After having finished reading the novel, my favourite thing about American Psycho is decidedly the unique insight into Patrick Bateman as a character where his perception, thoughts, actions, and mental state is so much more interesting than any other character I have read about. Personally, I tend to read books where the characters are relatable, familiar, and comfortable. Patrick Bateman is none of these things, which makes the whole American Psycho experience so interesting. My favourite thing about this book is the narrative consistency about such an emotionally inconsistent narrator, since there are so many consistently recurring motifs that perfectly encapsulate Bateman's character.
Once I finished reading the book, I watched the movie. I was excited to see how the book could be translated into a movie and to compare that with the version that played out in my head. At last, I can conclude that, although the movie portrayed the story well, the movie simply does no justice for who Bateman is supposed to be. I do have to give the director, Mary Harron, some credit, for it is a challenge to portray a character as complex as Bateman. She did a very good job of balancing Bateman's narration/perception of reality (how he thinks) with the portrayal of his interactions with his environment (how he acts), since there is such a huge discrepancy between the two. What the movie is more focused on is how Bateman is perceived to be, which makes sense, considering that, as the audience, what we see is what we get. It is limited by its ability to portray Bateman's thoughts integrated with his actions, which is easier to do in a book. Since I consider the recurring motifs to be the most significant elements that portray Bateman's character, I will be analysing the portrayal of these motifs and comparing them between the book and the movie to illustrate the ways that his character is portrayed differently.
Music Analyses
One of the story's most effective motifs is Bateman's in depth analyses of various musical artists (Genesis, Whitney Houston, and Huey Lewis and the News). What the movie did well was incorporating these analyses into his crimes, adding a clearer purpose to his elaborate and random recitation of the artists' careers. The movie shows Bateman reciting these analyses to his victims right before killing them while, in the book, a whole chapter is dedicated to the analyses after Bateman commits his most gruesomely violent acts.
In the novel, the effect of these analyses is that, like the famous porter scene in Shakespeare's Macbeth, it is to distract and relieve the audience from the prior scene with a less intense scene. It took me a lot of time to figure out exactly why Easton Ellis is putting in so much empty substance, since I could just skim over these chapters and not miss anything important. Then, I realized that that is exactly why these empty chapters exist: to demonstrate just how little emotional depth Bateman has. Just like in the beginning of the novel when Bateman recites the list of problems in the world that he pretends to want to fix, Bateman is simply perpetuating an image of himself to his audience that he is culturally and socially aware. The exaggerated formality, the gruesome length, and the hypocritical insight into the band's themes, lives, and success all contrast heavily with how Bateman, in actuality, lacks any emotionality at all. For instance, he explains that he "had all the characteristics of a human being -- flesh, blood, skin, hair -- but my depersonalization was so intense, had gone so deep, that the normal ability to feel compassion had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure. I was simply imitating reality, a rough resemblance of a human being, with only a dim corner of my mind functioning" (Easton Ellis, 282). Although Bateman regularly pretends to be a normal human being who is invested in society, he lacks any emotional genuinity. Moreover, the fact that his analyses are overly formal emphasizes his inability to be authentically and truly invested in society, such as music culture. Thus, Bateman's recitation of music analyses in the book adds to how emotionless he truly is, since he is able to be so objectively insightful with no emotional context.
The movie's purpose for its portrayal of Bateman's music analyses is to build suspense for the sake of his victims and to illustrate the difference between his persona and his true self. To his victims, Bateman's analyses brings about a topic of conversation. While they are supposed to fill an uncomfortable silence, his speeches are still unsettling, for they sound unnaturally formal. Effectively, Bateman's rants raise the suspense for the movie's audience as the situation becomes increasingly unsettling and uncomfortable for the victims, especially when he hints at his psychopathy when he shares perspective on empathy in the world. To the audience of the movie, the analyses serves as dramatic irony because we know that Bateman is about to kill again. In addition, having these two juxtaposing concepts -- violent murder and the art of music -- demonstrates at the same time a clear indication of Bateman's complex character. While he is able to appear to be civilized and knowledgeable, he also has the ability to be the barbaric and delirious psychopath he is. By emphasizing the discrepancy between how he appears to be versus how he actually is, these scenes effectively build suspense and highlight an important aspect of his character.
