Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, October 28, 1999, Page 6B, Image 22

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Cheap stuff
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FrL & Sat. October 29 & 30
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please recycle this paper!
courtesy of 20th-Century Fox Films
Brad Pitt stars as Tyler Durden in “Fight Club” and his pretty-boy face gets punched, pummelled and pounded.
‘Fight Club’ worth every punch
■ Its not your typical ‘man
hates society’ movie and it’s
not as violent as it may seem
Fight Club
Starring Brad Pitt, Ed Norton and Helena
Bonham Carter. Directed by David Fincher.
★ ★★★☆
By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
Upon initially leaving the the
ater after “Fight Club,” a person
can certainly reduce what he or
she has just seen to a few simple
thoughts.
Man hates life — attends sever
al support groups each week to
find meaning in said life.
Man hates self—allows anoth
er man to pummel said self.
Man hates society — devises
way to blow up said society.
Yeah, that would be the Film
Critique 101 version of a “Fight
Club” review. But director David
Fincher and screenwriter Jim Uhls
don’t intend for their movie to be
categorized in any obvious way.
In fact, in an interview with En
tertainment Weekly, Fincher said
that he thinks “Fight Club” is fun
ny, which it is, but not in a “ha
ha” way, instead more in a
“Whoa, I can’t believe they just
did that” way.
Some critics have lambasted
Fincher’s movie, calling it ultra
violent. OK, so some blood spurts
out of the underground fighters’
faces during several scenes. Sure,
the scene with Tyler Durden
(Brad Pitt) and Jack (Ed Norton)
robbing a liposuction clinic for
soap-making material is a bit
overboard.
“Fight Club” producer Art Lin
son responded in the same EW ar
ticle with, “The fact is, there’s
more violence in the first five
minutes of (Steven Speilberg’s)
‘Saving Private Ryan’ than you’d
see watching ‘Fight Club’ four
times.” And Linson’s right.
Trying to pigeonhole this
movie is like attempting to type
cast Helena Bonham Carter, who
plays Marla Singer, Jack’s muse
with a twist — they first meet at a
support group for cancer patients,
which neither one is — and
Tyler’s sex partner. Carter came to
Fincher’s flick straight from the
cinema art houses of North Amer
ica and England, where it’s high
ly unlikely she ever delivered her
most wicked and soon-to-be fa
mous line in “Fight Club.”
Meat Loaf, the rocker, also
chews up some sizable screen
time as Bob, one of Jack’s support
group buddies. Jared Leto, who is
recognizable to running and Uni
versity fans as Steve Prefontaine
in the movie “Prefontaine,” stars
here as Angel Face, albeit a face
that looks like a slice of sausage
pizza after a particularly brutal
encounter with Jack’s angry side.
So, what is “Fight Club” about
and is it any good?
Simplifying its meaning in 500
words or less is a joke and can’t be
done. Consumerism and the so
cial elite are the bad guys, no
doubt. The blue-collar Joes who
show up night after night to par
ticipate in the human cockfights
are the good guys, at least in
Fincher’s vision.
Perhaps author Chuck Palah
niuk, who wrote the book on
which the film is based, said it
best in the movie’s press guide.
“We are a nation of physical an
imals who have forgotten how
much we enjoy being that. We are
cushioned by this kind of make
believe, unreal world and we
have no idea what we can survive
because we are never challenged
or tested.”
Viewers will definitely feel
challenged and tested by “Fight
Club.” Maybe even a little bruised
and battered. But, it’s worth every
punch.
Let the gore flow Halloween night
■ When the night beckons
for horror, check out one of
the great gory classics
By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
Michael Myers and The Great
Pumpkin.
The former is a psycho, always
on a murderous rampage in the
‘Halloween” movie series, while
the latter is literally a fruit, famed
for torturing poor Linus - Charlie
Brown’s buddy - with a no-show
in the pumpkin patch.
The .cinema sadists are
renowned, to be certain, and rack
up plenty of free publicity around
Oct. 31, All Hallow’s Eve. Don’t be
afraid, however, to dig beneath the
surface a little bit when searching
for a truly blood-filled movie to
spice up your Halloween night.
You might just unearth one of
these lesser-known, but positively
ghoulish bodies of work.
“Near Dark” (four corpses out
of five) - Many filmgoers were
enamored with “The Lost Boys”
when it came out in 1987. Yet
this other 1987 release sucked
tne blood right out of Keifer
Sutherland’s MTV-influenced
version. “Near Dark” is an edgy,
teeth-thrashing dive into the
vampire genre, with enough
laughs to offset the heavy gore.
Director Kathryn Bigelow of
“Strange Days” fame somehow
extracted a truly vicious acting
job out of the normally-calm Bill
Paxton. “Near Dark” is bloody,
bloody, bloody - bloody good.
“Freaks” (no corpses) - OK, so
this hour-long flick is not gory in
the least, but it’s good for a
watch. “Freaks” was released in
1932 to quite an uproar, as Tod
Browning - who directed the
original 1931 version of “Dracu
la” starring Bela Lugosi - turns
his camera toward the circus
world. The basic story involves a
trapeze artist, her strongman
lover and their attempt to swin
dle a midget out of his money.
His buddies from the sideshow
arena come to his rescue in an
ending that was more horrifying
67 years ago than it is now. Only
slightly exploitative as the film
winds down to its end, “Freaks”
is spellbinding due to Browning's
overall compassionate portrayal
of the circus people.
“The Re-Animator” (four
corpses) - A black humor cult
classic, no doubt. A medical stu
dent takes life-and-death matters
into his own hands, and begins to
re-animate the morgue’s lifeless
residents. Contains some very
graphic scenes, including an al
leged real look at a craniotomy,
performed on a corpse. By the
way, the medical student’s ac
tions create havoc and lots of the
living are killed, in case you
couldn’t figure that out.
“Dead Alive” (five corpses) -
There is no other film that com
pares to this 1993 offering. Outra
geously over-the-top, “Dead
Alive” will make you bust a gut,
thereby reenacting several movie
passages. Blood spurts to all four
corners of the screen and body
parts take on lives of their own.
(At least one hand, however,
does a belter acting job than any
of Keanu Reeves’ attempts.) The
plot in “Dead Alive” involves an
exotic monkey biting a young,
nerdy man’s mother, and the
hysterics literally ooze out from
there. Do not, repeat, do not
watch this if the sight of human
innards bothers you.