Patrick Bateman in AMERICAN PSYCHO
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WARNING: "spoilz" spoilers below
So, wait, the only possible way he could be "good" is because he may have just dreamt about mass murder. How is that even remotely good? It's like "oh I should help that old lady carry a piano down the stairs" and actually feeling good about just thinking I could help while she slips and the piano splatters her into the wall.
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LOOOL wintertriangles!
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Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake!
-Daniel, There Will Be Blood
Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake!
-Daniel, There Will Be Blood
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He's a good guy, because he didn't kill the girl that one time. That makes him good. Obviously.
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Is he a good guy or a bad guy? Discuss.
The movie uses the term "psycho" to bring a loud obnoxious tone to the character, to make it stand out. Because when we think of a psycho, we think of someone disturbed, someone ill, someone on the fringes of mental cognition. But this man, is an everyday man, a working man, a successful man. This demonstrates how comfortable it makes us to give labels and names to people whose actions we can't understand or subjectively placate for rationalization. So we call them "psycho's." But what this says, is that we ignore what made him a psycho, us. We created this society, we fed ourselves into the idea of material wealth being the american dream, a mortgage, two car payments, student loans, a "good" 60 hour work week so we can have a beautiful hour dinner at a fancy restaurant only so we can tell others where we went, so we can feel better about our own self at the expense of others financial short comings.
When you think about the period the movie/book speak of, and the commentary now, you can't help but wonder if it still holds true for our society today...... considering the ever increasing amount of americans who are on anti-depressants, anxiety meds, sleep aids, and how much psychology has grown over the last thirty years and how mainstream it is, it makes you wonder how many people just want to snap, like bateman did, not in the extreme of killing senselessly, but just want to say "F this!" and walk away from something. I mean would we really need all this medicine if we all were happy and satisfied?
Subtext........subtext......subtext.......
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Patrick Bateman is brave and doesn't afraid of anything. He is a cool guy.
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Patrick Bateman is brave and doesn't afraid of anything. He is a cool guy.
I love the character and thought Bale was brilliant as Patrick, really doing the book justice as far as they could back in the 90's. It would have been better to have been made the film in this century when you could practically make a snuff movie for general release and nobody would bat an eyelid.
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“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.” BLAKE.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.” BLAKE.
Patrick Bateman is neither good nor bad. Patrick Bateman is a reflective composite of emotional anger, loss in the meaning in one's life, and a release of physically repressed anxiety of frustration in regard's to consumerism/corporate American lifestyle. Patrick Bateman can be you, me, anyone, if you pay attention to the movie, it is not about a "psycho" but is an allegorical reference for someone who has "followed," his path in life i.e. business school, working in corporate finance, supposed higher echelon of society AND THAT HAS LEFT THEIR LIFE COMPLETELY DEVOID OF SATISFACTION AND MEANING. When Patrick Bateman obsesses over his facial cosmetics in detail, the business cards, the suits, his attention to detail over music,how many situps he can do, etc, he relays these things in such a manner because its supposed to be seen as social commentary to the viewer/you, to recognize those things, those obsessions in everyday society in your own context. It might not be business cards, but it is surely something else, fantasy football, shoes, make-up,guns, etc, it is expressive of our desire in the society we created to feel stimulated, to feel involved, to feel apart of something greater than ourselves, something more meaningful, because the consumerism culture we live in, we created is not enough. And usually the distractions we involve ourselves with are material, man-made and for those looking for more out of life, these material obsessions leaves us feeling hollow. This unsatisfactory feeling has left Bateman starved for more, it has made him numb to the world, numb to the "civilized living experience" he has created, and that civilized living experience that he built up to be the inner Utopian he hoped for, hoping that fancy dinners, and high rise lofts, and expensive everythings would complete his being. But it has not. So he reverts to more primal indulgences in hopes of happiness, i.e. prostitutes, cocaine, sex......He has indulged in all this and still nothing....so he reverts to the extreme form of primal seduction, what an animal would do, what a civilized human would not partake in...... meaningless violence. To see if taking another's life would give him some sense of satisfaction, some sense of control over his own destiny, to feel as if he is not adrift in the world.
The movie uses the term "psycho" to bring a loud obnoxious tone to the character, to make it stand out. Because when we think of a psycho, we think of someone disturbed, someone ill, someone on the fringes of mental cognition. But this man, is an everyday man, a working man, a successful man. This demonstrates how comfortable it makes us to give labels and names to people whose actions we can't understand or subjectively placate for rationalization. So we call them "psycho's." But what this says, is that we ignore what made him a psycho, us. We created this society, we fed ourselves into the idea of material wealth being the american dream, a mortgage, two car payments, student loans, a "good" 60 hour work week so we can have a beautiful hour dinner at a fancy restaurant only so we can tell others where we went, so we can feel better about our own self at the expense of others financial short comings.
When you think about the period the movie/book speak of, and the commentary now, you can't help but wonder if it still holds true for our society today...... considering the ever increasing amount of americans who are on anti-depressants, anxiety meds, sleep aids, and how much psychology has grown over the last thirty years and how mainstream it is, it makes you wonder how many people just want to snap, like bateman did, not in the extreme of killing senselessly, but just want to say "F this!" and walk away from something. I mean would we really need all this medicine if we all were happy and satisfied?
Subtext........subtext......subtext.......
The movie uses the term "psycho" to bring a loud obnoxious tone to the character, to make it stand out. Because when we think of a psycho, we think of someone disturbed, someone ill, someone on the fringes of mental cognition. But this man, is an everyday man, a working man, a successful man. This demonstrates how comfortable it makes us to give labels and names to people whose actions we can't understand or subjectively placate for rationalization. So we call them "psycho's." But what this says, is that we ignore what made him a psycho, us. We created this society, we fed ourselves into the idea of material wealth being the american dream, a mortgage, two car payments, student loans, a "good" 60 hour work week so we can have a beautiful hour dinner at a fancy restaurant only so we can tell others where we went, so we can feel better about our own self at the expense of others financial short comings.
