That David Fincher is one of the best movie directors working today is a fact. It’s not matter of opinion or general consensus. It is a simple fact. I’ve had the chance to catch most of Fincher’s movies, and have loved almost all of them. What I will do is briefly discuss my thoughts on his films individually, in a rather interesting thematic segregation, and not necessarily in any order.
WRATH
Seven, for me, is the perfect, atypical thriller. Its narrative is structured quite differently from most other movies of its genre. The concept of a serial killer using the seven deadly sins as his MO is, in a nutshell what seven is about. The movie focuses on the relation between the two protagonists, and even in the end comes down to Somerset’s (Morgan Freeman) voice of reason against Mill’s (Brad Pitt) impulsive nature. But I will say this, It does not suffer from what some movie critics refer to as the ‘Kyser Soze Syndrome’ observed in several thrillers post Usual Suspects(plenty irony in that last statement).
In fact for me Seven ranks above Usual suspects, as the best thriller I have seen. I can’t overlook the brilliance of Usual Suspects for even a second, but Usual Suspects revolves around selling a lie to the audience and at the end of it I can’t help but feel a little cheated. Seven doesn’t do that. The build up to the end involves one of the most tense sequences I have seen, and even though the end itself has been criticized as a bit of a downer compared to the build up, it’s logic to me, is flawless.
LUST
Alien 3 sees Ripley stranded on a distant prison planet devoid of women. And as pointed out by one of the characters, this can have a disruptive effect on the population. She must fight to survive the Xenomorph that always have such great affection for her.
With 3 different screenplays and millions invested in construction of sets, Fincher was brought on to helm Alien 3, which was at that point in production hell. He was instructed to incorporate the existing sets and screenplays into the movie he made so as to justify their costs. He was given zero creative control over the making of the movie and even the now so called ‘assembly cut’ he presented to the studio was hacked, which made Fincher decide to walk, and several reshoots later what the studio got was its theatrical cut. Fincher, on later being asked about a director’s cut of the movie went so far as to say that a director’s cut would require him to go back and start over from scratch.
As a movie Alien 3 is nowhere in the same league as the first two masterpieces of the series. It’s poorly written and is just not able to create the same sense of horror or intensity one felt in the previous two films. Which is a shame; because I honestly believe that had Fincher been given the chance to go forward with his vision, this movie could have been a worthy addition to the Alien mythology.
SLOTH
A quote I once read on joblo.com said ‘In a survey conducted, 90% of the people said Fight Club was their favourite movie, the remaining 10% were people you don’t wanna be talking to about movies anyway’.
For most guys, this would be that one movie that just grabs them by the nads and demands their attention. Fight club holds up a mirror to society and gives it the finger at the same time. It shows us the futility of what we’ve become, and has characters who want us to go back to the Stone Age and live the way we’re ‘supposed’ to. It takes the concept of destructive nihilism to new highs.
Fight club is, like I read somewhere, the coming of age story of Calvin and Hobbes, in this case the narrator and Tyler. Like Tyler, the movie is opinionated, and unapologetic. It becomes clear from the start that this is a ride where anything goes, so even when the characters break fourth wall, it all seems..natural. When Tyler tells the narrator ‘I want you to hit me as hard as you can’ it begins a trip down a rabbit hole even Alice couldn’t have dreamed of. The movie delves deep into the human psyche(I love how the Narrator can’t sleep because Marla reflects his lie) AND tries the clarify the purpose of an entire generation’s life, by stating there isn’t one, all in the span of about 140 minutes. At the end of that time, you know you have witnessed something truly special.
In a movie replete with some of the best quotes in recent cinema, it’s difficult to think of one which would sum up the idea of the movie, so I’ll go with something a little different. Ed Norton on the DVD extras takes from the ‘middle children of history’ speech and says ’wipe your ass with the Mona Lisa, at least God will know your name’.
GREED
Social network is probably the best character study I’ve come across since Heat. While Eduardo’s loyalty and trust in his friend comes back to haunt him, Mark’s greed and insecurity cause him to screw over a lot of people, including his best friend. While both actors do a fantastic job of portraying these characters, Justin Timberlake, as the charismatic and unpredictable Sean Parker is a real revelation in this movie. It is the stark contrast of characteristic of the three main characters that results in some of the most amazing dialogue throughout the movie. The first scene itself, has Mark and his then girlfriend Erika switching back and forth between three topics of conversation which does a great job of setting the pace for the rest of the movie, because this movie is a series of fast, intense conversations. The coolest thing for me however is that Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield did not meet their real life counterparts till filming ended, and the research they did to make their performances as accurate as they could.
