Fight Club is rated R, and includes scenes of sexuality, violence, and profanity. If you’re unsure if you can watch this movie or read this article, ask your parents first!

I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that until I saw it, I assumed that Fight Club wouldn’t be good. I vaguely knew what the movie was about for a while, mainly through pop culture references, and I had seen it on the IMDB list for the top 10 movies of all time, hence it’s here. And the verdict is, it’s certainly an enjoyable film, with fantastically portrayed themes of toxic masculinity and capitalism, set to the background of a disgusting and grounded world. I don’t necessarily believe that it belongs on the top ten movies of all time, but it certainly exceeded my expectations. Once I actually read what the film was about, I was intrigued, but still hesitant, the movie having been gushed about by one too many white guys who just loved Tyler Durden. While I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the film, I was also surprised by just how wrong the general praise I saw for it was. The movie has a lot to praise, like David Fincher’s directing, which creates an incredible film, supported by Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter’s phenomenal performances. What I didn’t understand was how many men I saw idolizing the male leads. To me, it couldn’t be clearer that Tyler Durden and his philosophy is exactly what to avoid.

The cigarette-toting macho man in question: Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt).
Source: Pinterest

Throughout the movie, we witness The Narrator (Edward Norton), an insomniac who’s miserable with life, attending support group meetings for things he’s not at all affected by. This includes a testicular cancer support group, tuberculosis, a bowel cancer support group, a brain parasites support group, etc. Eventually, he meets a soap salesman named Tyler Durden, and together they form an underground club where they and multitudes of other men who are dissatisfied with their lives take part in fights. They form a strange friendship, one that is toxic and destructive, and strangely romantic, with the tension between them feeling more like that you’d see between love interests in a romantic comedy. However, their bond is tested when Marla Singer, (another infiltrator of support groups) enters a relationship with Tyler.

Edward Norton as The Narrator in this iconic scene from *Fight Club.*
Source: BBC

There’s a lot to be said about Fight Club, from the grotesqueness of the world, to the foreshadowing of the big twist with The Narrator and Tyler, and notably the homoerotic subtext, but its themes of toxic masculinity are what I’m most interested in. In the film, the catalyst for the creation of Fight Club is The Narrator wanting to feel freed from the restrictions of society that supposedly feminize him and prevent him from sleeping, and getting to feel powerful. In his everyday routine, The Narrator is an awkward, average man who doesn’t have anywhere to go in life. But with the help of cool, devil-may-care, and seemingly freed Tyler, The Narrator has a change of perspective. He’s smoking at work and nonchalant about blood on his clothes, he doesn’t need the support groups anymore to help himself function, and all he can care or think about is Fight Club. For one night a week, he gets to feel like a god. This is oftentimes interpreted by audiences (mainly those of the cis white male variety) as a good thing, that Tyler is someone to aspire to, whose belief in pain and violence are empowering. And that, to me, is the tragedy of Fight Club. This movie says a lot about repression, and in my opinion, is a satire of the toxic masculinity that so many men embrace. Both fittingly and ironically, men who watch it idealize the satirical portrayal of an unhealthy ideal.

“This movie says a lot about repression, and in my opinion, is a satire of the toxic masculinity that so many men embrace. ”

Overall, this movie was one I liked. I don’t think I would rewatch it anytime soon, mainly because the movie is so gross (in a good, real, way, but still, gross. I draw the line at human soap). It is an interesting satire of toxic masculinity, but is soured all too often by misinterpretation.

watch the trailer here