American Psycho Meaning
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1TOP RATED
anonymous May 10th 2009, 16:05 report
This film is all about the yuppie culture of the 80's. Bateman is suave, charming, and seems to have it all, yet is completely insane and no one would ever notice because everyone is so self-obsessed. People in the film constantly call each other by the wrong name, just emphasizing how alike all the yuppie men are; they can't even tell their own apart.
I feel the basis of the film (80's yuppie culture) is fairly obvious, so I'll give my interpretation of the ending. Many think the murders did not actually happen, and I disagree. So what about the apartment at the end? Well, again, this directly parallels the meaning of the film. They found the gorefest that was Paul's apartment, cleaned it up, and attempted to sell it in an effort to not cause property value to go down for possibly the whole building. This explains why the realtor was so rude to Bateman, she didn't know who he was but probably assumed he had SOMETHING to do with the bodies so just wanted him out before he ruined her sale. Remember the moral of the story, these people only care about themselves.
Another point brought up to dispute the murders actually happening is the man saying he recently saw Paul in Europe. This is simply explained throughout the film when men call each other by the wrong names. Bateman even posed as Paul for an entire night, it is extremely plausible that the man was mistaken and even further shows how quickly these people are to miss that a colleague was murdered because of how self-involved they are.
Obviously, interpret how you'd like, this is just my take on things. -
anonymous Nov 24th 2008, 04:45 report
This is based on the book by Brett Easton Ellis. I think it is partly meant to be a satire of 1980's culture. Materialism, power, and greed were a big part of the 80's and considered to be very desirable things. This film mocks that lifestyle. Bateman's world is superficial, as is he. His psychotic and murderous behavior is an escape from a world he both loves and hates. Bateman has everything, looks, money ,hot girlfriend ect. and yet is unsatisfied. It's a gilded but dull and meaningless existence. Murder and/or fantasies of murder give him excitement; make him feel powerful ect. Some question the ending of this film, were the murders real or not. Personally, I don't think they were, that makes interpreting even better. It's really about boredom and insanity, and how one could lead to the other in a darkly comical way. Great film by the way, pretty violent but I recommend it to anyone.
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anonymous May 13th 2010, 13:56 report
Either he didn't kill anybody and it's a commentary on how the strongly materialism and superficiality overwhelm even the most deviant personalities. OR he killed all those people and it is an attempt to illustrate how a society of clones can't comprehend deviant behavior.
Obviously it was deliberately ambiguous as to what happened, but both interpretations attempt to highlight faults in herd mentality among yuppies by exaggerating the characteristics of that subculture. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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anonymous Aug 15th 2011, 13:11 report
When I read the chapters containing the murders, I simply interpreted them in a symbolic way, I believe that they were statements, both about the general hierarchy of the society at the time, and about the selfishness that "imbued" the yiuppie culture. I believe that the murders was to reflect the oppression of wimen,poor people and minorities etc..
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anonymous Aug 15th 2011, 13:11 report
When I read the chapters containing the murders, I simply interpreted them in a symbolic way, I believe that they were statements, both about the general hierarchy of the society at the time, and about the selfishness that "imbued" the yiuppie culture. I believe that the murders was to reflect the oppression of wimen,poor people and minorities etc..
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anonymous Dec 9th 2011, 16:51 report
Just a comment on the "top rated" interpretation. The fatal flaw in it is that "people" are NOT constantly calling each other by the wrong names. Only Patrick Bateman is is ever called by the wrong name by others NO ONE ELSE IS!!!!. That in itself negates the entire premise of the theory that the murders happened because Paul was never mistaken for Patrick. Only the other way around. Therefore how could someone else be mistaken for him in Europe? The loss of identity is not others, its Batemans.
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anonymous Dec 26th 2011, 00:17 report
Kimball reports that someone incorrectly identified Paul Allen in London. The above comment negating the top rated comment has now been negated.
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anonymous Dec 31st 2011, 20:44 report
One thing I noticed in support of the premise that all the yuppies can't tell each other apart is that near the beginning, Paul asked the protagonist (misinterpreted as Mark H.)how Cecelia is doing. Then at the end, the lawyer asks the protagonist (this time misinterpreted as Davis) how Cecelia is doing.
The wives get mixed up amongst them just as much as the yuppie men get confused.
So I guess this supports both previous arguments, that Batemen is so generic that everyone mistakes stuff about him for someone else's (his name and his wife). Or on the flip side, it just supports that concept that everyone is generic and can't be told apart. Another example, "Is that Ivana Trump?" -
anonymous Feb 26th, 14:45 report
I believe that the murders did occur and as the original poster said that the Paul Allen seen in London was just yuppies being blind yuppies. But I believe that the climax murders that began with the stray cat and ended with the phonecall did not occur and that is why he was not caught (but he still made that call) and that the scene in Paul Allens apartment was cleaned up and assumed that Paul Allen did it and disappeared and the woman was just confused and didn't have time for Bateman's probing. It's a very puzzling movie.
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anonymous Mar 20th, 23:29 report
I do not believe that the murders happened. I don't know about the book but in the film there's a sequence in the beginning where they exchange cards and you can clearly see the same phone numbers while the guy named Allen hand his card to one of his co workers. That would mean that it's not their company's phone number.
The rest of the film is meant to be puzzling but I think that scene where they're all together is critical, I even thought they were all the same person at first. He must be hallucinating.
Well that's my interpretation anyways. -
anonymous Mar 25th, 03:04 report
Haven't seen this movie in quite some time but am a stiffler for "the dark side" so I do remember how awsome this one was and how tremendously thought provoking...my senior year of high school, 2001.
I recall somewhat the same as above, but what I remember most was the meticulous way in which he killed; precision and perfection...even draping the furniture in plastic and turning on classical music to better perform!
His life was precisely calculated to the minute; the morning routine of a strenuous workout, shower, and shave. A well groomed mask to ensure superiority above his colleages whom he had no reverence for and well...the way he could butcher some broad just as fake (or stupid, at least).
His remarkable precision and perfectionism was admirable until he allowed his emotions to interfere. Upon the realization that despite such conspired efforts to maintian superiority, he was still at the bottom of the totem pole; one notch below, no longer in control. The mask he so meticulously constructed and truly believed was destroyed with simple questions by his colleagues, for it was more so paranoia that inhibited his delusions of "self worth." And so... the downward spiral began.
He truly believed his cover-up until he, himself was made to question it rendering a frantic effort to cover-up his cover-up. Make sense?
Ultimately, this is about how "cut throat" business is and how if you can't cut the deal...well...cut throat instead! Luv-ed this one for a long time! My favourite movie ever!
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