Overall, the movie focuses more on the fundamental basis that Bateman's thoughts and actions are different, while, in the book, which has already established this basis long ago, focuses more on his emotional vacancy.
Vacancy
Speaking of vacancy, as a topic, the movie and the book's portrayal of it are interestingly different. The way that Bateman's madness is portrayed in the book is so much more thorough than the movie. For the movie to portray his madness, director Harron added some specific scenes independent from the book to directly address and portray his mental state. Bateman's isolation from reality is most directly demonstrated when he communicates with the ATM machine and when Jean finds his diary, where there is minimal reference to his "real" life -- appointments, meeting, etc.-- and mostly drawings of what his life is truly made up of:
In the novel, Bateman's increased vacancy is thoroughly described, creating depth to his character development. Obviously, it would be difficult to mimic the same effect in a movie, where time restrains and efficient plot development would not allow for as much depth to his vacancy, and it is clear that Harron was aware of this. That is why the movie first establishes Bateman's character when he is essentially in the same head space as he is in the last third of the novel. The movie introduces Bateman to be vacant, with his monologue that explicitly comes from something he says in the book near the end: " …there is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there." (201). This introduction to his character lets the audience know what kind of protagonist they are dealing with.
Although Patrick is portrayed to be a vacant character, the depth to this vacancy does not compare to that of the book because its syntax effectively demonstrates how, why, and when Bateman is truly isolated from reality. While he gradually loses control of his sense of reality over the course of the story, his sentences generally become less structured, his thoughts start and end in ellipses more often, and at one point he starts to refer to himself in third person, which all convey his depersonalization. For example, during the climax of the story, when he is being chased by the police, he panics to the state of referring to himself as if he is a character in a movie rather than being present in the moment:
Conclusion
Overall, the movie portrays Bateman's character well considering the limitations it has, but it does not accurately portray the true complexity of our psychopath. I wish that the movie included the other important motifs that I feel were critical in making Patrick Bateman interesting to me. These include, but are not limited to, The Patty Winters Show (which I wrote about in this blog post), the hallucinogenic connections he feels with the snowy owl or the U2 band, Bateman's repetition of his life being a "game" or like a film, and Madonna's recurring lyric, "life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone."
Since there is just so much more I could talk about, below is a list of some other motifs that I encourage you to consider comparing between the book and the movie:
Sources
Once I finished reading the book, I watched the movie. I was excited to see how the book could be translated into a movie and to compare that with the version that played out in my head. At last, I can conclude that, although the movie portrayed the story well, the movie simply does no justice for who Bateman is supposed to be. I do have to give the director, Mary Harron, some credit, for it is a challenge to portray a character as complex as Bateman. She did a very good job of balancing Bateman's narration/perception of reality (how he thinks) with the portrayal of his interactions with his environment (how he acts), since there is such a huge discrepancy between the two. What the movie is more focused on is how Bateman is perceived to be, which makes sense, considering that, as the audience, what we see is what we get. It is limited by its ability to portray Bateman's thoughts integrated with his actions, which is easier to do in a book. Since I consider the recurring motifs to be the most significant elements that portray Bateman's character, I will be analysing the portrayal of these motifs and comparing them between the book and the movie to illustrate the ways that his character is portrayed differently.
Music Analyses
One of the story's most effective motifs is Bateman's in depth analyses of various musical artists (Genesis, Whitney Houston, and Huey Lewis and the News). What the movie did well was incorporating these analyses into his crimes, adding a clearer purpose to his elaborate and random recitation of the artists' careers. The movie shows Bateman reciting these analyses to his victims right before killing them while, in the book, a whole chapter is dedicated to the analyses after Bateman commits his most gruesomely violent acts.
