Fight Club (1999) DVD Review – UK

Jack is an insomniac and its driving him on a fast track to insanity. When he meets a soap salesman called Tyler Durden, they decide to set up the "Fight Club" to channel their pent-up aggression.

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Jack is an insomniac and its driving him on a fast track to insanity. When he meets a soap salesman called Tyler Durden, they decide to set up the "Fight Club" to channel their pent-up aggression.

Runtime

2 Hours 19 Minutes

US rating

Region

Region 1

Sound

Dolby Digital 5.1

Aspect

2.35:1

Release year

1999

Details

Jack is an insomniac and its driving him on a fast track to insanity. When he meets a soap salesman called Tyler Durden, they decide to set up the "Fight Club" to channel their pent-up aggression.

As the concept catches on, other underground Fight Clubs appear around America and everything is going fine - until eccentric Marla Singer arrives on the scene. This is where things begin to spiral, placing the unstable pairing of Jack and Tyler against each other in a battle of escalating madness.

This is one intense film. Right from the opening titles you know you're in for a rollercoaster ride as the camera zooms outwards from inside a mysterious substance that turns out to be a brain. Excellent stuff. The film has the dubious honour of featuring some of the most violent scenes I have ever witnessed, with the Angel fight being a prime example.

The unfortunate Angel has his face beaten to a pulp, with blood and teeth flying everywhere. The version on this disc is actually the cut one, which is surprising given how brutal it still is. If you want to see the full uncut version, you'll need to head to the second disc.

As far as acting goes, things are first class. Norton's portrayal of the insomniac narrator is particularly noteworthy, while Pitt delivers a charismatic yet menacing performance. One question remains though - why does Bonham Carter look like Jo Brand?

Picture & Sound

Being a high-profile DVD doesn't always mean the distributor pulls out all the stops - sometimes they assume the film will sell itself. Not the case here. What we get is a THX-certified disc with a sublime picture, even in the dark basement fight scenes. Some shots are breathtaking in their clarity, but nothing prepares you for the excellence of the sound. During the fights you can actually pick out individual voices, with shouts coming from all speakers, making you feel like you're standing right there in the ring. Dialogue is equally impressive.

Fox clearly want you to get the best from the disc, and to that end they've included a THX setup screen to help you calibrate contrast and brightness correctly for your TV. You also get the standard white noise (curiously labelled pink noise) tests for your sound system.

Menu & Extras

The extras defy belief. It's almost as if Fox have taken every piece of Fight Club material at their disposal and crammed it onto the second disc, arranging everything perfectly within a stylish animated menu system. The standout features are the multi-angle / multi-commentary production featurettes, which are excellent.

The Four Commentary Tracks are accessed from the main menu of the first disc, which also contains the film. They vary in style and substance, although Bonham Carter's track can become slightly grating - her accent is perhaps a little too refined for extended listening. The seventeen (yes, seventeen!) behind-the-scenes featurettes - or vignettes as they're labelled - are split into three categories: Production, Visual Effects and On-Location. The production featurettes are the most impressive, offering multiple camera angles and the ability to mix and match video and audio commentaries. You can even select a split-screen mixed picture. The Visual Effects section allows multiple commentaries but not the multi-angle option.

There are seven Outtakes and Deleted Scenes, each accompanied by a description explaining its removal. As usual, the quality is variable, but it's always interesting to see what didn't make the final cut. The option to compare both versions of Angel's beating is particularly effective. As the on-screen text explains, the cut version is arguably more disturbing because of the crowd's reaction - though either way it remains one of the most brutal scenes in the film, containing a substantial amount of blood. and I do mean substantial.

The Storyboard section, found within the art gallery, contains the entire storyboard for the film - all 246 panels. That's an astonishing amount of material and possibly a first for DVD. The General Artwork section features visual effects stills ranging from set photography to latex head masks used during fight scenes. The Paper Street House section presents a flipbook-style build of the set. Costumes and Makeup offers storyboard-style drawings focusing mainly on Tyler Durden and Marla Singer. The Brain-Ride map section includes over thirty storyboard-style images from the opening credits sequence. Not all of it is essential, but the volume of content is impressive.

The disc contains two trailers - a Theatrical Teaser and a full Theatrical Trailer - along with seventeen TV Spots from around the world, including three Spanish versions (subtitled). The Public Service Announcements are particularly amusing, parodying cinema pre-film etiquette messages, with Pitt and Norton each delivering one. Norton's ends with a rather cheeky reference to "your bathing suit area". The music video is included, likely featuring The Dust Brothers, and has a racy dance/hip-hop vibe reminiscent of Underworld.

The Internet Spots appear to be short promotional clips originally designed for online distribution. The Lobby Cards/Advertising section showcases a large collection of promotional posters and artwork. The Press Kit is a spoof merchandise catalogue, complete with humorous descriptions. There's even a hidden option (look for the smiley face) allowing you to explore it further.

The Edward Norton Interview is a text-based feature spanning twenty-six pages, covering topics including the Columbine High School incident and the film's perceived social impact. The Stills section contains an astonishing 158 images - yes, that many.

It's not exactly coffee-table material, but the accompanying booklet is far more than filler. Titled How To Start a Fight, it gathers reflections from cast, crew and author Chuck Palahniuk, who discusses the origins of his novel. Refreshingly, it also includes critics who weren't impressed. Kenneth Turan of the L.A. Times labelled the film "a witless mishmash of whiny, infantile philosophising and bone-crunching violence that actually thinks it's saying something of significance." Love it or loathe it - the booklet gives both sides a voice.

Overall

One thing to beware of: when you insert the first disc you'll see the usual warnings before the menu appears. Why the warning? Because the menu presentation is so cleverly designed that you might briefly think your player or television has malfunctioned. A brilliant, intense experience that no collection should be without - provided you can stomach the film's violent nature. Just go out and buy it.