Email here for additions & corrections.

Ishtar
(May, 1987)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (OOP)
(Ross, 1976)
The Devils
(Russell, 1974)
The Pirates of Penzance
(Papp/Leach, 1983)
The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)
-30-
(Webb, 1959)
Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)
Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)
The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)
Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)
The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)
In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)
That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)
Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)
Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1973)
Brewster McCloud
(Altman, 1972)
Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)

Reader Submissions
1930's-1950's
The Moon's Our Home
(Seiter, 1936)
Sh! The Octopus
(McGann, 1937)
The Mating Season
(Leisen, 1951)
Bad for Each Other
(Rapper, 1953)
The Phenix City Story
(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
(Green, 1956)
Saint Joan
(Preminger, 1957)
Macabre
(Castle, 1958)
The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
1960's
Key Witness
(Karlson, 1960)
Summer and Smoke
(Glenville, 1961)
The Chapman Report
(Cukor,1962)
Bachelor Flat
(Tashlin, 1962) [on Hulu]
The L Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1963)
The Chalk Garden
(Neame, 1964)
A Thousand Clowns
(Coe, 1965)
You're a Big Boy Now
(Coppola, 1966)
The Whisperers
(Forbes, 1967)
Dark of the Sun
(Cardiff, 1968)
Skidoo
(Preminger, 1968)
Last Summer
(Perry, 1969)
The Comic
(C. Reiner, 1969)
1970-1974
The Revolutionary
(Williams, 1970)
The Landlord
(Ashby, 1970)
Diary of a Mad Housewife
(Perry, 1970)
Tropic of Cancer
(Strick, 1970)
I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
(Newman, 1971)
Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
(Turman, 1971)
The Music Lovers
(Russell, 1971)
Drive, He Said
(Nicholson, 1971)
The Steagle
(Sylbert, 1971)
The Last Movie
(Hopper, 1971)
Made For Each Other
(Bean, 1971)
The Day the Clown Cried
(Lewis, 1972)
Hickey & Boggs (OOP)
(Culp, 1972)
The Carey Treatment
(Edwards, 1972)
Pete 'n' Tillie
(Ritt, 1972)
Slither
(Zieff, 1973)
Man on a Swing
(Perry, 1974)
Open Season
(Collinson, 1974)
The Tamarind Seed
(Edwards, 1974)
Law and Disorder
(Passer, 1974)
Homebodies
(Yust, 1974)
Stardust
(Apted, 1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974)
1975-1979
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
(Richards, 1975
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1975)
Hearts of the West
(Zieff, 1975)
Welcome to L.A.
(Rudolph, 1976)
W.C. Fields and Me
(Hiller, 1976)
Citizens Band
(Demme, 1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming
(Aldrich, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(Brooks, 1977)
Girlfriends
(Weill, 1978)
Movie Movie
(Donen, 1978)
The Medusa Touch
(Gold, 1978)
American Hot Wax
(Mutrux, 1978)
Hot Stuff
(DeLuise, 1979)
Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
(Harvey, 1979)
Rich Kids
(Young, 1979)
Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
(Katselas, 1979
1980's
Resurrection
(Petrie, 1980)
The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
(Brickman, 1980)
God's Angry Man
(Herzog, 1980)
Fast-Walking
(Harris, 1982)
Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
(Rudolph, 1985)
When the Wind Blows
(Murikami, 1986)
Housekeeping
(Forsyth, 1987)
The Glass Menagerie
(Newman, 1987)
Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Drowning by Numbers
(Greenaway, 1988)
Haunted Summer
(Passer, 1988)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
(Spheeris, 1988)
1990's
Old Times
(Curtis, 1991)
Prospero's Books
(Greenaway, 1991)
City of Hope
(Sayles, 1991)
The Baby of Macon
(Greenaway, 1993)
King of the Hill
(Soderbergh, 1993)
Dadetown
(Hexter, 1995)
SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

Upcoming

January 8

Bitch Slap

Waiting for Armageddon

Wonderful World

Youth in Revolt

January 15

January 22

Drool

Extraordinary Measures

The Girl on the Train

Murk, Cuts, Shiners

email this story
read comments (45)
post a comment

I have no interest in watching, much less buying, the new Blu-ray of David Fincher's Fight Club because the film itself was always so dark and murky and dreary-looking, as if the final negative was soaked in a vat of cappuccino.

