The very notion that every man has some primitive, raging caveman inside him that wants to beat people up and get beaten up for no reason made me laugh. Good movie, but christ was it'spoint lol-worthy.
Verge_6
I don't think that was its point at all. Watch the movie again and you'll notice that a hell of a lot of men in the movie were repulsed by the actions of the Fight Club members.
Furthermore, you'll notice that one thing that Tyler Durdern consistently talks about is "hitting bottom". So it's no surprise that the love interest is Marla Singer...a chain-smoking pill-popping laundry-stealing sometimes-suicidal woman who walks into traffic and also gets a thrill out of attending support groups. It's absolutely not a "man thing". Marla Singer seems to sort of be trying to "hit bottom" as well.
And finally, don't forget Tyler Durden's speech about how their "Great War" was with their lives. Notice him railing against consumerism and the establishment. Consider this anecdote...
"So my dad tells me, 'Go to college'. I went to college. Then I asked my dad, 'What now?' So he says, get a job.' Then I got a job and I asked my dad, 'What now?' He says, 'I don't know, start a family.'"
Do you see what's going on there? He's going through life doing things just because he's SUPPOSED TO. And that obviously provides him with no fulfillment, because he's just doing things because he's SUPPOSED TO. He expects that his life is going to be all sunshine and roses if he merely follows a formula. Then he finds out that's wrong. And instead of acting like an adult, he rebels against conformity. He started out conforming for the sake of conformity, and ended up rebelling for the sake of rebellion. And the reason WHY is simple...these are spoiled brats. Fight Club is filled with men who are bitter because they had entitlement issues. They expected happiness and meaning to simply fall into their laps if they followed the accepted norms of society. That didn't happen, so they throw a whiny tantrum and start beating each other up and treating themselves like ****.
Fight Club (the movie, not the club) absolutely has its flaws. But the movie was NEVER portraying this as a "male thing". I've definitely heard that interpretation and I simply don't agree with it. It's more about the problems of looking for the quick fix. The men in Fight Club were bitter because their quick fix didn't provide answers. So then in their vulnerability they joined a cult which promised them a quick fix. That's not a "male thing". The members of Fight Club are simply spoiled brats with a high sense of entitlement. And then when the solutions to their problems don't magically fall from the sky, those people basically throw a tantrum like little children. The movie is NOT portraying men like that. Edward Norton's character explicitly states that "most people, normal people, will do just about anything to avoid a fight."
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