Fight Club - Special Edition(2-Pack)

Rule #1: You do not talk about Fight Club

Rule #2: You do not talk about Fight Club

Every now and then, Hollywood produces a true gem of a movie that blows your mind, tantalises the senses and gives you what my friend explained to me as those "fridge moments"; When you're up in the middle of the night holding the fridge door open looking for a midnight snack thinking about the movie you just saw when you utter to yourself "But how can that be?".

Director David Fincher seems to be a master at getting the audience to use their brain during the movie rather than switching it off and being spoon fed what the execs at the top consider palpable. His other movies that produce those "fridge moments" were Seven and The Game. The Game in particular provided a twist at the end that made you go back and relive the entire movie in your mind to see if what you saw was actually what you saw.

Fight Club works in the same manner and has triggered multiple viewings ever since. Each time you watch it, you find another piece that makes this masterpiece come together even more from the subliminal messaging to the moments of instanity that aren't really revealed until the very end.

Our Narrator (Edward Norton) is having trouble sleeping. It seems his life is run by what he reads or hears or is ordered to do by his Boss. The only escape he has is by joining a multitude of support groups where finally his emotions are dealt with until Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) is found to be abusing the system in the same manner as himself. An agreement is made for them to alternate support groups to alleviate this frustration.

While on a plane trip, our Narrator comes across Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), an eccentric young fellow who sells home made soap for a living. Immeadiately we see a direct contrast to the character of the narrator in Tyler. Coming home to find his apartment destroyed by an explosion, the Narrator calls up Tyler for a night of drinking and eventually fighting; a much more manly form of emotional release.

It's here that the Fight Club begins and soon grows to an underground empire in a sense. Tyler wants to expand his operations outside of Fight Club in direct opposition to what our Narrator wants. Soon the two come to a head where the real nature of their actions is revealed in yet another climactic twist Fincher bestows upon us; the defining "fridge moment"

The gritty settings, the music video styled direction and editing, the outlandish performance from Brad Pitt and the sedate, yet brutal nature exhibited by Nortons character all add to a very entertaining cocktail. You'll never look at society the same way after this one.

It’s a dark movie and it comes up remarkably well on DVD as this format that we love can bring out the tiniest of detail in the trickiest of situations. It could almost be compared to one of Brad Pitts other movies, Seven, where the print was very dark and lacking in color saturation.

Its gritty nature provides a very dull and subdued color scheme throughout the movie that seems as if the color correction is off. You are correct, as this is the intention of the visual experience. Once scene in particular when the Narrator is in a boardroom meeting after a night of heaving “fight clubbing�, he shows a mouth full of blood to the suit sitting opposite him. The blood is almost black, with no red coloring or richness at all, in tone with his current mood and the setting itself.

On the flip side though, there are certain scenes that do provide a focal contrast to darkened surroundings and it’s in these scenes that you really do appreciate just how good the image is and that everything is supposed to look the way it does. When this does occur, vibrant blues, reds or pinks splash across the screen to highlight on object or person.

You’d be surprised at how many of the shots throughout the movie are entirely digital so if something doesn’t seem quite natural then you know it’s the effects and not the transfer. There’s also moments of subliminal imaging and if you blink you’ll miss them or put them down to a glitch in the Matrix. It’s all there intentionally and this is an exceptional looking DVD.

Audio wise we get a soundtrack that compliments the video and the movie itself perfectly. Right from the outset the soundtrack hits hard and fast and you know you’re in for an in-your-face movie experience.

If ever there was a surreal soundtrack that felt totally normal for the movie, this is it. Appreciation for good dynamic range in a movie comes from the low frequencies that a movie can get down to and this one goes down lower than Ronald McDonald in a fire drill commercial. Its impact is consistent throughout but really hits home from time to time giving you one entertaining mix. The surrounds are always active whether it be to add ambience to a scene or envelop you with the cranking musical score.

Whether you’ve got a full 5.1 system or 2-channel stereo out of your TV, you’ll find something in this soundtrack that brings a smile to your face.

Here is what makes 20th Century Fox stand out from the crowd of late. I must first make mention about the packaging. We get the exact same styled packaging as in the US which is a gatefold jacket that opens up 2 fold to present the 2 disc set. The gatefold section slips inside a nice looking cardboard box themed around the Tyler Durden soap wrapping. Excellent stuff here and one that the other distributors should take note of if they are going to take their special editions seriously.

As for the inidividual components included, let's take a look:

• The Audio Commentary by director David Finched and actors Brad Pitt, Ed Norton and Helena Bonham-Carter is pretty good. The only quibble is that at times too many people are trying to talk while at others no-one is talking. I sometimes wonder if Pitt was at all interested in being called away from Jennifer.
• The first feature section is the Visual Effects which is simply excellent. Here you get to see where the visual effects where used within the movie and how they were done. It is amazing at where FX are used these days. Included with these selected scenes are audio commentaries to help explain what exactly was done here.
• To coincide with the Visual Effects section is a Multi angle look at some key scenes with each angle being a different stage in development from concept drawing, through animatic to final print product. Very interesting stuff here.
• The On Location feature is a short look at some behind the scenes footage with a rehash of the special effects section included inline.
• A multitude of teaser and theatrical trailers are included, most of which we didn't get to see here, including a hilarious Public Service Announcement version, and some that would have done a better job of convincing people to see the movie if they 'were' presented in the cinemas.
• Various Photo galleris are included ranging from promotional material through to storyboards and concept art.
• No special edition extras is complete without a set of Deleted Scenese, or altered scenes. In this case we are also presented with a small introduction explaining the omission or alteration used.
• Included as part of the packaging is the same booklet as found on the US release with some 18 pages of information from key cast and crew.
• A Music Video by the dust brothers is also included.
• A Q&A transcript of Ed Nortons visit to Yale University.
• To round of the extras we have the usual Cast & Crew biographies aswell as some cooly animated menus.

We miss out on 3 more audio commentaries aswell as some easter eggs featuring a faux list of Fight Club merchandise which I actually went looking for on the Internet before realising I had been had.

Hollywood has finally produced a movie, of recent times, that isn't driven by a marketing campaign constrained to product, toy or soundtrack tie-ins. It's about time we looked at reality again and what better way to do it than with Fight Club.

And remember, YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB.