Fight Club

1999 Drama

In this darkly comic drama, Edward Norton stars as a depressed young man (named in the credits only as "Narrator") who has become a small cog in the world of big business. He doesn't like his work and gets no sense of reward from it, attempting instead to drown his sorrows by putting together the "perfect" apartment. He can't sleep and feels alienated from the world at large; he's become so desperate to relate to others that he's taken to visiting support groups for patients with terminal diseases so that he'll have people to talk to. One day on a business flight, he discovers Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), a charming iconoclast who sells soap. Tyler doesn't put much stock in the materialistic world, and he believes that one can learn a great deal through pain, misfortune, and chaos. Tyler cheerfully challenges his new friend to a fight. Our Narrator finds that bare-knuckle brawling makes him feel more alive than he has in years, and soon the two become friends and roommates, meeting informally to fight once a week. As more men join in, the "fight club" becomes an underground sensation, even though it's a closely guarded secret among the participants. (First rule: Don't talk about fight club. Second rule: Don't talk about fight club.) But as our Narrator and Tyler bond through violence, a strange situation becomes more complicated when Tyler becomes involved with Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), whom our Narrator became infatuated with when they were both crashing the support-group circuit. Based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club was directed by David Fincher, who previously directed Pitt in the thriller Seven. more..

Director: David Fincher

Starring: Brad Pitt,Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf Aday, Jared Leto

Reviews

  • Pulls you in, challenges your prejudices, rocks your world and leaves you laughing in the face of an abyss. It's alive, all right. It's also an uncompromising American classic.

    Peter Travers - Rolling Stone

    19 January 2013

  • Delivers a sucker punch to the audience and then pulls the rug out from under it. It is sensational. It is also grimly funny.

    Bob Graham - The San Francisco Chronicle

    19 January 2013

  • The sardonic, testosterone-fueled science fiction of Fight Club touches a raw nerve.

    Elvis Mitchell - The New York Times

    19 January 2013

  • Begins with that invigoratingly nervy and imaginative buzz. But its chic indictment of empty materialist values fizzles.

    Jay Carr - The Boston Globe

    19 January 2013

  • A provocative experience that lights you up even as it brutalizes you. And I don't even like Brad Pitt very much.

    Stephen Hunter - The Washington Post

    19 January 2013

Awards

  • Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing

    Academy Awards (2000)

     
  • Best Soundtrack

    Brit Awards (2000)

     
  • Excellence in Costume Design for Film - Contemporary

    Costume Designers Guild Awards (2000)

     
  • Best DVD Overall Original Supplemental Material

    DVD Exclusive Awards (2001)

     
  • Best British Actress

    Empire Awards, UK (2000)