It's been a while since I've seen it. My memory was that the first half was a powerful deconstruction of toxic masculinity
It's deeper than that. It's about the death of meaning.
Is, for example, the blatant homoeroticism a critique of toxic masculinity? If so, how does that function? Is it a schoolyard jeer that a "real man" is a "man's man"? That would be less of a "powerful deconstruction" and a lame folk-psychological appeal (attempting to move men off masculinity for fear of getting gay cooties). Or, worse, is the critique homophobic? That is, is it really saying that a real man would be a man's man (i.e., that it would genuinely be a bad/gay thing to take the red pill, so go fall into the arms of Marla)? I don't think that the film is homophobic, so reading it as a critique of the toxic male is not accounting for the homoerotic themes of repression and desire. At best, this idea is incomplete. At worst, it misses the point of the film. And I think that the latter is closer to being true.
Sure, the bro-reading of the film chants the name of Robert Paulson and sees a pattern for reclamation. Yes, I am sure some idiots actually did start their own fight clubs.
The "deeper" reading, however, ain't that deep. It fails to acknowledge the problems identified in the film, or meekly asserts that our world, as bad as it is, must be better than the alternatives ("Sure, there's a downside to civilization, now put on your blue corn silk tie, sit in traffic for two hours, and fill out your TPS reports"). If Fight Club is this story, then it is no different than Falling Down, a film which lacked the courage of its own convictions (see below)
I think that Fight Club captures the desperation of modernity grappling with the loss a metaphysical picture (loosely, the death of man). How do we make meaning as the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world? Is the hedonic treadmill of consumerism in latter-day capitalism's era
Bullshit Jobs sustainable? Be careful. Keep sweeping it under the carpet, keep kicking the can and you face the revenge of the repressed. This is what Sting is singing about in Synchronicity II.
The film doesn't present an answer, but rather warns us what will happen if we lack the will and imagination to learn how we modern materialists may live in a fulfilling dramatic mythos, a story worthy of us continuing to turn the page.
And it's a message we should pay attention to. Hitler would appeal to dispossessed Germans and offer them a transformative narrative complete with scapegoating, purpose, and a solution. Today's boys are increasingly lost boys. They're dropping out of college (or not even enrolling). They're dropping out of the workforce. Get a lot of men who are pissed off, poor, and seemingly have nothing to lose, and a Tyler Durden will appear. The message Fight Club IMO is NOT that everything is fine (or would be if males would stop being so toxic), or that "Well, modernity is still better than a sharp stick in the eye!" Rather, the message is that we're missing something vital in our humanity and that we need a new pattern of being, new formal relationships in society. It's a challenge. Tyler isn't the answer, but he does have a point.
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