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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Fight Club: Special Edition (1999)

Fight Club: Special Edition (1999)

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Released 22-Nov-2000
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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Booklet Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio Audio Commentary-David Fincher (Director), Brad Pitt (Actor), et al Biographies-Cast & Crew Multiple Angles-6 Featurettes Featurette-Visual Effects (9) Featurette-On Location Trailer-TT-3, Teaser-2, Internet Spots-5 Music Video-The Dust Brothers Gallery-Lobby Cards/Advertising, Press Kit, Stills Notes-Edward Norton Speech Storyboards Gallery-6 Deleted Scenes-6 Featurette-Public Service Announcements
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	133:25
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (64:52) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	David Fincher
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Brad Pitt Edward Norton Helena Bonham Carter Meat Loaf Aday Jared Leto
Case	Gatefold	Starring
RPI	$36.95	Music	Michael Simpson John King

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (96Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	Czech Danish English Finnish Hebrew Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish	Smoking	Yes, frequently
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, but not really annoying
		Action In or After Credits	No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

Those of you who have already read my review of the rental release of Fight Club may as well skip over this section of the review, as it is mostly repeated from there. A few small changes have been made to the text, but the two summations are fundamentally identical, except that I have added a couple of small criticisms that may give away key elements of the plot. Those of you who haven't seen the film or read my review of the rental version may wish to skip the plot synopsis in light of this. I'm sure that most of you who have read the novel or seen the film won't care all that much, either.

Based upon the Chuck Palahniuk novel of the same name, Fight Club is one film that I unsuccessfully tried to convince myself to see on the big screen not long ago. This is in spite of the fact that the film, much like A Clockwork Orange, presents the novel upon which it is based in an easier to follow and more satisfying manner. The thing that stopped me from seeing the film, in combination with elements of the advertising campaign, was almost certainly the fact that Brad Pitt was the top-billed star, and Edward Norton was not far behind, of course. Of course, both surprised the daylights out of me by turning in performances that prove that they can act, and act well when cast correctly. One other aspect that may or may not be to your liking is the manner in which director David Fincher has made this film an unabashed critique of Western Society that owes everything to Sigmund Freud, at the expense of all other elements in the novel. Before you email me and ask where the scenes about the main characters sleeping with their own mothers were, there is more to Freud's work than mothers and sexual psychology. One aspect to Freud's theories that this film borrows from is the statement that repressed desires force a human being to define their self-worth by arbitrary means. In the case of the sexually repressed American teenage female, the inability to physically interact with the sexually repressed American teenage male is arbitrarily given outage by such things as excessive eating, the idea being that the physical interaction with a male is replaced by physical interaction with Twinkies. The fact that America is the most Christian Western society today, and also the most overweight society anywhere in the world per capita is no coincidence, and this is an important point to remember in order to appreciate the psychology of this film. This film is so much about the abnormal psychology of both the everyday and the not-quite-so-palatable variety that even I felt a little intimidated by the characterizations.

Jack (Edward Norton) works in an insurance company as an assessor and is unable to sleep at night. No big surprise there, you would think, but what is a bit of a surprise is the lengths he goes to in order to rid himself of this problem. In essence, he is addicted to support groups, and indeed, the opening of the film sees him at a meeting for survivors of testicular cancer, which is another nice Freudian reference for the few of you who will really notice it. In any case, as Jack is going from group to group, Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) begins to intrude upon his meetings for a similar purpose, which leaves Jack unable to sleep again. Eventually, we see Jack hopping on a plane for business purposes where he encounters a strange man with a twisted philosophy by the name of Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt). Whilst I am on this topic, I have to say that it is good to see that Hollywood has finally found a type of role that Brad Pitt is actually good at. In any case, the two eventually get together and form a sort of men's group called Fight Club, where men get together in groups and punch one another silly until certain conditions for an ending are met. One thing leads to another, and Tyler's influence over the members of the club grows to the point where they indulge in an amazing level of mischief, including stealing discarded body fat from liposuction clinics, processing it into soap, and selling it to fashion stores. This is an ironic way of making a few dollars that is rather amusing to behold. In any case, as Tyler's power grows and Jack continually alternates between feelings of power and subtle emasculation, we slowly burn our way towards a conclusion that that is not really supported in plausibility by the rest of the film.

