Where Art Never Dies

Hollywood enjoys sexualizing women. This undeniable fact stems from the common use of the male gaze, deeming it much more dominant in terms of camera editing, female placement, and ultimately, the viewers’ gaze. In her essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Laura Mulvey, film theorist, argues for the inclusion of the female gaze in film and analyzes the use of the opposite as a form of propaganda used to establish the male gaze as the preferred gaze. Money is made when people believe what they see if how it should be. The film American Psycho exaggerates the idea of the male gaze and implements it into the realm of a psycho- maniac working in business, who feels nothing but the need to fit in and, to do so, must engage in murder and horrific sexualizations of women. Director Marry Harron exemplifies the effects of societal expectations and gender roles in film through Patrick Bateman, establishing the viewer in his gaze while he struggles to conform to his male dominated field. Her satirical psychological horror film engages the classic Hollywood male gaze in conjunction with an unreliable narrator through multiple mirror shots, his engagement with women, and obsession with porn, to insinuate the pressure for men to assimilate to the male gaze in bourgeois society. In this essay, I will expose the director’s use of the male gaze through reflection scenes and his personal interactions before proving why Harron’s film fights back against the male-dominated field of cinema.

To emphasize Bateman’s desire to conform into society and the point that evil is made not created, Harron almost explicitly states the falsity of film and business in Patrick’s skincare routine scene. After a rigorously detailed walkthrough of the main character’s typical morning, the camera flips to an indirectly reflective shot of Bateman taking off a facial mask, in which the viewer does not see the mirror but may assume based on the backwards angle in comparison to the previous ones. He looks straight ahead yet the camera is not directly in front of him; instead, slightly to the left and zoomed in, eliminating the physicality of a mirror while maintaining its effects. In this moment, the narration states, “there is an idea of Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me, only an entity. Something illusory….I simply am not there” (American Psycho, 6:40- 6:52). Bateman is inherently aware of his falsity and works to maintain the persona of a wealthy, self-care-oriented man solely to trick those he interacts with. He describes himself as not really there, which brings into question in which realm he is referring to. In reality, the character is not really there because he is fictional, being played by a real person – Christian Bale; in the reality of the film, he refers to a façade he creates with this routine to become a corporate businessman and to become Patrick Bateman. Harron thus establishes a falsity in film –through the absence and presence of a mirror– and the main character as inherently unreliable as one searching for every possible way to be create a façade of normality.

Furthermore, Harron provides no information about his family – no father, mother, or siblings of any kind, illustrating a chilling character that seems to have been simply placed into the world, Valentino suit and all. He has no connection to a father, yet still experiences a fear of castration, as seen later on. He even describes himself as “and though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable” (American Psycho, 00:7:01) in the same sequence as previously discussed. He engages in a rigorous routine because he is trying to create a person that would fit in without question, much like how men are expected to fit into a certain mold to be considered ‘normal’ in today’s society. Normal being a superficial businessman, obsessed with entertaining women at restaurants like Dorsia and creating the best business card to impress his coworkers.

By utilizing multiple mirror or reflective shots alongside a verbally offensive narration towards one woman, Harron establishes women as objects in the male gaze as well as introduces the threat of castration they pose to men. At the beginning of the movie, Bateman buys a drink from a female bartender, who upsets him by only accepting cash. Using a close frame shot and including the image of Bateman through a mirror reflection, the camera captures his violent reaction. To her back, he yells “you’re a fucking ugly bitch. I want to stab you to death and play in your blood” (American Psycho, 4:30) but goes unheard and thus experiences no consequences. This moment establishes that he, as a man, may treat women poorly and not be reprimanded because it is the norm and expectation. His gaze is fixated on the female bartender, yet the viewer sees him through a mirror.

However, there is also a possibility that Bateman gazes at himself in this scene. His eyes are so nearly close to the camera that, should he choose to look at himself, he would break the fourth wall. Instead, Harron places a woman there, allowing for a gap of confusion on who his aggression is directed at – himself or the bartender. Mulvey states that women “symbolize the castration threat by her real lack of a penis” (Mulvey 14). With this being said, Bateman’s aggression towards another in this scene is twofold: his anger at the female bartender’s threat of castration and himself for feeling that fear. His aggressive response towards the woman’s lack of submission shows a very loose grip of his power of her; because she is in control of the money she takes and the beverage she provides, she then holds power of him.

The main character’s obsession with porn and male-dominated heterosexual sex illustrates his desperate desire to place women in the symbolic order, which is also reflected in his urge to kill them. At multiple points throughout the movie, Bateman is shown watching porn. In turn his engagement with it feeds his need to conform which then translates to his desire to kill after having sex. He sees pain as pleasure and a way of establishing dominance over a woman. In her essay, Mulvey describes women as “bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out fantasies and obsessions” (Mulvey, 15). Bateman’s persistence to belong and his addiction to porn heavily affect how he views women, which becomes obvious when he begins to kill every woman he sleeps with. By killing them, he may live out those fantasies with zero repercussions because his victims are dead.

