American Psycho (film)

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American Psycho
Directed by Mary Harron
Written by Novel:
Bret Easton Ellis
Screenplay:
Mary Harron
Guinevere Turner
Starring Christian Bale
Chloë Sevigny
Willem Dafoe
Josh Lucas
Jared Leto
Justin Theroux
Reese Witherspoon
Music by John Cale
Eve Egoyan
Distributed by Lions Gate Films
Release date(s) Flag of the United States April 14, 2000
Running time 101 min.
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $7,000,000
Followed by American Psycho 2
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

American Psycho is a 2000 film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's controversial novel American Psycho. The movie stars Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, with Jared Leto, Josh Lucas, Justin Theroux, Bill Sage, Chloë Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Willem Dafoe and Samantha Mathis. It debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on April 14, 2000.

Contents

[edit] Adaptation from novel

Mary Harron, who had previously directed I Shot Andy Warhol based on the story of Valerie Solanas, directed the film and co-wrote its screenplay with Guinevere Turner. This screenplay was selected over three others, including one by Ellis himself. Turner claims Ellis' only complaint with the movie was Bateman's moonwalk before killing Paul Allen. Although the movie doesn't fully depict all of Bateman's goings on that occurred in the novel, the film accurately depicts the atmosphere of the book: gruesome and dark, yet also humorous. In the novel, Patrick Bateman's favorite bands are Genesis, Huey Lewis & The News and Whitney Houston. Three distinct, and entire chapters, are devoted to each. Virtually every line in the film, including voice-overs, are taken verbatim from Ellis' novel. One of the few discrepancies is that several names from the book were changed for the film; for instance Paul Owen became Paul Allen and Tim Price became Tim Bryce.

American Psycho, as other works by Ellis, has connecting characters from his other books which subsequently do not appear at all in the film version with the exception of the character of Vanden, whom Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) introduces as her cousin at Espace, is also from Rules of Attraction. Patrick Bateman's brother Sean from Rules of Attraction is in the chapter entitled Birthday Brothers, but is mentioned nowhere in the film; However, Patrick is mentioned by Sean in both the book and the film version of Rules of Attraction.

Many people in the film industry have said that the novel was "unfilmable" because of its story, extreme violence and sexual content. During the early stage of preproduction, many actors, directors and crew members were considered to take on the movie adaptation. Director Mary Harron and actor Christian Bale were originally set to make the movie, but Leonardo DiCaprio expressed interest in playing the lead. Production company Lions Gate issued a press release that DiCaprio would star, after which Mary Harron walked off the project, and Oliver Stone subsequently expressed interest in directing the film. When both DiCaprio and Stone dropped the project, Harron and Bale returned to the movie.

Christian Bale spent several months working out by himself, and then three hours a day with a trainer during pre-production, in order to achieve the proper physique for the obsessed, narcissistic Bateman.

To clean up the unedited DVD version of the movie and achieve a relatively mild R rating, the producers excised approximately eighteen seconds of footage from a ménage à trois scene featuring an emotionally detached Patrick Bateman and two prostitutes. Some dialogue was also edited: Bateman orders a prostitute (Christy) to bend over so that another (Sabrina) can "see your asshole", which was edited to "see your ass." The unedited version also shows Patrick receiving oral sex from Christy. Some events that Bateman mentions in the phone message to his lawyer are events that transpired in the book, but not in the film.

[edit] Other cast and crew considerations

  • Johnny Depp was informally attached to the project, first with Stuart Gordon in talks and then with David Cronenberg attached.
  • Brad Pitt was once attached to star, with David Cronenberg directing and Ellis himself writing the script.
  • Edward Norton was offered the part of Bateman but turned it down.
  • Leonardo DiCaprio as Patrick Bateman, James Woods as Donald Kimball and Cameron Diaz as Evelyn Williams with Oliver Stone set to direct from a script written by Matthew Markwalder. DiCaprio was going to be paid $20 million for the film but the role went to Christian Bale when director Mary Harron returned to the project; Diaz was the first choice for the role of Evelyn Williams, but dropped out because of scheduling conflicts.
  • Playwright Jeff Smeenge worked on earlier adaptions of the script.
  • In an earlier script, the character of Evelyn Williams had a larger role than seen in the film. When the script was going to be changed, Reese Witherspoon met with the director without having any knowledge of the story. After reading the script, she agreed to do the movie on the condition that her character didn't have much screen time and that she was not to be involved in the violence. Witherspoon also did not want the character to be involved in sexual scenes with Patrick Bateman.

