Fight club is a “literally me” movie that makes people relate to a character they’re supposed to hate

Just finished watching Fight Club and though I got the general gist of the film (the degradation of man under rampant consumerism in modernity, the loss of purpose, nihilism and its consequences when taken to an extreme, living in the “here and now”, etc.) I feel like there’s an extra connection or sort of meaning derived from it that I’ve also found in films like it which a buddy of mine once described as “literally me movies”. I’d put films like Taxi Driver and 2009’s Drive in here as well in part because of the joke but more notably because there is some type of general angst or feeling I think that links all of them together and in some way makes you relate to these characters in a way a lot of films can’t. In all three of these films you have a character contending with the drudgery of modernity, life is dull and devoid of meaning and there is a general pessimism in these films about the outside world and those in it. The world feels disgusting and tainted, it makes you want to reject it on principle. The characters whilst admittedly pretty one dimensional are also dealing with those consequences of modernity, they’re isolated, lonely. They have no support structures and their plot lines revolve around this, though it’s handled in the most maladjusted ways possible that I believe people can relate to more than not, at least for myself. I watched Taxi Driver after being released from my military service and that feeling of almost abandonment, as if you’re living in a world not meant for you is very real, which I think binds all of these kinds of films in a way you don’t get with many others. Maybe I’m just spitballing but I think there’s a sort of common connection with the common man that isn’t really stated, which I do see echoed at least to some degree amongst people.

I was obsessed with Fight Club as a teen so I’ve seen it countless times, I agree that it seems to go over some heads.

I think the irony that people miss is that the hyper-masculine anarchist lifestyle presented in Fight Club is just another product that they are being sold, just like the IKEA furniture and Starbucks coffees.

I’ve stopped really seeing it as an anti “toxic masculinity” statement over the years and started to see it more as a film about the dissolving of identity and purpose in the name of rampant consumerism.

Definitely, the funny thing is I don’t think I would’ve felt the same way if I watched this film in my teens. Reflecting on it makes me feel the same way I did when I started reading thinkers like Nietzsche or Heidegger. It’s anti-consumerist but not in a way that a lot of modern works are, it doesn’t glorify the other if you look past the window dressing and instead kinda lays bare the shortfalls of the other in praxis.

Definitely caught me off guard for sure lol can’t believe I slept on it for so long

I think it's possible to relate to a character while still recognising their problems. People are imperfect, and our minds can sometimes go to quite dark places if left unchecked, and I think having a safe avenue to express these dark emotions through film/art is valuable and necessary. Paul Schrader wrote Taxi Driver at a time where he was worried he was going to kill someone, and would apparently sleep with a gun in his mouth and point his gun at unsuspecting bypassers. One of the inspirations for Fight Club was a fight Palaniuk had gotten into with a coworker, and how that fight and everyone's enjoyment of it, felt like an express of the misery everyone had been feeling.

I worry a little that recent years have seen a move towards a kind of puritanical morality where negative feelings and acts cannot be portayed as anything other than overtly bad in film and TV for fear of people interpretting it as validation for their own villainy, but the alternative is that people just internalise the shame of their own darkness and repress it as hard as they can.

all three of these films you have a character contending with the drudgery of modernity, life is dull and devoid of meaning and there is a general pessimism in these films about the outside world and those in it. The world feels disgusting and tainted, it makes you want to reject it on principle

That's right to some extend. The modern life and rules of society is making people sick. Ill. I L L. For real in the real world. And the reasons for that is for the most part explained in Buddhism. Which offers the cure.

Believe it or not, that is the real meaning behind Fight Club. Many people misunderstand the movie but they're fascinated anyways. So it became one of the highest rated movies ever. because it hits the nail. Even if they don't know why. Toxic masculinity is the best example to miss the message. It has nothing to do with it.

I have a explanation, that might help people to understand the movie better. Many disagree, I know that. Which eventually confirms the message.

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls540372550/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

my favorite thing about fight club is it isn't really an accurate portrayal of a certain type of lowlife dirtbag, but it is an unflinchingly precise portrayal of dudes that want to be that dirtbag

I’m with you except the “being sold” part. IMO an important angle is that consumerism (and nihilism) are demand-driven. Tyler Durden doesn’t come into town and start selling fight club, he’s literally willed into existence. And people are desperate to participate.

I see it as about human nature and our desperate need to hang our identity on external things. Nihilism and IKEA work equally well. But there’s no hint of absolution, Pahliniuk and Fincher put the blame squarely on the consumers.