One scene especially captures this obsession. Bateman invites two sex workers over for the night and sets up a camera to record the intercourse, an intentional reflection of porn. Throughout the night, he encourages them and even forces them to “look at the camera” and watches himself in the mirror during the act rather than the woman (American Psycho, 44:33). This indicates his desire to feel emasculated and the need to do so by having sex in a setting where he is in complete control. He directs, physically moves, and ultimately harms these women. The camera focuses on another reflection shot in which Bateman continues to perform intercourse while gazing at himself in the mirror. He avoids direct eye contact with the women, insinuating an unconscious understanding of their castration. Furthermore, the duality of being filmed by a false camera and looking at himself in the mirror reflects his need for validation. He watches only himself, flexing and showing off his body, not to the women he entertains but to himself. By asserting his dominance and placing himself in a position of power of these women, Bateman submerses himself in a state of euphoria, self-inflicted and self-centered. He proves to be narcissistic and in search of a way to look as manly as he can. Harron uses this scene to illustrate the main character’s struggle to maintain his self-created identity and avoid the inevitable realization that women in the symbolic order are a castrated version of men and therefore have the ability to overtake him as well.

In his psychotic break towards the end of the movie, Bateman’s gaze becomes disheveled, unreliable, and terrified, especially in relation to the women he encounters, marking this scenes as his turning point. The two-minute scene exposes how his character turns towards an unreliable narration through the absurd and unrealistic actions he commits and experiences; even Bateman becomes shocked at the absurdity. At an hour and 18 minutes, an orchestral and suspenseful song plays as he pulls out a gun and points it at a kitten before ultimately shooting an old woman who interferes. The music becomes more intense as the scene continues when he sets off multiple car alarms and runs from the ever-growing police sirens, creating an overwhelming auditory experience for the viewer. A shoot off occurs between him and the police in which he blows up two police cars with his handgun, a feat very obviously unrealistic. In this moment, Bateman’s gaze shifts from malicious to one of awe and confusion as he looks at the fire and furrows his brows then to the gun in his hand with a turn-downed frown and a harsh expression. The music stops, momentarily. (American Psycho, 1:18:00 – 1:20:09). The chaotic auditory, outlandish shoot off, and Bateman’s own confusion insinuates a false reality occurring. By allowing the main character to become hyperaware of this insanity also allows the viewer to as well and thus puts the rest of the film into question. Is what we are seeing real or figment of Bateman’s imagination?

At the end of the film, Bateman’s gaze shifts from a domination driven view on women to one of fear. The main character becomes a genuine serial killer and confesses to his murders but the next day, it was as if the events before never even happened. In an attempt to clean up his mess, Bateman goes to one of his victim’s apartments but is confronted by an elderly female realtor who encourages him to leave with no further explanation. Bateman looks at her with furrowed brows and an open mouth as if stressed and confused while she looks back, head raised high and eyes relaxed. She does not fear him. She enters a veil of shadows as he leaves into the light, establishing herself as the dark one, not him, and maintains an unbreakable eye contact even when he purposefully avoids it. He leaves with his hands raised and eyes towards the floor, backing up as if afraid she might hurt him if he put his guard down (American Psycho, 1:27:28 – 1:27:39). This is the first time his gaze is visibly and irrevocably changed. He fears this woman, not the other way around. By shifting the sense of power, Bateman is forced to face his fear of castration in a woman who, is an “active controller of the look” and “always threaten to evoke the anxiety it originally signified” (Mulvey 21). At this point, Harron replaces the typical, power gender in Hollywood with women, a radical move considering the constant deprecation of women throughout the movie. The dominating gaze Bateman worked so hard to maintain was taken and used against him by this mysterious woman. The director makes it clear that women were always in control of how they were perceived and chose a singular moment to take that power back.

Being perceived by someone he felt power over, completely derailed the sense of self- identity he was trying to create and shows the viewers, and ultimately himself, the wholes in his seemingly impenetrable facade. The concept triggers this question: did the other women know as well? By looking back on one particular sex worker, we may see the answer proves to be yes.

Christie, one of the women involved in the filmed threesome previously described, saw both of Bateman’s sides, the professional, charming façade and the violent, perversive person he truly is. In her first sexual encounter with him, she leaves bruised and beaten yet her need for money overtakes her sense of safety and she returns the next time he asks (American Psycho, 1:07:30). He uses the only power he has left after hurting her: money. It is in this second interaction that Christie sees Bateman’s persona fall, but unfortunately dies anyway. When she gets into his limo, he attempts to charm her, which doesn’t work so he reverts to giving her a large sum of money. She takes it and gets out of the vehicle, obviously determined not to fall for his tricks once more but comes back for even more money. The camera cuts to capture only her from the perspective of Bateman. We see only his arm outstretched with a wad of cash but no other part of his body, as if to place the viewer as Bateman. She looks directly at the camera with sad, downturned eyes and fall shoulders, looking the epitome of a defeated woman (American Psycho, 1:08:30). In doing so, Harron implements a feeling of guilt and exposes how women are treated systematically.

