Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are gracing magazine covers and yakking on talk shows to promote "Fight Club," one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the season. Meanwhile, the man behind the camera, director David Fincher, remains largely in the dark - where he seems to feel most comfortable.
The characters in his new film will be throwing brutal punches and knocking each other out. Similarly, Fincher has made a career of throwing cinematic sucker punches and blindsiding viewers with his psychological complexity and distinct visual style.
Fincher's uncompromising storytelling never fails to elicit an emotional reaction, but his films also demand intellectual involvement from the audience. The clear messages and life lessons lurking within his suspenseful films elevate his work above most brain-dead mainstream thrillers.
Greatness often comes from humble beginnings, and Fincher is no exception: He began his career in commercials and music videos. But he soon gained prominence with his infamous, innovative Madonna video, "Like a Prayer," which explores inner conflicts about religion and racial prejudice with a surprising amount of depth. His following feature works, "Alien 3," "Seven" and "The Game," have built on these dark, intellectual themes.
On the laserdisc commentary to his finest film, "Seven," Fincher says his mission is to "bring people in the dark and make them feel something." Surprisingly, he manages to accomplish this within the restrictions of his commercial debut, "Alien 3." Fincher wrenchingly kills off most of the surviving "Aliens" cast, putting Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in a situation similar to Detective Mills' (Brad Pitt) at the end of "Seven."
Depicting a utopian prison planet, Fincher delves into the theme of repression and the controlling power of religion on the human will. Like John Doe (Kevin Spacey) in "Seven," the prisoners have taken on religion but maintain their core of evil. The violent alien attacks are presented rather graphically, but with each successive film he relies less on blood and more on the mind to accomplish his shocks. "Alien 3" was drubbed critically for its negativity and downer ending, but, with the exception of the crude computer effects, it now comes across as a strong introduction to Fincher's later work.
Fincher says on the commentary to "Seven" that he chose the script because he was "sick of happy endings," and he caps his sophomore effort with one of the darkest ever. His direction is more precise and methodical in this film than the killer is himself. The villain is not an alien but an all-too-human monster who takes the word of God quite seriously. On the commentary, star Morgan Freeman refers to Fincher as an "arrogant intellect," and the director lives up to this description with his sharp, unflinching examination of morality and religious fanaticism.
The city in which "Seven" is set is not specified, but Fincher meant for the film to resemble an old-fashioned film noir. John Doe's hairstyle resembles Ripley's in "Alien 3," and both characters have something evil growing inside them: An alien gestates in Ripley while insanity overcomes John Doe. Fincher physically imprisons his "Alien 3" characters, while in "Seven" he mentally imprisons John Doe and the detectives on his trail.
On the laserdisc commentary of Fincher's next film, "The Game," star Michael Douglas calls the director's work "eerie, not user friendly and uncomfortable." While this claim is accurate enough, "The Game" is rather bright and accessible compared to his previous films. Fincher all but abandons the nihilism and religious overtones of "Seven." The film examines the guilt and repressed emotions that surface when Nicholas Van Orton (Douglas) accepts a birthday gift of a "life experience" from his troubled brother Conrad (Sean Penn). This puts him through mind-bending situations, as intricately designed as the killer's murders in "Seven," that force him to reevaluate his life.
The apathetic city setting is again Fincher's psychological playground, and he manipulates it like a seasoned professional. "The Game" begins slowly and coldly, starkly contrasting the intense action that will occur later in the film. In several scenes, Fincher seems to be winking at the audience, but he still builds tension effectively and twists the plot screws tighter and tighter in a thriller that further develops his personal voice.
And the voice shouts out clearly in all three pieces. The forces of chaos are always at work against orderly environments, whether represented by an alien, a killer or a corporation. The main characters in all three films lose everything in the end and make drastic sacrifices to remedy their situation.
Fincher creates an atmosphere of ambient darkness each time. While he envisions an entire planet in "Alien 3," the brutal urban settings of the next two films are worlds unto themselves. He makes heavy use of low angle shots to increase tension, which he punctuates with cinematic exclamation points such as multiple film formats, subliminal editing and acrobatic camera movements. Fincher claims he does not want to be known as the "dark guy" of film, but "Fight Club," at least from the trailers, appears to continue his bleak, arresting visual style.
The preview for "The Game" presents a marionette being manipulated by an unseen hand. It's an accurate metaphor for Fincher's creative treatment of his characters and his audience. Here's hoping "Fight Club" will live up to the standard he has set for himself and continue the evolution of a cruelly beautiful filmmaker.
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