Fight Club appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Across the board, the movie boasted a strong transfer.
Sharpness consistently satisfied. At all times, the film displayed good clarity and definition, as virtually no softness materialized. Jagged edges and shimmering were absent, and I also noticed no edge enhancement. In terms of source flaws, the movie lacked specks, marks or other distractions. Grain was prominent, but that was a stylistic choice.
Colors appeared muted and stylized; they went with a sickly green tint much of the time and often were quite subdued. Within those parameters, they seemed accurate and came across the way I believe they were intended to look. Blacks were deep and rich, but shadows were a bit on the heavy side. This seemed to be intentional, as Fincher went with a dark look typical of much of his work. This became a very good representation of the film.
As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Fight Club, the soundfield seemed broad and well-defined. The audio often could be quite aggressive and provided an encompassing track. All five speakers got a good workout, with unique sounds that went to each channel but that also blended together neatly and largely seamlessly. Club was a "busy" film visually, and the active sound mix complemented the images well.
The quality also appeared solid. Dialogue occasionally betrayed a slight amount of edginess but it usually seemed natural and clear; I had no problems with intelligibility. Music - which mainly came from the score by Dust Brothers - seemed rich and crisp, with all of the techno tracks sounding appropriately deep and lively. Effects were terrific, as they appeared realistic and vivid. The soundtrack displayed fine dynamic range, with clean highs and deep bass. Club offered audio that satisfied.
How do the picture and audio of this Blu-ray compare to the original DVD? Visuals demonstrated the most obvious improvements. The DVD had problems with definition and source flaws that made it barely worthy of a “B-“. The Blu-ray eliminated all of these concerns and offered a transfer that was a much better representation of the film.
Though not as extreme, I thought the audio also worked a little better. In particular, the lossless DTS track showed better range and clarity. The old Dolby Digital mix worked fine, but the DTS-MA edition was just a smidgen more involving and dynamic.
The Blu-ray provides the same extras found on the DVD plus some new bits. I’ll mark the exclusives with special blue print.
We launch with four separate audio commentaries. First up is a track from director David Fincher. He offers a running, screen-specific discussion of how he became involved in the project and aspects of its development, story/character issues and changes from the book, cast and performances, the title sequence, visual elements and effects, editing, and a few other production areas.
Fincher's a veteran of these affairs, and he offers a lot of strong information here. Fincher is more frank about his work than most directors, so we get a nicely unvarnished viewpoint of the film's production. The commentary has more empty spaces than I'd like, but Fincher makes it a compelling piece that’s definitely worth a listen.
For the second commentary, we hear from Fincher and actors Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. The three men were recorded together - though it sounded like a few comments came from solo interviews - and Bonham Carter was taped on her own. Though a few other production topics appear as well, this one concentrates mostly on performance and character notes.
And it proves quite interesting. The men heavily dominate the piece; I’d guess we only hear from Bonham Carter maybe 10 percent of the time. Her tidbits make a mark, though, as she offers good insights.
As for the guys, they also offer plenty of useful thoughts, and they interact well to make the track move smoothly. I could live without all the praise that comes along for the ride – we often hear how much they like this or that – and the frequent negativity toward certain critics gets old as well; they should just accept some folks didn’t like the movie and leave it at that. Nonetheless, the positive far outweighs the negative in this solid track.
Next we find a commentary from novelist Chuck Palahniuk and screenwriter Jim Uhls, both of whom sit together for a running, screen-specific piece. Through this track, we get notes about the film’s origins and inspirations, story and character issues, the adaptation and changes from the source novel.
Of the four, this track suffers the most from dead air, a lot of gaps occur. These become most noticeable in the third act, but they pop up often during the first 90 minutes as well. The empty spots make the commentary sag on more than a few occasions.
Nonetheless, the discussion remains entertaining. We learn a lot about the genesis of the project and the inspiration for many aspects of it, but we also see the film from an "informed fan" point of view. It sounds like these two weren't in on much of the movie's day-to-day creation - in the DVD's booklet, Palahniuk called himself a "tourist" during the production period - so they chat about it like above-average Joes. I wish the guys talked more, but at least they make the most of the times when they do speak.
Finally, the fourth commentary relates a variety of notes about technical areas. We hear from director of photography Jeff Cronenweth, costume designer Michael Kaplan, production designer Alex McDowell, visual effects supervisor Kevin Haug, and digital animator Richard "Doc" Bailey. As you might expect, this one digs into effects, cinematography, editing, costumes, and set design.
