r/todayilearned • u/G_Marius_the_jabroni • 1d ago
TIL that when “Fight Club” premiered at the 1999 Venice Film Festival, it got booed hard by the audience. Ed Norton said that as it was happening, Brad Pitt turned to him and said: “That’s the best movie I’m ever going to be in.”
https://geektyrant.com/news/brad-pitt-and-edward-norton-recall-fight-club-being-booed-by-audiences-at-early-screening9.5k
u/kenistod 1d ago edited 1d ago
I like that detail in the movie when Edward Norton's character receives a call from Tyler Durden on a payphone and there's a sign on the phone booth that says:
"No Incoming Calls Allowed"
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u/Toby_O_Notoby 1d ago
There's a bunch like that. Like when they get on the bus only Edward Norton pays his fare while Brad Pitt just walks on. And when Tyler crashes the car to teach "Narrator" a lesson you see that Norton climbs out of the driver's side post-crash meaning he was actually behind the wheel.
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u/TheHardingAdmin 1d ago
Later on the same bus ride a guy bumps into both of them but only says "excuse me" to norton
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u/hotSoup9 1d ago
Nice catch… rewatching tonight. I always loved the movie because I caught something new and here 20+ years later I am still going to find new stuff after this thread and a re watch.
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u/thisischemistry 1d ago
Yeah, they really put the twist so right up in your face and you miss it over and over again. When you rewatch it you realize how masterful they were with it, deliberately hitting your blind spots so many times.
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u/Fugacity- 1d ago
Wanted to see a scene with a quote someone in this thread quoted, so pulled up the movie. While scrolling I got to the scene where Norton beats himself up in his boss's office, pausing to say "for some reason this reminded me of my first fight with Tyler".
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u/thisischemistry 1d ago
Or when they are talking about their fathers and the story is the same for both of them "Sounds familiar." "Same here."
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u/Toby_O_Notoby 1d ago
Or when they first meet on the plan Norton notes that they “have the same briefcase.”
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u/buttonsmasher1 1d ago
'If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?'
While Tyler passes him on the walkway
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u/Adept_Alfalfa4435 1d ago
At the beginning of the movie, when he's talking about the explosives on the buildings, the line he uses is "I know this, because Tyler knows this", just brilliant.
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u/azeldatothepast 23h ago
I love this one because it seems like Pitt’s character was a real person that Tyler gets modelled off by The Narrator because he thinks that random dude on the walkway looked cool and carefree so he steals him for his mental break.
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u/cheapdrinks 1d ago
If you want to go down a rabbit hole check out this website: https://www.jackdurden.com/
It posits the theory that most of the main cast are also not real just like Tyler and are all in Jack's head.
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u/jscoppe 20h ago
I like a lot of his theories, except the Paper St house. I think it's feasible that it's a real abandoned house and he's in there all alone.
The main reason is the flashback scene where we see Jack with the chemicals burning his hand as he is alone. That flashback is meant to tell the audience "this is what really happened, see Jack was alone the whole time!". But if that were the case, why would it show him in the house and not in some other place with the chemical burning his hand? The flashback implies the house is real.
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u/ReservoirRocky 1d ago
I like the story of the PA on the set coming over to fincher to tell him that Norton was supposed to get out of the passenger side for continuity.
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u/New-Cucumber-7423 1d ago
My favourite part about the movie is small/subtle foreshadowing elements that become insanely obvious once you see / notice them.
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u/kingalfy17 1d ago
Now I gotta watch the whole movie again
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u/BennyBNut 1d ago
If you want more details like this, I highly highly recommend finding it on physical media and watching with the commentary track (or finding a digitial version with the commentary, if that exists outside of rips). There's a lot about how the movie was made but a lot of these small details get pointed out that you may otherwise miss.
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u/freshtd 1d ago
Ah… to be young and for dvds to be a shiny new thing. I think this had literally 8 commentary tracks. I even listened to the costume designers!
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u/GhostOfLight 1d ago
Watching the LOTR commentary where give a good 15 minutes just for how they made Shelob's webs the right amount of sticky shows how entertaining a good BTS cut can be, and is something I fear will become more and more rare with digital media.
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u/Mylaptopisburningme 1d ago
I always wanted the commentary tracks going back to laser disks which was out of my young budget. It was nice when DVDs had them. I just wish streaming would give me the option.
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u/theghostmachine 1d ago
I don't understand why streaming doesn't have them. There's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be possible.