Brad Pitt in a third-act scene from David Fincher's Fight Club.

Unlike Anita Busch I've always loved what Fight Club was saying about how we all need to act in bolder and braver ways and embrace the real and the feisty and free our souls from the narcotizing effects of corporate branding, etc. And I worship the final shot of the buildings collapsing but I don't care for (and never will care for) the third-act revelation about Brad Pitt and Ed Norton being one and the same guy.

But to watch the damn thing has never been all that pleasant and so I think I'll just it go, now and forever. I've seen it twice and read the book once, and that's enough.

DVD Beaver's Gary Tooze says that given how "this is such a dark film, the improvements in the move to HD are more subtle than one might see in other comparisons we've done. However, they certainly exist with the previous DVDs being hazier with a yellow/greenish mask."

No -- not yellow or green as much as coffee brown.

"Grain is very prevalent and blacks are not frequently crushed but I saw a few instances where figures appeared a bit waxy," Tooze continues. "The visuals have a very artistic and thick look. Just don't expect to be wowed by the extremely dark visuals. It's crisp and tight with a frequent absence of light and demonstrative color."

Ed Norton

Suddenly<< previous | next >>Final Bummer

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 22, 2009 at 11:43 AM

comment #1

The Winchester says ...

Hey, spoiler warning.

No, I'm just playing. I've always agreed about the murky brown look of the film, but I thought it played nicely with the squalor they lived in.

Posted by The Winchester at November 22, 2009 12:19 PM

comment #2

Griff Griffis says ...

The movie was whiny bullshit.

If you don't want to be part of the corporately assigned collective identity, don't buy the clothes, drive the cars, or watch the films.

To complain about how imprisoned you have become by the evil corporations is nonsense. Do something worthwhile and meaningful: nothing was stopping the yutz portrayed so well by Edward Norton from working in a nursing home or joining the service.

Pussies.

Posted by Griff Griffis at November 22, 2009 12:52 PM

comment #3

Colin says ...

The service. Yes because there is nothing commercialized about the United States Armed Services.

Aside from that it is nearly impossible to simple avoid the collective. It's everywhere, that why it is the collective.

Posted by Colin at November 22, 2009 12:58 PM

comment #4

Steven Kar says ...

I still don't understand the relevance and importance of the third act revelation to the overall storytelling.

Would the movie, and the storytelling, still have worked had the filmmakers opted to exclude the surprise in the third act?

Posted by Steven Kar at November 22, 2009 1:05 PM

comment #5

TulseLuper says ...

I really like Fight Club but in the same way that I loathe how wannabe gangstas have hijacked Scarface, I'm starting to resent the way that pretentious high school and college students invoke Tyler Durden as a contemporary Howard Beale. I overheard some idiot complaining about materialism and the corporations ruining everything whilst wearing an American Eagle shirt and typing on a MacBook, and yes, he had the nerve to bring Fight Club into it. Give me a fucking break.

Posted by TulseLuper at November 22, 2009 1:15 PM

comment #6

Colin says ...

Isn't it fair to just dislike people who wear American Eagle shirts in general? I think so.

Posted by Colin at November 22, 2009 1:20 PM

comment #7

PastePotPete says ...

I liked the movie better than the book but I'm still amused that large corporation spent $60mil making a movie about anti-commercialism.

Posted by PastePotPete at November 22, 2009 1:23 PM

comment #8

BurmaShave says ...

This movie got me into the Pixies back in high school, so it has my undying love in one regard. Also all things being equal Pitt's trilogy with Fincher is pretty damned impressive.

Posted by BurmaShave at November 22, 2009 1:26 PM

comment #9

Uncle Milty says ...

The best, and most important, film of the nineties.

Griff clearly missed the point.

Posted by Uncle Milty at November 22, 2009 1:29 PM

comment #10

markj says ...

It's a pretty dazzling piece of work. The first movie of the 21st century.

Posted by markj at November 22, 2009 1:48 PM

comment #11

Tristan Eldritch2 says ...

Personally, I think rather that rather than encouraging its audience to embrace the real, all Fight Club did was effect a tired shrug in the awareness that all our attempts to reject corperate branding and commecialism will sooner or later be co-opted into a new form of coperate branding and commersialism - hence it actually making a lot of sense that a large corperation would fund it to the tune of 60million.
With regard to the look of the film, I've always felt the same way about Seven - though you can argue the look suits the subject matter, for me there was always something dank, bilious, just flatout unpleasant about the look of those films. Fincher is a great talent - but I think he didn't really hit his stride until Zodiac and Benjamin Button.

