CS Weekly Archive > DVD of the Day > 7/01/05

Killing to Conform

by jason davis

A satiric look back at the Me Decade, American Psycho adapts the controversial novel of the same name with a style that belies its trappings of shallowness and facade of conformity. The central character is a masterpiece of dichotomy, with his social adherence to external standards masking his rebellious interior lusting to be different.

American Psycho (Uncut Killer Collector's Edition)

Mary Harron & Guinevere Turner
Based on the novel by Brett Easton Ellis

Wall Street broker Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) lives the life of the perfect late '80s twentysomething: he has the perfect apartment, the perfect clothes, and the perfect life. What Bateman doesn't seem to have is a soul, as he wanders lemming-like through a labyrinth of brand names and trendy restaurants. Of course, all this conformity comes with a price, and Bateman's personal act of rebellion is homicide -- gruesome and often. With each murder, he creates a fabric of lies that draws the attention of the police (Willem Dafoe), but a desire to stand out among the pack may not be something you can kill for.

From his introduction amongst a pack of his own kind, Bateman is clearly a victim of the desire to belong. The one-upmanship of his comrades' new business cards illustrates the importance of standing out while simultaneously calling attention to the futility of trying to stand out by fitting in more successfully. In effect, novelist Brett Easton Ellis and screenwriters Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner create a world of futility in which Bateman's attempts to rise above his brethren are continually frustrated by the very fact that he's virtually identical to them (with the scripters translating the novel's intent while skipping it's abundant Grand Guignol violence). A continuing confusion of names constantly reiterates the interchangeability of these Wall Street wolves while perpetually providing Bateman's crimes with unexpected alibis.

If the film has a theme, it's the triumph of exterior over interior. The narrative is suffused with instances of the one being more important than the other. Alone in his office, Bateman is unsure of what to do -- with no audience, he has no role to play. Later, as he loads an overnight bag containing a butchered body into the trunk of a car, the quality of the bag is remarked upon by a passerby. A homosexual come-on will lead Bateman to obsessively wash his gloves as if they are his flesh-and-blood hands, while his veneer of face products offer a literal avatar of the concept. Similarly, style over substance is a key motif, with Bateman's monologues on pop music concentrating in depth on the mechanics of the music rather than the banal and crassly commercial nature of the pieces in question. As he succinctly explains, Genesis's early work with Peter Gabriel was too artsy while Phil Collins is "Not artsy" and therefore, to his mind, better.

- Commentary by director/co-writer Mary Harron
- Commentary by actor/co-writer Guinevere Turner
- Deleted scenes with commentary
- American Psycho: From Book to Screen documentary
- The 80s: Downtown featurette

Two informative commentaries somewhat overlap while offering distinctly different-flavored accounts of the approach taken in adapting the book for the screen. The 48-minute making-of documentary makes an in-depth study of the book's origins, controversial release, and complicated road to celluloid, offering key insights into the process of transmedia adaptation and the idiosyncrasies of the Hollywood machine.

American Psycho works on many levels, across several genres, and elicits mixed emotions. Undoubtedly, its strength rests in the characterization of a man striving to stand out by fitting in with a consumer society bent on worshipping trends. Bateman is an antihero for an era, and his pathetic fate of faceless conformity is what good social criticism is all about.

American Psycho (Uncut Killer Collector's Edition)
Lions Gate Home Entertainment
Rated R; 102 min.
$19.98

Buy it now for only $13.99 (save 30%)

At the age of 21, Jason Davis was hit in the face with a car. He has since devoted his life to writing. His words have appeared on TBS, MSN.com, and CS Weekly, where he serves as DVD Coordinator. He lives in Burbank.

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