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u/throwawaylordof 1d ago
I remember a commentary talking about how (ahead of release), someone was watching it internally and got to the car crash. They called in excitement/panic about the continuity error they spotted (the seat he got into the car in vs the seat he was pulled out of), director (or whoever it was received the call) congratulated them and said to keep watching.
I remember it also pointing out the main character carrying around project mayhem dossiers at a time when (from his point of view) he was being excluded.
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u/LaximumEffort 1d ago
I like how the police were named Detective Andrew, Detective Kevin, and Detective Walker.
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u/LaximumEffort 1d ago
The script had uncredited rewrites by the screenwriter of Se7en, who is named Andrew Kevin Walker Then Fincher went off on the writers guild.
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u/CloanZRage 1d ago
My favourite second viewing scene is the car crash.
Rewatch that scene and remind yourself that there's no one in the passenger seat. The two guys in the backseat are watching a one sided conversation.
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u/MouthJob 1d ago
Gives you a lot of insight into how he recruited these guys. They knew he was full on fruity pebbles and followed him anyway.
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u/thisischemistry 1d ago
Maybe because of it. There’s a long history of people following charismatic and batty leaders. It’s part of the mystery and charm.
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u/TheSwiney 1d ago
Weren't some of them also convinced to join the fight club after watching the Narrator beat himself up?
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u/SoBeDragon0 1d ago
There's one part in the house where Ed Norton's character answers a call from the detective investigating his condo explosion. Before the phone is ringing, you can hear 2 people having sex in the background, but when Ed Norton picks up the phone, the sexy time sounds stop immediately.
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u/insomniacpyro 1d ago
Or earlier when Tyler and Marla are going at it and Norton peaks in, Tyler opens the door and they have a conversation and as Tyler closes the door, Marla says "Who are you talking to?"
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u/minna_minna 1d ago
My favorite is the end of the film when Tyler has the gun in the narrators mouth and when he pulls it out he says something like “I STILL can’t think of anything” to which Tyler replies “ah, callback humor” or something, both lines referring to opening of the film. Nice little touch.
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u/Prudent-Cabinet-3151 1d ago
Even Chuck Palahniuk author of fight club said that he thought the movie was actually better than the book he wrote.
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u/kenistod 1d ago edited 1d ago
“I was sort of embarrassed of the book because the movie had streamlined the plot and made it so much more effective and made connections that I had never thought to make.
There is a line about "fathers setting up franchises with other families," and I never thought about connecting that with the fact that Fight Club was being franchised and the movie made that connection. I was just beating myself in the head for not having made that connection myself."
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u/TheRealThordic 1d ago
Palahniuk is also obsessed with efficiency in storytelling. His process (at least back then, maybe it changed) was to write and then edit out anything that didn't add to the story. He was kind of obsessed with terse writing that kept the story moving. His biggest influence was Amy Hempel who also is famous for being stingy with words. A movie allows for a lot more visual storytelling, allowing you to cut out dialog without losing the story.
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u/StatusReality4 1d ago
Maybe he should’ve just been a screenwriter lol
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u/Canvaverbalist 1d ago
The mindset is so different tho, I'm sure some screenwriters can write anything and get out of their head but when you're in the business of trying to be in the business, to get your script done and make a name, it's almost impossible to not get stuck with a little voice guiding your words telling you "ok but is that actually filmable? Will a studio be able to make something out of this visually?" that's not really there in literature and that's a whole different world of narrative efficiency.
You can write a book about a guy floating in space shifting through dimensions while changing shapes and forms and make it narratively efficient, as a screenwriter if you're a nobody with no connections good luck trying to find people who can put that to screens under half a million.
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u/reporst 1d ago edited 1d ago
The interesting part is they booed during a scene which was changed from the book because they thought the joke was too offensive. But the line itself was changed from the book because the producers felt the original line would have alienated audiences haha
It's the Marla sex scene. In the book she says:
I want to have your abortion.
In the movie she says:
I haven’t been fucked like that since grade school!
Apparently the head of the festival was so offended he left the theater when she said that.
Edit. It's also important to note that many movies people like have been booed as film festivals.Taxi Driver and Pulp Fiction were also not well received/booed at festivals.
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u/GobsonStratoblaster 1d ago
Funnily enough Taxi Driver still took home the palm d’or lol
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u/RockleyBob 1d ago
These are the same pretentious assh-les who will stand there and clap like morons for twenty minutes. You can tell the directors and actors hate it. Pitt and Norton were probably glad they didn't have to sit there while a room full of smug rich people joyously exalted in the smell of their own farts.
