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Murders and Acquisitions

Sofia Mercier, Author

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A Close Reading of American Psycho



American Psycho (2000) is a film by Mary Harron about a young Wall Street investment banker, Patrick Bateman, with homicidal tendencies. Throughout the film, Bateman’s mask of sanity slips off, finally revealing his psychotic nature to his coworkers. In one scene of the film, an acquaintance mistakes Bateman for another associate. Bateman goes along with it and thinks to himself, “Allen has mistaken me for this dickhead Marcus Halberstam. It seems logical because Marcus also works at P&P and in fact does the same exact thing I do and he also has a penchant for Valentino suits and Oliver Peoples glasses. Marcus and I even go to the same barber, although I have a slightly better haircut.” They have a superficial conversation about work, then another man in the room asks Allen to play squash on Friday. Allen hands him a business card, but turns him down because he has a reservation at an exclusive restaurant. There’s a closeup of Bateman’s face tinged with hatred and jealousy as he watches Allen leave the room. Then, Bateman pulls out his new business card to show to his acquaintances. There is a closeup on the metallic card holder as Bateman flips it open, making a sound that resembles a sword being pulled from its scabbard. He pushes it across the table and there is a closeup of the average-looking business card. His similar-looking coworkers lean forward to look at it. Bateman describes the design, “that’s bone. And the lettering is something called Silian Rail.” A coworker wearing the same glasses says, “that’s nothing. Take a look at this,” and places his new business card next to Bateman’s on the table. There is a tight close-up of the two cards. They are indistinguishable to each other. “Eggshell with Romalian type.” Bateman says “nice”, but looks uncomfortable. Another coworker says, “that’s really super. How’d a nitwit like you get so tasteful?” Bateman noticeably starts to sweat, holds his fist up to his mouth, grimaces, glares across the table, and thinks to himself, “I can’t believe that Bryce prefers Van Patten’s card to mine.” The third coworker pulls out his cardholder, opens it with another slicing sound, and sets down his new card. There’s a closeup of the singular card. Again, it is practically identical to the others, but is detailed with “raised lettering, pale nimbus. White.” Bateman says, “impressive, very nice,” but shakes his head and looks like he is going to be sick. At first glance, this is simply a scene in which the characters exchange business cards, however the mis-en-scene, dialogue, and editing reveal the underlying themes of superficiality and absurdity of capitalism and the business world. 

The mis-en-scene of this American Psycho scene shows the ridiculousness of the ego-driven workplace. The business cards shown represent their owner. They each think that theirs is better than the others, but in fact they all look the same. Each consists of dark lettering on a light background with their name in the middle and their title (Vice President) underneath, their phone number the top left, “Pierce and Pierce: Mergers and Acquisitions” top right, and the address on the bottom. At the beginning of this scene, Bateman is confused for another coworker, and even admits that it makes sense because of how similar they are. In fact, most of the men in the film look very similar to each other– white, round glasses, slicked back hair, and expensive suits. They conform to this ideal because they are shown by their peers that this is how they should display their wealth to the world. However, instead of distinguishing themselves, they all appear to be the same person with the same ambitions and refined tastes. They all want the same thing, and they all use the same tactics to get it. Bateman realizes that he is not getting ahead in the traditional way, so he resorts to murder in order to get rid of his competition. The mis-en-scene reveals how irrational and useless their ego-driven competition really is. 

In this scene of American Psycho, the dialogue between characters and Bateman’s interior monologue exhibits the arbitrary nature of competition in the business world. Bateman almost breaks down in the conference room because of each man’s attempt to one-up the other with their business card. Judging from Bateman’s reactions in this scene, the viewer would expect the group to be discussing more than small printed pieces of paper. When he looks at Paul Allen's card Bateman’s internal monologue states, “look at that subtle off-white coloring.. the tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark.” He gazes at the card intently, his hand shakes, and he drops the card. He clenches his fist, and stares at the table. The conversation as well as his inner monologue are comical in their complete gravity towards the subject of business cards. Bateman’s racing thoughts demonstrate how caught up he is in the minutiae of business life, and how pointless it really is. 
 
The editing in this scene of American Psycho reveals the unsavory intentions behind the seemingly average actions portrayed onscreen. In this scene, barely any action takes place; on the surface, it is simply a few men sitting around a table showing their business cards. However, the editing makes the scene incredibly tense and elevates these arbitrary actions. The editing reveals that the characters are not merely examining business cards, but rather competing with each other. The closeups and metallic noises accompanying the drawing of each business card equates the cards to swords. Swords are a classic symbol for identity, manhood, and power, and here the business cards represent the same. Though these men all work at the same firm, they constantly compete with each other for work, women, and dinner reservations. Their business cards are their way to assert themselves and set them apart from each other. Therefore, this scene is actually a clash between the coworkers, each trying to establish their dominance by whipping out their cards. 

American Psycho is a social commentary about the superficiality and indecency of the capitalist workplace. The mis-en-scene, writing, and editing in the business card scene successfully demonstrate this theme to the viewer. These aspects elevate an everyday occurrence–trading business cards–and transform it into a ruthless, ego-driven competition, mirroring the cutthroat atmosphere of their firm and other firms like it. Patrick Bateman’s psychotic nature is a product of the insanity of capitalism and its byproducts.
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