It is not about what really happened.
It is about sickness, and he won’t stop imagining. What is depressing is in that situation, people won’t care, very possible they don’t think a coward like him would actually commit it. AND this is a fantasy that shared in everyone’s head. Like a sex fetish, real or just boast, that they talk over bar table. Soaking in that situation makes people imagine in that way.
Don’t blame everything on society, and end a discussion, please.
The comparison over ID cards trifles plots have little to do with the murder imagination, the function, apart from being funny and make a joke, is to show how insignificant those things are and how significant in his eye ( as most of the time, the movie follows the first-person narrative, we can only sure that it represents his perspective, not the world’s, not the people’s that around him, not the society. They have their own independent identities, they could have influence on them, but the point is not here. Tlhe point is, he is sick, he can’t tell the line between reality and illusion. The other things can only be guesses.) That’s explained how grumpy and infuriate and weak he could be when he was underestimated, overlooked or being looked down upon.
So it is very possible that in the former part of story of his own(we don’t even sure what his name is), his image is beautified.( or this might be the outer image?)
1. Cleaning mask every day. Rich people (actually any reasonable people with minimum knowledge about skincare) would not wash their face with that harmful routine everyday.
2. The first restaurant scene says they can’t get the Dorsia because they fucked up with manager. But actually, they just can’t get in, not whenever they want.
Then what might be the true image of the man?
The lawyer said: “Bateman is such a dork, such a boring, spineless, lightweight...”
This somehow connected to the things he did: make useless speech, comments on pop music, seems did nothing apart from seeing filthy movies and drugs, his work is not needed. Therefore, in his illusion, killing might be explained as a way to show he gets balls, his masculine, to pay attention to outfit to avoid boring, to workout and do skincare in a strict but silly way to avoid those comments. And Paul could be the Inner refection of a higher version of himself.
There are some other details. (Just for record.):
1. The bad words against female bartender is “said” by the person in the mirror, and she obviously had no reaction to this.
2. The empty speech of general social concern just...
4. Is Dorsia the same as Barcadia?
5. Bryce or Paul?
6. The bottle on the table, says “prescribed by physician”
7. Listening to pop and rock music but don’t actually want to show it. Make hookers listen, make Allen listen. But afraid to be watched by detective, and denied he likes it later.
8. The chasing scene, the man seems confused when his gun just blowed a car. And get frustrated.
Basically, the world in the film, follows the logic that created by him, which is no logic, just make sure you are perfect, intelligent, gentlemen outside and beast inside. When he commits something, there is no existence of aftermath, evidence or anything, things just happened, no police would do research for the missing prostitutions, the models have no family, no one deals with the blood that painted on the floor, the spiral stairs, the carpets. No complaints from neighbors, no calls from security, or taxi drivers. Even the rain coat part never considered if he took out so quick, the blood would eventually stain the expensive suit, which should be unacceptable to him. And he can find the colleague’s house without even asking. And come when he wants, disappear when he wants. When a problem come, cover it up with another thing.
When the illusion exploded, and story can’t went on, he chose to start another dream, built a upper self, an utterly bastard, and accept the fact that the outworld views him as a rat, which makes his sickness worse and illusion lasts longer.
About the name, maybe it comes from former fantasies, like story plots rumbles together. Just guess...
The sad thing is the man seems helpless in that situation, no one tells him that he need treatment, or force him to face himself, continuously. He has no way out, until the boundary between reality and illusion blurred into the situation that he actually does things harmful, (maybe he has done it already) (no difference now though), until he is put into prison and finally get chance to cure himself. But lacking the continuous care, the result is still far from positive.
P.S. the scene when the gay kisses his leather glove just LMAF. From some point the movie is quiet interesting.
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有说读了原作就知道没有什么ambiguity。可能会有将部分事实扩张扭曲的部分，但扭曲的空间不大。也有一些角度说，男主确实杀了人，但是因为大家都太像了，根本记不住名字，杀的Paul不是真的Paul。
那样想表现的就是另一些东西了。
- 同质化，失去个人的独特性。这样这些混乱的名字是另一种解释了。
- 金钱世界里的虚荣心和利己心。事不关己高高挂起。其实要讲利己心的话，其实就没有什么可以阻止侵害事件的发生了。
- 精神虚无、思想空洞、生活堕落、道德界限模糊。
都是现在越来越明显的问题。泡沫涨大是要破的，脚踏实地才行啊。
从这些角度来讲，显然也更具有现实意义。
不过还是认为电影是一个独立的作品，应该有它自己独立的意义。对故事的模糊化处理可以是观影趣味性上的增加，虽然少了一些严肃和深刻，但是可以引导人去思考这些问题，去认真读这些书。
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做个记录：
Defined by consumerism, living in the language of AD and driven forward by consumption.
Yuppie culture
The melting of identity
The craving to stand out from a superficial homogenized society.
Inflated ego and evident psychosis as well as presumably multiple mental illness, from narcissistic personality disorder to borderline personality disorder.
Aestheticized elaboration in partial truth
The movie absurdity is that within his society, Bateman is not the psycho at all. He is just one more normal guy amidst a horde of uncaring detached from reality secretly discontented American psychos.
Immersed in the hedonism and greed of 1980s New York Yuppie culture, Bateman is surrounded by like-minded superficial people obsessed with all the wrong things, like making impossible reservations and tasteful thickness of their business cards.
Within homogenized upper-class elite, identities blur as everyone strives after a generic yet highly specific image of success.
Although the Bateman tries like the rest to fit in, the emptiness of his lifestyle also feels a craving to stand out, in order to escape the conformity that on some level he despises. Bateman leads a second life as a killer where he is unfettered from the society. Although he actually wants to be seen as a murderer, as someone different from the rest of the society. Bateman is denied even the satisfaction by every self-absorbed yuppie he meets, who ignored his confession, or thinks he is joking.
Nobody comes running when hear a chainsaw in the stairwell, they are actually too self-involved to care. When he is seeing a stuffing body in the car, the witness is only interested in the brand.
The final scene contains homage to NO EXIT, play about three people trapped in a room that is reveal to be hell. At the end of No Exit, the characters have the freedom to leave the room, but they can’t bring themselves to do it, they are too obsessed with how the others perceive them. Likewise, in American Psycho, Bateman achieves no catharsis, he is trapped in his own personal hell, because he requires the recognition of the other yuppies to confirm his identity as a murderer. The irony is, the Bateman’s real crimes may as well be fantasy. The lack of acknowledging of his reality drives Bateman further into madness and existential despair.
His confession has meant nothing.
Both the film and the novel with the ambiguity asking us to examine our own distorted points of view or detachments from deeper reality. Like Patrick Bateman we maybe trapped, craving the approval of others and denying ourselves the ability to distinguish fantasies from our reality.
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独立思考！
多读点书！
正片
