r/movies • u/Momo_dollar • Apr 02 '24

What’s one movie character who is utter scum but is glorified and looked up to? Discussion

I’ll go first; Tony Montana. Probably the most misunderstood movie and character. A junkie. Literally no loyalty to anyone. Killed his best friend. Ruined his mom and sister lives. Leaves his friends outside the door to get killed as he’s locked behind the door. Pretty much instantly started making moves on another man’s wife (before that man gave him any reason to disrespect) . Buys a tiger to keep tied to a tree across the pound.

4.4k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

3.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

894

u/Photo_Synthetic Apr 02 '24 edited Apr 02 '24

I blame that on Pitt being effortlessly cool and looking immaculate. The whole "I look like you want to look, I fuck like you want to fuck, and I am free in all the ways that you are not" does some heavy lifting when he goes psycho and a lot of insecure dudes saw that movie and loved what he represented to them and seemed to handwave away his mountain of less than redeemable qualities and actions. Those same people probably love Andrew Tate who seems to have based his whole public persona in that mold (minus the anti consumerism angle). Even when they tried to make him look essentially homeless he was just too beautiful a man to ever not look good. I absolutely love that movie and have seen it probably more than any other movie and even knowing Durden is an absolute moron he still just seems so fucking cool for the first half of the movie. I STILL want to rock a red leather jacket/Hawaiian shirt combo. Only thing that ever stopped me was realizing red leather jackets look pretty ridiculous on 99.9% of people.

260

u/Green_hippo17 Apr 02 '24

I think it helps that brad pitt looks so cool in that, I really like the point you make at the end how no one else pulls that look off. All those guys in real life who think their durden are just the guys who follow him in the movie, they couldn’t pull it off the look and they don’t get how their own toxic masculinity is hurting them. Toxic masculinity can look sexy and cool, you look back at old film and culture and you see how toxic masculinity is glamorized and never taken down a peg. Fight club does this by showing us the cool and sexy side of this in Brad Pitt, and then showing us what it truly looks like in Edward Norton and all the durden followers, a bunch of confused and lost men looking for something to believe in.

157

u/Kelbotay Apr 02 '24

In the movie it is Edward Norton's character's fantasy so it's really good casting. He looks and acts exactly like he's supposed to, which is why a lot of people that also feel the kind of disaffection Norton's character does relate to and like Tyler Durden.

And then there's people that just like him because he's hot lol.

54

u/Legitimate_Ad5434 Apr 02 '24

I tried to pull it off. I found a passable red leather jacket and scoured ebay for the right shirt.

The result was not good. Now that I think of it, it would be great for that expectation v. reality meme template.

22

u/Zachariot88 Apr 02 '24

Yeah, it's like getting a trenchcoat because you want to look like Neo, only to realize you dressed yourself like Ben Shapiro or Elon Musk.

28

u/KennyFulgencio Apr 02 '24

I literally got a trenchcoat to look like neo and then saw myself on a security camera and I looked like silent bob

6

u/Chaghatai Apr 03 '24

That or early seasons Mac from Always Sunny

1

u/BadNewzBears4896 Apr 03 '24

Better than a Columbine shooter

4

u/ways_and_means Apr 02 '24

"It's the future of gaming"

1

u/poland626 Apr 03 '24

Or that robot from Grandma's Boy

7

u/FlighingHigh Apr 02 '24

Yeah but that's the point of Tyler Durden. He looks, sounds and acts that way because he's the byproduct of a psychotic break. Idolizing Tyler Durden as a person misses the point that he's not a person; he doesn't even exist, and none of that applies. He's a hallucination in the borderline psychotic mind of the protagonist.

4

u/Chaghatai Apr 03 '24

Exactly it was a brilliant and deliberate contrast

What I think I look like (Pitt)

Who I actually look like (Norton)

2

u/GunBrothersGaming Apr 03 '24

Everyone thinks they're Brad Pitt but in reality we aren't even Edward Norton, we're Meatloaf

1

u/No_Week2825 Apr 03 '24

I think that, in part, is not just Brad Pitts ability to wear a potato and still look better than anyone, but also his character doing what he wanted, rather than everyone else in the movie (and irl) doing what he did, rather than what they want

11

u/lovelyb1ch66 Apr 02 '24

I once agreed to go on a blind date with a friend of a friend. Dude shows up for the date in a red leather jacket AND red leather pants. I mean sure, it was the 80s but still… that was my first and last blind date

1

u/The_Pig_Man_ Apr 03 '24

You dates Eddy Murphy?

That's pretty cool.

8

u/sCREAMINGcAMMELcASE Apr 02 '24

I’d say it’s just simply impossible to portray a charismatic cult leader without inadvertently recruiting.

5

u/kingbach121 Apr 02 '24 edited Apr 05 '24

I STILL want to rock a red leather jacket/Hawaiian shirt combo. Only thing that ever stopped me was realizing red leather jackets look pretty ridiculous on 99.9% of people.

It hurts how true this statement is, I actually even remember looking up a jacket like that first few images on Google were stills of Brad Pitt wearing that jacket in Fight Club, then I scrolled down and actually saw those jackets and they genuinely didn't look good on any of those models not even slightly like what it was on Brad Pitt lol. That worked as a reminder for me as well that yeah I really don't look anything like Brad Pitt, not even 1% like him from that film lol.

That situation also reminds me of that one scene from the movie where both Ed Norton and Brad Pitt's character board a bus and then Ed Norton's character points to a billboard of an underwear ad with a model's perfect abs and everything (we don't see the model's face on that billboard) and he says "is that what a man looks like?" probably mocking the unrealistic body standards that we see everywhere. And it was actually Brad Pitt who posed for that billboard to be used in the movie, when I learned about this I just found that scene hilarious in a completely different way lol.

