‘American Psycho’ (2000)
Materialism, Madness, and Murderous Men
“These violent delights have violent ends”
— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
I have seen American Psycho 3 or 4 times and the last time was last night. I have always found the film a difficult and dangerous ride of horror and black comedy but balanced by its acknowledged attempt at a critical demolition of the splicing of American aspiration — the “American Dream” — with psychopathy, materialism, and male violence, endemic to the narrative of the novel (1991) by Bret Easton Ellis.
Yet last night I still got the jokes, the sarcasm, the very darkest humour, and the assault on crass materialism and its shallowing of the human soul into and towards the abyss of violent madness. I still got the brilliant monologues on pop culture and the analysis of musical albums in the collection of Patrick Bateman our quintessential yuppie and psychopathic protagonist. I still got the point of the majority of the film.
But.
I now found myself having a very serious issue — which I have never had before — with the direct and indirect abuse, violent abuse, and extreme levels of violence towards the female victims of P.B. Yet I had no issue with the axe attack upon Jared Leto by Christian Bale to a song by Huey Lewis…