Inevitably, we get repetition here; it’s the fourth track, so some of the same stories appear. It’s also the driest of the bunch, as it digs into more technical elements than the others. Nonetheless, it provides a lot of good details. I think the notes about costumes prove the most intriguing, but everything works pretty well. It’s an enjoyable piece, even though it drags toward the end.
Some Blu-ray exclusives arrive next. We get an interactive feature via A Hit in the Ear: Ren Klyce and the Sound Design of Fight Club. In an introduction, Klyce tells us a little about his job as sound designer and his work on Club. From there, we can remix the audio for four scenes: “Welcome to Fight Club”, “Angel Face’s Beating”, “The Crash” and “Kudzu Vine Speech”. Intros from Klyce lead into each of the four sequences. You can jump from “Real World” to “Jack’s POV” and adjust the audio in all five channels. It’s an interesting and effective way to explore sound design.
New footage comes out in the nine-minute and 58-second Flogging Fight Club. This takes us to something called the “Guys Choice Awards” from Spike TV. Mel Gibson presents the citation of Club as a Guys Classic; Fincher, Norton and Pitt accept the award. In addition to shots of those guys as they accept, we see the three as they prepare to go onstage. It’s self-congratulatory but still somewhat entertaining.
For something unusual, we go to Insomniac Mode: I Am Jack’s Search Index. This breaks into two subdomains. “Topic Search” covers subjects from “A” (“Abraham Lincoln”) to “Z” (“Zach Grenier”). When you select one, you may have additional choices as well. Eventually you’ll end up somewhere that discusses the option you picked; this may take you to a commentary or a behind the scenes piece, but you’ll jump right to the selected area. It’s a clever way to allow viewers to investigate topics that interest them.
In addition, we find a “Commentary Guide”. If you select this, you’ll see a running list of subjects as the movie progresses. Each one tells us what’s being discussed in the four different commentaries; you can easily jump from one to the other to hear what interests you. I like the interactive options in “Insomniac” and think it’s a cool addition.
Under Behind the Scenes, a bunch of materials appear. "Production" begins with Alternate Main Titles, a piece that lets you witness the opening credits in a number of different ways. Using alternate angles, it gives us the unutilized sequence without text, an incomplete preview version, and two editions with differing fonts (called "Strangelove" and "Small Science", respectively). In addition, you can choose from two different audio tracks: the main title theme, and an alternate main title theme.
The piece runs for one minute and 35 seconds, so we're talking 12 minutes and 40 seconds total if every option is pursued to its end. "AMT" also includes "Brain Ride Map", a collection of 34 stillframes that show production art, drawings and notes about the segment.
Airport provides two video segments, "Location Scout" and "Principal Photography", plus three audio tracks; the first two are the natural audio from the material, while the third incorporates commentary from Fincher. The two video pieces can be watched separately or at the same time through a split-screen method; if you choose the latter, you have to pick one of the two audio tracks. (For a bizarre experience, select the wrong audio!) Each segment runs for two minutes and 10 seconds, so all in all, that gives us six minutes and 30 seconds total. We also find a stillframe area with eight storyboards.
Jack's Condo duplicates the options for in "Airport", with two different video segments and three audio tracks, plus the ability to watch both pieces simultaneously via split-screen. One nice touch: when Fincher tells the crew what he wants to happen for various segments, an inset box with the relevant film footage or other video material appears. (This accompanies many of the other parts as well, but I won't comment on it again - you can assume that if such a feature makes sense within the video, it will appear.) Each piece goes for two minutes and 50 seconds, so that's a total of eight minutes and 30 seconds. In addition, 23 frames worth of storyboards appear.
Paper Street House differs a little from the preceding template; instead of "Location Scout", we get "Pre-production Designing and Building the House" plus the "Principal Photography" segment. The split-screen option remains, but we find no commentary. On their own, the clips last five and a half minutes for 11 minutes all in all.
Projection Booth reverts to the same "Location Scout" and "Principal Photography" method and also includes the split-screen view, but no commentary appears. Each part takes two minutes, so that's a grand total of four minutes of material. We also find 11 frames of storyboards.