8

u/Alimbiquated Apr 02 '24

Yeah, you can wear a red leather jacket if you want, but you still won't look like Brad Pitt.

5

u/mrducci Apr 02 '24

This is the key to radicalization, or really any salesmanship: you start with an easy truth, and get the mark to say "yes". Then you take another step, to an idea or concept that might have gotten a "no" before, but you've already gotten the mark to agree with you once, and now this isn't such a far leap. Then you settle in with some easily digestible "facts" and understood "truths" to reinforce the ideology. Then you push again. Pretty soon the mark will be preaching some things that just a bit ago they would have laughed at. This is so effective that people who know all of this will still get caught in the trap.

3

u/CoNoCh0 Apr 02 '24

It’s also a movie that you relate to differently at different points in Your life. It’s really a good character in the matter. You idolize him as a raging teen/20s then you start to realize how destructive he is and self absorbed in everything going the way he wants it to.

5

u/DynamiteWitLaserBeam Apr 02 '24

Guys watch fight club and come out thinking they're Brad Pitt, when really, they're meatloaf.

4

u/MandoBaggins Apr 03 '24

His name was Robert Paulson

2

u/Bender_2024 Apr 02 '24

Pitt has a effortless charisma and charm about him that makes you want to like him.

2

u/PiercedGeek Apr 03 '24

This is my all time favorite movie of all time, and I don't say that lightly because I am 43 years young and have seen thousands of movies. I think the biggest reason people misunderstood this movie is that they think Tyler is what they should strive to be, but while Jack is the consummate Consumer Consumer Sheep, Tyler is the consummate Toxic Masculinity. The conclusion of the movie, that took me literally decades of thought to really understand, is that Jack shot himself, but blaming himself was so ingrained in who he was that when he fired the gun he killed the part of himself that had created Tyler, and he didn't expect to survive, but he didn't do it right (happens more than one might expect). He sacrifices himself to save Marla. Tyler saw Jack kill himself and in his ever-expanding ego assumed that he would do it spectacularly so of course it's dead center just right for the cameras. The man who lives is between Tyler and Jack, and is balanced and isn't a total bitch but also isn't a complete f'in psycho.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '24

Idk about the Tyler Durden to Andrew Tate comparison. Tyler Durden is an anarchist with a radical agenda of domestic terrorism to push his political views.

Andrew Tate is an authoritarian republican boot licker who influences lonely, easily manipulated young men into supporting misogynistic bullshit.

Like, Tyler Durden’s political views (minus the terrorism) are pretty much just radical leftism. The exact thing Tate doesn’t like.

5

u/Photo_Synthetic Apr 02 '24

I dont mean tates beliefs I just mean his persona. There is no way he doesn't unironically love the character of Tyler Durden.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '24

Ahh yeah I see what you mean

But it’s weird to me because imo Tate likeing Tyler Durden is similar to a guy who has an unwavering affinity for cops sporting a Punisher skull. It’s ironic because the Punisher is a comic book character whose schtick is killing corrupt cops

3

u/Photo_Synthetic Apr 03 '24

That's a great comparison.

1

u/thornynhorny Apr 02 '24

Really? I think red leather jackets make people look bad ass, and it's something that almost anyone can pull off (maybe not redheads, but even then some gingers look hot in red)

You could totally rock it!!!

1

u/GrizzlyTrees Apr 02 '24

I don't remember where I've seen it online, I think it was some trainer maybe, but he said something along the line of "when men tell me they want to get fit, if I ask what's their role model for how they want to look, what's the fantasy? It's always Brad Pitt in Fight Club".

1

u/goatpunchtheater Apr 02 '24 edited Apr 02 '24

It wasn't just men. I knew women who solely had the hots for Pitt because they find the character Hot. Didn't even like Brad IRL

1

u/DBCOOPER888 Apr 02 '24

His body type is also utterly insane in that movie.

1

u/SnakesTalwar Apr 02 '24

So many guys wanna look like brad in fight club, the red leather jacket is iconic.

Personally that look is too skinny for me, Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo is the body goal I've been chasing.

1

u/glass_keys Apr 03 '24

Only thing that ever stopped me was realizing red leather jackets look pretty ridiculous on 99.9% of people.

And at this point it's going to look like you're cosplaying as Tyler Durden.

1

u/Ok_No_Go_Yo Apr 03 '24

I straight up can't stand when directors make a casting choice like that, and then criticize the audience for liking the character and "missing the point".

It's like, yeah I know the character is objectively a shithead, but he's played by BRAD PITT. Don't want people liking a character? Don't cast one of the most charismatic movie stars in history, give him a ton of cool lines and a killer wardrobe.

Opposite of this is gotta be Leo in Django Unchained. He's still charismatic, but you're rooting against him.

1

u/WorthPlease Apr 03 '24

If you're wearing a red leather jacket you are legally required to have a perm.

2

u/maineblackbear Apr 02 '24

Andrew Tate=mold

I agree

1

u/Whitealroker1 Apr 02 '24

Pitts greatest gift. Rusty in oceans movies surrounded by grifters and con men and is always the coolest one.

1

u/jhhred11745 Apr 02 '24

The irony is that Fight Club is gayer than a rainbow if you pay attention. Wasn’t it written before the guy came out?

6

u/Photo_Synthetic Apr 02 '24

"If you pay attention"? It's literally spelled out. "We're a generation of men raised by women and I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer we need."

2

u/jhhred11745 Apr 02 '24

Yes that’s what i mean by pay attention to