© 2008 William Ahearn
It took me three tries to read Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 novel American Psycho before I could finally slip into the text. When I finally did read it, I realized that it might be one of the finest satires ever produced by an American writer. Whether it is satire or not is hotly debated among some people but to me those questions were settled by just reading the novel.
The book has a strange history. Simon & Schuster backed out of publishing it when some people involved with the project objected to the content. Vintage Books bought it and published it in what may or may not be a rewritten version. There was a great deal of controversy when the book finally hit the streets and much of it focused on the violence toward women that occupies much of the last two thirds of the novel.
Let’s be clear here: American Psycho is strong stuff. That’s what makes the satire so brilliant. What I find oddly disturbing here is that Ellis did his research and Patrick Bateman, the psycho of the title, creates fantasies based on the depraved acts of Ted Bundy, Ed Gein, Henry Lee Lucas and others. To study some serial killers is to see misogyny for what it is. Joel Rifkin, Gary Leon Ridgway, and Albert DeSalvo are perfect examples.
When I heard that Mary Harron was going to direct the film, I knew I was going to see it. Harron directed “I Shot Andy Warhol” and it has an amazing performance by Lili Taylor as Valerie Jean Solanas. It’s a really good indie period piece of 1960’s New York City and the emerging so-called underground.
“American Psycho” is a disturbing and violent film that couldn’t possibly convey the satire of the novel and one has to admire Harron’s ambition in trying to bring it to the screen. Ellis – in his resistance to watering down the material – left Harron with little room to move as Bateman’s fantasies overwhelm the narrative. Even so, it’s a fascinating look inside a psychically damaged Wall Street nobody who has Walter Mitty hanging on meat hooks in the closet next to the Armani suits.