Corporate Art Ball puts both "Location Scout" and "Principal Photography" in the same piece and offers something different for the second angle: "Pre-visualization, raw footage, digital effects". The corresponding natural audio goes with the first one, while the second provides an audio commentary from special effects supervisor Kevin Haug and special effects coordinator Cliff Wenger. Each segment lasts three minutes and 55 seconds for a sum of seven minutes and 50 seconds. This part also tosses in 12 storyboards and completes the "Production" subsection.
Next comes Visual Effects. Its first piece addresses the Main Titles and provides video footage of the computer effects in progress. For the audio, you can choose from two different commentary tracks; one from Kevin Haug and the other from visual effects supervisor Kevin Mack. The video lasts two minutes and 55 seconds, for a total of six minutes and 50 seconds possible. It also repeats the "Brain Map" seen earlier.
Furni Catalog examines that scene's effects. The only audio option is a commentary from Haug, and the piece runs two minutes and 20 seconds. We also get nine screens of storyboards.
Ice Cave/Power Animal provides some principal photography shots plus details of the computer generated penguin. The "PP" footage uses raw sound from the set, while the CGI is accompanied by more commentary from Haug. It lasts three minutes and 15 seconds and the section also includes seven storyboards.
The cool CG first-person technique called Photogrammetry comes next. The video shows lots of raw effects and features additional commentary from Haug. The program runs for three minutes and 30 seconds and tosses in eight storyboards as well.
Mid-air Collision discusses the sequence that most startled me, sound-wise through video footage of a "Previsualization Session" plus some basic CG effects. This includes some raw audio plus comments from Haug on one track and Mack and Wenger on the other. The piece lasts four minutes and 40 seconds, for a possible total of nine minutes and 20 seconds. No storyboards this time.
Sex Sequence examines the creation of that scene through some CG imagery and is accompanied by a commentary from Haug. The piece lasts two minutes and 35 seconds and it also includes seven storyboards.
Car Crash mainly offers principal photography footage of that segment, and it also tosses in brief glimpses of CG through inset boxes. The piece can be viewed with its natural audio or with a commentary from Wenger. It lasts three minutes and 50 seconds for a possible total of seven minutes and 40 seconds and the area also features 40 storyboards.
Gun Shot also mixed principal photography and examinations of the computer effects. The three-minute program provides some raw sound but mainly offers commentary from Haug. No storyboards appear.
Finally, High Rise Collapse shows production footage and various states of computer effects, and it's accompanied by commentary from Haug and "Doc" Bailey. It runs for four minutes and 40 seconds, and it also doesn't include any storyboards.
With that, we go On Location. This gives us a five-minute and 24-second compendium of various shots from the set and other areas. We see sights such as Meat Loaf putting on and testing his fat suit, Pitt getting a head cast made and practicing fighting, and demonstrations of the liposuctioned fat. All of the audio comes straight from the source.
All told, if you watch all of the materials available in the “Behind the Scenes” area, you'll spend about 95 and a half minutes doing so. That doesn't include the time it takes to examine the 159 stillframes.
Seven Deleted and Alternate Scenes arrive next. Most of these are actually alternate versions or different edits of existing scenes; for example, one offers a different line of dialogue from Bonham Carter. In all cases, the segments show the alternate version and also the final one from the film. Two snippets also included some "behind the scenes" footage as well. Each of the sections ranges from 30 seconds up to three minutes and 15 seconds; all of the pieces together - including the "behind the scenes" stuff - run for 17 minutes, 41 seconds.
One nice touch: when you select each of the deleted scenes, a snippet of text appears that explains why the material was altered or removed. Due to notes in the commentaries, I already knew why a lot of these changes were made, but I still really appreciated the additional information.
Publicity Material is where we find all of the materials used to promote the film. The section includes the movie's teaser and its theatrical trailer, plus another teaser called The Eight Rules of Fight Club; that one was unused. We also get 12 US TV spots, two international TV ads, and three Spanish promos. Unfortunately, the latter aren't dubbed; we hear a narrator on two of them but the film's dialogue appears via subtitles. At least we get to see a bar of soap that says "El Club De La
Pelea"!
PSAs features two "Public Service Announcements". One is from Jack/Norton, the other from Tyler/Pitt. Each offers the usual pre-movie information we've heard so many times (don't talk, know where the fire exit is, etc.) but they add their little twists.
