Fighting it out
Brad Pitt and Edward Norton talk about
By TU M. TRAN
Film Editor
Brad
Pitt and Edward Norton are starring in "Fight Club," one of the most
controversial films of the fall season. The two stars were quite relaxed in
discussing the message of the film and how it affected their personal
reflections on their generation at a recent interview at a Beverly Hills
Hotel before the film was released.
The two appear
to be quite comfortable around each other, like old friends. But
considering that they spent months together on a set beating the heck out
of one another, you'd figure they would be. Pitt and Norton either have
been hanging around each other too much or have been doing way too many
press interviews, as one always completes the other's sentences. Still, it
is obvious that they are excited and comfortable about "Fight Club" and
open to answering any questions about the film.
"Fight Club" is
hard to describe. Positioned as a film of this generation, "Fight Club" is
about an underground club formed by Tyler Durgen, played by Pitt, and Jack,
portrayed by Norton, where men can come together to fight each other. It
may sound simple and basic, but there is much more to the film than the
superficial plot line.
"I don't think
I want to put a simple label on the whole thing," Norton said. "Fight
Club' is metamorphic for the fight against your own impulse to be cocooned
in things."
Pitt agrees that
the film is about breaking away from the socially expected roles we're
supposed to follow, as well as challenging what is fed to us by the media
and television.
"We have become
spectators," Pitt said. "We were the first generation raised on television
and we have been bombarded with advertisements."
The film has
been touted by some critics as the film of this generation, speaking on
behalf of the Generation X crowd, who to this point has been portrayed
quite differently in most films. "Fight Club" presents something completely
against the norm.
Norton said he
connected with the film and the role because it was different from the
slacker and apathetic images that had been portrayals of typical Generation
X.
"I think the
reason why I responded to the film was because it was the first film I read
that was much more substantive and complicated, on the pulse of my
generation," Norton said. "Much more than I had felt with these baby
boomer-created, Reality Bites' visions of us that portrayed us as aimless
and slackers.
"Fight Club'
really put it in a way that none of the other stuff did. It was the first
thing that I had read that...could be, like, The Graduate' for that
generation."
Since those in
Pitt and Norton's generation are hitting their 30s, the two stars reflect
on how the message of the film mirrors the sense of direction that his
generation has been feeling.
"The film
touches on what I feel like what has gone on with our generation," Norton
said. "We have been having our mid-life crises since our 20s.
"It's not about
feeling old. Going through your 20s is about figuring out what you like or
dislike. You stop receiving what you should or shouldn't like from other
sources."
Pitt, who is in
a highly publicized relationship with Friends' actress Jennifer
Aniston, steered clear from questions regarding the rumor that the two were
engaged or had plans to wed in the very near future. Rather, he focused on
the film and how it has shaped his perception on relationships.
"We have to
figure out ourselves," Pitt said, "before we can take the responsibility of
another person and then a family."
Pitt and Norton
are not worried about the criticism about the violence of the film and say
that the release date was not pushed back from August to October because of
the heat that was surrounding the backlash against Hollywood.
"There is
nothing in this movie suggesting violence against other people," Norton
said. "If people didn't make art that didn't critique the dysfunction of a
society for the fear of copycat, then we wouldn't have Lolita' or some of
the other great movies of our time."
Copyright 1999 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 138, No. 35 (Tuesday, October 19, 1999), beginning on page 7 and ending on page 11.