Nicely put. I don't really understand how the negative ending of Fight Club is supposed to stop people from identifying with it; it's not as though it shows another happier path people with the same sentiments ought to endorse.

"If you feel this way and commit to it completely, things will go wrong for you" is totally compatible with "many people feel this way", and if the movie wasn't relatable it's not clear to me how it would have anything useful to say.

* A generation of men raised with absent father figures is leading to listless depression.

* Every person has an idealized version of themselves in their head where they are powerful and purposeful.

* Modern middle class culture has no real danger in it, and we have lost our connection to the world of physical violence and dominance.

* Living for the acquisition of more IKEA furniture is a poor life decision.

And so on and so forth. Like most decently thoughtful and provocative film and writing it throws a lot of things at you and makes you think and reconsider your values a little. It has a lot of messages, some contradictory, some confusing or banal, and some intriguing.

Sure there are particulars. But is FC's consuming consumer that much different (metaphorically) from being a battery for the machines?

I don't think so.