In the novel, the effect of these analyses is that, like the famous porter scene in Shakespeare's Macbeth, it is to distract and relieve the audience from the prior scene with a less intense scene. It took me a lot of time to figure out exactly why Easton Ellis is putting in so much empty substance, since I could just skim over these chapters and not miss anything important. Then, I realized that that is exactly why these empty chapters exist: to demonstrate just how little emotional depth Bateman has. Just like in the beginning of the novel when Bateman recites the list of problems in the world that he pretends to want to fix, Bateman is simply perpetuating an image of himself to his audience that he is culturally and socially aware. The exaggerated formality, the gruesome length, and the hypocritical insight into the band's themes, lives, and success all contrast heavily with how Bateman, in actuality, lacks any emotionality at all. For instance, he explains that he "had all the characteristics of a human being -- flesh, blood, skin, hair -- but my depersonalization was so intense, had gone so deep, that the normal ability to feel compassion had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure. I was simply imitating reality, a rough resemblance of a human being, with only a dim corner of my mind functioning" (Easton Ellis, 282). Although Bateman regularly pretends to be a normal human being who is invested in society, he lacks any emotional genuinity. Moreover, the fact that his analyses are overly formal emphasizes his inability to be authentically and truly invested in society, such as music culture. Thus, Bateman's recitation of music analyses in the book adds to how emotionless he truly is, since he is able to be so objectively insightful with no emotional context.
 |
| Bateman's emotional vacancy can be described like a mask, where he is only pretending to be a human being. |
Overall, the movie focuses more on the fundamental basis that Bateman's thoughts and actions are different, while, in the book, which has already established this basis long ago, focuses more on his emotional vacancy.
Vacancy
Speaking of vacancy, as a topic, the movie and the book's portrayal of it are interestingly different. The way that Bateman's madness is portrayed in the book is so much more thorough than the movie. For the movie to portray his madness, director Harron added some specific scenes independent from the book to directly address and portray his mental state. Bateman's isolation from reality is most directly demonstrated when he communicates with the ATM machine and when Jean finds his diary, where there is minimal reference to his "real" life -- appointments, meeting, etc.-- and mostly drawings of what his life is truly made up of:
 |
| Patrick's diary from the movie |
Although Patrick is portrayed to be a vacant character, the depth to this vacancy does not compare to that of the book because its syntax effectively demonstrates how, why, and when Bateman is truly isolated from reality. While he gradually loses control of his sense of reality over the course of the story, his sentences generally become less structured, his thoughts start and end in ellipses more often, and at one point he starts to refer to himself in third person, which all convey his depersonalization. For example, during the climax of the story, when he is being chased by the police, he panics to the state of referring to himself as if he is a character in a movie rather than being present in the moment:
[...] racing blindly down Greenwich I lose control entirely, the cab swerves into a Korean deli, [...] the cab rolling over fruit stands, smashing through a wall of glass, the body of a cashier thudding across the hood, Patrick tries to put the cab in reverse but nothing happens, he staggers out of the cab [...] (351)When Bateman's reality becomes too intense, he seems to vacate from it entirely and his mind and body seem to separate. It is only when his environment is more controlled and he is more comfortable when he reverts back to himself:
[...] and he walks in… [...] calm is eventually restored, safe in the anonymity of my new office, able with shaking hands to pick up the cordless phone, looking through my Rolodex, exhausted, eyes falling upon Harold Carnes' number, dialling the seven digits slowly, breathing deeply, evenly, I decide to make public what has been, until now, my private dementia [...] (352)In the car chase scene, Bateman's control over his life is threatened by the consequences of reality, so he dissociates from the present. Once he regains control over reality, he is able to exist back again in the present. Because of our access to the novel's syntax, and by extension Patrick's stream of consciousness, it is clear that Patrick's vacancy is more complex in the book than it is depicted in the movie. His vacancy is not simply a personality trait, there are factors that cause Bateman to be vacant. Since the syntax of this scene demonstrates how his presence in reality changes, it is clear that Bateman's vacancy depends on how much reality controls him. By investigating the narration of the novel, Bateman's vacant tone can be understood on a level even more fundamental than an introduction or a diary, since the syntax translates directly into Bateman's interpretation of his reality, which is the most direct way of understanding his experience with (or without?) it.
