Ok everybody we're nearing the end! Down to the Elite 8! Here is a look at our final movies, ranked by seed:

#1 – The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
#4 – Pulp Fiction (1994)
#11 – Fight Club (1999)  
#15 – Goodfellas (1990)
#25 – The SIlence Of The Lambs (1991)
#26 – Se7en (1995)
#28 – The Usual Suspects (1995)
#35 – American History X (1998)

And here are our first 2 matches:

Match 249 – #35 – American History X (1998) V #11 – Fight Club (1999)

TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Top 256 – Monsters, Inc. 7-0
Top 128 – Raging Bull 3-1
Top 64 – Gone With The Wind 5-0
Top 32 – Reservior Dogs 4-3
Super 16 – American Beauty 7-2

American History X is a 1998 American drama film directed by Tony Kaye and starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. It was distributed by New Line Cinema.

The film tells the story of two brothers, Derek Vinyard (Norton) and Daniel “Danny” Vinyard (Furlong) of Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California. Both are intelligent and charismatic students. Their father, a firefighter, is murdered by a black drug dealer while trying to extinguish a fire in a South Central neighborhood of Los Angeles, and Derek is drawn into the neo-Nazi movement. Derek brutally kills two black gang members whom he catches in the act of breaking into the truck left to him by his father, and is sentenced to three years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. The story shows how Danny is influenced by his older brother's actions and ideology and how Derek, now radically changed by his experience in incarceration, which includes violent rape by white neo-Nazi inmates (because of a friendly relationship with a black inmate, brought on in part by the neo-Nazis' hypocrisy in Derek's eyes), tries to prevent his brother from going down the same path as he did. The film is told in the style of nonlinear narrative.

David McKenna scripted the film and shooting took place in Los Angeles, California. The film was released in the United States on October 30, 1998 and went on to gross over $23 million at the international box office. It was given an “R” rating by the MPAA for “graphic brutal violence including rape, pervasive language, strong sexuality and nudity.”

Critics mostly praised the film and Edward Norton was given an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. It was also named by Empire magazine in September 2008 as the 311th Greatest Movie of All Time.
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TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Top 256 – King Kong 5-2
Top 128 – The Maltese Falcon 3-1
Top 64 – Back To The Future 5-1
Top 32 – Batman Begins 7-0
Super 16 – The Breakfast Club 6-1

Fight Club is a 1999 American film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an “everyman” who is discontented with his white-collar job. He forms a “fight club” with soap maker Tyler Durden, played by Pitt, and becomes embroiled in a relationship with him and a dissolute woman, Marla Singer, played by Bonham Carter.

Palahniuk's novel was optioned by 20th Century Fox producer Laura Ziskin, who hired Jim Uhls to write the film adaptation. Fincher was one of four directors the producers considered and hired him because of his enthusiasm for the film. Fincher developed the script with Uhls and sought screenwriting advice from the cast and others in the film industry. The director and the cast compared the film to Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and The Graduate (1967). Fincher intended Fight Club's violence to serve as a metaphor for the conflict between a generation of young people and the value system of advertising. The director copied the homoerotic overtones from Palahniuk's novel to make audiences uncomfortable and keep them from anticipating the twist ending.

Studio executives did not like the film and they restructured Fincher's intended marketing campaign to try to reduce anticipated losses. Fight Club failed to meet the studio's expectations at the box office and received polarized reactions from critics. It was cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999. However, the film later found commercial success with its DVD release, which established Fight Club as a cult film. Critical reception of Fight Club has since become more positive.
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