The Fifteenth Anniversary of ‘Fight Club’ (And Brad Pitt’s Abs)
Everett Collection
That Fight Club is one of those films geared towards rousing the “inner man” in frat guys doesn’t take away from the fact that everyone remembers Brad Pitt as an exceptionally fine-looking babe in the movie. Brad plays Tyler Durden, an unspooled personality imagined by Edward Norton’s schizophrenic character. (Note: The fact that Brad Pitt is not a real person in the movie is a spoiler, but I think a moratorium should officially be placed on “spoiler alerts” for films that came out 15 years ago.)
Anyway, Tyler Durden is an anarchist with a penchant for boxing in a basement with corporate guys who are trying to let off some steam. Would you date a bad/absolutely crazy guy like him? Well, exactly how hot is he? I love the courtesy pros-and-cons list we make in our head when an exceptionally hot dude is on the line.
Dating is a bit different 15 years after the movie came out (the David Fincher-directed film’s anniversary is this week). I know, for example, if my friend matched with Tyler Durden on Tinder, she would swipe yes. I think we all would. He’s baby-faced, had cool hair (for 1999), though I much prefer his head shaved. His body is out of control, and when a body like that presents itself, you at least go have a drink with it, signs of mental issues or no.
On the subject of his body, Pitt has acknowledged he’s a genetic anomaly. Take this excerpt from an October 1999 Interview in Rolling Stone:
“When we talk, Pitt quotes approvingly the Tyler line, ‘I feel sorry for those guys packing into gyms trying to look like Calvin Klein told them they should look like.’ When I suggest that, willingly or not, he’s surely a kind of poster boy for that kind of image, he scoffs. ‘I eat crap. I’m one of those guys you hate because of genetics. It’s the truth.’”
One of those!
We all give dudes nicknames—what would Tyler Durden’s be? “Hot crazy guy”? Hot squatter guy. Hot activist guy. Whatever the moniker, it would definitely include “hot.” Women give out entirely too many hall passes to hot guys—and crazy guys—but, hey, we have to experiment. Why? It’s probably some very deep-seated thing that doesn’t really matter. We inevitably figure out that a bad boy isn’t going to go out for brunch with us in the long term, and move forward.
Tyler Durden—can we just call him “Brad Circa 1999”?—is an insane babe. He’s so hot, men want to be him. I mean the number of times a guy has referenced “The first rule of fight club is that you don’t talk about fight club” in my life is borderline unbearable. To me, the redeeming quality of the movie was Brad Pitt explaining things. He has a lazy drawl and he eye fucks everyone he is speaking to. Brad Pitt is smart, and he knew his body had to be OOC for the movie, because sex sells.
Also: Fight Club would be so gross and disturbing and misogynistic without Brad Pitt’s undeniable sex appeal. That’s what I mean, we give a hall pass to bad boy crazy if they are hot—and it’s ok. We figure it out eventually.
Sarah Gidick is the brain behind the website Porn For Women and the insanely popular Instagram handle
