First of all calling this film “cheerfully fascist” is a stretch. When he says this, I assume he is referring to Tyler Durden’s group of followers. But in no way is this so called “cult” fascist. Sure, Tyler led all of the men in a structured environment , but it was certainly not by way of oppression. It was all choice, they were all free to follow Tyler.
Secondly Erbert explains, “ In my opinion, he has no useful truths. He's a bully…”. As crazy as it sounds, just because someone beats another person up, it doesn’t make them a bully. In Tae Kwon Do, masters go extra hard on beginners because they are learners. They throw endless kicks and hand strikes to condition them. They are making them stronger and helping them achieve their goal. Tyler organizes fights and also participates in them not to crush someone’s dreams, not to slash their confidence, but to boost their strength and make them feel like they are important and that they can be happy in this messed up world of life.
Erbert claims that “None of the Fight Club members grows stronger or freer because of their membership; they're reduced to pathetic cultists”. I will say he states a reasonable point that they are in a cult. They follow Tyler’s directions, are enthralled in his philosophy and at many times repeat what Tyler has said. For example when Bob died, they all start chanting, “His name was Robert Paulsen, his name was Robert Paulsen”. However, Erbert didn’t back up his claim. Erbert didn’t give any specific examples of why they were a cult. Furthermore, Erbert doesn’t give enough credit to why they are involved in the cult-like group. They joined Fight Club because they wanted to belong to something and make some meaning of life. Tyler Durden and Fight Club gave them both of these things which made them stronger people.
Although sophisticates will be able to rationalize the movie as an argument against the behavior it shows, my guess is that audience will like the behavior but not the argument. Certainly they'll buy tickets because they can see Pitt and Norton pounding on each other; a lot more people will leave this movie and get in fights than will leave it discussing Tyler Durden's moral philosophy.
I can’t say Erbert is wrong on this one, but I can’t say he is correct in his prediction. I know a lot of people who did take Tyler Durden’s moral philosophy out of the movie and respected it. But I also know viewers of Fight Club who didn’t like the movie because all they saw was the violence. But this is because a lot of people simply watch the movie, they don’t experience it. Additionally, what most people think of the movie should have nothing to do with what he thinks of it.
