This theory is supported by the novel, where it is strongly implied that Wolfe knows about the murders and realizes that Bateman is involved (p. 369).This interpretation is best explained by actress/co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner on her DVD commentary;To me, the more disturbing part about this scene is that here's this real estate agent who really doesn't give a fuck what happened in this apartment and knows damn well what kind of state it was in. This is backed by the foolish, awkward side 2 of Patrick Fantasy: Paul Allen is in fact alive, Christie never existed, Sabrina's head is not sitting in his refrigerator, the threesome with Elizabeth never existed, and of course the final rampage with the cat in the ATM and the cop cars. However, at no point does anyone ever react in any way seriously to what he says.Examples of Bateman's outbursts include; in the nightclub early in the movie, Bateman says to the bartender (Kelley Harron), "You're a fucking ugly bitch. And it hints that his "acts" are caused by his reaction to the emptiness and foolishness of his surroundings which inspire his defiance, as well as his inability to hold back his darker impulses, and that the killings and destruction are his only means of aiming for truth. (critic): Harron, if anything, is an even more devious provocateur than Ellis was. "You want me to floss with it? Edit, Yes, he did. Edit, The R1 Killer Collector Edition's DVD, released by Lions Gate Home Entertainment in 2005 contains the following special features: The unrated version of the film A digitally restored picture and a digitally remastered soundtrack available in 5.1 Dolby Digital EX Feature length audio commentary with co-writer/director Mary Harron Feature length audio commentary with co-writer/actress Guinevere Turner 5 deleted scenes with optional audio commentary by Mary Harron American Psycho: From Book to Screen (2005); a 49-minute "Making-of" documentary made exclusively for the Killer Collector's Edition DVD American Psycho: The Pornography of Killing - An Essay by Holly Willis (2005); a 7-minute video essay by cinema academic Holly Willis The 80s: Downtown (2005); a 31-minute documentary looking at the culture of 1980s New York US Theatrical Trailer and 4 TV SpotsThe R2 UK DVD, released by Entertainment in VIdeo in 2000 contains the same deleted scenes, a short featurette on the fashions in the film, cast and crew filmographies, and the UK Theatrical Trailer. At this point, Bateman intervenes, saying "It's not Paul Allen. American Psycho II is an unofficial spin-off which is not considered canon. Taking this into consideration, there is a possibility that all that is happening in this scene is that Carnes has mistaken Bateman for someone named Davis, and has presumably mistaken someone else for Bateman (possibly Davis). Instant downloads of all 1699 LitChart PDFs In the novel, as in the film, he returns towards the end with no explanation for his whereabouts or what he has been doing. | Don't you recognize me? This lends credence to the theory that the entire sequence is a hallucination, which in turn lends credence to the suggestion that much of what we see in the film is also an hallucination.However, if this is the case, and if this sequence does represent pure fantasy, Harron ultimately came to feel that she had gone too far with the hallucinatory approach. And that's very disturbing. [the girls shake their heads. She responded by reading louder and was promptly arrested. Is that true? Even a fancy dinner and a ride to their favorite bar in a limousine arent interesting enough for the two, so Bateman gets a craving for drugs or so he says. As such, the novel would not receive a hardback release. Creating notes and highlights requires a free LitCharts account. The greed of real estates agencies is shown to be no better or worse than that of stock brokers; the materialistic, hedonistic, surface-obsessed world in which they live has shaped their outlooks and their goals, and they have become as much a cause as a product of the problems in their society. Patrick Bateman is a wealthy investment banker in his 20's in the late 1980's. We follow him as he and his friends live a life of vanity, drugs, and a lot of violence. "Never date a Vassar girl": McDermott complains about a girl he met who refused to give him a blowjob and would only give him a hand job with her glove still on. After the novel was released, Baxter went to a B. Dalton Bookseller store in Santa Cruz and began to read some of the more graphic passages from the novel aloud. In their first meeting, Kimball tells Bateman that someone called Stephen Hughes thought he saw Paul Allen in London, but it turned out it was a person called Herbert Ainsworth;Bateman: "Do you have any witnesses or fingerprints? "C: "Bateman killing Allen and the escort girls, that's fabulous, that's rich. Teacher Editions with classroom activities for all 1699 titles we cover. Davis however, who is estranged from his father, is unaware of this until Bateman and Simone de Reveney inform him. (p. 325). Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. Everyone's completely corrupt and pretty disgusting. What is the significance of mistaken identity in the film? (film) American Psycho is a 2000 film about a young, well-to-do man who isn't quite as normal as he seems and secretly is a serial killer. As usual, his sexual and sadistic violence has no effect on him, and he goes about his day as normal after. This scene is removed entirely from the film.Another major scene from the novel removed from the film, is when Bateman tortures a woman by forcing a Rat into a woman's vagina, and trapping it inside forcing the rat to eat its way out while Bateman chops off her legs with a chainsaw.While there are many more differences between the film and novel. Analysis. He then instructs them to begin paying attention to him, and they do so, as he moves them around on his body however he likes. "(2) The second theory is that Bateman isn't really saying such things out loud at all, his outbursts are all internal, but he psychologically manifests them as external. This is completely ignored in the film, the cannibalism is only briefly referenced, in the scene where Bateman confesses to his lawyer all his actions in which he says. Patrick Bateman : I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Henceforth why Bateman says "Don't touch the watch. Upon examining the apartment, they would find evidence of murder and torture (of Elizabeth and Christie), and rather than call the police, which would seriously devalue a prime piece of real estate, they quietly clean things up themselves and remove Allen's possessions. However, for those who know the novels upon which the films are based, there are a number of implicit connections. And I've turned to Mary many times and said "We've failed, we didn't write the script that we intended to write".In line with what both Harron and Turner feel about the question of whether or not the murders are real, Bret Easton Ellis has pointed out that if none of the murders actually happened, the entire point of the novel would be rendered moot. For example, New York ran a cover story on the novel and on Mehta's purchasing of its publication rights, and CNN read extracts from the novel live on-air.Upon Vintage's acquisition of the rights, feminist activist Tammy Bruce, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), called for a nationwide boycott of all Vintage and Knopf books, with the specific exception of those by feminist authors, although she did call on such authors to sever their relationships with both companies. The second scene involves an ATM machine requesting that Bateman feed it a stray cat. What's it about? This explains why Carnes calls Bateman a "boring spineless lightweight" right to his face, and in the third person. However, Patrick covers himself up as being Paul Allen. Everybody's good-looking. What mental illness does Patrick Bateman have? Though Christie is reluctant to see Bateman again after being so badly beaten during their previous encounter, he knows that flaunting his money and using alcohol to cloud her judgment will get him just what he wants. The film itself has no explicit connections to any of the other adaptations of Ellis' work; Less Than Zero (1987) (1987), The Rules of Attraction (2002) (2002) and The Informers (2008) (2008). I want to die" (p. 295). They literally cannot tell one another apart, nor do they particularly want to. The acquisition of wealth supersedes all other goals, being successful becomes more important than being moral. "C: "Because I had dinner with Paul Allen twice in London, just ten days ago. It is also revealed that the restaurant Dorsia has closed down.In the "plot" of the emails, Bateman is attempting to outmaneuver a successful businessman named T. Davis Ferguson, the largest producer of Silicate in the world, by manipulating Ferguson's wayward son, Terry Davis. As far as the filmic adaptations go, American Psycho was adapted first, and the scene with Sean was omitted. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. This would make the situation identical to when Allen thought he was having dinner with Halberstram when he was in fact having dinner with Bateman. Known all over town, he receives special treatment at many of the city's most exclusive bars, restaurants and salons. She has made a movie that is really a parable of today. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don't know why. What does Bateman do to Christie and Sabrina after the first threesome? This is proven by Patrick alternative, smooth side. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. A half hour later I'm hard again. In the last scene, McDermott says that Bryce is back. Edit, You could say that. However, nowhere in either the film or the novel is the exact nature of Bateman's job explained, nor do we ever see him actually doing any work.According to Mary Harron on her DVD commentary, the lack of specifics and failure to identify his exact role are thematically important and offer a commentary on Bateman's psychological state; Kimball has asked the real Halberstram about it, and he denied being with Allen that night (which is true, as Bateman was with Allen). "I ate some of their brains, and I tried to cook a little. Some dialogue was also edited: Bateman orders a prostitute, Christie, to bend over so that another, Sabrina, can 'see your asshole', which was edited to 'see your ass'. Later, as Bateman, McDermott and Van Patten try to decide where to have dinner, McDermott asks Bateman what he wants to do, and Bateman says, "I want to pulverize a woman's face with a large heavy brick," to which McDermott flippantly replies, "Besides that" (p. 312). The women are uninterested in small talk; this is as much a transaction for them as it if for Bateman. What's funny is that I've had endless conversations with people who know that I wrote this script saying "So, me and my friends were arguing, cause I know it was all a dream", or "I know it really happened". He shows no remorse in business, in his personal life and during his murders. What are the differences between the novel and film. Bateman is approached by an older woman (called Mrs. Wolfe in the novel and the film credits; played by Patricia Gage), presumably a real estate agent, who inquires if he saw the advertisement in The New York Times. There is a jarring narrative shift here, when Bateman immediately transitions from sex to torture. Mary Harron: "The book and the film are often defined as being about the 1980s, but the 1980s did not invent greed, did not invent commodity fetishism, did not