Next is a music video from the Dust Brothers. On the surface, this appears to be the standard "montage of film clips" piece, but it does have some differences. For one, it features a unique voice-over from Pitt, who exclaims the usual Durdenisms but adds some I didn't recognize. It also hasn't been altered for TV, so it's an "R"-rated video. Ultimately, it's not much more than a glorified trailer, but it's not bad.
Speaking of "glorified trailers", the Internet Spots section includes five brief ads that feature material not seen elsewhere. Essentially, these combine film footage with "talking to the camera" clips of Norton shot just for these ads.
The Promotional Gallery includes a variety of materials. "Lobby Cards/Advertising" includes 20 frames of promotional photos and posters, while "Press Kit" replicates the film's unique publicity brochure; the kit appeared as if it were a catalog similar to those upscale deals lampooned in the film. We see a pretty good sampling of the kit through these 34 frames. Finally, "Stills" provides 155 photos from the production.
The last piece in the “Promotional Gallery” is an Edward Norton Interview. This offers a text transcript of an appearance he made at Yale in October 1999. It's not a terrifically long interview, but it covers some interesting material.
Finally, an Art Gallery includes a lot more stillframes. Storyboards replicates each and every storyboard created for the film. It does so in a whopping 267 frames, each of which offers up to four storyboards. (While this presentation makes each board harder to see, it allows for much easier navigation, so I appreciate it.) Text at the start helpfully tells us that some scenes weren't storyboarded so we won't find them. We also get a nice index that lets us jump ahead 30 pages of boards at a time, which also should be helpful.
Visual Effects Stills offers 17 frames worth of "behind the scenes" pictures and details of some effects. Paper Street House presents 45 stills that show various shots of the interior and exterior of that building. Oddly, the first eight frames go by on their own without the usual "frame advance" input required, while the remaining 37 must be changed manually. I don't know if this is an authoring error or intentional, but it seems odd.
Costumes and Makeup includes 22 more frames. Some of these feature sketches of costume designs, while the rest depict various ideas for injury makeup. A Pre-production Paintings area includes 50 frames worth of conceptual artwork. Finally, the Brain Ride Map again offers the same piece also available in the two previous sections that discussed the main titles.
When you launch the Blu-ray, you’ll get a special surprise. Initially the disc presents a menu for a different film. This eventually morphs into a rotating look at Jack’s apartment that spotlights the furniture purchases. The opening is a clever way to make the Blu-ray a little special.
Whew! After more than nine hours of audio commentaries and more than four hours spent checking out the other supplements, I'm exhausted! Fight Club provides a very extensive set of supplemental materials, and most of the pieces are very good. I greatly enjoyed the video clips in the Work area because I love that kind of raw,
taken-from-the-set stuff. Nothing better shows the reality of making movies. Work definitely presents the standout section here.
The rest are also good. I admit I hoped for more extensive deleted scenes in Missing; we don't find all that much footage once already-included shots are assessed. Still, I was happy to see the scenes. Advertising pretty neatly documents that area of the process, and Art did a nice job of relating that information (though I'm a bit worn out from all the advancing of still frames).
Quibbles? I must acknowledge that I would have liked a nice documentary to provide a general overview of the filmmaking process, mainly because this could have provided more organized and coherent interviews with the principles. We certainly hear a lot from them during the four audio commentaries, but a more formal interview situation might have better organized and directed their thoughts. I also was disappointed that one shot in which Norton gets tapped by a bus (which he mentions during the commentary) doesn't appear, though I seem to recall that Fincher stated it may not have been available.
Does the Blu-ray lose anything from the DVD? Yes, but not much. The most prominent omission comes from the absence of the DVD’s booklet. That was a good little text that I really liked. Also, we may lose some Easter eggs. I was unable to find them on the Blu-ray, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. If anyone finds them, let me know!
Those are about the only nits I can pick in regard to this amazing package. As a film, I like Fight Club, though I remain surprisingly dispassionate about it. Nonetheless, I definitely am much closer to the side that loved it than the ones who hated it.
As for the Blu-ray, its picture and sound quality are top-notch, and it includes a stellar roster of extras. This is a great release, and it definitely improves on the original 2000 DVD, especially in terms of visuals. New fans will love the set, and it’s a worthwhile upgrade for those who already own the old DVD.
To rate this film, visit the Special Edition review of FIGHT CLUB