Posted by Tristan Eldritch2 at November 22, 2009 1:49 PM

comment #12

Eloi Manning says ...

"Fincher is a great talent - but I think he didn't really hit his stride until Zodiac and Benjamin Button."

Are you mental? Benjamin Button over Seven and Fight Club?

Posted by Eloi Manning at November 22, 2009 2:25 PM

comment #13

Tristan Eldritch2 says ...

Eloi - absolutely. Button is no way near as good as Zodiac, but I'd take its humanism - however cliched - over Fight Club and Seven's trite and adolesant bland of nihilism any day of the week. Seven has pretensions to being about the nature of good and evil, but its just another boogey man film, only different in degree to Freddy Kruger or Hannial Leckor. The lake scene in Zodiac has more genuine terror - and film-making processs - than all of Seven and Fight Club put together.

Posted by Tristan Eldritch2 at November 22, 2009 2:41 PM

comment #14

Tristan Eldritch2 says ...

I meant to say to say "brand" there, instead of "bland." But bland will do.

Posted by Tristan Eldritch2 at November 22, 2009 2:44 PM

comment #15

LexG says ...

I don't get the idea that FIGHT CLUB isn't pleasant to rewatch. Shit, I've seen it over 50 times (cue FRED DURST: "I SEEN THE FIGHT CLUB/ABOUT 28 TIMES!")...

Like TAXI DRIVER, every time I rewatch it, I sit there in a drunken stupor FUCK YEAH-ing along to it like I'm watching scenes from my own life. Other than the "God's lonely man" bit in TD, no other contemporary film captures the frustrations, imptences, humiliations, and pent-up rage of genuine lonesomeness, sexlessness, and unhappiness. Norton sleepwalking through some miserable job he hates and a boring life is what makes the movie as relatable as fucking OFFICE SPACE is to cubicle-dwellers.

The "rock gods and movie stars" line hits closer to home than just about anything ever, because, really, probably NONE OF US are going to achieve our dreams; Life is about misery, depression, SETTLING for less... having affairs or doing stupid shit just for the thrill of feeling alive again instead of feeling like a pussy, broken down and compliant, going to a job YOU FUCKING HATE, dating women who don't look like Megan Fox, having kids who tie you down and spouses you grow to resent. It is the life of MEDIOCRITY and MISERY... Everyone wants to be AWESOME and roll hardcore like Tyler Durden and wear cool clothes and have the best physique and sunglasses...

The movie pinpoints this disconnect for anyone whose entire life is bullshit but they want to be some awesome player working the room and fucking dudes up and banging chicks, but instead you're a pasty, douchey suburban pussy with no friends and no life, hoping for some windfall that's never gonna come, writing some spec script no one wants to read, or performing somewhere in a vacuum, too old to ever really impress the truly hot women or make serious money.

Posted by LexG at November 22, 2009 2:50 PM

comment #16

Uncle Milty says ...

First time I've ever completely, 100% agreed with Lex.

Fight Club, Seven, and Zodiac represent, so far, the best of Fincher.

Posted by Uncle Milty at November 22, 2009 3:02 PM

comment #17

Tristan Eldritch2 says ...

Being "some awesome player working the room and fucking dudes up and banging chicks" is the wish-fulfilment fantasy that corperate capitalism sells you, in order to keep you ticking over in the job YOU FUCKING HATE. I thought that was the whole point of Fight Club. If you want to to "wear cool clothes and have the best physique and sunglasses" well, in the long term, that probably works out better for people in the gym, clothing, and sunglasses business than for you. Fight Club and Taxi Driver are very different movies, Taxi Driver being the vastly superior of the two, but i don't think their directors meant either Tyler Durden or Travis Bickle to be heroic figures.

Posted by Tristan Eldritch2 at November 22, 2009 3:13 PM

comment #18

Eloi Manning says ...

"Fight Club, Seven, and Zodiac represent, so far, the best of Fincher."

Correct.

Seven is perhaps his best. One of the best of the 1990s, no doubt.