invent a society that is so obsessed with perfect surface" (from DVD commentary track).Bret Easton Ellis: "Like the novel, the movie is essentially plotless, a horror-comedy with a thin narrative built up of satirical riffs about greed, status and the business values of the 1980s culture" (official site archived here).Guinevere Turner: It's part of the idea of the character, that everything is so empty, although he has tons of money and he's constantly buying things and obsessing over having the thing, he's trying to fill this void, and it's not working. Batemans relationship with Courtney is as empty and shallow as his relationship with Evelyn. The film then cuts to Bateman sitting in a . Edit, The time period of the film is late 1986 to March 4th, 1987; as is evident by the Christmas party early in the movie and the Ronald Reagan speech on the TV in the last scene. He then instructs them to begin paying attention to him, and they do so, as he moves them around on his body however he likes. In the novel, Bateman tells us that Paul Allen is often mistaken for an arbitrageur, when he is in fact a merger-maker (322), and the implication is that Bateman himself is an arbitrageur. The conversation however, does not go the way Bateman anticipated;Bateman: "Did you get my message? Bateman, appearing very disturbed and confused, begins to leave, and when Wolfe tells him not to come back, he assures her that he has no intention of doing so.As with the Carnes conversation and the issue of Bateman's outbursts, there are two main theories on this scene. This theory would explain why Wolfe tells Bateman to leave, why she asks so strangely, and what she means when she says she doesn't want any trouble; she suspects that he has something to do with the murders which she is trying to cover up, so she wants him as far away as possible in case he jeopardizes her sale. For example, in the opening scene of the novel, A guy who looks a lot like Luis Carruthers waves over at Timothy and when Timothy doesn't return the wave the guy - slicked-back hair, suspenders, horn rimmed glasses - realizes it's not who he thought it was and looks back at his copy of USA Today. An important aspect of this question is Bateman's destruction of the police car, which explodes after he fires a single shot, causing even himself to look incredulously at his gun; many argue that this incident proves that what is happening is not real, and therefore, nothing that has gone before can be verified as being real either. Christie will probably have a terrible black eye and deep scratches across her buttocks caused by the coat hanger. Nevertheless, Mehta's decision made headlines news. What does Patrick Bateman do to Christie and Sabrina? This conversation is discussed in the next question.As to the overall significance of mistaken identity, one of the running themes of the film and the novel is that everyone looks like everyone else, everyone dresses the same, listens to the same music, has similar jobs, goes to the same clubs and hairstylists, etc. Similarly, whether or not Bateman is really "dead" remains an open question. The New York Times wrote a lengthy review entitled "Don't Buy This Book," in which it condemned the novel as one of the worst pieces of literature ever written, whilst both PEN International (a worldwide association of authors) and the Authors' Guild subtly disassociated themselves from Ellis. (including. During the same conversation, Bateman also says, "It's not beyond my capacity to drive a lead pipe repeatedly into a girl's vagina," to which McDermott says, "We all know about your lead pipe Bateman," followed by Van Patten asking, "Is he like trying to tell us he has a big dick?" What is his IQ number? The scenes from the novel where Bateman slices a dog's stomach open and cuts its owner's throat, where he drowns Evelyn's dog, and where he crushes a rat by stomping on it are not in the film, nor is the infamous scene from the novel where he tortures a girl by putting a live rat into her vagina. The three of them end up on the couch, beginning to have sex. "Once more Carnes tries to leave, once more Bateman stops him.B: "No, listen, don't you know who I am? What is the significance of mistaken identity in the film? The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. Sean also appeared in a small scene in the American Psycho novel. For example, when Carruthers confronts him in a clothes store, confessing his love and begging Bateman to love him back, he ends up on the ground, grabbing onto Bateman's leg, and Bateman shouts "I am going to slit your fucking throat,", to which Carruthers responds, "Oh just kill me [] If I can't have you, I don't want to live. "In the novel Bateman kills a young child at the zoo, to see if he would like it or not. "People wanna get caught": Bateman meets Kimball by chance in a nightclub and Kimball tells him that in casual situations, people often reveal things about themselves even though they don't realize they are doing it. This aspect is also emphasized in a deleted scene on the DVD. After Bateman has had sex with Christie (Cara Seymour) and Sabrina (Krista Sutton), they are all lying together in bed, when he gets up and moves over to a drawer. They're all handsome, they all wear smart suits, they all dress alike, they're all manicured, they all have the same business card [] Because they all look alike, no one knows who anyone is. Later, when Bateman is dining with Paul Allen, he tells him "I like to dissect girls. | Bateman always tries to make himself out to look more important than everyone else around him, such as during the business card scene, where he tries to show off his card to look important and cool. He was especially pleased that the film depicted Bateman as extremely uncool, a total loser.The only parts of the film that Ellis criticized in his review were Bateman's dance prior to killing Paul Allen (Jared Leto), which he felt was too close to slapstick humor (ironically, this is Harron's favorite part of the film), and the voice-over which runs throughout the movie, which he felt was "too explicit." Rolex did not allow the film to use their name as they did not want to be associated with a violent movie. Meanwhile, Bateman is using drugs to prepare his victims; this will make his attack easier. When he arrives however, the apartment is bare, cleared of all possessions, and the gruesome mess left in the wake of his murders is gone. Not only are they socially and psychologically uniform, but they accept and promulgate that uniformity, reveling in one another's anonymity as it necessitates that personal relationships are superfluous to the achievement of their ultimate goals - success and wealth. Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. As the emails draw to a close and Bateman begins watching the movie, the film begins with the opening credit sequence from American Psycho itself.The entire set of Am.Psycho2000 emails is transcribed chronologically here. The way the content is organized, LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in. It is simply another component of his psychosis, which also includes fantasies of killing and torture. She just wants that association or anyone who might know anything about it to be away from the apartment so she can sell it. If the murders were purely in his head, the strong social commentary would be undermined and the film would become a psychological study of a deranged mind rather than a social satire. This kind of thinking simply doesn't enter into the equation in their society; a society of excess, greed, self-absorption and isolation.This theme is perhaps more obvious in the novel. As with much of the film, if we accept this theory, exactly how much is reality, and how much is fantasy is difficult to say.Mary Harron, for her part, favors the practical explanation championed by Turner, although she does acknowledge that there is a degree of ambiguity at play; You can read it as simply New York greed of real estate people wanting to sell an expensive apartment but ignoring the terrible things that took place there or it could be all in his imagination, an embodiment of his paranoia. It's not about the law, it's not about justice, it's not about morality, it's about "You are damaging the potential for me to sell this apartment [] Go, go, go. He breaks countless rules/laws, such as commuting murder, not doing any work at his job, cheats on his fianc and much more. Earlier in the night, he had left Elizabeth at a bar to go pick . Another good example is a conversation between Bateman and Carruthers concerning Carruthers' recent dinner with a client. Jean is Patrick Bateman 's secretary, or, as he refers to her, "my secretary who is in love with me.". Also includes a behind-the-scenes interview with Samantha Mathis about how the novel is harsher to men than woman. Of this sequence, Mary Harron comments, You should not trust anything that you see. Edit, Yes. Where was he? The client had roasted chicken, and neither Bateman nor Carruthers can understand the fact that the dinner came with no sauces or accessories. None of the characters in the film would stop to think for a moment that perhaps someone may not be wearing an expensive suit because they don't want to. "B: "It never was supposed to be. De Reveney then begins to purchase shares from Davis, and the only way Ferguson can stop him is by revealing his own interests in the company, thus exposing the illegality of his operation. As Mary Harron discusses on her DVD commentary, there is no truth in this, the song is absent purely because of publishing rights. Bateman's seats are better, therefore, he has "won" the unspoken contest between them, and his superiority is something to be celebrated.Regarding the film, the filmmakers themselves have offered various theories as to what the true meaning may be, and a good way to engage with the possibilities as to meaning is to look at what some of them have said about their own interpretations of the work, as well as the interpretations of critics and scholars. The reason the apartment is empty is because there never were any murders committed there, perhaps Paul Allen never even lived there in the first place, or perhaps he genuinely has moved to London and the real estate company is attempting to rent the apartment to a new occupant. According to his business card, he is a vice president at Pierce & Pierce. [from DVD commentary track] The novel's graphic descriptions of the murder and sexual mutilation of women continued to be attacked as inexcusable and Ellis received numerous death threats and hate mail. This starts in a non-violent manner, with him very specifically instructing the women on what to do to him, to each other. Also he gets angered when David Van Patten pulls his card out and everyone else likes it better than his. As with the practical explanation of the mistaken identity theme and the Carnes conversation, this would tie it into the film's social critique; everyone looks alike, no one knows anyone else, and no one really listens to anyone else either. This becomes extremely important in relation to Bateman's confession, which, according to this theory, is another example of people failing to really listen to what he says; no matter what a man admits to, no one else cares about his crimes, because no one else cares about him, or about anybody other then themselves. What does Patrick Bateman do to Christie? Nothing matters, no one's paying attention, and so he might as well, since the only thing that he seems to feel real about or get excited about is killing people, so he might as well keep doing it; it doesn't matter, no one is going to notice.