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Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk dismisses the outrage over China censoring the film adaptation of his novel, saying it’s closer to his own ending.
Plenty of people are upset with China’s censors for changing the ending of David Fincher’s 1999 adaptation of Fight Club – but the book’s author Chuck Palahniuk isn’t among them.
Palahniuk observed that “in a way, the Chinese brought the movie back to the book a little bit,” in an interview with TMZ. “The irony is that the way the Chinese have changed it is they’ve aligned the ending almost exactly with the ending of the book, as opposed to Fincher’s ending, which was the more spectacular visual ending.”
The author noted this isn’t the first time he’s dealt with Fight Club‘s controversial finale being altered. Palahniuk recalled that “a lot of my overseas publishers have edited the novel so the novel ends the way the movie ends. So I’ve been dealing with this kind of revision for like 25 years.”
In the novel, Fight Club‘s unnamed protagonist attempts to take his own life after his anarchist plot fails, only to wake up in a mental institution he mistakes for Heaven. By contrast, in the 1999 adaptation, the protagonist’s plan succeeds, and the closing shots are of stars Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter looking on as skyscrapers explode around them.
The Chinese censors’ version of the film replaces these shots with on-screen text which reads: “The police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding. After the trial, Tyler was sent to a lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012.” As Palahniuk said, the Chinese censors’ edit is broadly more in line with the finale described in his original book.
In the interview, Palahniuk went on to call out what he perceives as a double standard shown towards the Chinese censors versus their American counterparts. “What I find really interesting is that my books are heavily banned throughout the U.S. The Texas prison system refuses to carry my books in their libraries. A lot of public schools and most private schools refuse to carry my books. But it’s only an issue once China changes the end of a movie?”
Fans first became aware of China’s new Fight Club ending after a screenshot of it surfaced on Twitter. Palahniuk soon addressed the ensuing outcry with a tweet of his own, quipping “Have You Seen This Sh*t? This is SUPER wonderful! Everyone gets a happy ending in China!” The tweet linked through to Palahniuk’s latest Substack newsletter, where he further commented, “Tyler and the gang were all arrested. He was tried and sentenced to a mental asylum. How amazing. I’d no idea! Justice always wins. Nothing ever exploded. Fini.”
Source: TMZ
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