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I liked your post and I agree with most of it. The problem with the is film is that nobody would ever seriously consider the type of rebellion Tyler proposes.
At least in "Animal Farm" the irony of how the Communist system may have progressed from good intentions is readily recognizable. That a fight club could really happen is simply unbelievable (and don't talk to me about Fascists -- the fight club was about one-on-one fighting). A chaotic, violent, unnatural response to a very common feeling of many men being made weak and impotent by the trappings of materialism. Sure we have fake wrestling and real extreme fighting, but guys aren't lining up to actually do it. The human response is drink more beers, put on a few pounds, and be an asshole to one's wives and girlfriends. Fight Club is new, innovative, and clever, sure, but clever for clever's sake is not necessarily art.
What troubles me is that many of the movie's biggest fans actually cozy up to the idea, and fail to realize, as you pointed out, that the movie was supposed to repel you from these notions and guide you to a more balanced, sane (our narrator sort of gets his sanity back in the end), approach to managing your life. Reading the posts of many fanatics that are just as rabid as the members of the fight club should tell you that the movie failed.
In other posts, I have concluded that if you aren't repelled by the fight club, then in a way the movie plays a joke on you because fanaticism in general (the root of the more mildly connotative word "fan") is presented as, well, not even evil, but just plain stupid.
And the simpel fact us, a lot us hate it when people like any movie. That is the whoel point of this website. We are not won over by any movie, work of art, piece of music, book, politician, whatever. To form some truly life altering view based on works of entertainment belittles individualism and the nobility of self-discovery is is frankly insulting to people everywhere that have passed puberty. There are some us for whom no movie will ever be good enough, so perhaps we overreact when we hear or read about someone being absolutely won over by a piece of fiction.
So what's my point:
1)Men aren't going to turn into violent raving lunatics.
Give us some credit.
2)People are really passive aggressive, or vicariously
aggressive, not aggressive aggressive, and those that are
can usually turn it into something positive, with a tiny,
loathsome minority devolving into feral behavior.
3)Was there really anything that these guys had to be
pissed off about? I remember sitting through the whole
movie with a smart-ass incredulous look on my face. What
a bunch of whiners. To have to sit through that has made
me appreciate growing up in the countryside.
4)I don't want philosophy in my fiction, and especially
not in my movies, because almost nobody can pull it off.
HEY, MOVIE GUYS, STOP TRYING! You can entertain us if you
are extremely lucky, but that's about it.
5)Clever, yes, realistic, no. This movie is pure
fantasy. So fantastic that there aren't even any people
in it. Was I supposed to laugh?
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