Social network in some ways is the anti Fight Club. Whereas Fight Club preaches of the lack of purpose in the life of an entire generation and the futility of pretty much everything. Social network depicts the desire of a young Zuckerberg to do something significant to be respected in the society that Fight Club completely rejects. The reason I highlight this is that David Fincher has directed both these movies, that are essentially the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the themes they deal with, in his trademark style; using a high contrast, dark palette and ominous music. He has successfully been able to adapt that style of filmmaking to suit the themes discussed in both the movies. While Fight Club is stark in its entirety, the reason this style works for Social Network is that Social Network deals with the dark side of success. While Eduardo is the heart of the movie, Jesse Eisenberg does a wonderful job of making his character relatable.
ENVY
When I first started writing this article it slipped my mind that ‘The Curious case of Benjamin Button’ was directed by David Fincher. This is mostly because this is his most ‘Un-Fincher-esque’ movie. Most of his movies deal with dark characters, and ‘misanthropes’ as Fincher says.
The movie is based on a short story by F Scott Fitzgerald, but is thematically very different from the source material. While the short story deals with the theme that youth is wasted on the young the movie adopts a very different approach. The film suggests that it is possible for Benjamin to live a full life even though he ages backwards. The movie tends to directly contrast the theme of the story in parts.
In the short story, Benjamin’s age plays a huge part in molding his identity and dictates what he can and can’t do. In the film, on the other hand, Benjamin’s condition goes barely noticed for the most part. The first few sequences of ‘The Curious case of Benjamin Button’ are my favorite. The sequence of the watchmaker’s watch running backwards and its parallel to the story that follows blew my mind when I first saw it.
The reason I think of this as one of Fincher’s lesser movies is Erik Roth screenplay. Roth also wrote Forrest Gump, and the similarities between the two movies are evident in parts, which took a lot away from the Experience for me. Fincher however is brilliant as usual here. The CG on Brad Pitt early in the movie is nothing short of mind blowing, and throughout the movie there are scenes I can only describe as magical. It is a long movie, and with a three hour runtime it is not consistently engaging.
GLUTTONY
The game has one of the coolest posters I’ve ever seen. To be honest, at this point of time I don’t remember all that much about the game. I remember thinking of it as a taut thriller when I first saw it. The problem I have with the game though is that the title gave too much away, which ruined a lot of the fun for me.
The reason for this particular thematic connection is the plot. Like the game itself, the plot felt a little too over indulgent. I kept asking myself if the point of the movie was to let the viewer think they know where it’s going, and then pull the rug off their feet. Sadly that did not happen, and result in the viewer seeing straight through the sense of paranoia the movie attempt to create.
The reason I’m hard on this movie is because with a slightly different first act, this movie could have gone on to become one of Fincher’s absolute finest films, instead it ends up being an afterthought when compared to his other work.
PRIDE
It’s easy to get lost in the history and the events surrounding the Zodiac killer, and more than a couple movies have been made on the subject. Why it makes for such popular fodder? Well they never really caught the guy. So everyone with a handheld can come up and put a spin on the events.
Why is Fincher’s take so important? Because it doesn’t assume anything. Zodiac chronicles the events from the point of view of the investigation, and presents the facts as they were. It doesn’t play so much into the enigma of the killer himself, but goes about the material much more cautiously. In the spirit of being as accurate to the actual events, the film does not chronicle the first confirmed Zodiac kill, since there were no surviving victims from that murder to corroborate the events.
Fincher is almost like a criminologist here, and presents this movie as a slow burn. His attention to detail is visible here more than in any other work of his. We all know Fincher loves working with dark themes, and this is his most meticulous effort. It is visible this film is almost a labour of love for the director, with the direction, cinematography and accuracy of the script being top notch. Fincher even had trees helicoptored to the Lake for the same sequence in order to accurately recreate the scene visually, since the surroundings had changed significantly since the time of the murders there.
What makes the subject dicey is handling the conclusion of the story, how do you present a satisfying ending to a serial killer movie when the killer is never caught? Fincher manages to keep the audience satisfied with the way the movie plays out, not feeling shortchanged after a two and a half hour long ride.