Conclusion
Overall, the movie portrays Bateman's character well considering the limitations it has, but it does not accurately portray the true complexity of our psychopath. I wish that the movie included the other important motifs that I feel were critical in making Patrick Bateman interesting to me. These include, but are not limited to, The Patty Winters Show (which I wrote about in this blog post), the hallucinogenic connections he feels with the snowy owl or the U2 band, Bateman's repetition of his life being a "game" or like a film, and Madonna's recurring lyric, "life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone."Since there is just so much more I could talk about, below is a list of some other motifs that I encourage you to consider comparing between the book and the movie:
- The Les Misérables symbol
- Bateman's mental degradation
- Bateman's insecurities
- How Bateman is treated by others
Disclaimer: Reflecting on this character analysis, I realized that I focused mainly on Bateman's vacancy. I was wondering why my ideas were all leading up to that topic until I had an epiphany. All my character analyses has been leading up to this moment because I had just realized why Patrick Bateman is a psychopath: he is a psychopath because his only source of experiencing anything real is through extreme means. Bateman is a victim to his perspective of reality. The reason I did not end up analyzing all the motifs I initially had in mind was not because I have a word limit (can you imagine if this blog is for a class? :D), but because I had to document my epiphany. You can read about my epiphany here.
Sources
Ellis, Bret Easton. American Psycho. 1st ed., New York, Vintage Books, 1991,.
Hey, Lauren!
ReplyDeleteOnce again, great blog post.
In all honesty, I don’t like the movie. I understand that there are limitations, but as a portrayal of the book, it’s lacking.
In addition to the Price → Bryce name change that ruins the wordplay from my first blog post, my main problem with the movie is the lack depth outside the plot. I think a good example of this is the lack of Jean scenes.
Jean is the one who is the closest to invoking some kind of emotional response from Patrick. The movie cut out many of her scenes that I think are important. During their dinners, he reveals a lot more of himself to her than to any other character. In the chapter “End of the 1980s,” the orchestra of hope swells again and for a brief moment, we believe that “anything is possible” (202) - that Patrick is able to reform from his psychopathic ways to have his happy ending with Jean. When this doesn’t happen, we realize the severity of his psychopathic ways and realize (maybe even have an epiphany) that Patrick’s humanity is a lost cause. This doesn’t happen in the movie, which not only deeply disappointing but also inadequate in portraying magnitude of Patrick’s deep set disillusionment. When reading the book, despite his horrid actions, I was still able to pity Patrick because of how lonely and devoid of love he was. Again, I was only able to feel this because of the little scenes of Patrick’s potential humanity. In the movie, however, Patrick is a straight up psychopath. Although he is still funny, there isn’t an underlying tragedy to Patrick’s character.
Moreover, Jean is supposed to represent the next Evelyn in the neverending cycle of his life. At the end of the book, Patrick ends up at Harry’s again, finds out about a new account to replace the Fischer account, and has acquired a new partner to cheat on - Jean. Like when he first met Evelyn (presumably), Patrick is “touched by her ignorance of evil.” (202) Jean represents how most people around him with ample opportunity to see Patrick’s dark side remain ignorant to it, blinded by their reverence of the shininess of his lavish life. Having Jean discover Patrick’s journal in the movie informs her of his evil nature and defeats that role of her character.
Although, like you said, Patrick’s sanity digresses I wouldn’t say that Patrick starts out completely sane in the first place. Although it’s true that there are less murders in the first third than the subsequent, Patrick’s behaviour remains mostly consistent. We also have to keep in mind that in the first third, he is on significantly less drugs. In the same speech in the book, Patrick says “ My conscience, my pity, my hopes disappeared a long time ago (probably at Harvard) if they ever did exist.” (200) This made me think that maybe this book is a documentation of a time when his sanity slipped rather than an origin story. Because of this I don’t think the movie is losing complexity by lacking a contrast between first third Bateman and last third Bateman.
Lastly, I wanted to address the music. Your point about the juxtaposition between music and violence is really insightful. To add to that, I think it contributes to the comic relief we need from witnessing such sadistic murders. The music in the movie can also be appropriate to the scene. For example, in the morning routine scene, the harp music is ethereal, which is indicative of Patrick’s superiority complex and his obsession with presenting himself as perfect to others. It’s also God imagery (Can it be imagery if it’s audio?) that supports the idea of Patrick as an “abstract entity.” (202)
Superficially, the movie’s conclusion is the same as the books - “This confession has meant nothing.” Despite all the crimes that Patrick commits, there is no consequence, which allows Patrick the ultimate privilege and curse of continuing to live as he is. However, I agree with your argument that it fails to live up to what it was based upon. There’s just so much emotion that, like Patrick, doesn’t exist.