Posted by Eloi Manning at November 22, 2009 3:17 PM

comment #19

LexG says ...

Tyler Durden is GOD.

And Travis Bickle is totally meant as a hero.

Posted by LexG at November 22, 2009 3:26 PM

comment #20

Gordon27 says ...

Yeah, I think it's all been downhill from 'Seven'. Not straight downhill, since 'Zodiac' is better than 'Fight Club' or 'Panic Room'. But he never made a movie that worked as well all the way through as 'Seven'.

Posted by Gordon27 at November 22, 2009 3:27 PM

comment #21

JohnCope says ...

Seven and Fight Club are far smarter movies than many (including often their own advocates) give them credit for. That being said, Panic Room is criminally underrated and equally profound in a sublime sort of way and The Game may very well still emerge as Fincher's best, an unqualified masterpiece.

Posted by JohnCope at November 22, 2009 3:45 PM

comment #22

Tristan Eldritch2 says ...

Don't understand the love for Seven at all. The end of that movie is cinema as its most cheap and manipulative - woo, look whats in the box, its your pretty, pregnant dead wife's head! No connection to reality whatosever- just a scriptwriter trying to gross you out. Its about as scary and unsettling as a Metallica album cover.

Posted by Tristan Eldritch2 at November 22, 2009 4:00 PM

comment #23

actionman says ...

one of the most stylish movies of all time

Posted by actionman at November 22, 2009 4:02 PM

comment #24

JohnCope says ...

"The end of that movie is cinema as its most cheap and manipulative - woo, look whats in the box, its your pretty, pregnant dead wife's head!"

I would say that it's all considerably more carefully structured than that.

Posted by JohnCope at November 22, 2009 4:07 PM

comment #25

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

in general, I get what you're saying. But there's a huge difference between the necessity of buying clothes to WEAR, as opposed to buying a bulk of brand clothing just to collect shit and to look good.

I love the Fight Club and I agree with the film's message against materialism (and consumerism). I don't collect shit and I try to avoid buying crap. But once in a while I buy new shoes or new clothes because I need something to wear. So I resent the notion that if we buy clothes, we're automatically materialistic like those shopaholic morons who buy, buy, buy shit to fill up their houses and wardrobes.

Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk at November 22, 2009 4:13 PM

comment #26

Apemantus says ...

corporations, tedious jobs and duvets are bad. ripped abs, sunglasses, sweet threads are good. Profound stuff, no doubt. Emasculation revenge fantasies are powerful ... just ask a suicide bomber.

Posted by Apemantus at November 22, 2009 4:32 PM

comment #27

Joel says ...

Tyler Durden's message was anti-consumerism, but I'm not sure the movie's message was that. Project Mayhem was filled with mindless idiots, and the movie points that out pretty clearly (Robert Paulson's death, for instance). Furthermore, the narrator tries to stop the bombs.

Posted by Joel at November 22, 2009 4:55 PM

comment #28

Mighty Kornholio says ...

I agree, it was great the first time, the second time I watched it I didn't enjoy it very much.

Posted by Mighty Kornholio at November 22, 2009 5:37 PM

comment #29

reverent and free says ...

Presumably Tyler is only the "hero" of Fight Club the way Howard Beale is the "hero" of Network. That is, if the movie is a satire of anti-establishmentarianism. But I never liked the movie that much. I remember when the movie came out it was hyped as the next A Clockwork Orange or Taxi Driver. I was disappointed. Frankly, it doesn't give you that much to think about other than "yeah, there's a lot of aimless, angst-ridden young guys who want to feel like men". Otherwise, it feels mostly like cheap thrills and black comedy.

Posted by reverent and free at November 22, 2009 6:18 PM

comment #30

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=202303650 says ...

Tristan Eldritch2 Author Profile Page says ...

ANd on and on,infinity..

Someone get Lex a girlfriend that he likes,please.

Posted by www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=202303650 at November 22, 2009 6:22 PM

comment #31

DeeZee says ...

Be honest, Jeff. You stopped caring about Fight Club after Benjamin Button, right? Personally, I thought the flick lost its impact when it got co-opted by angsty teens who listen to acts like Linkin Park and South Park Republicans.