Another minor problem that plagues this film is the fact that the rest of the cast of characters in this film is never really fleshed out to any degree, reducing the real acting to just three key players. The only other notable performance in the film was that given by the character of Robert Paulson (Meat Loaf Aday), a man who is struggling to regain his manhood after being thoroughly emasculated by testicular cancer. In the end, we just don't give a d*** about Angel Face (Jared Leto) or Boss (Zach Grenier), because they just don't seem to have enough of a personality for the things that are done to them to seem as if they are of any consequence. However, given the manner in which the three top-billed players interact, this is a minor fault that can be overlooked once the ball starts rolling. The point is that if you walk into this film expecting to see a story of a mob of He-Men beating the almighty crap out of each other, then you're going to be quite wildly surprised by the rest of the story.

After six months of waiting for the sell-through version of Fight Club, I can tell what you're probably thinking: was it really worth waiting a whole six months for? Well, the two-disc set is definitely worth buying if you enjoyed the film and want to see how the special effects shots were accomplished. Since the film is not available in any other kind of presentation, I have no hesitation in recommending this set in spite of the packaging, which includes some rather amusing advertising material anyway. Sit back, grab a box of popcorn, a faint-hearted relative, and prepare for a frighteningly cerebral experience that proves Hollywood can make an intelligent film when they try hard enough.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

(Addendum March 27, 2001: Fight Club has recently been repackaged in the same style of Transparent Amaray that has been used with such titles as Braveheart and The Terminator. A few weeks prior to this, Fox began putting survey cards into their titles that ask the question "Are you prepared to pay slightly more for special collectable packaging on selected Special Edition DVDs (up to $5.00)?". On behalf of everyone who's been ticked off by buying cardboard-based packaging that has fallen apart mere months after purchase, I will answer with a question. "Who do you think you're kidding, Fox?")

Those who have read my review of the rental version of Fight Club will know that I was quite impressed by the transfer, and this sell-through version closely resembles that rental version.

The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 enhanced. The film was matted theatrically at 2.40:1, presumably in order to hide splice marks, but such marks are not present in this transfer. The transfer is exceptionally sharp, with plenty of beautiful details leaping out of the screen for the viewer to behold. The shadow detail is very good, with everything you're meant to see in the darker scenes, which account for at least half of the film, readily apparent with plenty of gradiated detail. There is no low-level noise in the transfer, also quite good for a film with as much black in it as this one.

The colour saturation of this transfer is bright and vivid when called for, as well as being dull and understated when called for. From watching this film a few dozen times, I can guess that the director intended the colours to look hyper-realistic, and this transfer is an excellent reflection of this. Just don't expect frequent flashes of bright primary colours, because this film was purposefully made to look as dirty and grimy as the settings can possibly allow (which is quite a lot).

MPEG artefacts were not a major problem for this transfer. I paid special attention during the credits and tried to find any noticeable MPEG artefacting, but only found the slight loss of background details that are characteristic of loose MPEG compression. Most viewers will not notice any loss in detail that cannot be explained away by distance from the camera, and I doubt anyone else will notice any major losses. Film-to-video artefacts were not a problem in this transfer, either, save for the very occasional instance of aliasing that could be easily missed when one is not specifically on the lookout for them. The worst example I noticed would be at 39:00, which may in fact have just been a flickering neon light. Film artefacts of the non-deliberate variety were a very slight problem, with an occasional black or white fleck showing up on the picture with such minuscule size as to almost be non-existent.

This disc is presented in the RSDL format, with the layer change taking place at 64:52. This is a well-placed layer change, as it is right after (and before) a quiet scene, making it inconsequential to the overall flow of the film.

Audio

Like the video transfer, the audio transfer was definitely worth waiting six months for the sell-through version in spite of some deficiencies compared to the Region 1 sell-through version. It is somewhat disappointing that we don't get a stunning DTS mix, but that is one omission that the Region 1 version of the disc shares.

