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Unrelentingly savage and diabolically witty, Fight Club romanticizes violence as the last recourse of men who feel emasculated by the drudgery and predictability of modern urban life. That sentiment is initially articulated by narrator Edward Norton, playing an angst-ridden corporate drone who anesthetizes himself with mindless consumerism and support-group participation. Norton's unnamed character is roused from his torpor after encountering soap salesman Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt, sweeping away the last vestiges of his glamour-boy image), charismatic leader of disaffected males who hold clandestine meetings and achieve self-realization by pummeling one another into submission. Director David Fincher (Seven), working from an irony-laced script by Jim Uhls (adapted from the novel by Chuck Palahniuk), drenches his able cast in testosterone and assaults the audience with graphic sequences of hand-to-hand combat. Mesmerizing in its almost fetishistic depiction of brutality, Fight Club seizes the viewer's attention from the beginning and grips it firmly through the shocking surprise ending. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

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. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 024543044796
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 2:19:00
• Sales Rank: 1,002

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Action Pack
• Fight Club / Kiss of the Dragon

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