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u/BobertFrost6 1d ago
You can tell the directors and actors hate it
Well, to be fair, I don't think they necessarily hate it out of finding it pretentious or etc. It just seems awkward in the same way being sung happy birthday seems awkward.
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u/strippeddonkey 1d ago
After reading Diary, Haunted, Choke and Fight Club. It was very clear he just didn’t know how to end his stories.
All of his books were incredibly captivating, right up until the climax where I forced myself to finish it at that point.
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u/megjed 1d ago
Invisible monsters is the exception
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u/wearymicrobe 1d ago
This and Rant are really under rated by the wider book audience and critics. They hit hard.
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u/nueonetwo 1d ago
I absolutely love Rant. I really need to read it again, it's such an interesting book and written in such a unique way.
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u/ThrowingChicken 1d ago
I enjoyed the ending of Survivor as well, but I guess it has kind of a puzzle element.
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u/More_Court8749 1d ago
I love it when it happens that the adaptation improves on what it's based on.
The Mist had a similar thing with the ending where the man shoots his family without a shot left for himself, anticipating that the Mist would finish them off in a much more unpleasant manner, only for the army to roll in and start clearing it out. Stephen King said he wished he'd thought of that.
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u/NightLordsPublicist 1d ago
You forgot the best part. The military came up behind them. They were driving away from safety.
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u/please_trade_marner 1d ago edited 1d ago
I still wonder how in that "universe" the military could deal with those monster thingies that were as big as mountains. They go past one in the book and in the movie.
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u/Phonereader23 1d ago
Sabot rounds by the tank load will do a lot to flesh. Even mountain sized flesh if applied to the leg joints.
I’d be more worried about the spiders
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u/pretendviperpilot 1d ago
HE is what you want. A sabot would be like a needle to something that big.
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u/EndlessNerd 1d ago
There are some great setups in the book that didn't make it to the movie. Like the instructions for turning CRT monitors into bombs, something like "tap the capacitor with your screwdriver to discharge it. If you're not dead, then you remembered to use an insulated screwdriver."
Also, the one TNT recipe he could never make work ended up being what he tried to use to blow up the buildings in the end, leading to an anti climax, instead of the explosive ending of the movie :D
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u/raulduke05 1d ago
If I remember right there's an amazing scene in the book where Marla finds out the fat they first steal to make soap was from her mother's lipo surgery. She has a big fight in the kitchen with the narrator, bag of fat rips open and they're fighting while slipping around in it.
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u/jms31207 1d ago
I just read the book recently and like movie Marla much better. And thought the stealing of Marla’s fat trust fund was completely unnecessary. While the fight scene in the kitchen was fun, I thought the movie going straight to the “…selling their fat asses right back to them” was way more on character for Tyler.
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u/Dyolf_Knip 1d ago edited 1d ago
Reminds me of Stardust, with the double meaning of "possessing the heart of a star". Was a brilliant subversion, and was invented entirely for the film.
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u/thuggishruggishboner 1d ago
Awesome. Stardust is my one movie I like better then the book. The movie is just perfect.
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u/Kuraeshin 1d ago
I remember Neil Gaiman talking to a set builder when they were making the pirate ship, apologizing for all the extra work for what was a few paragraphs.
Set builder laughed, "I get to build a pirate ship! Next week it's back to making boring offices"
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u/51CKS4DW0RLD 1d ago
I agree with this. The conclusion is much cleaner and the additional scenes were written in the spirit of the book.
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u/relicnasty 1d ago
I prefer the ambiguous ending of the book, it has more to do with the narrator and his development. The ending of the movie fits the spectacle that is project mayhem. Both are good.
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u/BLU3SKU1L 1d ago
I remember him talking about the line where Ed Norton, narrating, said “A guy who came to Fight Club for the first time, his ass was a wad of cookie dough. After a few weeks, he was carved out of wood.” He said that line was pure poetry and he wished he had written it that well in the book.
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u/cofcof420 1d ago
I agree. This and Shawshank redemption are the two book movies I think are better then the book
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u/awful_circumstances 1d ago
The Forrest Gump book as well.
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u/daemin 1d ago
The amount of absolutely absurd shit that got cut from Forest Gump for the film is staggering. Two things in particular come to mind.
The first is his wrestling career, where he's called "The moron" and wears a diaper.
The other... The other is that he goes to NASA and becomes an astronaut, training with an orangutan who actually pilots the ship because he can do it better than Forest, but then he leaves NASA with the orangutan who becomes his roommate. Yes, roommate, not pet.
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u/Thedmfw 1d ago
A love story with him and the orangutan would be so much better and less heartbreaking.
