American Psycho Analysis PDF

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An insight into the work of Bret Ellis Easton...

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Julie Vinther

Oure Gymnasium 3.y

Engelsk aflevering d. 2/10-2014

American Psycho The postmodern society in the 80’ies was mostly based on outside values as appearance and social status. To be popular in business you had to wear the most expensive designers for example Armani or Hugo Boss, or eat on the most invaluable restaurants. The movie ‘’American Psycho’’ directed by Mary Harron and published in 2000. This movie takes place in the postmodern society in the 80’ies and has good examples of the values that characterize the postmodern society of America in the 80’ies.

The main character in the movie is called Patrick Bateman, and he is a illustration of the perfect postmodern man in the 80’ies. He is a 27-year-old wealthy investment banker living in the American Gardens Building. He only wears expensive designer clothes, and his circle of friends is just as wealthy as himself. His lifestyle is basically based on material accouterments. Patrick Bateman has some psychopathic issues he believes that he kills people, but it is ‘’just’’ schizophrenia. An example of his schizophrenia could be when he opens the closet were the dead bodies used to hang, but in the end of the movie the bodies is no longer there (1:23:07-1:23:48). Already in the scene when he does his daily morning routine there is a symbol when he says: ‘’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.’’ (6:26-7:00)

Patrick Bateman has too different identities divided in fantasy and reality. The Patrick Bateman who kills people is fantasy. An argument for this Patrick Bateman being fantasy is when he runs trough the entire hotel building yelling to the girl he wants to kill, and no one in the hotel hears anything or another argument could be when he tells his lawyer that he has killed Paul Allen and his lawyer doesn’t believe him, and says that it isn’t true because he had lunch with Paul Allen twice in London 10 days ago, and walks away (1:28:30-1:29:51).

As mentioned earlier outside values as appearance, job and status in the 80’ies are much more important than inside values. Patrick Bateman loves his appearance and believes in taking care of himself in both diet and exercise. Every morning when he wakes up he has a special morning routine. First thing he does is to put on an ice-mask on his face if it is a little puffy while he takes

Julie Vinther

Oure Gymnasium 3.y

Engelsk aflevering d. 2/10-2014

his daily stomach crunches then he takes a shower, not a normal shower but a shower where he uses a ton of different spa products each with different functions and to end the routine he puts moisturizer and a anti ageing cream in his face (5:10-6:25). In the 80’ies it was very important that you had a highly rated job and that you make a lot of money, and this is also a very important thing for Patrick Bateman. Every time we see him in his office he doesn’t do any work he is just sitting at his desk looking very compelling and important. The only thing he does at work is boasting to his ‘’friends’’ his brand new business card every time he gets a new one. They all have a little competition about having the nicest business card, and the funny thing about it is that they all look completely the same. The must absurd thing is that Patrick Bateman truly envies Paul Allen for having the nicest business card of them all (19:08-19:29). The only thing Patrick Bateman is focusing on is his social status, money and his appearance. These things mean everything to him, and it’s obviously that all of his friends around him are focusing about the same things as him. They all eat at a specific restaurant called Dorisa. Dorsia is a restaurant where all the famous and rich people with high social status are eating and every normal human being would love to eat there, not because of the food, but because of the status you get by eating there. Patrick Bateman invites his friend’s girlfriend at Dorisa, and when he asks her she gets kind of happy because she never goes there. Again the reason why she gets happy is not because of him asking her out, but because he asks her out at Dorsia (14:22-14:42). Patrick Bateman also admits that social status is the main thing in his life. All these things are examples of this fakeness the characters in the movie have. Everything is about status and focus on outside values, which are some of the characterizing things in the postmodern society in the 80’ies.

A conclusion of this can be that it’s not easy to decide if the murdering thing Patrick Bateman is into is faction of fiction, and this could be a big discussion for hours with arguments for and against this being real or fake. The interesting thing about the movie is the fact that they are trying to show the development of the postmodern society in the 80’ies about these outside values like appearance and social status, but the thought-provoking part is that we don’t get an idea of how the postmodern society is now and how the development has been since back then, but maybe that is the whole point of this movie....