From Ocean’s Eleven to Inglourious Basterds, Brad Pitt has been in a lot of great movies throughout his four-decade-long career, but even he admits that this ‘90s cult classic now on Peacock is one of his best. Speaking about the film shortly after its release, Pitt went as far as to say it’s “the best movie I’m ever going to be in,” and nearly 30 years later, it still remains one of his best-reviewed films ever.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re talking about Fight Club, the seminal ‘90s film starring Pitt as a soap salesman who teams up with the unnamed Narrator to create an underground, bare-knuckle fighting ring to escape their mundane lives. The movie, directed by David Fincher, started streaming on Peacock on March 1st and is definitely worth a watch, even if you’ve seen it too many times to count. The film originally premiered at the 1999 Venice Film Festival, where, after it was loudly booed by audience members and critics, Pitt remained steadfast that it was great, even telling his co-star Edward Norton, “That’s the best movie I’m ever going to be in,” per The Ringer.
Brad Pitt’s Fight Club Is a Modern Masterpiece
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Pitt wasn’t far off in his perception of the film. In fact, you could even say that he drastically underestimated the movie. Decades later, Fight Club remains one of the most influential films in the history of cinema and one of the highest-rated movies ever. The movie’s near-perfect 96% audience rating based on over 250,000 user reviews on Rotten Tomatoes makes it Pitt’s third-highest-rated movie ever, and its 4.3/5 rating on Letterboxd makes it his third-highest on the platform. On top of all of that, the movie holds an 8.8 IMDb score and holds the No. 13 spot on the IMDb Top 250 list. And it really is that good.
In Fight Club, Fincher delivers his signature gritty, hyper-stylized aesthetic in a movie that plays out as a sharp critique of consumerism, modern masculinity, and identity. The movie is packed with quotable, iconic, and philosophical lines – “The things you own end up owning you” and “The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club,” just to name a few – and features one of the most famous twist endings in cinema history that continues to provoke discussion even today. Pitt and Norton also deliver defining performances that perfectly bring the complex, dysfunctional characters to life. Although Fight Club was largely underappreciated upon its release, it has gained a much-deserved enduring popularity over the last 25 years and is one of those films that you really can’t watch too much.
What’s New on Peacock?
Fight Club is one of several films freshly streaming on Peacock following a rush of arrivals at the beginning of the month. The Peacock library now also features The Big Lebowski, Death Becomes Her, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, John Wick: Chapter 4, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Later this month, the NBCUniversal streamer will add Fast X (March 15th), Wicked: For Good (March 20th), and The Wild Robot (March 24th).
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