FIGHT CLUB
Added 2021-08-30 19:29:22 +0000 UTCYa'll....I've dated a lot of men in my time. Thinking back on it....almost all of them were obsessed, or still obsessed with Fight Club and Tyler Durden. I guess I can understand when you're a teen or whatever. But why are so many grown men still so enamored with it? Beyond just the patriarchal commentary as it existed in the 90s.
Comments
It's not necessarily a bad thing. But yes, often people take the wrong things away from movies, unfortunately.
Deepfocuslens
2021-09-01 02:29:05 +0000 UTCThe worst thing about it is that a lot of people have the wrong takeaway from this movie and because of that I've slightly come to resent it. Nevertheless Fincher is my favorite director.
Ronet Jankovski
2021-08-31 15:20:01 +0000 UTCI agree with you that there is something simplified about the whole 90s existential crisis in these films. PArticularly with American Beauty. And that's also part of why they never clicked for me. Though...The Matrix did. It just took time for me to feel that way. I'm always a sucker for The Matrix. Ya'll know that. XD
Deepfocuslens
2021-08-31 07:02:34 +0000 UTCI agree, there is a romantic freeing feeling to the ending. But it's also heartbreaking to me. Haha never saw it as anti-feminist, myself. But more just a reflection of what is impulsive. and that is often measured through resentment.
Deepfocuslens
2021-08-31 07:01:01 +0000 UTCFantastic analysis. I agree, it's the complicated nature of depression, patriarchy, and how it's sort of suspended in this strange place that Fight Club captures so well. I'll definitely see if I can find that interview. :)
Deepfocuslens
2021-08-31 06:58:45 +0000 UTCTotally agree with everything you are saying. When I was younger it never really did it for me. My younger brother however, was obsessed unsurprisingly. But yes, now as an adult I do have more of an appreciation for all the things it was able to do, even if some of it doesn't quite hold up.
Deepfocuslens
2021-08-31 06:55:23 +0000 UTCagreed. But I understand the more commercial appeal of fight club just for mainstream audiences.
Deepfocuslens
2021-08-31 06:52:39 +0000 UTCHaha yeah, it really is. But masculinity, when it is over....often feels very gay to me. XD Hell, I'm a figure skating (emphasis on mens skating here) expert and a huge fan of MMA. But without question...MMA is far more homoerotic. hahaha
Deepfocuslens
2021-08-31 06:51:47 +0000 UTCVery nice. Yes, agreed. The end is a big part of it. Stick it to the man, smash the guitar, a taste of anarchy is always inherent. And something many overlook.
Deepfocuslens
2021-08-31 06:50:37 +0000 UTCThat may be true, but the key to Fight Club’s appeal has always been its humor. Some people relate to its themes of consumerism and the state of masculinity in today’s world, others may take it too far and proclaim the film as some kind of red pill anthem against emasculation, but everyone who enjoys the film enjoys it because it’s funny. Most guys hold it near and dear to their hearts for that reason more than any other.
Bennett Oliver
2021-08-31 04:45:01 +0000 UTCYou should go read some of the red pill/manosphere/PUA blogs back in the day they wrote about it. It really embodies the struggle of being a man in the modern world of late capitalism - to feel essentially useless and emasculated. Men used to be warriors or hunters or at the very least, a blue-collar worker that worked with their hands. Nowadays, most men are raised by single mothers or in female-dominated households where the father is just kind of there. They don't really know how to act or be like the men of old. They work mundane white-collar desk jobs in office environments where their speech and actions are micromanaged and policed by termagants or other even more emasculated and petty men. The movie speaks to this in volumes: men seeking some type of masculine refuge in the world: fight club. Even going further, it offers up a solution to the crisis of masculinity in late capitalism: the final scene of the movie where they blow up all the financial centers thus plunging the world into total chaos - ending late capitalism and restoring masculinity in the process. Nearly all men instinctively feel or actively feel this way about the world in some fashion - the desire for some SHTF scenario where society is plunged into anarchy and heroic strong men will be what carries it going forward. The only men who don't think like this, at least a little, are Nietzsche's 'last man' types.
Ryan
2021-08-31 01:58:39 +0000 UTCI find it hilarious bc it was written by a gay man and is so extremely homoerotic
Dan Tedesco
2021-08-30 22:50:37 +0000 UTCI haven't seen it and know very little about it. I remember obnoxious college roommates who were crazy about it which probably put me off of it.