[edit] Reception

American Psycho debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. The film received mostly positive reviews, with the New York Times calling it a "mean and lean horror comedy classic."[citation needed] The movie is notorious for its graphic content, dark humor and its depiction of the yuppie lifestyle.[citation needed]

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • In the movie, Patrick claims he lives "in the American Gardens building on West 81st." Tom Cruise once lived there.[citation needed] The makers of the film originally envisioned Cruise playing the role of Patrick. In the novel, Patrick has a brief encounter with Cruise, who reacts negatively to Bateman (who has a nosebleed induced by cocaine abuse).
  • After meeting the detective for the first time, Patrick Bateman excuses himself saying he is having lunch with Cliff Huxtable, the patriarch of the family from "The Cosby Show" at the Four Seasons. Prior to this, he also makes a flippant reference to oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens.[citation needed]
  • Some events that Bateman mentions in the phone message to his lawyer are events that transpired in the book, but not in the film.[citation needed]
  • All of Willem Dafoe's scenes were shot in three different ways.[citation needed] The first way was for Dafoe to act as though Detective Kimball, his character, knew that Bateman had committed the murder; the second where he had no idea that Bateman had done anything; and finally one in which he was unsure about Bateman's guilt or innocence. This gave the director more freedom during editing to emphasize certain parts.
  • In the movie Rules of Attraction (based on another Ellis novel), the main character Sean Bateman receives a phone call from Paul. He initially does not recognize the caller and asks "Who is this? Patrick?" (In the novel, Patrick is Sean's brother)
  • When Bateman concludes his confession in the final scene at Harry's Bar, a sign in the background reads "This Is Not An Exit". These are the last words of the novel.
  • In the Showtime original series Dexter, serial killer Dexter Morgan uses "Patrick Bateman" as an alias.
  • Christian Bale spent several months working out by himself, and then three hours a day with a trainer during pre-production, in order to achieve the proper physique for the obsessed, narcissistic Bateman. Guinevere Turner states that Bale had told her that he was "...fucking sick of eating chicken breasts".[citation needed]
  • The song "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves, which runs during the establishing shots of New York City and Wall Street, makes an ironic reference to Michael J. Fox's The Secret of My Succe$s, which also features the song. Similarly, the presence of New Order's hit "True Faith" and M/A/R/R/S' "Pump Up the Volume" also make reference to the film adaptation of Ellis' friend Jay McInerney's book Bright Lights, Big City, which also features the songs as well as Fox in the lead role.
  • While working out, Patrick Bateman watches Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (although in the actual film, there is no screaming heard when Leatherface performs his infamous "dance"). Several scenes later he pursues Christie with a chainsaw.

[edit] Interpretation

There are two common interpretations[citation needed] regarding Patrick Bateman's acts of violence in the film. One is that the murders he commits are in fact real, but the self-obsessed and presumptuous nature of the people surrounding Bateman escapes him from responsibility. For example, Patrick frequently confesses to people, and they either do not notice or hear something else (However, this could also be interpreted as Patrick not really saying those things at all). Frequent cases of mistaken identity also seem to work towards such an advantage.

The other interpretation is that the murders and debaucheries merely take place within Bateman’s imagination, alike a darker, more sinister Walter Mitty. The latter is supported by the questionable realism within Bateman’s scenarios; for example, when the ATM appears to speak to him, or when he triggers two police cars to explode with a handgun. Patrick also drags a body out of his building in an overnight bag, leaving a huge trail of blood through the entire lobby. When he walks out of the building, the lobby is still visible but the blood is not. Also, when he's on his shooting rampage, he enters a building, kills a security guard and a janitor, and then runs into another building. This second building is identical to the first one in every way. The vacancy of Paul Allen’s apartment at the end is also suspicious, considering that Patrick had vandalized it and left several bodies there. Finally, Patrick's lawyer says at the end that he had dinner with Paul Allen in London twice after Patrick had supposedly killed him, and the private detective reveals that all of Patrick's friends say he was with them on the night of Paul Allen's disappearance.

[edit] Marketing

As a promotion for the movie, one could register to receive e-mails "from" Patrick Bateman, supposedly to his therapist. The e-mails follow Bateman's life since the events of the film. He discusses such developments as his marriage to (and impending divorce settlement with) his former secretary, Jean, his complete adoration of his son, Patrick Jr., and his efforts to triumph over his business rivals. The e-mails also describe or mention interactions with other characters from the novel, including Timothy Price (Bryce in the film version), Evelyn Williams, Luis Carruthers, Courtney Rawlinson, David Van Patten, Detective Donald Kimball and Marcus Halberstam.

In 2005, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association released an action figure based on Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in the film, as part of its first series of "Cult Classics" action figures.

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: American Psycho: Music from the Controversial Motion Picture

The soundtrack for the film was scored by John Cale, with artists such as David Bowie, The Cure and New Order.

[edit] American Psycho 2

A direct-to-video sequel, American Psycho 2: All American Girl followed, directed by Morgan J. Freeman. This sequel was not based on the novel and is not connected to subsequent works by Bret Easton Ellis, as its only connection with the original is the death of Patrick Bateman (played by Michael Kremko wearing a face mask) shown in a flashback.

[edit] References

[edit] External links