It was an honest tossup between selecting this movie and A Clockwork Orange (1971). Both are adapted from novels by important writers (Chuck Palahniuk and Anthony Burgess, respectively). Both deal with violence as a response to unfulfilling or stifling social values or expectations. Both were controversial and criticized for encouraging real world copycat behavior. So why choose Fight Club over A Clockwork Orange? This is a list of my favorite movies, not some ivory tower fap over the 10 best films or filmmakers of all time. I’ll even concede happily that A Clockwork Orange is the superior film and that Kubrick is a breathtaking titan who kicks Fincher in the balls by comparison.
In fact, one of my favorite film jokes is about Kubrick.
A young director dies and goes to heaven. He meets Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates and they get to chatting. The young man says that he is so excited to be in heaven because he will have all eternity to converse and commune with so many brilliant, late filmmakers like Hitchcock and Kubrick. Saint Peter says, “Ah, well, Mr. Kubrick could be a while. God still has…questions.”
So, why Fight Club? For starters, it’s just so much goddamn fun. The movie pulls you in from the title sequence, promising and delivering a wild ride. The principal cast (Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter) turn in excellent performances from challenging material. David Fincher somehow preserves author Chuck Palahniuk’s tone and intent, which I would not have believed possible given just how distinctive and bizarre Palahniuk’s world view is.
Fincher directed ads and music videos early in his career and the frenetic pace and cutting of Fight Club reflect this to great effect. More than anything, I think it is underrated as a comedy. It’s a brutal, twisted buddy movie and I laugh out loud every time I watch it. My favorite anecdote about the making of the movie is Marla’s post-coitus line, “I haven’t been fucked like that since grade school.” Apparently the original line was “I want to have your abortion,” to which Fox 2000 Pictures objected, so Fincher changed it. He subsequently refused when they asked to change it back.
To sum up, this movie has an unconventional and deeply irreverent story, great acting, stunning visual effects and a humdinger of a twist ending. Fincher has directed, by my reckoning, three movies with twist endings: Se7en (1995), Fight Club and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), but he has by no means been typecast as “the twist guy” like that poor bastard M. Night Shyamalan. My (sixth) sense is that Fincher is happy to employ twists but he isn’t trapped by them like Shyamalan is (was).
Bonus fun film fact about Se7en: The next time you watch it, pay attention to the light and weather since they keep pace with the illumination of the story. At the beginning, the lighting is all paltry 40-watt wall sconces and it’s pouring rain. In the final scene, the film is positively washed out by the blazing sun in the arid desert. You’re welcome.