general) Brazil 29 October 1999 Argentina Netherlands Singapore 4 November 1999 Denmark Spain Iceland Mexico 5 November 1999 Belgium Switzerland France 10 November 1999 Australia Germany Hong Kong New Zealand Taiwan 11 November 1999 Finland United Kingdom Ireland Norway Portugal Uruguay 12 November 1999 Country Premiere date South Korea 13 November 1999 Israel 16 November 1999 Philippines 17 November 1999 (Davao) Malta 24 November 1999 Turkey 10 December 1999 Japan 11 December 1999 Sweden 25 December 1999 Estonia 7 January 2000 Malaysia Russia 13 January 2000 Lithuania 21 January 2000 Czech Republic 25 January 2000 (Febiofest) 10 February 2000 (general) Hungary 27 January 2000 South Africa 28 January 2000 Slovakia 10 February 2000 Poland 11 February 2000 Greece Romania 18 February 2000 Slovenia 24 February 2000 Egypt 1 March 2000 Croatia 9 March 2000

Critical reception

When Fight Club premiered at the 56th Venice International Film Festival, the film was heavily debated by critics. One newspaper reported that "many loved her and hated her in equal measure." Some critics expressed concern that the film would encourage copycat behavior, such as that seen after A Clockwork Orange was released in Britain nearly three decades earlier. Following the film's theatrical release, The Times reported this reaction: "It struck a nerve in the male psyche that was debated in newspapers around the world." Although the film's producers called < i>Fight Club "an accurate depiction of men in the 1990s," some critics called it "irresponsible and appalling." Writing for The Australian newspaper, Christopher Goodwin said: "Fight Club is shaping up to be Hollywood's most controversial meditation on violence since Orange mechanicsby Stanley Kubrick."

Janet Maslin, writing for The New York Times, praised Fincher's direction and editing of the film. She wrote that Fight Club carried a message of "contemporary manliness", and that, if not looked at carefully, the film could be misinterpreted as an endorsement of violence and nihilism.& #34; Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, called Fight Club "visceral and harsh,", but also " a thrill ride disguised as philosophy,' whose promising first act is followed by a second that adheres to sexist sensibilities and a third that he described as a 'hoax.' Ebert later acknowledged that the film was "loved by most, not by me." She was later asked to do a shot-by-shot analysis of Fight Club at the World Affairs Conference, she stated that "watching it over the course of a week, I admired his skill even more, and his thinking even less." Jay Carr of The Boston Globe opined that the film began with a "invigoratingly imaginative buzz," but which eventually became "explosively silly." David Ansen of Newsweek described Fight Club i> as "a scandalous mix of brilliant technique, puerile philosophizing, biting satire and sensory overload" and thought the ending was too pretentious. Richard Schickel of Time magazine described the director's staging as dark and dank: "It imposes the contrast between the sterility of life on the soil of its characters and their underground life. Water, even when contaminated, is the source of life; Blood, even when carelessly spilled, is the symbol of life being fully lived. To put it simply: it is better to be wet than dry." Schickel applauded the performances of Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, but criticized the "conventionally contrived" of the film and the fact that Helena Bonham Carter's character is not interesting.

Gary Crowdus of Cineaste reviewed the critical reception in retrospect: "Many critics praised Fight Club as one of the most exciting, original and thought-provoking films of the year." He wrote of the negative opinion, "while Fight Club had numerous critical champions, the film's critical attackers were much more vocal, a negative chorus that became hysterical about what they felt was were the overly graphic scenes of fisticuffs... They felt that such scenes served only as a dazzling glamorization of brutality, a morally irresponsible portrayal, which they feared might encourage impressionable young male viewers to establish their own fight clubs later in life. real in order to beat each other senseless."

Fight Club was nominated for an Oscar in 2000 for best sound editing, but lost to The Matrix. At the 2000 Empire Awards, Bonham Carter won the award for best British actress. The Online Film Critics Society also nominated Fight Club for best film, best director, best actor (Norton), best editing and best adapted screenplay (Uhls). Although the film did not win any of the awards, the organization listed Fight Club as one of the ten best films of 1999. The soundtrack was nominated for a Brit Award, but lost to Notting Hill.

On Rotten Tomatoes, Fight Club has a rating of 79%, based on 165 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's consensus reads: "Strong acting, incredible direction, and elaborate production design make Fight Club a wild ride. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66. 100, based on 35 reviews, indicating 'generally favorable reviews'.

Cultural impact

Fight Club was one of the most controversial and discussed films of the 1990s. Like other films released that year, including Magnolia, Being John Malkovich and Three Kings, Fight Club was recognized as innovative in film form and style as it exploited new developments in film technology. After Upon its theatrical release, Fight Club became more popular through word of mouth, and the positive reception of the DVD established it as a cult film that David Ansen of Newsweek conjectured that he would enjoy "perennial" fame. The film's success also raised Palahniuk's profile to worldwide renown.