The audio transfer is also quite similar to the rental release, especially in that it provides excellent material to demonstrate the superiority of DVD to family and friends with. There are two soundtracks provided on disc one: the original English dialogue, encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1, and an English audio commentary that has been encoded in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, at the rather paltry bitrate of 96 kilobits per second. I will speak more about the commentary track later. Again, it would have been nice if this film had been encoded with a DTS soundtrack, but what we have here suits the purpose quite nicely. The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times, which is a strong selling point of the disc as the dialogue in this film really requires a serious listen. There were no problems with audio sync.

The score music is credited to The Dust Brothers, a duo who specialize in making electronic music of a similar nature to that of Aphex Twin. Unlike most music that revolves around synthesizers and drum machines, however, this score does much to complement the film and it is quite pleasant and easy to listen to. I have doubts that it would be as pleasant to listen to without the film, but very few film scores really can be heard without the accompanying visuals and deliver the same impact. Given that I have a well-documented disdain, nay hate, of drum-machine music that hasn't been composed by the likes of Aphex Twin, the fact that this music impresses me to any degree is a strong selling point.

The surround channels are used frequently to support special effects, music, and various other elements of the soundtrack that immerse the viewer fully in the film. The one sound effect that makes the most usage of the soundtrack is that of the audiences during the fights, closely followed by the sounds of cars travelling from one part of the frame to another. The channel separation is quite good, with all sound effects having plenty of room to breathe. There are moments in the film when the weight of the sound-field falls toward the front, but they are occasional, and made up for by other sequences such as the mid-air plane collision and the strangely satisfying climax.

The subwoofer was also used quite effectively, if a little selectively, to support numerous special effects and pieces of music, all without calling any specific attention to itself. George Lucas once said that sound was at least half of the experience with films, and Fight Club proves him to be absolutely right.

Extras

My copy of this two-disc set states that the three missing commentaries are present, but this error will apparently be rectified, even if it will be rectified in a manner that we all find less than ideal, by having the printing error corrected. On another note, it has been brought to my attention that the film may have been censored since our version of the disc resembles the UK R2 version in the extras department. Having viewed one of the suspect passages in the film, I don't believe this to be the case. Our sell-through version suffers no arbitrary censorship, at least not compared to the rental version that was released here six months earlier, which has an identical running time.

Disc One

The main menu on disc one has a brief, somewhat jarring introduction as well as some interesting animation and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio. The rest of the menus are accompanied by the same audio, but not any animation. All of the menus on this disc are 16x9 Enhanced and very easy to navigate. If I have one complaint to make, the fact that the introduction cannot be paused is slightly annoying, as the mock FBI-warning on this disc looks quite amusing to read. I know it is a statement from Tyler Durden that every second I spend reading the message could be put to better use, but a joke is funnier when you hear all of it, not just the punchline. Adding to this is the fact that the main menu could have been a little better looped.

Audio Commentary - David Fincher (Director), Brad Pitt (Actor), Edward Norton (Actor) & Helena Bonham Carter (Actor)

This audio commentary is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, at a paltry bitrate of 96 kilobits per second. If I could sum up the overall sound of this commentary in a single word, it would be "cluttered", with the original soundtrack mixed in behind the commentators in the centre channel at a very low level. Whenever two people speak at once, it becomes quite difficult to make out whatever sounds happen to have the lower amplitude, and clarity is occasionally lost right across the board. In spite of this problem that sounds a lot worse when I describe it than it really is, the commentary offers some interesting insights into the creative processes of the film. Helena Bonham Carter in particular is quite pleasant to listen to, while Edward Norton offers the most interesting and amusing insights into what went on behind the scenes. Brad Pitt speaks very infrequently, offering the occasional interesting comment, while David Fincher speaks slightly more in a voice that can only be distinguished because of the familiarity of the other three voices in the soundtrack.

Disc Two

The menu on disc two has no introduction, but features similar animation with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio. This menu also appears to be 16x9 Enhanced, and it is similarly easy to navigate. On the slightly negative side, reloading this menu after one of the numerous features has been selected takes a noticeably long time.

