Press
Last Update
- June 21th, 2003
Misogynist
Menace
Matthew Cowen, George Magazine, April 2000
Christian
Bale stars as Patrick Bateman in 'American Psycho, based on one
of the most hated books of the last decade. Its gory depictions
of women are sure to provoke protests.
Nearly a decade
after its depictions of violence against women left both feminists
and family-values conservatives raving mad, 'American Psycho'
is back. For presidential candidates on the lookout for the next
moral outrage, the arrival of Bret Easton Ellis's gore-soaked
bestseller to the big screen this month couldn't be better timed.
But Christian Bale, who stars as the '80s Wall Street serial killer
Patrick Bateman, says the films foes--of which there are many--are
missing the point. "It's not a deep, analytical look at a
serial killer," says the Welsh-born 25-year-old. "Bateman's
the product of an era when there was no regard for individuals.
This movie takes it to farcical proportions."
The literary
community wasn't chuckling when 'American Psycho' first surfaced
in 1991. Simon & Schuster hastily dumped Ellis's manuscript
after gruesome details such as Bateman's penchant for eating life
rats were leaked to the press. But another publisher, Knopf, picked
up the book. Then, when the National Organization for Women threatened
to boycott bookstores that carried the novel, and critics universally
branded Ellis as depraved and irresponsible, the extended publicity
drove the book onto the best-seller list.
Bale hopes
that his performance in the Lions Gate film will defuse protests
this time. "Seeing the story on-screen helps you see the
humour properly," he says. "Maybe that's because the
director, Mary Harron, is a woman."
Good luck.
Feminist activists argue that Harron isn't redeeming a misunderstood
novel, but, rather, betraying her sex. "I think they were
hoping they would get a pass from the feminist community if they
had a woman do the film," says Eleanor Smeal, president of
the Feminist Majority Foundation. "There are no redeeming
qualities to a misogynist product like this. You never know the
impact of a film like this could have. It could stimulate similar
behaviour with real women victims."
Bateman isn't
sexist, says Lions Gate co-president Mark Urman: He's an "equal
opportunity killer," who wields his ax and electric chain
saw on 18 men and women, including Wall Street yuppies, starving
prostitutes, helpless old ladies, and naive debutantes. "He's
repulsive, but that doesn't mean 'American Psycho' is a celebration
of misogyny or violence," says Bale. "Bateman is such
a dork that I can't imagine that anyone would want to copycat
him. The real message of the movie is that it's men who stink,
not women."
Whether 'American
Psycho' is merely a disturbing sadism romp or a surreal critique
of Ronald Reagan's America, the movie is sure to provoke lusty
memories of bad pop music, platinum credit cards, and self-indulgent,
coke-filled nights. "It shows how the practitioners of that
time had no regard for humanity," Bale says. "The 1980s
were a celebration of pure profit and capitalism without any regard
to spiritualism whatsoever. And a lot of the people think we're
going back to that now." That's something that the films
critics and defenders can get really scared about.
Source - The
Bale Collection