From his perspective, Bateman, wields power over this sex worker, whether that be physically, emotionally, or monetarily and she has no other choice but to succumb. He views Christie’s decision to enter his vehicle as the ultimate act of submission to his unyielding power. In terms of society at this point, an unemployed woman, bogged down by the lack of resources and opportunities, becomes a sex worker, a job centered around men using her body for their pleasure. However, from Christie’s perspective, his power stems from society’s degradation towards women and unequitable structure that advantages men. She sees his sexual desire masked by money and charm but is left with no seemingly reasonable alternative to escape.

The original book American Psycho was created by Bret Easton Ellis, a man, yet adapted into a film directed by a woman, establishing an interesting perspective on the male versus female nature of the story and brings to question how director, Mary Harron’s, influence truly affected how viewers interpret Patrick Bateman. When he released his controversial book, critics described it as “a contemptible piece of pornography, the literary equivalent of a snuff flick” (Yardley, Washington Post). As previously described, the story does contain many depictions of pornography and establishes Bateman as an egotistical, murderous, and misogynistic businessman, solely focused on using women for his pleasure and convincing himself of his normality through it. Even in the film, Harron’s portrayal of Bateman met all those same marks, but with a little more nuance. Women in the book were not given any credit for the change that affected his revelation at the end while the film incorporated a sense of rebellion and strength that ultimately pushed Bateman over the edge of sanity and insanity. The female gaze consists of more than simply pornography. It consists of seeing women respected, strong, and confident. By ending the film with Bateman being afraid of a woman, Mary Harron replaces the male gaze with a female one.

Both the film and book created controversy throughout their viewers particularly regarding the sense of antifeminism present. Yet, Ellis is described to have seemed “to have enjoyed his labors every bit as much as Bateman does his murders, decapitations, disembowelments, and other amusements” (Yardely, Washingotn Post). By incorporating his own misogynistic perspective into the character, Patrick Bateman formed out of Ellis and echoed the mind of a real man. There was no effort to allow women a place beyond sex or murder for the male author and that sentiment reflected well into the main characte. However, in this essay, I argue that Mary Harron’s version of the story portrays feminism, not explicitly, but through the women who persevered.

The critics for her film responded slightly more positively in the realm of feminism but harshly regarding the violence depicted. The Guardian states that the screen version came from “two women [who] helped short-circuit the charges of misogyny that dogged the book so persistently” (Scott Tobias, The Guardian), the second woman being Harron’s co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner. Her version clarified Ellis’ crude portrayal of women and gave them characters with voices, emotions, and strength, by utilizing not just their bodies but some positions of power women have in reality – entrepreneurs, sales workers, receptionists, sex workers. While these occupations seem typical and sexist, these are the places where men see, or saw, women the most, and therefore fit well into the misogynic narrative of American Psycho. Harron expertly took those degrading implications and turned them into women who take the small amounts of power they have and use it to their advantage, seen especially through the female bartender at the beginning of the movie and the female realtor at the end.

Christian Bale embodied a character void of naturalism and hellbent on committing multiple accounts of murder. Mary Harron herself spoke on the controversy of the movie in her article in The New York Times, where some compared the violence to the shooting at Columbine High School that had occurred shortly before its release and the raging protestors horrified at the depictions of male violence against women. In response, she said “I began to see ‘American Psycho’ as a scenario of female terror, with Patrick Bateman being the date from hell” and “movies, after all, express not just our communal dreams but also our communal nightmares” (Mary Harron, The New York Times). Harron executed this nightmarish date from hell perfectly with her perspective as a woman and ended it with a power play between two sexes.

American Psycho may be seen as a film encapsulating the horrific treatment of men towards women and its benefits for men. In reality, it illustrates the pressure for men to conform to that expectation and the powers of women to switch that power play in their favor. Patrick Bateman, businessman and murderer, sees women as objects that are helpful in emphasizing and reaffirming his own masculinity identity, which he carefully forms and cultivates in order to fit in. Director Mary Harron makes this abundantly clear by using multiple mirror or reflective shots and including varying interactions with women, displaying the change over time in his mind and gaze. His fear of not fitting in becomes replaced with one of castration, which becomes more clear with the analysis of Laura Mulvey in her essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. She explains that pleasure scenes in cinema almost always are captured from the view of the man objectifying the woman. She also exposes Hollywood’s use of said scenes to indoctrinate society with the precedent of male domination, which, in this case, fails with Bateman’s realization of his fear for castration and female power.

By exposing Bateman’s unreliable character and placing him in a position of fear of women, Harron shows the extensive female intelligence that may see far beyond the facades typical businessmen wish to portray. She also exposes society’s brutal treatment of women and the biased nature towards helping men through Christie, the sex worker, and all the other women Bateman murders. While the film started off in the male gaze, it ended in a female one.