American Psycho: An Analysis
[1]Who is Patrick Bateman?
I believe this is one of the central question to uncovering American Psycho, a movie which over ten years later, remains in the upper echelon of my favorite films of all time. A film by-and-large I would classify as a character-driven. It's focus is Patrick Bateman, wonderfully portrayed by Christian Bale, whose performance drives both the Bret Easton Ellis character as well as the film.
Patrick Bateman is directly tied to the central question of the film: who is he, and is what the film depicts his reality or just a twisted fantasy he projects outward into his notebook? What is Bateman supposed to symbolize? Do any of these questions ever get answered by the film, or does the director, in the end, place a mirror before us, forcing us to confront our reflection; not just our observations and experiences within the world of the film(the misenscene), nor just our own self and the host of other more profound questions which that puts forth; no, we mustn't focus upon any single thing we see looking back at us when we evaluate this film, as it is still about Patrick Bateman, but we must see at least something of what is looking back at us and recognize it as ourselves, as we do during any outstanding film.
Now, the important question, considering I, at the point of writing this, am the authorial figure creating this critique, is this: Who do I think Patrick Bateman is? Well, to discuss Bateman, I am going to first discuss his world and what it represents. What I think this character represents involves what Hunter Thompson began to see, during that crucial scene in Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas when he witnessed the high water mark of a beautiful revolution. Bateman doesn't represent this high water mark so much as a tsunami that's slowly started building, it's been building since before Thompson even rode his wave to Las Vegas, and it is called Western or American Capitalism. It will continue to feed and feed until there is no blood left to consume, and when it's all gone, it will begin to create it's own apparitions to consume just as I believe Bateman had done. It does this, inheriently because we are all prone to this behavior, just as we inherently categorize and systematize. I feel that Who Patrick Bateman Is, is the apex of this human nature, the high water mark of this ruthless brand of capitalism. We are witnessing it's brutality right now, with the slow death of the stock market (though just slow in my opinion because those in control have been refusing to let it die for a century now.
"Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality"
I believe Bateman has both killed and fantasized of killing in the film. Unlike the book, in which I feel that the acts were mostly real, with some fantasy tied in, in the film, the opposite occurs. In both he killed, but in both he fantasized as well. What does this mean? It means that, at least through association, Bateman had tasted blood. The blood of all the poor labor in third world countries that work for Wall Street, the blood of the poor family that can't support itself anymore because of Wall Street. Or maybe the blood of a helpless and unsuspecting bum killed in an alley way?
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[1] - I remember everything,
down to the sound of you shaving--the scrape of your razor,
the dully-abrading black hair
that remained