The "self-improvement is masturbation" line sums it up to me. It's critical of a lot more than consumerism. Palahniuk pulls from a absurdism existentialist tradition in Jack's little crisis, but it remains self-aware enough to cast the Tyler Durden culty schtick of The Need for Destruction as just another form of masterbation.

>Maybe I’m just spitballing but I think there’s a sort of common connection with the common man that isn’t really stated

Yeah, I would maybe focus on that, rather than this "I identify with him, but he is actually bad" which is maybe not that deep, and not really what makes these movies so attractive.

E.g. I would also throw in American Psycho with these movies, even though there its clear you dont want to identify with Bateman at all.

Its more about a kind of cynical, yet lighthearted observation of modernity that, as you say, resonates with the common working class dude.

Its more about these quippy observations about this or that bullshit aspect of modernity that you dont get much from other movies. Usually your social critiqe movies will be these heavy handed and kind of depressing things, but these movies have a more soothing, humorous, kind of uplifting "I hear you" vibe. Like, "Yeah, fucking bullshit, this sucks", but coming from a very smart and confident kind of guy, thus able to confirm and strengthen you, confidently spell out what you maybe have more as just a general intuition.

True Detective S1 is very much like that too, Rust Cohle is propably the perfect ego ideal in that regard.

Or recently Severance imho also fits the vibe. And ofc if you expand it like that, good few other movies and shows, e.g. the larger part of Finchers filmography.

It seems a bit loosing the thread then, but as said, if you are looking for the real resonance it really wont come down to this main character ambiguity, but more of a general social critiqe thing, the way it points at modernity with a kind of cynical, yet humorous touch.

Claiming you are right and others are wrong doesnt apply to film and literature theory in general. You need to let that go

You’re presented with Pitt as a sadistic power fantasy, but the film ultimately shows that fantasy to be illusory. The entire club is founded on men witnessing the narrator’s masochistic self-abnegation: the initial spark isn’t really “I want to become Pitt and inflict pain on other people,” but the discovery of a social role in which the narrator can experience himself as both victim and dominant figure.
And Marla complicates the loneliness reading even further. The narrator actually has an opportunity for intimacy with another person, but he can’t tolerate her because she exposes the same contradiction that Fight Club is built around: she sees through the performance. He resents her presence in the support groups because she is “doing” what he is doing—performing suffering in order to feel something—but unlike the men at Fight Club, she doesn't allow him to maintain the fantasy of himself as the uniquely alienated male. His relationship with her is characterized by avoidance, hostility, and projection.

That’s why I think Taxi Driver is a pretty different film. Travis’s alienation progressively externalizes itself into a violent fantasy of purification: he constructs an identity as the man who will act upon a corrupt world. In Fight Club, the violent masculine fantasy is itself the pathology. Tyler isn’t simply the man the narrator wishes he could become; he is the narrator’s fantasy of resolving his inability to inhabit himself. The fact that the narrator ultimately has to destroy Tyler is the point: the fantasy of masculine liberation has become another form of imprisonment.

Funny that people always seem to focus on the consumerism aspect when the film is trying to say something along the lines of "don't be a mindless sheep doing what everybody else does".

You've got think for yourself. Not in rejection to what you're mad about in society, not because all the other bros are doing it. You've gotta reject that instinct and become your own person.

The film starts with the narrator blaming consumerism and the state of the world but by the end he finally takes control of the "Tyler durden" side of himself.

The cool guy gets violent trope is one men may love to think is "literally them".
I personally do not think there is much cross-over between Fight Club and Drive and Taxi driver though.

These are each stories about men who have lost their way for whatever reason and ultimately resort to, or feel forced into, violence, but thats about where the similarities end. Fight club's focus on finding purpose through male groups is an interesting direction, taxi drive and drive do not go that route.

In my experience, people who legit think its "literally me" are trying to inject a kind of sad incel reading into it. Like a 'thats like me, im very quiet but if someone threatened my girl id be super strong and defend them'. I find it to be a very sad reading.

The overarching theme of men who have lost their way is not uncommon, those 3 are just ones which have them gravitate to violence, and maybe some men feel a personal sense of power from watching that, but there are other films exploring the same concepts without the violence which I personally think is much more likely to be "literally them".

Think of Paris, Texas, or Inside Llewelyn Davis or Sideways even.