As for why FOX invested in it, it's obvious. Seven was a hit, and Pitt was attached, so it was a no-brainer. Of course, by the time the studio blew money on the pic, it was too late to stop it from bombing in theaters. What I'm wondering is why they bet on Choke. Who the fuck thought Sam Rockwell was a star, and that a psychological take on American Pie would do well with audiences?

Anyway, http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cfightclub.html

Tulse: No, I still like Scarface, in spite of the rap appropriation, because it has a sense of humour.
Watching Fight Club now feels like listening to Glenn Beck try to win an argument.

Milty: "The best, and most important, film of the nineties."

Wait, I thought that was Pulp Fiction, since everything in that decade was inlfuenced by it, even Terminator 2, Schindler's List, and Goodfellas. Anyway, for me, the movie of the decade is a toss-up between Fear and Loathing and Shawshank Redemption.

Lex: Yeah, Office Space would be a third film I'd put up for "movie of the decade". And yeah, I can sort of agree with you about FC being relatable, but there's a point where it just ends up dragging out, and being confused about where to go next. Maybe that's the idea, but I always feel like the second half of FC ended up being more chicken-shit than the first half promised. That's sort of why I dig Battle Royale more-because it doesn't pull out when things heat up.

Tristan: Actually, I have to go further, and acknowledge that you could predict that ending, too. But that really wasn't the point of the film. It was about whether or not Pitt's character was really any different from the scum he apprehended on a regular basis.

Posted by DeeZee at November 22, 2009 6:39 PM

comment #32

Eloi Manning says ...

Office Space is a fun comedy but it's nowhere near movie of the decade for the '90s. Its reputation far outstrips the movie itself.

Posted by Eloi Manning at November 22, 2009 6:55 PM

comment #33

Jonah says ...

"Wait, I thought that was Pulp Fiction, since everything in that decade was inlfuenced by it, even Terminator 2, Schindler's List, and Goodfellas. Anyway, for me, the movie of the decade is a toss-up between Fear and Loathing and Shawshank Redemption."

First, I never said Pulp Fiction was the best or most important film of the nineties. However it is my second favorite movie of the nineties.

Also, I never said it influenced the movies you listed. That would be silly as they were released prior to Pulp Fiction.

Shawshank is good, but very overrated. Fear and Loathing I can't disagree with, but it would be further down my list.

Posted by Jonah at November 22, 2009 8:59 PM

comment #34

reverent and free says ...

DeeZee, Goodfellas and Schindler's List came out before Pulp Fiction, so it's more likely Goodfellas influenced Pulp Fiction, and I would call it the more influential picture overall. Ray Liotta's narration and the freeze frame character introductions to name a few, have been ripped off in countless other films and television shows.

Posted by reverent and free at November 22, 2009 9:02 PM

comment #35

reverent and free says ...

And honestly, not to slight Tarantino's success, but sometimes I wonder if Pulp Fiction isn't credited for more influence than it actually had. If there had been no Tarantino, there still would've been the Coens.

Posted by reverent and free at November 22, 2009 9:22 PM

comment #36

Uncle Milty says ...

Uncle Milty=Jonah

Posted by Uncle Milty at November 22, 2009 10:34 PM

comment #37

ZayTonday says ...

Fight Club is awesome. Not every movie needs to be socially responsible and as for you guys who make that INCREDIBLY WITTY AND ORIGINAL argument that "I'm still amused that large corporation spent $60mil making a movie about anti-commercialism", kill yourself. Just a little thought, I'm just trying to plant seeds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88xapT0Ekzg

Posted by ZayTonday at November 22, 2009 10:44 PM

comment #38

ZayTonday says ...

Also, the movie pretty much points out that for as much as Tyler rails against conformity and structure, the guys in project mayhem are every bit as mindless as the pencil pushers.

Posted by ZayTonday at November 22, 2009 10:47 PM

comment #39

hunterd says ...

Okay, there is no way LexG is a real person. I refuse to believe that any adult could be so stupid as to so thoroughly miss the point of Fight Club.

I could go on my usual rant about how the film finds its' basis on Kant, Hegel, and Brecht, but anyone who cares about that stuff already knows this.

Posted by hunterd at November 22, 2009 11:17 PM

comment #40

hunterd says ...

I will however ask if anyone else was reminded of Jordorowsky's sublime, "The Holy Mountain" during the "His name is Robert Paulson" scene in Fight Club.

Posted by hunterd at November 22, 2009 11:20 PM

comment #41