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+--- Thread: American psycho - Book vs movie (/showthread.php?tid=1196)
- NaughtyAngel - 04-10-2002
i saw the movie first read the book second
i dont recommend this
when i read books i visualize whats going on and i already had visions in my head from the movie, it really ruined it
the book is so much better than the movie, too bad they didnt go into the detail in the movie that they did in the book, that wouldve been so cool
there are a few quotes that really caught my eye:
"there were four major air disasters this summer, the majority of them captured on video tape, almost as if these events had been planned, and repeated on televesion endlessly. the planes kept crashing in slow motion, followed by countless roaming shots of wreckage and the same random views of the burned, bloody carnage, weeping rescue workers retrieving body parts"
reminds me of sept 11 waay too much
"if i were to disappear into that crack, say somehow miniatureize and slip into it, the odd are good that no one would notice I was gone. No...one...would...care. In fact some, if they notice my absense, might feel an odd, indefinable sense of relief. This is true: the world is better off with some people gone. Some people trule do not need to be here."
- Spitfire - 04-10-2002
Book, definitely...I read it first and was totally disappointed with the movie...
The only problem with the book is that it drones on and on about what everyone was wearing, too much superficial description, although I know that was the point the book was trying to make about the 80's...
best scene in the book is the Habitrail scene with the rodents (rats?)
- NaughtyAngel - 04-10-2002
yup rats...
i dont like the whole chapters on whiteny houston and huey lewis
i think my fav scene is when he nailed his ex from college
during the whole book i wonder, what is so special about some girls that he doesnt kill and what is it about the people he does kill
he doesnt have to have a reason to kill who he kills, but there has to be a reason why he lets some live
- Galt - 04-10-2002
Movie was better.
The book was a lot more gorey and had some really good scenes there. So superficially that is something you really always enjoy. But as for telling a coherrent, always interesting, fast moving story, the movie has it all over the book.
The great thing about the movie is that the vast majority of the dialogue is taken verbatim from the book so it keeps the great dialogue which is the best part of both. But a lot of the constant describing of what everyone was wearing doesn't have to be said in the movie because you see him doing it.
While him explaining what people were wearing, and entire chapters on music shows the fact that he's a nut, there's just too much of it. I get the point. In the movie, they did it well. A couple scenes.
I think the movie worked better hinting at the violence than if they actually showed it all.
Christian Bale played the character perfect
- NaughtyAngel - 04-10-2002
i kinda missed the "is that a raincoat" line from the movie
- Maynard - 04-10-2002
Yeah Amy, so I should be gone. Did you have to remind me of that fact? {
} The book was fucking unbelievable. Every word in there I cherished. It was all about description, not only becasue of the time period, but because he was a nut.
The movie too was great, but for different reasons. The movie was very campy. I love that. Most people hated the movie because they didn't get it. Possibly because they didn't read the book?
My fav scene from the book has to be him giving his g/f the chocolate covered urinal cake. :roflmao:
Fav scene in movie might be the whole business card scene. That just described the 80's to a tee!
- IkeaBoy - 04-10-2002
"Why are there copies of the styles section on the floor Marcus? Do you have a dog? A Little chow or something"
'No Allen'
"Is that a raincoat?"
"Yes it is...He's been comapred to Elvis Costello but I feel huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor."
Personally, I think each the book and the movie have their own positive traits. I think the book gives us a better insight into Patrick, his insanity, his mindset and, as mentioned before, the gore. There are just some descriptions that would never work on film like near the end where we learn he keeps three vaginas in his gym locker with a blue ribbon from Le Cirque tied around his favorite. I also think the 'droning' enables the satire to work out better. I also like how it isn't until almost 100 pages in where we first see that he's a psychopathic killer. Sure there are a few hints (e.g. the child's raincoat with the chocolate stain in it in his closet early on) but there's never a definite example.
However I think the movie improved on a couple of things. A few of the scenes being combined and the places of the monologues in relation of placement works better in the movie than in the book. For example, I liked the placement of Patrick meeting his lawyer at Harry's soon after his phone call than the book where days seem to pass.
Interestingly enough, something I realized that was a change that kind of struck me as odd as in the book most of the characters names have to do with money and fianances and they were changed in the film (e.g. Price becomes Bryce, Owen becomes Allen).
- Arpikarhu - 04-10-2002
they both sucked. the book was an immature offering from a self-inflated author. the movie was just sensationalist trash.
- Cunt-Twat - 04-11-2002
i never read the book, but i think the movie ruled!
- Paper Boy - 04-12-2002
I never saw the movie, but i think the book ruled. I believe another one of his books is being made into a film Glamorama, i would definately give this one a read before seeing the movie.
- 2 tired 2 give N F - 04-12-2002
I saw the movie and this summer I plan on reading the book. But I have a question. What was with that ending? Because I didn't get it.
- IkeaBoy - 04-12-2002
Actually, the most recent Ellis book --> movie is Rules of Attraction which is coming out later this year. The book is very good and the movie's supposed to be fantastic.
- Sloatsburgh - 04-12-2002
There is no ending..... He is still there totally devoid of humanity, he has found no release.
The Movie set it up as all the killing was in his mind and that this "escape" was not an exit.
The book set things up that he was a murderer, but he was allowed to because he eliminated expendable, replacable and forgetable people. The fact that everyone of the businessmen looked exactly like each other, totally interchangable, made them devoid of any humanity. They lacked the most base human quality: uniqueness.
But as I grew up, I realized that BEE is calling the kettle black. He doesn't work, much like Bateman. He just goes out and parties with models and lives of off some money he received from his parents.
Oh, fuck, I have no clue what I was trying to say here............
My favorite part of the book was up to and including the disappearance of Price.
- Galt - 04-12-2002
There were parts in the book just like the movie where you think that maybe everything is just in his head too, but I forget them.
I think the whole thing with him going into Paul Owen's apartment happened in the book, as did the talking ATM machine.
- IkeaBoy - 04-12-2002
both the ATM scene and the going into Owen/Allen's apartment happened in the book. It was months after the disappearance and there was a new doorman at Owen/Allen's building that Patrick didn't recognize.
The movie made it seem, to me, that all the killings were real. Originally I thought they were all real up to the massive killing spree that one night but upon repeat viewings I accepted that they were all real. However I can view it as all the killings were in his mind.
Another weird thing I realized is that in the movie American Psycho (with the exception of Jean looking at his book), Patrick BAteman is in every single scene. I can't think of another movie like that.
- Arpikarhu - 04-12-2002
Quote:movie is Rules of Attraction which is coming out later this year. The book is very goodhow can you say that. the book is shallow and immature. it is a 200 page treatise to teen angst. oh, the poor rich college students who hate their parents. gimme a break. ellis wrote one interesting book and then tried to replicate it endlessly. he and jay mcinerny are probably locked in a room doing coke, listening to the Smiths and bemoaning how no one buys their books anymore
- Sloatsburgh - 04-12-2002
Quote:. he and jay mcinerny are probably locked in a room doing coke
Or laughing there asses of looking at old pictures of themselve with the models du jour of ten years ago....
- 2 tired 2 give N F - 04-13-2002
so in the book does the author let on weather it was in his head or not? cause in the movie I could have sworn it was all in his head after he dropped the chainsaw. I mean how many times do you drop a chainsaw 4 floors and it land right where you wanted it to?
- Hybrid - 04-13-2002
i never read the book, but i thought the movie was great.