Wolfman Brandon
2021-08-30 21:54:17 +0000 UTCBigger question: how many guys did you date? Lol
Tony Moro
2021-08-30 21:41:26 +0000 UTCI still have never seen it and have zero desire to see it now. Serves no purpose and it's just an excuse to show off Brad Pitt's abs. Plus, Edward Norton is a terrible actor!
Tony Moro
2021-08-30 21:41:01 +0000 UTCI enjoy it, for a lot of those reasons, but there are other Fincher films and films in general that ruminate on post modern masculinity in a way find to be more rich and deep.
jared Clarke
2021-08-30 20:42:18 +0000 UTCGranted, the film has lost some of its resonance since it first came out. We no longer live in an era with a lack of war or tragedy to define us. Eerily enough, the new era came into being the same way Fight Club ended: with two skyscrapers collapsing into rubble. But I think it still has a lot to say about how in these post-industrial times traditional notions of masculinity, for better and worse, have become outdated and are gradually eroding from society, with no real new set guidelines in place. This leaves a lot of men lost and unsure what to do with themselves I suppose, or worse, frustrated and angry. As for me, I loved the film growing up. I may find its disdain for white collar professions a little quaint and dated (that’s a very 90s gripe to have), but I still very much enjoy it, much for the same reasons as everyone else: it’s well-made, engaging, and funny as hell. There’s something to be said that Tyler Durden’s appeal is akin to that of James Dean. We all dig his transgressive behavior, but unlike Dean, it has the added element of being hilarious, albeit in a dark way. I mean really, how could you not laugh at a guy who splices single frames of pornography into family films?
Bennett Oliver
2021-08-30 20:35:08 +0000 UTCPalahnuik talked on Joe Rogan in 2019 about his career — mainly Fight Club. I highly recommend the whole interview because he's just a fascinating person with a unique perspective. He claims Fight Club caught fire because when it comes to "lifestyle" fiction for men, there's Dead Poets Society, Fight Club, and... that's pretty much it. I think a lot of the interest in the story is focused on the animalistic/anarcho-primitivism because that's the flashy part of the story (it is called FIGHT Club after all), but really I think it was an early precursor to the current distrust and cynicism on capitalism and boomer culture. When I think of Fight Club I don't think about Brad Pitt greased up and muscular as much as I think about "These things you own, they begin to own you" or "We work jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need." It was the hollowness of adult life that proved to be so disappointing which led a lot of teenagers who were initially attracted to the film's EDGINESS to prolong their appreciation because of the resonate critique on the bullshit in our culture. It's common knowledge now that male depression trends toward self destruction (or maybe all depression does if Annihilation is to be believed) and if discussions on male mental health were more honest and less judgmental, the movie may have appeared dated soon after release. But to this day there's a lot of confusion about patriarchal power and how it relates to depression in men. It's hard to see a raging psychopath as someone who feels powerless and needs help, but that's often how male depression exhibits itself. Even Fight Club is now branded as proof men would rather become fascists then go to therapy, or whatever the clever phrase is these days. The movie has a self-reinforcing self-pittying. It's like the world doesn't understand you so show them who they're fucking with. Piss in someone's drink, harass strangers, beat the shit out of someone, show them the contempt they feel for you is mutual. This further isolates the men who feel this way so they're more alone and more susceptible to the power fantasy self-destruction of the film. That's my read on things. It's kind of sad.
Arthur Augustyn
2021-08-30 20:34:45 +0000 UTCI think the line, “We’re a generation of men raised by women” really colored the way the movie has been reassessed over the years, with a batch of critics dismissing it as anti-feminist. But blaming women doesn’t really run through the movie. Tyler just uses Marla for sex and dismisses her, but Ed Norton comes to have feelings for her and wants real connection. I would think that in this era, its anti-capitalist, anti-9-to-5-rat-race message would be what stands out. But being masculine men and punching each other in the face is not the answer to getting out of that corporate drone lifestyle. The movie ends with Ed Norton holding hands with his girlfriend as a bunch of credit card companies are blown up. Seems romantic to me.
