Books are constantly being adapted into films all the time, some being successful and some not so successful. After reading a book I like to see if there is any film adaptation of the novel and see how it compares to the original story and if my visual representation of the story and characters are portrayed the same.
At the beginning of the year I decided to read Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 ‘American Psycho’, which is not usually from the genre I tend to gravitate towards however after some great persuasion by my English literature teacher I decided to give it a read and thank god I did. Though I at points (most points) I felt extremely uncomfortable and disgusted by the extremely detailed descriptions of what Patrick Bateman got up to, (especially with chapters like ‘Rat’ and ‘Girl’), it has to be without a doubt one of the best books I have ever read.
Patrick Bateman is twenty-six and he works on Wall Street, he is handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He is also a psychopath. Taking us to head-on collision with America's greatest dream—and its worst nightmare. American Psycho is bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognise but do not wish to confront. Failing to differentiate actual human beings from other commodities designed for his consumption, Bateman begins in a place of despair and becomes more and more depraved as the book goes on, murdering a co-worker for looking too much like him and escalating to raping and torturing the women he targets. Firstly, I’d like to say I love Ellis’ writing style. He was really able to capture the way in which Patrick Bateman’s head works and put it on a page, documenting on every single detail from what people are wearing to his soundings and senses. Though the through and extensive detail throughout the novel are essential to understand Bateman, it does however make it a hard read.
Mary Harron’s 2000 film adaptation of the novel stars a very handsome and lean Christian Bale, who I must say makes it hard to dislike him to a full extent because he is so gorgeous in it. I felt like Harron only scraped the surface of the story and did a very straight forward representation of the novel. Though rated an 18, the film adaptation is mild compared to the novel. Though most of the script is taken from the novel, it is only snippets and a lot of the novel is taken out. For instance, the first couple chapters are not in included within the film, I think this would have been beneficial and would have helped build more character to Patrick Bateman. One of my favourite chapters in the book, ‘Summer’, shows a softer more human side of Bateman which is nice when contrasted with what we see in the rest of the novel.
I felt as though the film could have been more complex like Bateman. However this is probably because the film is seen as a ‘Feminist Film’, mostly due to the reasoning that it was directed and written by two women, Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner. Other writers and filmmakers have attempted to satirize their male antiheroes, but they often get caught up and end up making them too likable or dynamic. But Harron and Turner saw something in this material that Ellis avoided. At heart, murderous yuppie protagonist Patrick Bateman is actually really pathetic, just look at how Bateman sweats and squirms during the movie’s infamous business card scene.
Though I loved the book over the film, I still have re-watched it numerous amounts of times and I will continue to do so. The book however, I haven’t picked it up again but definitely see myself doing so in the future.
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