Patrick Bateman

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Patrick Bateman is een fictief karakter en hoofdpersoon in het boek American Psycho van Bret Easton Ellis uit 1991.

Patrick Bateman is een stereotype yup uit de jaren '80 en werkt op Wall Street voor een enorm salaris. Hij vult zijn dagen met het in optimale conditie houden van zijn lichaam, vergaderingen waar het belangrijkste topic het ontwerp van de nieuwe visite kaartjes is en power lunches in exclusieve etablissementen. De andere zijde van zijn personage is echter dat van een wrede moordenaar en verkrachter met extreem gewelddadige fantasieën. In American Psycho worden al zijn verkrachtingen, moorden en kannibalisme tot in detail beschreven.

Het boek van Bret Easton Ellis werd in 2000 verfilmd met Christian Bale in de rol van Bateman.

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Op zondag 1 februari 2009 10:37 schreef LostFormat het volgende:
Boek jaren terug gelezen. Maar als ik het me goed herinner, komt er nergens echt aan bod wat voor werk hij nu precies doet. Hij zit idd in dat wallstreet wereldje maar echt duidelijk wordt het nooit. Het plastische en het uiterlijke zijn veel belangrijker. Dat stuk met die visitekaartjes is echt briljant. Zijn wereld stort echt in omdat de ander net een mooier lettertype heeft.

IJzersterk boek.

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Bateman outside of American Psycho
Bateman made his first appearance in Ellis' 1987 novel The Rules of Attraction (in which Sean, his brother, is the main character); no indication is given that he is a serial killer. Bateman also makes a short appearance in Ellis' 1998 novel Glamorama, with "strange stains" on the lapel of his Armani suit.

Bateman also appeared in the American Psycho 2000 e-mails (transcribed here), which were written as an advertisement campaign for the movie. Although they are often mistakenly credited to Ellis, they were actually written by one or more unnamed author(s) and approved by Ellis before being sent out. American Psycho 2000 served as a sort of "e-quel" to the original novel. The e-mails take place in 2000, a little over a decade since the novel. Bateman is in therapy with a Dr. M. He is also married to Jean, his former secretary. They have a son, Patrick Bateman Jr. (P.B.), who is eight years old. In the story, Bateman talks about therapy, trying to get a divorce from Jean, his renewed feelings about murder, and idolizing his son. In the end it is revealed that the 'real' Bateman who 'writes' the e-mails, is the owner of the company that produces the movie.

Bateman appeared in Ellis' 2005 novel Lunar Park, in which Ellis confesses that writing American Psycho felt like channeling the words of a violent spirit rather than writing anything himself. This ghost — Bateman — haunts Ellis' McMansion. A character also comes to Ellis' Halloween party dressed as Patrick Bateman. Toward the novel's end, Ellis writes the 'last' Bateman story as a way of confronting and controlling the character, as well as the issues Ellis created Bateman as a means of countering. Bateman, for all intents and purposes, dies in a fire on a boat dock.

Patrick Bateman briefly appears in the Anno Dracula story "Andy Warhol's Dracula: Anno Dracula 1978-1979".

Most recently, "Patrick Bateman M.D." was used as an alias by Dexter Morgan, the protagonist of Showtime's Dexter, whenever he had to order the strong animal tranquilizer he uses in his murders. According to Dexter, the reason for choosing the name was because it sounded, "So wholesome, so inconspicuous".

Patrick Bateman was credited as a character in the 2006 film Broken directed by Simon Boyes and Adam Mason, but the character never actually appeared in the movie. During the directors' audio commentary, Boyes and Mason state that they had simply made up many of the ending credits for their own amusement, and the Bateman credit was one of them.


[edit] Bateman in film
Though Bale had been the first choice for the part by both Ellis and Harron, the producers offered the part to Keanu Reeves, Edward Norton, and Brad Pitt. Leonardo DiCaprio was set to play the character, but dropped out of the film. Bateman was also portrayed by Dechen Thurman (brother of Uma) in the 2000 documentary This Is Not an Exit: The Fictional World of Bret Easton Ellis. Michael Kremko played Bateman in the spin-off American Psycho 2, in which the character is killed by a would-be victim.

Scenes with the character were shot for the 2002 film adaptation of The Rules of Attraction. Ellis revealed in an interview that director Roger Avary asked Bale to reprise the role, but Bale turned down the offer, and Avary asked Ellis himself to portray Bateman. Ellis refused, stating that he "thought it was such a terrible and gimmicky idea", and Avary eventually shot the scenes with Casper Van Dien. The scenes, however, were ultimately cut from the final version of the film.

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Op zondag 1 februari 2009 12:10 schreef Registratiedienst het volgende:

[..]

Ik houd niet van psychopaten.

Nee, zijn fysieke verschijning is heerlijk. .

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Op zondag 1 februari 2009 13:27 schreef Bullebak het volgende:
Gruwelijk boek. Verfilming is erg slecht