american psycho
Michael Capellupo
ENG 101-006
Prof. Duchaney
November 5, 2013
The Mind of an American Psycho
American Psycho, Mary Harron’s film adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis’ novel of the same name, explores the concept and personality of Patrick Bateman, a wealthy power hungry business man who lives out a psychopath fantasy of murdering numerous people around him. He uses his ego to act out all the evil fantasies he wishes he could do in his real life. The whole time he is trying to comprehend what his reality is and what his fantasy is. All these fantasy allow Patrick to find his self-worth. Marry Harron used Patrick Bateman fantasies to explore his well-being and show the reality of his fantasies.
Nobody else understands what goes on in Patrick’s head. Sometime when he speaks his real mindset people take it as a joke or just ignore it. Sort of like when Patrick is talking to the club patron and he says “I'm into, uh, well, murders and executions, mostly.” The club patron takes it as a normal comment, not thinking that he really fantasizes about murders and executions. Mary Harron does a great job throughout the film of showing how Patrick is misunderstood by everyone around him. Not one person in the film had a real true identity of Patrick because he is not really sure of his own self-worth. During a normal conversation with his friends Patrick says “I like to dissect girls. Did you know I'm utterly insane?” He means exactly what he says, he likes to dissect girls and he literally is insane, but thinking he’s the normal guy people view him as they just laugh it off and continue on with their day. The way characters in the film feed into the things he says by acting like it’s not true seemed to get to his head. Patrick doesn’t know what they think of him or even if what he did was true or not.
As the film goes on, Patrick takes on so many identities that he loses track of his own and so do the people around him. Patrick works with a man named Paul Allen, who
ENG 101-006
Prof. Duchaney
November 5, 2013
The Mind of an American Psycho
American Psycho, Mary Harron’s film adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis’ novel of the same name, explores the concept and personality of Patrick Bateman, a wealthy power hungry business man who lives out a psychopath fantasy of murdering numerous people around him. He uses his ego to act out all the evil fantasies he wishes he could do in his real life. The whole time he is trying to comprehend what his reality is and what his fantasy is. All these fantasy allow Patrick to find his self-worth. Marry Harron used Patrick Bateman fantasies to explore his well-being and show the reality of his fantasies.
Nobody else understands what goes on in Patrick’s head. Sometime when he speaks his real mindset people take it as a joke or just ignore it. Sort of like when Patrick is talking to the club patron and he says “I'm into, uh, well, murders and executions, mostly.” The club patron takes it as a normal comment, not thinking that he really fantasizes about murders and executions. Mary Harron does a great job throughout the film of showing how Patrick is misunderstood by everyone around him. Not one person in the film had a real true identity of Patrick because he is not really sure of his own self-worth. During a normal conversation with his friends Patrick says “I like to dissect girls. Did you know I'm utterly insane?” He means exactly what he says, he likes to dissect girls and he literally is insane, but thinking he’s the normal guy people view him as they just laugh it off and continue on with their day. The way characters in the film feed into the things he says by acting like it’s not true seemed to get to his head. Patrick doesn’t know what they think of him or even if what he did was true or not.
As the film goes on, Patrick takes on so many identities that he loses track of his own and so do the people around him. Patrick works with a man named Paul Allen, who