Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind....Apparently

I have a confession to make. I love 'Psycho killer' based movies! Movies which explore the minds of such people appeal to me because their creation involves a lot of thinking. I am fascinated by such portrayals.Simply because,it puzzles me as to how people end up that way. The fact that such movies dissect the psychology (the good ones) of such people makes them very interesting . The catch being that the person doesn't exist ( in most cases) and the director has to sketch the character's nature , the stimulus for his actions and a behavioral pattern.That is a LOT of creativity.


And the best that i have seen is AMERICAN PSYCHO. It has Chrisitan Bale (Batman) playing the role of Patrick Bateman , a Vice President in a large company. Patrick assaults women brutally, sometimes eats them and occasionally skins them and hang their corpses in his wardrobe.He goes around the city killing poor people on the streets because they are unsuccessful and are not like him,people who use oppurtunites to make things happen for themselves.Clearly he has an obsessive-compulsive disorder.That all men have to be succesful . He believes that people who aren't successful are inferior and deserve no place in the society.Also he says '..I believe in taking care of myself ' and goes on to explain his meticulously planned schedule for ensuring that his body is perfect.A narcissist . He watches disturbing videos all day and it fuels his hate for people.Women initially fall prey for his money and looks , eventually to his wrath.Even the slightest disrespect will drive the animal into murder.His anger knows no bounds.He is disturbed and angered by the fact that the world isn't perfect. Not all of us are 'successful' and 'beautiful' by Patrick's definition.The pain he goes through seeing the world as it is from his perspective drives him into doing the things he does. And being rich and powerful he gets away.

Why i like the movie? It is complete and coherent and is not one of those movies which has blood pouring all around for no apparent reason.

And i suggest you Don't Watch it.

Why?

I recently suggested to a very good friend that she watch the movie and tell me if she liked it and that i found it very interesting. Half-way through the movie she called me up and yelled at me for being a 'sick' SOB!!! She felt that the movie was obscene,explicit and filled with violence and could not stand the fact that i like it.She said that if i continue watching such movies,eventually there'll be a movie on me! The hope is that she reads this and changes her opinion about both the American and the Indian psycho.


We saw the same movie, but we didn't.