A cunning indictment of the materialism of the 1980s, AMERICAN PSYCHO is Mary Harron's (I SHOT ANDY WARHOL) and Guinevere Turner's (GO FISH) deft interpretation of the dark and violent Brett Easton Ellis novel of the same name. Christian Bale (VELVET GOLDMINE) plays Patrick Bateman, the personification of the "me" culture of Ronald Reagan's 1980s. Imprisoned in an inane corporate existence fueled by status symbols, small talk, and gossip, Bateman begins a bloody reign of terror on nearly all that cross his path. The film's gray and navy mise-en-scene is filled with chilly, vacant streets, hard-edged skyscrapers and cold interiors flecked with the latest technological gadgets and designer flourishes. Mary Harron's camera glides through these spaces with the undisturbed detachment of a shark. Bale is a razor sharp Bateman whose cool, predatory grace is only matched by the equally indifferent corporate world in which he lives. Even during its most hideous scene, when a naked, chain-saw-toting Bateman goes on a screaming rampage, AMERICAN PSYCHO manages to project a cold indifference that has terrifying undertones. Harron's film is a frightening denunciation of a consumer culture gone amuck with greed, materialism and a lack of nearly any charity whatsoever.
Released theatrically April 14, 2000
Filmed in New York City and Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Leonardo DiCaprio, an early consideration for the role of Patrick Bateman, decided to star in THE BEACH instead.
To clean the movie up and acheive a relatively mild R-rating, the producers excised approximately eighteen seconds of footage from a menage-a-trois scene featuring an emotionally detached Patrick Bateman and two women (one of whom was co-writer Guinevere Turner).
The song "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina & The Waves, which runs during the establishing shots of New York City and Wall Street, makes an ironic reference to Michael J. Fox's THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS, which also features the song.
While working out, Patrick Bateman watches Tobe Hooper's TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Several scenes later he pursues a victim with a chainsaw.
Huey Lewis, objecting to the violence of AMERICAN PSYCHO, insisted producers remove his song "Hip To Be Square" from the official soundtrack album.
UMD Features:
Note: This release is in the UMD format for Sony PSP players only.
Widescreen
Audio:
Stereo - English
Additional Release Material:
Alternate Scenes - Deleted Scenes
Director of Photography
Andrzej Sekula: Director of Photography
Production Designer
Gideon Ponte: Production Designer
Source Writer
Bret Easton Ellis: Writer
Costume Designer
Isis Mussenden: Costume Designer
Review 1:
"...Dead-on, kitsch-free period detail and a wonderfully agitated performance by Bale..." -- 3 out of 5 stars - A Satisfying Rental
Source: Premiere
p.88 10/01/2000
Review 2:
"...A satire of conspicuous consumption..."
Source: Variety
p.34 1/31-2/6/2000
Review 3:
"...A mordantly funny and agreeably blatant satire with genuinely subversive bite..."
Source: Film Comment
p.72 03/01/2000
Review 4:
"...An ingenious adaptation....Excellent direction and a set of self-effacing performances..."
Source: Sight and Sound
p.42 05/01/2000
Review 5:
"...AMERICAN PSYCHO is really brilliant in the way it takes the viewer inside Bateman's world..." -- 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Box Office
p.218 04/01/2000
Review 6:
"[D]irector Mary Harron impressively mines the dark social comedy from this scathing satire of the 1980s."
Source: Entertainment Weekly
p.148 06/24/2005
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