Fight Club
I finally read Fight Club in its original novel form.
The book is slightly different from the movie, although this is mostly in superficial ways except for the end. This major difference is that the protagonist/Tyler Durden doesn't blow up any buildings and ends up in a psychiatric ward. In this respect, I like the movie far better, and actually think the movie with its minor changes really streamlines the story and makes the whole thing more effective. This is one of the few cases where the movie really is better than the book, albeit in a purely subjective way. Someone who reads the book first may disagree, but it's hard to argue that the movie's ending, where Tyler Durden demolishes a whole financial block of skyscrapers, isn't more satisfying than simply ending up in a the hospital. The movie does a remarkable job of carrying over the style of Chuck Palahniuk's writing as well. There were only a few things worth mentioning that were cut out of the movie, and chief among these was the relationship between Marla and the protagonist which concluded in some bizarre mutual "liking" that did not make a whole lot of sense. I'm glad they cut out that romantic subplot, since it really just distracted from what made the book interesting--the unapologetic destruction of civilization. The only other bit that was changed was that, in the book, they killed the protagonist's boss instead of just blackmailing him as was done in the movie. I think this change was for the better--there wasn't much detail given regarding this act in the book, so it made sense to compress the protagonist leaving his job with the other blackmailings that were used in the book. Other than that, the two are very similar.
I'm still confused regarding the subject matter, though. It's fascinating, yet frightening. When I rented the movie for the first time, I was so blown away that I watched it 4 times in a row. I've probably seen it at least a dozen times, probably more. Yet I'm still not sure what to think about it. Maybe there's just nothing to think about. It seems profound but--like the recipes for napalm it gives--it's probably mostly bullshit. Hmm.
The book is slightly different from the movie, although this is mostly in superficial ways except for the end. This major difference is that the protagonist/Tyler Durden doesn't blow up any buildings and ends up in a psychiatric ward. In this respect, I like the movie far better, and actually think the movie with its minor changes really streamlines the story and makes the whole thing more effective. This is one of the few cases where the movie really is better than the book, albeit in a purely subjective way. Someone who reads the book first may disagree, but it's hard to argue that the movie's ending, where Tyler Durden demolishes a whole financial block of skyscrapers, isn't more satisfying than simply ending up in a the hospital. The movie does a remarkable job of carrying over the style of Chuck Palahniuk's writing as well. There were only a few things worth mentioning that were cut out of the movie, and chief among these was the relationship between Marla and the protagonist which concluded in some bizarre mutual "liking" that did not make a whole lot of sense. I'm glad they cut out that romantic subplot, since it really just distracted from what made the book interesting--the unapologetic destruction of civilization. The only other bit that was changed was that, in the book, they killed the protagonist's boss instead of just blackmailing him as was done in the movie. I think this change was for the better--there wasn't much detail given regarding this act in the book, so it made sense to compress the protagonist leaving his job with the other blackmailings that were used in the book. Other than that, the two are very similar.
I'm still confused regarding the subject matter, though. It's fascinating, yet frightening. When I rented the movie for the first time, I was so blown away that I watched it 4 times in a row. I've probably seen it at least a dozen times, probably more. Yet I'm still not sure what to think about it. Maybe there's just nothing to think about. It seems profound but--like the recipes for napalm it gives--it's probably mostly bullshit. Hmm.