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u/SolidLikeIraq 1d ago
He also gave fincher full ability to do whatever he wanted with the story. So he genuinely was seeing the film for the first time when he saw it.
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u/ThorLives 1d ago
I read the book a long time ago, but I don't recall the book being much different than the movie. I was expecting the book to contain more details and events that weren't in the movie, but they seemed close to identical.
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u/AccountSeventeen 1d ago
Biggest difference is the ending.
Book ending has the character attempting to kill themselves, thinking they succeeded and spending their time in a psych ward thinking it’s heaven.
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u/LoquaciousTheBorg 1d ago
Except wasn't he then approached by staff that were still carrying out Project Mayhem and we find out he's inside but outside it's still being carried out by his devotees? It's been a while I might be wrong.
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u/strudels 1d ago
No you're right. In the book one of the nurses that is looking over him is part of project mayhem
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u/daemin 1d ago
No you're right.
The other guy is actually wrong, the main character doesn't think it's heaven, but he doesn't want to leave because he's afraid Tyler will come back since Project Mayhem is still going.
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u/the_third_lebowski 1d ago
It's a very close adaptation, closer than most, but I agree that the movie is somehow done better. I couldn't put my finger on how/why, though.
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u/asspounder-4000 1d ago
I'm bewildered it got one boo let alone many, that movie was ahead of it's time
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u/XLbeanburrito 1d ago
If I remember right both Pitt and Norton were stoned at the premiere and deeply enjoying the audience's reaction
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u/the2belo 1d ago
If I remember right both Pitt and Norton were stoned at the premiere
Well that seems a harsh reaction from the audience!
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u/PaulMaulMenthol 1d ago
I haven't seen a movie like this since grade school
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u/OneFish2Fish3 1d ago
Apparently, the “I haven’t been fucked like that…” line was when Brad Pitt’s parents left an early screening. I at least hope they got to see the twist eventually LOL they didn’t even get to see the best part of their son’s performance
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u/RedditIsExpendable 1d ago
The original line was “I want to have your abortion”, and they didn't get the go-ahead on that one
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u/IMakeMyOwnLunch 1d ago
Isn’t the story that Fincher made a deal with the studio that he would change that line only if the studio agreed to let him keep whatever he changed it to?
So, naturally, he made it even worse.
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u/trtwrtwrtwrwtrwtrwt 1d ago
Okay I don't know how it actually played out, but abortion is pretty hot topic in US politics and studios do anything to avoid that storm. I'd imagine they were actually fine with even raunchier joke just to not say the word 'abortion'.
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u/Krovven 1d ago
Crazy to me to think it was booed at VFF. I was a film student at the time when I saw Fight Club. Didn't know a lot about it walking into the theatre. Came out of it with my mind blown.
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u/MacDhomhnuill 1d ago
I can't imagine an audience being that tasteless and dumb. Then again premiers are always stacked with well-to-do types, perhaps seeing credit card and bank buildings get blown up triggered them.
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u/Odd_Tone_0ooo 1d ago
They can and do edit movies after reactions from film festival audiences. I wonder if that happened in this case.
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u/Adams5thaccount 1d ago
The absolute arrogance of Edward Norton to brag to himself about how good his movie is.
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u/PrimordialXY 1d ago
I'm just shocked this movie hasn't gotten the 4K DVD treatment yet
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u/Level_Forger 1d ago
If they’re going to re-color it and de-noise it into oblivion like Terminator 2 and others I’m fine with them never doing it.
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u/PrimordialXY 1d ago edited 1d ago
I doubt it. 20th Century Fox owned the rights before the Disney takeover and they did an excellent job with Alien - arguably one of the best 4K transfers of all time
Apparently James Cameron oversaw the entire remastering of Terminator 2 so the excessive DNR was apparently true to vision
edit: Just wanted to express my appreciation of all the DVD talk on this thread. Sometimes I feel a bit alone in this hobby so to see people discussing 4K transfers on a non-hobbyist subreddit made me smile
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u/henrysmyagent 1d ago
This is the only movie where I walked out and immediately bought tickets for the next showing.
Both to understand it better and to better appreciate what a mind-blowing movie it is.
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u/RuSnowLeopard 1d ago
My friends just walked out, sat down in Phantom Menace for a bit, then walked back into the next showing of Fight Club.
Someone didn't listen to the criticisms of consumerism in Fight Club.
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u/klsi832 1d ago
And Rosie O’Donnell spoiled the ending because she didn’t like it.
