One thing just made me rewatch a divisive cult classic I thought I was done with
One heck of a looker from Fincher and co
by Max Freeman-Mills · T3
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When a new 4K disc of a beloved movie comes out, there's always a bit of a feeding frenzy – as technical reviewers break down every pixel to compare it to past Blu-ray releases and tell you which you should be buying. Some parts of that hype can be a little trying, but broadly I'm a big fan of the boost in interest and viewership that a new transfer can give movies.
Fight Club wasn't a film that I expected to revisit under my own steam particularly soon, I must admit. I love a bit of David Fincher, but some of his movies have a grimness and a grittiness that make a rewatch feel daunting. That's true of Seven, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and it's true of Fight Club.
I'm pretty sure every teenage boy I knew went through a phase of calling this his favourite movie in the mid-2000s, but I never really fell in love with it. I don't particularly like Chuck Palahniuk's novel, on which it's based, and its moral points don't really chime with me. That said, I can't deny that it's a memorable watch, so I was indeed curious to check out its new 4K disc.
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I'm a little late to that party after a busy couple of months (and a lot of World Cup action to distract me), but having now been able to sit and watch the film, I'm left slightly more conflicted than I have been with other 4K discs I've checked out. If you look it up on YouTube, you'll quickly find troves of videos showing that Fincher's taken a bit of a tinkering approach to this re-release, with some colour changes and even effects tweaks that have largely attracted criticism.
Fight Club | 20th Anniversary | 20th Century FOX - YouTube
I didn't know about those until after watching the movie, which I think is the right order in which to approach things, but I will allow that I noticed some parts myself. In particular, it's striking that some of the grimy contrast of the movie seems to have been smoothed away with its new colour treatment.
Some scenes that had deep shadows and texture are now a little flatter and more uniform to look at, with upsides and downsides. In some cases, this means you can see more detail, whether in facial expressions or costuming. Sometimes the very same cases, though, also mean that the character of the film feels like it's been drained away slightly.
It's an interesting situation, and it feels fairly predictable given Fincher's reputation for perfectionism and borderline control-freakery on his sets. That he would take that approach to a re-release shouldn't necessarily surprise us.
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Still, if there's some hubbub about whether these tweaks improve the film or not, I think I'm happy to pin my flag to the fact that the 4K disc does look and sound phenomenal if you (like me) haven't watched the movie in years and therefore don't have a precise memory of some of those details.
Its sound mix is brilliant, and the sheer resolution and detail on show is really a great advert for what makes a 4K disc so special. Mega-fans might find issue, but it's worth remembering that this is a movie that has long divided audiences and critics regardless (as proven by its Rotten Tomatoes scores, among other metrics).
So, in some ways, it actually feels quite on the nose that its 4K transfer should generate this much conversation – it's a film that aimed to provoke right from the start, after all.