I spoiled myself several years ago, so I was consciously looking for clues leading up to the big reveal. Still, very good movie, really enjoyed it.
Afterwards, I read some of the threads here, so I think I got all the symbolism and themes. One question though - am I supposed to feel sorry for, or sympathize with the Narrator? Because I don’t. Poor Narrator, you have a crappy dead end job, your life sucks. Boo fucking hoo. You’re like 98% of us (which is kind of the point of the story, I get that). But, get over yourself. Look for a better job, try and find a decent person to spend you time with. Don’t like Ikea? Try Rooms to Go. I refuse to believe that no innocents were hurt or killed by Tyler’s actions at the end of the movie. The buildings may have been empty, but what about the streets. The Narrator is just a crazy terrorist who deserves to go to Gitmo.
In a way, yeah. By the end of the movie, the entire universe is so completely out of control, you look at the delusional multiple/recently single personality disordered guy with a hole through his face and a bunch of dead cultists around him and kinda feel sorry for him because he suddenly seems, well…normal. Normaler than Tyler anyway.
Well, it wasn’t like the Narrator didn’t have blood on his hands with his job. Basically, what he did was investigate accident scenes and crunch numbers so that his large corporate employer could monetarily justify paying damages to the people injured or killed by their faulty products over the higher cost of safety upgrades and recalls. I think his realization of that fact (along with his existential vacuum) is probably what tipped him over mentally.
When all the news came out about Toyota covering up their faulty accelerator issues (for exactly the reasons in the movie) I couldn’t help but to think that that was the company the narrator was working for.
I don’t think you’re supposed to feel sorry for the Narrator, and you’re definitely not supposed to think the Space Monkeys are cool, which is apparently what a lot of people got out of the film.
It’s been awhile since I watched it, but iirc, the commentary is pretty entertaining. Edward Norton has a lot of Deep Thoughts on what the movie is about. (He’s occasionally interrupted in his musings by snark from Brad Pitt.)
Now I want to rewatch the movie, but some asshole stole my entire DVD collection. I hate that person.
One interesting touch I noticed, though: One of the small subversive things Tyler/Narrator does is to clip out single frames of porn and splice them into non-porn movies. And there are, in fact, single frames of porn spliced into the movie.
And Kyla, I hate to break it to you, but you stole your own DVD collection.
You aren’t supposed to feel sorry for the Narrator. You are supposed to relate to him. The Narrator is supposed to be representative of Generation X types - people in their 20s and 30s when the movie was released. Disconnected from society, unsure about their place in the world and their future, insecure.
I’m not really sure of the point of the film. He creates this Tyler Durden persona who is basically everything he wants to be - good looking, confident, capable, does what he pleases. And of course Tyler takes that do as you please philosophy to it’s logical extreme.
The shaved-head members of Project Mahem. “Like a monkey ready to be shot into space!”
Tyler Durden is also a physical manifestation of his own self-hatred. All of the things Tyler tells people to do - live the life you’re dreaming of, stop buying in to corporate bullshit - are specifically the things the Narrator can’t do (his crappy job, his IKEA addiction…). Even when he starts doing all the things he wants to do, his inertia is so strong that he dissociates that part of himself. And once he realizes it was just him, he “kills” Tyler by shooting himself in the head. It is in fact a movie about a guy who can’t do anything to change his life. He is a completely pathetic character from start to end.
I think he’s a sympathetic character only to the extent that he is the one ‘normal’ person in the movie; everyone he’s surrounded with is larger than life and he’s very withdrawn. That lets him become a lens for the audience.
Oh and don’t get me wrong - I like this movie fine but I don’t think it’s actually that great or groundbreaking. A lot of the philosophy is very heavy-handed. There is also a major plot hole that I first read about here on the SDMB - seriously major, on the level of ‘unravels the entire story’:
In the parking lot, the Narrator is just beating himself up. And we’re supposed to believe that someone would see a guy punching himself in the face in a parking lot and want to be a part of whatever he’s doing?
Unless of course we choose to believe that Fight Club never actually happened.
Don’t feel sorry for the narrator…he’s actually the villain. The characters in the film who deserve sympathy are Marla and Meatloaf. After you watch it once, you feel sorry for Angel too.
I’m one of those idiots who takes Fight Club seriously. I can’t help myself. It’s so fucking amazing. I’m sorry that it was spoiled for you. Part of the fun for me was being surprised at the end and then watching it over again another dozen times and blowing my mind thinking “HOLY SHIT! In this scene there’s only one person standing there! Holy shit! From the POV of Bob, Tyler just came out, told him to get lost, then snuck back and told him to wait for a few days! Holy shit!”