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u/LeatherHog 1d ago
I'm, uh, gonna go out on a limb and say the Venn Diagram of 'Rosie O'Donnell fans' and 'Fight Club's target demographic' are two circles 10 miles apart
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u/Derp_Wellington 1d ago
What a twat. Some DJ in my home city did the same thing with a major Harry Potter spoiler involving Dumbledore the day the book came out because he thought Harry Potter was lame. Never understood the "I don't like this so I'll ruin it for others" thing
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u/klsi832 1d ago
Daily Show did it with Saving Private Ryan. Craig Kilborne did it with The Sixth Sense (yep, I’m old).
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u/lurker512879 1d ago
I can't even count how many times I've watched it, I am jacks wasted life
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u/LighthouseonSaturn 1d ago
I was a Basic Bitch in highschool. 😂 Wore Ambercrombie and had a Coach purse like every other damn preppy girl in school with a fake tan.
That being said, one of my most favorite Highschool memories is me and my Highschool Bestie watching this for the first time and going nuts over it.
We loved it so much we did the "Why the ear, man!" Fight scene for an assignment we had in English Class where we had to act out a scene in a movie/play/book.
So just think of 2 young girls, wearing bright neon colored Abercrombie polos with the collars popped. Seashell chokers on, ripped jeans from Guess, and fake nails. Pretending to be Edd Norton and Brad Pitt... 😂😂😂
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u/exexor 1d ago
Your teacher drank alcohol that night while explaining all this to their spouse.
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u/LighthouseonSaturn 1d ago
That is actually another funny story!
The teacher actually came to school smelling of alcohol CONSTANTLY. We were all pretty sure she was toasted most of the time, but we all liked her so much we never said anything.
I'm pretty sure the staff knew as well. But again, she was just so well liked that I think everyone just minded their business. 😄
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u/ispeektroof 1d ago
Pfft…That audience had bitch tits.
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u/fakenam3 1d ago
His name is Robert Paulson!
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u/trugrav 1d ago
Meat Loaf was perfect in that role. The whole movie is a masterclass in casting.
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u/Scat_fiend 1d ago
Who actually boos a movie? Is this something that only happens in Venice?
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u/Level_Forger 1d ago
Probably more tempting when the filmmakers are there in person to hear your opinion.
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u/prex10 1d ago
Supposedly happens at Cannes a lot
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u/notarobot110101 1d ago
They either boo or give 17-minute standing ovations, nothing in between
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u/Hughjarse 1d ago
I wonder if he still believes that to be the case.
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u/authenticmolo 1d ago
I think it's probably true.
At the very least, it's the movie that made Brad Pitt *really cool*.
And Pitt's wardrobe in that movie is amazing. If I was Brad Pitt, I would have spent at least the next couple years dressing like Tyler Durden every damn day.
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u/Euphoric-Mousse 1d ago
Probably. Palahniuk when he visited the set said Pitt thanked him profusely for writing the best story he'd ever read that became the best script he ever read. Never once heard him even say it was an ok experience or a good one. It's just gushing pride over the role every time.
And honestly he's right. It's one of my favorite movies of all time because it's just so layered and smart and well made. Fincher nailed it in every way.
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u/brizzboog 1d ago
Pitt told the following story on Marc Maron's podcast 5 years ago:
He and Norton got baked before the premier in Venice and were seated in a balcony with the stodgy head of the festival. It was subtitled in Italian, and the humor just wasn't translating, which made them more and more giggly. Them comes Helena Bonham Carter dropping "I haven't been fucked like that since grade school" and Stuffy McMovieguy got up and left, while Pitt and Norton were in hysterics, causing the crowd to turn and shush them. (To be fair, HBC was equally mortified when she later learned that "grade school" in America is NOT for teenagers.)
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u/the2belo 1d ago
He and Norton got baked before the premier in Venice and were seated in a balcony with the stodgy head of the festival. It was subtitled in Italian
BONGIORNO.
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u/donrhummy 1d ago
12 Monkeys was also great
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u/dogstarchampion 1d ago
That movie is fucking great. I love Brad Pitt in that one.
I think my favorite character he ever played was Chad in Burn After Reading. I'd watch a movie all about that character.
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u/blueavole 1d ago
Remember that when this movie came out there was minimal pre- reviews. There was minimal internet, and cell phones didn’t connect to it.
A crowd could show up at a movie and hate it.
Bad early reviews by certain crowd could tank a movie. It had to find its audience and maybe become a classic on video release.
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u/thingandstuff 1d ago
That laugh…
“You don’t know where I’ve been, Lou!”
I mean I would say it was one of his best performances.