After the premiere of Fight Club, it was reported that several fight clubs started in the United States. A "Gentlemen's Fight Club" was started in Menlo Park, California in 2000 and had mostly members from the technology industry. Teens and tweens in Texas, New Jersey, Washington State, and Alaska also started wrestling clubs. fight and posted videos of their fights online, prompting authorities to break up the clubs. In 2006, an unwitting participant from a local high school was injured at a fight club in Arlington, Texas and DVD sales of the fight led to the arrest of six teenagers. An unauthorized fight club was also started at the University Princeton, where the campus games were held. The film was suspected of influencing Luke Helder, a college student who planted pipe bombs in mailboxes in 2002. Helder's goal was to create a smiling pattern on the map of the United States, similar to a scene from Fight Club in which a building is vandalized to have a smiley face on the outside. On July 16, 2009, a 17-year-old years who had formed his own fight club in Manhattan was accused of detonating a homemade bomb outside a Starbucks coffee shop on the Upper East Side. The New York Police Department reported that the suspect was trying to emulate "Project Mayhem." In September 2015, two employees at Lightbridge Academy, a New Jersey daycare, were accused of instigating "Fight Club-style" fights. among children from four to six years of age. The fights were reportedly filmed and uploaded to Snapchat, a video messaging app, and involved approximately a "dozen boys and girls." In the videos, one of the perpetrators, Erica Kenny, can be heard making references to Fight Club. The charges stem from an incident that occurred on August 13, 2015, but investigators are investigating whether fights were ongoing.

A video game adaptation of the film, titled Fight Club, was released by Vivendi in 2004 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and mobile phones. The game was a critical and commercial failure, and was criticized by publications and websites such as GameSpot, Game Informer, and IGN.

In 2003, Fight Club was listed as one of the "50 Greatest Boy Movies of All Time" by Men's Journal. In 2006 and 2008, Fight Club was voted by Empire readers as the eighth and tenth great film of all time, respectively. Total Film magazine ranked Fight Club as "The Greatest Movie of Our Lifetime" in 2007 during the tenth anniversary of the magazine. In 2007, Premiere magazine chose Tyler Durden's phrase: "The first rule of Fight Club is: Don't talk about Fight Club of the Fight" as the 27th best movie quote of all time. In 2008, Empire readers ranked Tyler Durden eighth on a list of the 100 great movie characters. Empire i> also identified Fight Club as the tenth greatest film of all time in its 2008 edition The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.

American Film Institute nominations

• AFI's 100 years... 100 phrases: "The first rule of the Fight Club is: No talk of the Fight Club."
• AFI's 100 years... 100 films (tenth anniversary edition)

Home format

Fincher oversaw the composition of DVD packaging and was one of the first directors to be involved in the transition of a film to home media. The film was released in two DVD editions. The single-disc edition included an audio commentary, while the two-disc special edition included the audio commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, trailers, fake PSAs, the 'This is Your Life' promotional music video, Internet advertisements, galleries, cast biographies, storyboards and publicity materials. The director worked on the DVD as a way to finish his vision for the film. Julie Markell, vice president of creative development at 20th Century Fox, said the DVD package complemented the director's vision: "The movie is meant to ask you questions. The package, by extension, is intended to reflect an experience that you must experience for yourself. The more you look at it, the more you will get from it." The studio developed the packaging over two months. The two-disc special edition DVD was packaged to appear covered in a brown cardboard wrapper. The title "Fight Club" It was labeled diagonally on the front, and the package appeared to be tied with twine. Markell said, "We wanted the package to be simple on the outside, so that there was a dichotomy between the simplicity of the brown paper wrapping and the intensity and chaos of what's inside." Deborah Mitchell, vice president of marketing at 20th Century Fox, described the design: "From a retail standpoint, [the DVD box set] has incredible shelf presence."

In 2000, Fight Club won the Society of Online Film Critics Awards for Best DVD, Best DVD Commentary, and Best DVD Extras. Entertainment Weekly ranked the two-disc edition of the film first on its list of "The 50 Essential DVDs" in 2001, giving top marks to the DVD's content and technical image and audio quality. When the two-disc edition sold out, the studio re-released it in 2004 at the request of fans. The film sold more than 6 million of DVD and video copies within the first ten years, making it one of the best-selling home format items in the studio's history, in addition to grossing more than $55 million in DVD and video rentals. With a Weak box office performance in the United States and Canada, better performance in other territories and the successful DVD release, Fight Club generated a profit of US$10 million for the studio.

The Laserdisc edition was only released in Japan on May 26, 2000 and features a different cover as well as one of the few Dolby EX soundtracks released in LD.

The VHS edition was released on October 31, 2000, as part of the "Premiere Series" from 20th Century Fox. Includes a short film after the film, titled "Behind the Fight".

Fight Club was released on Blu-ray disc format in the United States on November 17, 2009. Fox Creative tapped Neuron Syndicate to design the artwork for the format's packaging, and Neuron commissioned five graffiti artists to create 30 pieces of art. The art encompasses the urban aesthetic found on the East Coast and West Coast of the United States, as well as the influences of European street art. The Blu-ray edition opens with a menu screen for the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed starring Drew Barrymore before entering the actual Fight Club menu screen. David Fincher obtained Barrymore's permission to include the fake menu screen.