Visually Stunning

Rating: 9/10 (21 July 2004)

Being a certain kind of film geek, I don't follow actors and actresses' films as much as I am a Director Groupie, and David Fincher is one of those directors whose films I will always watch, sight unseen. One of the reasons for this (from me) high form of esteem is the film `Fight Club'. There has been so much written about this extraordinary film, that I'm not going to go into anything specific about it, certainly not the `message', or the great acting by Brad Pitt and Ed Norton, or the brilliant screenplay. What I am going to vehemently aver is that `Fight Club' is one of the most visually stunning films produced in the last two decades. Fincher displays top visual form in this film and creates such brilliant and disturbing eye candy that it is almost impossible to absorb in one sitting. There are many individual scenes (for one, the entire first 15 minutes) that are so great that I will just grab the DVD and pop it in to the player to sit and watch for a bit, trying to see what I've possibly missed the last twenty times I've seen the film in the last five years.
Like the time I saw `Gladiator' and got quite upset over some of the in your face, non-cartoonish violence and a friend of mine chided me with, `Um the name of the film is Gladiator', what did you expect?', `Fight Club' is a violent, disturbing film  the title, after all, is `Fight Club'. However, disturbing and violent never looked so cool. Until Quentin gave us `Kill Bill'. Fincher's slick video direction past is glaringly resplendent in `Fight Club', and while I don't recommend it to all, I recommend it to those who don't look for a structured film. However, above all recommendations, I recommend that you read the book by Chuck Palahniuk first  it is a definite enhancement to the film viewing experience.
--Shelly