Cast & Crew Biographies

Biographies are provided for Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meatloaf Aday, Jared Leto, director David Fincher, screenwriter Jim Uhls, novelist Chuck Palahniuk, producer Art Linson, producer Cean Chaffin, producer Ross Grayson Bell, executive producer Arnon Milchan, cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, production designer Alex McDowell, costume designer Michael Kaplan, editor James Haygood, special make-up effects artist Rob Bottin, and The Dust Brothers, or composers Michael Simpson and John King when they're at home. Excuse me for a moment while I catch my breath. A little more text could have been placed on each screen in this bios, but they provide enough background information to be of some interest, especially if you enjoy getting to know what goes on behind the camera as well as in front.

Public Service Announcements by Jack and Tyler Durden

This option takes you to a submenu where you can select a Public Service Announcement by the characters of Jack or Tyler Durden. Not so much PSAs as very strange and amusing teaser trailers, both of these are presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 without 16x9 Enhancement. The audio is in Dolby Digital 2.0, which may disappoint some apart from the fact that there is very little in these PSAs other than talking.

Music Video - The Dust Brothers

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, this music video is not 16x9 Enhanced, and it is encoded without timing information. The music part of the video is rather questionable, but it does make interesting use of footage from the film. No title for this piece of music is offered, either, which is somewhat annoying, but I have major doubts that anyone will be buying albums on this basis of this piece in any event.

Multi-Angle Featurettes - Production (Alternate Main Titles, Paper Street House, Airport, Projection Booth, Jack's Condo, Corporate Art Ball)

From the Behind The Scenes menu, select Production to view this menu of featurettes. All of the featurettes are presented with accompanying storyboards such as the Brain-Ride Map. They are presented in various aspect ratios depending on which angle is selected, with some angles offering split-screen views of principal photography and location scouting (or similar production stages), with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Some of these featurettes, such as the Brain-Ride, are 16x9 Enhanced, while others are not.

Featurettes - Visual Effects (Main Title, Mid-Air Collision, Fürni Catalog, Sex Sequence, Ice Cave/Power Animal, Car Crash, Photogrammetry, Gun Shot, High Rise Collapse)

These featurettes are in their own menu under the Visual Effects heading, which is in turn under the heading of Behind The Scenes. These featurettes show various effects shots from the film and how they were accomplished, with commentary by various members of the special effects crew. Storyboards of the sequences are also available, but these are nowhere near as fascinating as the featurettes, the surreal sex sequence being my personal favourite. The gun shot sequence is explained in great detail, so much so that it makes a lot more sense now that I have seen the production CGI.

Featurette - On Location

This featurette starts when you select the On Location option from the Behind The Scenes menu. Presented without timing information, this featurette varies in aspect ratio from 1.33:1 to 2.35:1, and is not 16x9 Enhanced. It is encoded with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio that sounds extremely frontal and occasionally distorted. This featurette offers some cursory snippets that demonstrate how various effects in the film were achieved, as well as how the actors were prepared for the fight sequences. It is worth looking at once, but it pales in comparison to the previous two series of featurettes I've just detailed.

Theatrical Trailer

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded sound, this trailer is not 16x9 Enhanced. The video and audio quality are otherwise fine, with very little to complain about here.

Teaser Trailer

Also presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded sound, this trailer is also not 16x9 Enhanced. Again, the video and audio quality are quite satisfactory, although it is a real pity these trailers are not 16x9 Enhanced.

Unused Teaser Trailer - The Eight Rules Of Fight Club

This trailer is also presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio, and without 16x9 Enhancement. The video and audio quality are also satisfactory in spite of that glaring omission. It's a pity this trailer was never used, as it gives a much better idea of what the film is about than any of the publicity material I saw while the film was in theatres.

Internet Spots

I'm not exactly sure why these are called Internet Spots, as they look more like regular theatrical trailers with deliberately bad presentation. Perhaps they were all encoded into digital format and posted on the Internet, which would be something of a first considering that the trailers used on the Internet are usually just bad copies of television spots and theatrical trailers. They are all presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio, and they are not 16x9 Enhanced.

