American Psycho

American Psycho
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mary Harron
Produced by	Joseph Drake (executive) Christian Halsey Solomon Chris Hanley Michael Paseornek (executive) Edward R. Pressman Jeff Sackman (executive)
Written by	Screenplay: Mary Harron Guinevere Turner Novel: Bret Easton Ellis
Starring	Christian Bale Willem Dafoe Reese Witherspoon Chloë Sevigny Jared Leto Justin Theroux Josh Lucas Cara Seymour Samantha Mathis
Music by	John Cale Eve Egoyan
Cinematography	Andrzej Sekula
Distributed by	Lions Gate Entertainment
Release date(s)	United States: April 14, 2000
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$7,000,000
Gross revenue	$34,266,564[1]

American Psycho is a 2000 film by Mary Harron, a film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's novel of the same name. The film 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.

Production

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 film was Bateman's moonwalk before killing Paul Allen. In the novel, Patrick Bateman's favorite bands are Genesis, Huey Lewis and 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 nearly 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. In an interview, Mary Harron claimed to be distressed upon discovering that Paul Allen was a high-powered figure in business and technology and that she meant nothing by the use of his name.^[2]

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/Brother, 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.

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, and, as recounted in the DVD extras, Mary Harron resigned in protest as she had already offered the role to Christian Bale. When Gloria Steinem lobbied DiCaprio not to make the film, on the grounds that his fan base consisted mostly of young teenage girls following his Titanic success, he dropped the role, and Harron and Bale returned (Steinem's participation is somewhat interesting, considering she would soon become Christian Bale's stepmother).

Many people in the film industry have said that the novel was "un-filmable" because of its graphic violence and sexual content. During the early stage of pre-production, many actors, directors and crew members were considered to take on the film adaptation. Harron and Bale were originally set to make the film, but Leonardo DiCaprio expressed interest in playing the lead. Production company Lions Gate Entertainment issued a press release that DiCaprio would star, after which 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 film.

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 narcissistic Bateman. To prepare for the role, Bale talked to Mary Herron on the phone about "how Martian-like Patrick Bateman was, how he was looking at the world like somebody from another planet, watching what people did and trying to work out the right way to behave". During their conversations, he told her that he had seen Tom Cruise on David Letterman's talk show and was struck by the movie star's "very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes, and he was really taken with this energy".^[3]

Marketing

As a promotion for the film, 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.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was scored by John Cale, with artists such as David Bowie, The Cure, and New Order. The Huey Lewis and the News song "Hip to Be Square" appears in the film and was initially intended to be on the soundtrack album, but was removed from the album due to lack of publishing rights.^[4] Atlanta artist James Hall (Mary My Hope/Pleasure Club) also contributed a cover of the Talking Heads song "Psycho Killer" to the soundtrack album.

Reception

American Psycho debuted at the Sundance Film Festival where it polarized audiences and critics with some showering praise, others scorn.^[5] Upon its theatrical release, however, the film received positive reviews in crucial publications, including The New York Times which called it a "mean and lean horror comedy classic".^[6] Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and praised Christian Bale's performance as being "heroic in the way he allows the character to leap joyfully into despicability; there is no instinct for self-preservation here, and that is one mark of a good actor".^[7] In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan wrote, "The difficult truth is that the more viewers can model themselves after protagonist Bateman, the more they can distance themselves from the human reality of the slick violence that fills the screen and take it all as some kind of a cool joke, the more they are likely to enjoy this stillborn, pointless piece of work".^[8] Newsweek magazine's David Ansen wrote, "But after an hour of dissecting the '80s culture of materialism, narcissism and greed, the movie begins to repeat itself. It becomes more grisly and surreal, but not more interesting".^[9] In his review for the Village Voice, J. Hoberman wrote, "If anything, Bale is too knowing. He eagerly works within the constraints of the quotation marks Harron puts around his performance".^[10]

Rolling Stone magazine's Peter Travers wrote, "whenever Harron digs beneath the glitzy surface in search of feelings that haven't been desensitized, the horrific and hilarious American Psycho can still strike a raw nerve".^[11] In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris wrote, "The best scenes in the film involve the kind of status-seeking jokes that would make a very funny short subject. But over a feature-length film, there is only so much hollowness this viewer can endure before starting to yawn and look at his watch. Curiously, the material has even lost its power to shock and outrage".^[12] Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A-" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote, "Yet Harron, if anything, is an even more devious provocateur than Ellis was. By treating the book as raw material for an exuberantly perverse exercise in '80s nostalgia, she recasts the go-go years as a template for the casually brainwashing-consumer/fashion/image culture that emerged from them. She has made a movie that is really a parable of today".^[13] Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote, "Harron and co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner do understand the book, and they want their film to be understood as a period comedy of manners".^[14]

DVD

A Special Edition DVD was released in 2005. In the US, two versions of the film have been released: An R-rated and Unrated Version. To obtain an R-rating the sex scene between Bateman and the two prostitutes had to be cut slightly.^[15] The Unrated Version is uncut. For the edited DVD version and R-rated cinematic version of the film in the United States, the producers excised approximately 18 seconds of footage from a scene featuring Bateman having a threesome with 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 Bateman 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.

Legacy

Over the years, American Psycho has come more to be viewed as The New York Times initially predicted: a cult classic difficult to categorize. Its influence can be seen in work as disparate as a Kanye West video^[16] to the construct that is the main character in Showtime's Dexter. It has also generated academic work that examines the film as an important social critique.^[17]

Spin-off

A direct-to-video spin-off, American Psycho 2 was released and directed by Morgan J. Freeman. This spin-off was not based on the novel or the original film, as its only connection with the original is the death of Patrick Bateman (played by Michael Kremko wearing a face mask) briefly shown in a flashback.

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: American Psycho (film)

• Official website
• American Psycho at the Internet Movie Database
• American Psycho at Allmovie
• American Psycho at Rotten Tomatoes
• American Psycho at Metacritic
• American Psycho at Box Office Mojo
• American Psycho script at the Internet Movie Script Database
• "AmPsycho2000" E-mails
• Salon.com interview with director Mary Harron and actor Christian Bale