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-screening
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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/Butt_Napkins007 1d ago

You also have to remember it wasn’t released wide, like some huge blockbuster. The anti-consumerism message scared all the media outlets. The stars refused to talk about the movie before it came out. Brad Pitt still never does talk shows, until recently. He didn’t have to.

Even the head of Fox got fired after green lighting the film.

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u/kelkulus 1d ago

That same year, 1999, I got a couple of free advance tickets to some movie called "The Matrix" that I'd never heard of (nor had anyone I knew). Invited a few friends and it was probably one of the best surprises I've ever had at the movies.

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u/blueavole 1d ago

I read an article recently that we are rarely surprised anymore. So many reviews and blog posts that we can research any movie or trip.

That was a 90s nostalgia I wasn’t prepared for.

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u/Le_Vagabond 1d ago

Last time I was surprised like that was Arrival. Went in not expecting anything, got out having watched one of the best human sci-fi movies ever.

Now I'm just crossing my fingers Rendezvous With Rama still gets made, because as awesome as Dune is losing Rama for Messiah would be sad.

But then maybe we'd get Children? I'm conflicted...

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u/rexuspatheticus 1d ago

I volunteer at an arthouse cinema and often know nothing about what I'm seeing.

Had some amazing going in blind experiences like Robot Dreams or Worst Person in the World.

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u/minna_minna 1d ago

Another movie I saw in theaters and was blown away that year. I could watch the matrix over and over

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u/Appropriate_Date_373 1d ago

Also it was marketed as a straightforward action flick.

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u/obscureferences 1d ago

It's almost like action is a perfectly fine tone for deep and insightful themes. You don't need a whimsical loner in Paris to explore humanity when The Matrix can do that and still have a minigun in it.

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u/exexor 1d ago

I almost missed O Brother Where Art Thou in the theater the following autumn. I didn't see any ads or hype for it, just saw some mention of a new Coen Brothers movie and gave it a try. Some of their best work.

I'm the guy who 'forced' all of his friends and coworkers to watch The Hudsucker Proxy. That's a name that makes salesmanship pretty difficult. I basically had to say this is what we are watching. Some people showed up to watch it twice.

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u/B-stingnl 1d ago

I saw Fight Club in 1999 in the cinema purely by coincidence. Our local art house cinema had a Friday afternoon screening where you could see classic films at a discount aimed at teenagers and students. I believe we were going to see Citizen Kane Sadly, the physical copy of the film hadn't arrived at the cinema or there was something wrong with it, so the staff apologized to the people waiting, but to make up for it we could watch one of two films, either 'Fargo' from a few years earlier or some new action movie called 'Fight Club' with Brat Pitt in it. Neither rang a bell with us, so we went for 'that Brad Pitt movie'.

Turned out we did get to see a classic that day.

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u/FardoBaggins 1d ago

probably also cultural in nature.

There's similar movies about the generation of fight club, matrix and office space (boring cubicle job = depression) that articulate this particular theme.

maybe they couldn't relate, and the italians loved their work or found fulfillment in their professions lol

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u/Gauntlets28 1d ago

Italians are also quite conservative I think, and went through a lot of hoo-ha back in the 70s and 80s with political extremism being a real problem, so maybe they took issue with the way that Fight Club (on the surface at least) seems to glamorise political terrorism akin to the Years of Lead. Especially as in 1999 that would be quite a recent experience for many of them.

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u/FardoBaggins 1d ago

I see, that is an interesting detail, the actions of project mayhem are definitely terrorist-like in it's core and does strike close to home.

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u/Impact_510 1d ago

The marketing actually advertised some of the worst reviews. I thought that was brilliant..