American Psycho
March 28th 2007 04:35
“I like to dissect girls. Do you know I’m utterly insane?”
I’ve been a fan of Brett Easton Ellis’s literary work ever since I first read Less Than Zero more than fifteen years ago. I read The Rules of Attraction while I was at university so I identified with the campus setting. I bought American Psycho shortly after it hit the bookstores in its R18 shrinkwrap.
It was a huge assault on my literary senses. The sheer audacity of its content and style amazed me. There was no way in hell this book would ever be turned into a movie. It was literally unfilmable. It would be pornographic in the basest, purest sense of the word.
But film it they did. Nearly ten years after it was first published. Unlike the film adaptation of Less Than Zero which attempted to moralise about drug use and ignore the sexually wayward behaviour, the film adaptation of American Psycho (2000) managed to streamline the novel’s central themes honing in what the essence of Ellis’s pitch black satire was about: identity crisis.
In what must be an absolute rarity in Hollywood, American Psycho the movie actually transcends the book in capturing the utter contempt and snowballing madness of Patrick Bateman’s attitude to the world around him and his crumbling psyche. And most beautiful in its irony, the screenplay was adapted by two women, Mary Harron and actor Guinevere Turner, and directed by Harron (at one stage David Cronenberg was slated to direct, but his straight to the hilt intent was never green lit).
The irony of two women at the helm is because the book initially - and then the movie when it was given the go ahead – was condemned by feminists as being deeply misogynistic. But that is mislabeling what is ultimately a far more complex film. The film isn’t misogynistic, it’s misanthropic. That’s the case in point. And that point is so sharp you could slice your tongue on it.
It is the excessive, decadent 1980s. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) works on Manhattan’s Wall Street Pierce & Pierce - Mergers and Acquisitions (“murders and executions” as Bateman smugly jokes). He is filthy rich and filthy minded. So filthy minded that for release he mutilates and murders people, especially snub-nosed hardbodies and hookers. But is it all in his mind?
Killing Paul Allen ... (not work safe!):
Bateman has a girlfriend Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) who he is totally indifferent to. He’d rather screw his colleague’s Xanax addicted girlfriend Courtney (Samantha Mathis). Bateman is obsessed with appearance and the veneer of materialism, reservations at the most exclusive eateries is paramount, the sleek design of one’s business card is a sign of total sophistication. It is this vacuous vanity and the ingrained arrogance of Bateman and his peers which outstrips any of their female acquaintances. And therein lies The Rub. Bateman is desperate to fit in, to conform. Yet envy is eating his soul.
But his mask of sanity is slipping. He’s sliding down the surface of things. The real world is becoming icier; the lure of destroying all things human and false is steadily consuming him. Bateman seeks solace in the commercial façade of middle-of-the-road contemporary pop music such as Huey Lewis, Whitney Houston and Phil Collins, while he goes clubbing on the white line highway vibes of New Order, MARRS and other definitive 80s club rhythms.
In a sub-plot enhanced from the novel a sly detective (Willem Dafoe) is pursuing the murder of Paul Allen (Jared Leto). This only adds further deliberate confusion over what is real and what may be imagined in Bateman’s twisted perception of events. Near film’s end Bateman’s secretary (Chloe Sevigny) leafs through his appointment diary discovering jagged sketches of carnage and sexual aberration. Is this as far as Bateman went, or did he slip further into madness and mayhem …?
Director Mary Harron has painstakingly captured a sensational ode to the trappings of the 80s. The production design and props, the look and feel of the film is bang on. The dialogue cracks like a whip and is endlessly quotable (the sign of a true cult film), with Christian Bale’s central performance one of the most blistering and compelling of its kind. No one else could have pulled off what Bale does with the role.
Opting for suggestive violence, rather than the novel’s overtly graphic descriptions, Harron still achieves a disturbing sense of brutality and moments of very dark intent, especially in the film’s last quarter as Bateman’s reality starts to implode. The scene where a hysterical Bateman is on the phone with his lawyer confessing to all his murders while police helicopter search lights scan the outside of his office building is pure brilliance.
Killing Christie ... (so not work safe!!):
Like Man Bites Dog (1992) American Psycho cleverly satirizes media, pop culture and the superficiality of relationships, and the huge influence these elements have on the way we choose to live our lives. Both films juxtapose the mundane with the extreme while injecting a potent dose of humour that shines like black gold. One brief scene has Bateman exercising furiously in his living room while The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) buzzes and screams beside him on the television monitor. To fob American Psycho off as being too cynical and deliberately nasty would be missing the point entirely.