When you think about the period the movie/book speak of, and the commentary now, you can't help but wonder if it still holds true for our society today...... considering the ever increasing amount of americans who are on anti-depressants, anxiety meds, sleep aids, and how much psychology has grown over the last thirty years and how mainstream it is, it makes you wonder how many people just want to snap, like bateman did, not in the extreme of killing senselessly, but just want to say "F this!" and walk away from something. I mean would we really need all this medicine if we all were happy and satisfied?
Subtext........subtext......subtext.......
Bateman is a representative of the personified moral values of the society... Since it was written by a British about American, go figure...
Patrick Bateman is neither good nor bad. Patrick Bateman is a reflective composite of emotional anger, loss in the meaning in one's life, and a release of physically repressed anxiety of frustration in regard's to consumerism/corporate American lifestyle. Patrick Bateman can be you, me, anyone, if you pay attention to the movie, it is not about a "psycho" but is an allegorical reference for someone who has "followed," his path in life i.e. business school, working in corporate finance, supposed higher echelon of society AND THAT HAS LEFT THEIR LIFE COMPLETELY DEVOID OF SATISFACTION AND MEANING. When Patrick Bateman obsesses over his facial cosmetics in detail, the business cards, the suits, his attention to detail over music,how many situps he can do, etc, he relays these things in such a manner because its supposed to be seen as social commentary to the viewer/you, to recognize those things, those obsessions in everyday society in your own context. It might not be business cards, but it is surely something else, fantasy football, shoes, make-up,guns, etc, it is expressive of our desire in the society we created to feel stimulated, to feel involved, to feel apart of something greater than ourselves, something more meaningful, because the consumerism culture we live in, we created is not enough. And usually the distractions we involve ourselves with are material, man-made and for those looking for more out of life, these material obsessions leaves us feeling hollow. This unsatisfactory feeling has left Bateman starved for more, it has made him numb to the world, numb to the "civilized living experience" he has created, and that civilized living experience that he built up to be the inner Utopian he hoped for, hoping that fancy dinners, and high rise lofts, and expensive everythings would complete his being. But it has not. So he reverts to more primal indulgences in hopes of happiness, i.e. prostitutes, cocaine, sex......He has indulged in all this and still nothing....so he reverts to the extreme form of primal seduction, what an animal would do, what a civilized human would not partake in...... meaningless violence. To see if taking another's life would give him some sense of satisfaction, some sense of control over his own destiny, to feel as if he is not adrift in the world.
The movie uses the term "psycho" to bring a loud obnoxious tone to the character, to make it stand out. Because when we think of a psycho, we think of someone disturbed, someone ill, someone on the fringes of mental cognition. But this man, is an everyday man, a working man, a successful man. This demonstrates how comfortable it makes us to give labels and names to people whose actions we can't understand or subjectively placate for rationalization. So we call them "psycho's." But what this says, is that we ignore what made him a psycho, us. We created this society, we fed ourselves into the idea of material wealth being the american dream, a mortgage, two car payments, student loans, a "good" 60 hour work week so we can have a beautiful hour dinner at a fancy restaurant only so we can tell others where we went, so we can feel better about our own self at the expense of others financial short comings.
When you think about the period the movie/book speak of, and the commentary now, you can't help but wonder if it still holds true for our society today...... considering the ever increasing amount of americans who are on anti-depressants, anxiety meds, sleep aids, and how much psychology has grown over the last thirty years and how mainstream it is, it makes you wonder how many people just want to snap, like bateman did, not in the extreme of killing senselessly, but just want to say "F this!" and walk away from something. I mean would we really need all this medicine if we all were happy and satisfied?
Subtext........subtext......subtext.......
The movie uses the term "psycho" to bring a loud obnoxious tone to the character, to make it stand out. Because when we think of a psycho, we think of someone disturbed, someone ill, someone on the fringes of mental cognition. But this man, is an everyday man, a working man, a successful man. This demonstrates how comfortable it makes us to give labels and names to people whose actions we can't understand or subjectively placate for rationalization. So we call them "psycho's." But what this says, is that we ignore what made him a psycho, us. We created this society, we fed ourselves into the idea of material wealth being the american dream, a mortgage, two car payments, student loans, a "good" 60 hour work week so we can have a beautiful hour dinner at a fancy restaurant only so we can tell others where we went, so we can feel better about our own self at the expense of others financial short comings.
When you think about the period the movie/book speak of, and the commentary now, you can't help but wonder if it still holds true for our society today...... considering the ever increasing amount of americans who are on anti-depressants, anxiety meds, sleep aids, and how much psychology has grown over the last thirty years and how mainstream it is, it makes you wonder how many people just want to snap, like bateman did, not in the extreme of killing senselessly, but just want to say "F this!" and walk away from something. I mean would we really need all this medicine if we all were happy and satisfied?
Subtext........subtext......subtext.......
I'm with you on this one man,totaly correct,but i still think we can say that he is a bad guy in the movie ,because he is a killer ... Thread is "Is he good or bad guy"...If we look at the message of the movie then you are 100% correct,but we are looking at simple question is he a good or bad guy...And yes he is a bad guy.
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I read American Psyco. Patrick Bateman is a man that works in high finance(Wall Street) ,luxorious world,rich....
Patrick Bateman is bored because you have all.
For me is a BAD MAN
Patrick Bateman is bored because you have all.
For me is a BAD MAN
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