The widely criticized 1991 novel “American Psycho” written by Bret Easton Ellis is known for it’s fictional depiction of a businessman by day, killer by night protagonist Patrick Bateman. According to the Rolling Stone article written by Kory Grow, The New York Times titled their book review “Snuff This Book!” and the Los Angeles Times wrote “Free Speech Protects Even an ‘American Psycho’” (Grow).  Rolling Stone also claims that “The National Organization of Women attempted to organize boycotts” (Grow) because of the outlandish depiction of women in the novel. In this case the idea of any publicity being good publicity led to the wild popularity of the book.  This popularity then led to the creation of the rated R, 104-minute movie “American Psycho” directed by Mary Harron some 9 years later in the Spring of 2000.  This thriller/wry comedy/horror film is still being talked about today for being one of the most controversial movies of its time.

The protagonist named Patrick Bateman is played by popular English actor Christian Bale.  At the time Bale was best known for his roles in “Metroland” (1997), “All the Little Animals” (1998), and “Empire of the Sun” (1987).  After “American Psycho” he went on to have lead roles in “The Dark Night” (2008), “American Hustle” (2013), “The Big Short” (2015), and twenty-five more movies.  Bale is now best known transforming his body to physically look like the character he is portraying.

In “American Psycho” Bale’s character Patrick Bateman has two distinct personalities.  By day, he is a professional businessman who works in New York City at a firm where he has a high position of authority.  He is almost always wearing a suit.  He doesn’t quite realize this but behind his back his coworkers frequently make jokes about how pathetic he is.  His lawyer doesn’t even know what he looks like and commonly mistakes him for being someone else.  He is so obsessed with himself that he doesn’t realize how poorly they treat him despite working together for years.  Bateman is an object of ridicule in the workplace.  By the way he dresses and the status of his apartment it is clear that he is a big dog in the business world. There are many scenes in which he is depicted sitting in his own office talking to an assistant (who he later seduces and comes close to murdering) and viewers know he works in corporate finance however he never seems to be doing any work.

By night his alter ego is a vicious killer.  He often refers to his job as ‘murders and executions’ instead of ‘mergers and acquisitions’.  This side of him could be described as sinister or evil.  One of the first killings that we see on screen is the brutal stabbing of a homeless man.  He approaches the man and acts empathetic. At first one might think he is giving the man an out of pocket donation.  Since this is at the beginning of the film, the audience doesn’t quite yet know the protagonist or what he is capable of.  This killing puts a bad taste in the mouth of the viewer because Bateman chooses an easy target and is completely unprovoked.  Anyone who has ever watched a crime show knows that the homeless community is filled with low risk victims. Bateman knows he probably won’t get caught so he ends this man’s life just for kicks.  After he stabs the innocent man, he also beats the man’s dog to death and walks away like nothing happened.  If the audience already didn’t hate this “American psycho” for killing a human, they hate him now for killing a dog.

Nonetheless the traits of being a narcissistic, sadistic, anti-feminist, plutomaniac, empathy-lacking loner overlap between both personas.  His inner dialogue is constant between the two, it’s just his actions that vary.

He has a girlfriend (played by Reese Witherspoon) who is dating another man on the side but he isn’t bothered by that because he is also dating someone else on the side.  He treats women as objects and often solicits and kills prostitutes.  His side chick is addicted to what seems to be Quaaludes so she doesn’t even know who he is half of the time.  There is a point in the movie when she is so messed up when they are out to dinner that she doesn’t notice him drawing a dead body on the tablecloth at the restaurant.

The movie as a whole is a series of killings that are done either publicly, or in his home yet the similarity is that no matter what, he always gets away with it.  At times it seems that he is begging to get caught because of how obvious the murders are.  The most important murder of the whole movie is the death of his coworker Paul Allen (played by Jared Leto).  Bateman meets Allen for dinner and eventually Allen is too drunk to realize what is going on.  Bateman leads him back to his spotless apartment, which has already been set up with newspaper on the floor and tarps on all of the couches and chairs.  Allen (still drinking) doesn’t sense Bateman behind him with an ax until it’s too late.  This conflict ultimately leads to the downfall of Bateman as a mentally stable character.

***SPOILER ALERT*** In the beginning of the film, Bateman is a very organized killer but after the investigation of Allen’s disappearance he devolves.  He can’t keep up with his lies so he starts killing random people including many police officers, old ladies, prostitutes, the doorman of his building, and even children.  At this point, the viewer has to be questioning how he is getting away with all of this.  Have you ever heard of a police shootout in the middle of New York City going unnoticed?  In the very last scene it becomes evident that he did not actually kill anyone.  It was all in his head.   He describes himself as a “noncontingent human being.”  Patrick Bateman is his own worst enemy.  When Bateman finally breaks down and poignantly tells his lawyer what he has done, the man looks at him like he has 10 heads.  Paul Allen (who we saw getting hit with an ax) was actually seen by the lawyer days after the alleged murder.

So now comes the question: is Patrick Bateman “psycho”? There is no blatant acknowledgment of a mental disability in this movie. The word “psycho” is a derogatory term and can be interpreted differently by different viewers.  If the viewer watching the movie in 2016 identifies with having a mental disability they might be very offended by the use of the word.  Being “psychotic” at the time when the book came out was a medical term for having a mental illness.  Obviously medical knowledge was not as advanced as it is today so doctors and nurses didn’t know any better.  This was still a time in history when people believed that mental illness was in the control of the person.  I am not a doctor.  Brett Easton Ellis is not a doctor.  If this movie came out last year, there might be a diagnosis attached to Bateman to possibly explain some of his erratic and uncontrolled behavior, the idea that all of these murders were his fantasies or to at least put the character at ease within his own mind.  He describes his own personality as being “sketchy and unformed” and also says his “conscience, […] pity, […] and hopes disappeared a long time ago… if they ever did exist.”

While there is no mention of Bateman having a diagnosed mental disorder in the movie, reviews of the book and movie show that he could be perceived as a mentally disabled person.  Christopher Schaffer of Walden University describes Bateman as having a “comorbidity of personality disorders” (Schaffer 10) including schizotypal personality disorder, obsessive compulsive behavior and borderline personality disorder.  At one point Bateman 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 am simply not there.” This proves that Bateman does not see himself as a “normal” person who fits in with society.

Keeping in mind that this film was created sixteen years ago based on a book that was written over twenty-five years ago, the way mental illness was seen in society was drastically different than it is today.  While the derogatory “psycho” is attached to the character throughout both the movie and the book, there is no evidence of a diagnosis.  In some ways this supports the idea that mental illness is not a real illness which we now know is obviously not true.  The ambiguous plot of the movie with the twist at the end really makes an audience think about what might be going on in Patrick Bateman’s head versus what is actually happening.  Overall, the 2000’s film “American Psycho” when further analyzed has an ambiguous plotline that is hard to follow in addition to having a protagonist who might not actually exist.  The combination of those two factors makes for an interesting movie rather than a traditionally well-executed or politically sound one.

3/5 stars

Sofia Kovoor is a sophomore at The Ohio State University studying Arts Management and Italian.