American Psycho is essential viewing for the modern horrorphile, by no means a traditional horror flick, more an urbane post-modern horror of controlled retro excess and sardonic disposition. “I guess I’m a pretty sick guy,” Bateman splutters. Yes indeed, a very, very sick hush puppy. Yet at film’s end Bateman smirks nervously, “I’m just a happy camper, rock and roller …"
Y’see his confession has meant nothing. His true identity is still at large. The horror, the horror.
Whatever.
* images on this page are courtesy of www.filmhai.de
In what must be an absolute rarity in Hollywood, American Psycho the movie actually transcends the book in capturing the utter contempt and snowballing madness of Patrick Bateman’s attitude to the world around him and his crumbling psyche. And most beautiful in its irony, the screenplay was adapted by two women, Mary Harron and actor Guinevere Turner, and directed by Harron (at one stage David Cronenberg was slated to direct, but his straight to the hilt intent was never green lit).
Killing Paul Allen ... (not work safe!):
Director Mary Harron has painstakingly captured a sensational ode to the trappings of the 80s. The production design and props, the look and feel of the film is bang on. The dialogue cracks like a whip and is endlessly quotable (the sign of a true cult film), with Christian Bale’s central performance one of the most blistering and compelling of its kind. No one else could have pulled off what Bale does with the role.
Killing Christie ... (so not work safe!!):
Like Man Bites Dog (1992) American Psycho cleverly satirizes media, pop culture and the superficiality of relationships, and the huge influence these elements have on the way we choose to live our lives. Both films juxtapose the mundane with the extreme while injecting a potent dose of humour that shines like black gold. One brief scene has Bateman exercising furiously in his living room while The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) buzzes and screams beside him on the television monitor. To fob American Psycho off as being too cynical and deliberately nasty would be missing the point entirely.
American Psycho is essential viewing for the modern horrorphile, by no means a traditional horror flick, more an urbane post-modern horror of controlled retro excess and sardonic disposition. “I guess I’m a pretty sick guy,” Bateman splutters. Yes indeed, a very, very sick hush puppy. Yet at film’s end Bateman smirks nervously, “I’m just a happy camper, rock and roller …"
Y’see his confession has meant nothing. His true identity is still at large. The horror, the horror.
Whatever.
* images on this page are courtesy of www.filmhai.de
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Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
I thought Christian Bale was fantastic in this film. And the film itself was much better than I thought it would be.
I love the scene where all the guys are sitting around comparing business cards that are all essentially the same colour cream with different names.
Kylie
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Christian Bale is my second fave male actor behind Sean Penn ....
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by David
I'm trying to think of something to write but I can't ...
So, stuff it ... I'll just write what I'm writing ...
Oh, that's right ... this whole notion of not knowing what a film is about ... where people say it's all just gratuitous violence ... when the film-maker is actually using gratiuitious violence to make a visual statement against it ...
Yet ... stuff it ... My head tonight? ...
Nup ... you can't borrow it ...
I don't even know where it is tonight ... I'm going outside to hunt it down ...
David ...
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
Great set design, costumes - perfect for the 80s. Ludicrous, really.
Bale nails the part -rarely smiling, you can sympathize with him.
How about the ATM machine: 'Feed me a kitten'
I'd love to read the book to compare...
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
when you find your head, put it on a stick, it won't stray so far again ...
Cibby,
yeah the feed me a kitten scene was the beginning of the end .. or is that the end of the beginning ...?
I have the book if you wanna borrow ... It's hardcore.
Comment by DuskDevi
Rucks and Rolls
Rugby World Cup 2007
I had to keep putting the book down because I truly felt like I was going to vomit.
(I think this is the only book I haven't been able to eat something or drink whilst reading)
Repulsive and yet...something strangely arousing about it.
No I am not a sick f**k.
By arousing...I mean, compulsive. You just can't stop reading.
The way Easton Ellis describes in painful meticulous detail, the fashion and 'style' obsession Bateman has is just, for want of a better word, beautiful.
...and before the graphic sex becomes the horror...well...I gotta tell ya....well no I don't so I won't...
I'm in lust with Christian Bale (or maybe it's just the Batsuit...ohh moan....) so I am not going to watch this.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
watch ... he's in the buff frequently ... Apparently the director Mary Harron gathered all the female crew around to watch him shower nude in one of the opening scenes ...
Comment by yoda76
The Tube Blog
And I think at the hands of a male director probably would have slid into the mysogynistic. Very disturbing stuff, and the ambiguity is awesome, and the 80s excess captured to a T, in my opinion.
For something so dark, evil, sick, twisted and graphic, I can't tell you how hard I laughed in some parts - I couldn't believe my own reactions.
Although watching Bale chase after a woman while he's in the buff save for a pair of running shoes, weilding a running chainsaw while running through the corridoors of his apartment building has to raise a smile, right?
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile