David Fincher has just turned sixty. The director has had a long and successful career in Hollywood and has been garlanded with awards for visually dazzling and rigorously plotted dramas like The Social Network, Gone Girl, Zodiac, and Mank. But there’s one title in his filmography that’s guaranteed to spark debate: seminal 1999 cult classic Fight Club.
Adapted from Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel of the same name, the movie follows Edward Norton’s miserable narrator as he meets the charismatic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), and the pair find new purpose by punching each other in the face in the titular ‘Fight Club’. From there, things spiral into anarchy and homegrown terrorism in one of the best time capsules of pre-millennial malaise.
Twitter is marking Fincher’s birthday by showing Fight Club some love. Here’s how it’s going down:
The Pixies needle drop at the finale has to be one of the best in cinema history:
Others are focusing on the cinematography and grimy aesthetic:
For some there’s no competition in Fincher’s filmography:
It really is crammed with incredible lines:
But there’s a dark side to the film’s popularity. Many impressionable young men misunderstood the movie’s message and decided its themes of go-your-own-way masculinity and destroying society were to be emulated, with the movie inspiring multiple real-life Fight Clubs and being connected to a series of bombings. More recently Tyler Durden has been noted as a proto-proud-boy or alt-right influencer and a beacon for depressed men with no direction in life.
But we don’t think that spoils Fight Club, which remains an enormously entertaining watch. The only wrinkle is that in 2022 it’s much harder to empathize with Edward Norton’s character’s existential misery at having a secure job, a nice apartment, and a fridge full of delicious condiments. Boo hoo buddy.