Jim Barnes
2021-08-30 20:32:17 +0000 UTCTo be honest I don't see how teenagers could comprehend its patriarchal commentary
Michael Smith
2021-08-30 20:31:04 +0000 UTCI first saw this movie when I was 18....I didn't like it, I didn't care about it, it didn't resonate with me. I saw it 2 years ago, as an adult, and finally it made sense to me; it clicked. As men these days we are stuck in a rat race. We go through school and maybe we felt masculine, and maybe we were leaders, and maybe we felt respected, and maybe we were visible to the opposite sex; we had dreams, we were idealists, we had vigor. Then we graduated and saw the real world.....we were working a 9 to 5 job (if we were lucky)......we had to swallow our pride and start at the bottom. We had to do whatever our bosses told us, we had no autonomy, we were not leaders, we were followers. We became sedentary, we lost our testosterone, we became agreeable, we became weak, we became impotent. It wasn't natural, it wasn't what our ancestors did. Our ancestors fought in wars, were physically strong and active, and were able to successfully pass their genes to the next generation. We became a shell of what we could be. The ideal man doesn't take orders from anyone, he works for himself, calls the shots, is feared, is desired, is dangerous. He embraces the inner animal within himself.....escapes his 9 to 5 chains and starts an organization to beat the shit out of other men, who have also embraced their innate masculinity. You see this play out in life where men quit their jobs to become entrepreneurs, they learn mixed martial arts, they become men and not boys stuck in an office.
Michael Smith
2021-08-30 20:03:23 +0000 UTCInteresting point about James Deen. I’ve never fully connected to Fight Club because it feels like something tethered to a kind of Gen x “I don’t wanna work in an office” Sticking it to this vague “man” energy (I feel the same way about American Beauty ,The Matrix) as a millennial I don’t feel on the same wave length and I think that dates it a bit for me. But it seems like these films live on for some reason I maybe just am not grasping. Idk
jared Clarke
2021-08-30 19:52:19 +0000 UTCI first saw this movie when I was 18....I didn't like it, I didn't care about it, it didn't resonate with me. I saw it 2 years ago, as an adult, and finally it made sense to me; it clicked. As men these days we are stuck in a rat race. We go through school and maybe we felt masculine, and maybe we were leaders, and maybe we felt respected, and maybe we were visible to the opposite sex; we had dreams, we were idealists, we had vigor. Then we graduated and saw the real world.....we were working a 9 to 5 job (if we were lucky),,,,,we had to swallow our pride and start at the bottom. We had to do whatever our bosses told us, we had no autonomy, we were not leaders, we were followers. We became sedentary, we lost our testosterone, we became agreeable, we became weak, we became impotent, we became feminine, we became cucks. It wasn't natural, it wasn't what our ancestors did. Our ancestors fought in wars, were physically strong and active, and were able to successfully pass their genes to the next generation. We became a shell of what we could be. The ideal man doesn't take orders from anyone, he works for himself, calls the shots, is feared, is desired, is dangerous. He embraces inner animal within himself.....escapes his 9 to 5 chains and starts an organization to beat the shit out of other men, who have also embraced their innate masculinity. You see this play out in life where men quit their jobs to become entrepreneurs, they learn mixed martial arts, they become men and not boys stuck in an office.
Michael Smith
2021-08-30 19:51:21 +0000 UTC16 year old found it as a really cool movie. Durden is a badass that not only k own how to fight, but doesn't "conform to societal norms". He could "see through" all of the social constructs that we create and came to a deeper understanding of what life is really about. Now 31 year old me still enjoys the movie, but yeah, it's not as deep as a lot of us thought it was when we were younger. What I typed above is what I feel like I would have said around 16, though I certainly wouldn't have been able to articulate it even half as well. But I think Durden filled an almost, James Deen role for a lot of the younger generation at the time. You take Fincher's dark and gritty style, the "macho" fight scenes, the quasi intellectual quips, and the charisma of Brad Pitt and you have a perfect concoction to create something a lot of young boys will idolize. Now why people would carry on that idolization past their teens? Well, some people just don't grow up I guess. I think a lot of young boys, and young men even, can feel like outsiders though, and that character kind of spoke to that mindset, while also being really "cool and badass".
David Goleb
2021-08-30 19:39:37 +0000 UTCOh well for the people who are aware I think it strikes a cord. I love the Sopranos, because as terrible and awful, and racist(I’m black) Tony Soprano can be, I see my self in him in ways that are really sobering, but there’s a weird liberating power to that I guess.
jared Clarke
2021-08-30 19:39:25 +0000 UTCI don't consider it terrible at all. It isn't necessarily a criticism. Some of the men I refer to yes, have been quite cliche and unaware of it, but also many of them very intelligent and aware of the stereotype around Fight Club. Yet...it still compels them.
Deepfocuslens
2021-08-30 19:35:52 +0000 UTCSame reason some dudes look up to characters in Scorsese films, Naked, Catcher and The Rye, why certain dudes read get Infinite Jest and are just the worst. Great pieces of art have a deceptive quality to them, and have the danger of being looked at on face value and misread in a terrible way.
jared Clarke
2021-08-30 19:33:19 +0000 UTC