Gallery - Lobby Cards/Advertising, Gallery - Press Kit, Gallery - Stills

These are all presented under the one menu option (Promotional Gallery), under the Publicity menu. The lack of annotation makes these galleries a little boring to wade through, but some of the tidbits in the Press Kit gallery are quite amusing.

Notes - Edward Norton speech

As the notes explain on the first page, Edward Norton returned to his alma mater, Yale University, in October of 1999 to talk about Fight Club. This is a transcription of the questions he was asked and the responses he gave.

Photo Gallery

Presented under the name of Art Gallery in the main menu, this collection of storyboards and stills can also be accessed from other points in the extras menus. One option, Storyboards, allows you to see the storyboards for the entire film. This is another extra that I found somewhat uninteresting, but it is nice to have.

Deleted/Alternate Scenes

This submenu allows the viewer to choose from six deleted scenes and alternate cuts. Before playing the scene in question, a little information about why the scene was cut or altered is presented. All of the scenes are presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, without 16x9 Enhancement. This is rather disappointing, even if the scenes in question are somewhat lacking in resolution to begin with. The Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded production sound can be described as functional. If I had to pick a personal favourite deleted/alternate scene, it would be Marla's Pillow Talk, for obvious reasons.

Booklet

This eighteen-page booklet contains a large number of quotes from various people who worked on Fight Club, with some random quotes from film critics and members of the public, as well as some words of inspiration by Tyler Durden. The quotes are actually quite interesting to read and well laid-out, even if the front page title of the booklet (How To Start A Fight) is slightly misleading. A list of chapter stops can be found on the back page.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

Audio Commentary - David Fincher (Director)
Audio Commentary - Chuck Palahniuk (Novelist), Jim Uhls (Screenwriter)
Audio Commentary - Alex McDowell (production designer), Jeff Cronenweth (cinematographer), Michael Kaplan (costume designer), Kevin Haug (visual effects supervisor)
A single deleted scene

Of these missing extras, the only one that I can say I really miss is the commentary by Chuck Palahniuk and Jim Uhls, chiefly because it is not an everyday event to get a novelist and a screenwriter in the same room to comment about a film that the latter based on the former's work. It would have been nice, however, to have been given a choice as to whether I wanted to listen to the commentaries or not. Fans of the film are going to have to choose between a trio of commentary tracks (and I should warn you that director-only commentaries and production crew member commentaries are frequently a real chore to sit through) or PAL formatting. If you want a better-looking picture with no 3:2 pulldown artefacts, Region 4 is the way to go, but if you want a more comprehensive extras package, Region 1 is the way to go. I feel that because of these respective advantages, the two versions are more or less equal, but you may beg to differ.

Summary

Depending on how you look at it, Fight Club is either a sick joke, or a great mockumentary about the dark side of Freudian psychology as it relates to the modern world. The more I view the film, the more I find myself overlooking the slight factual errors in the story and concentrating more on the characters, which is a good sign considering the impression two out of the three leads have left upon me in previous films. This disc is definitely one of my personal favourites, and although I may be somewhat biased, at the very least it deserves to be very high up in the Hall Of Fame.

The video transfer is excellent, with only two minuscule problems that most will fail to even notice.

The audio transfer is also excellent, providing excellent demonstration material.

The extras may be incomplete compared to the Region 1 version, but they are otherwise as comprehensive as you can imagine. Again, I must stress that the only other commentary on the Region 1 version that doesn't sound like it may be a real chore to listen to is that of the screenwriter and novelist, even though it would have been nice to have the choice. Hopefully, Fox Home Video will either see fit to correct this mistake in future, or at least help confirm my suspicions regarding the quality of the other three commentaries.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Grundig GDV-100D/Toshiba 2109, using S-Video output
Display	Samsung CS-823AMF (80cm). Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL).
Audio Decoder	Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
Amplification	Sony STR DE-835
Speakers	Yamaha NS-45 Front Speakers, Philips PH931SSS Rear Speakers, Philips FB206WC Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Active Subwoofer

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