The Representation of the Dominant Male in American Psycho By Rebecca Osborne

American PsychoA wealthy bank investor hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and his friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical fanatics, in the end we find out that all his psychotic killings are all in his head and he has just imagined his and made doodles of his killings in a book.Patrick Bateman is seen as a dominate powerful male, that is obsessed with self-image and this could be seen as appealing to women, but he goes crazy with having so much power and uses women to undermine them and make himself feel dominate in all aspects of his life his job and personal life. He’s seen as the perfect man at the beginning of the film, the perfect body, mind and lifestyle and this is challenged by the psychopathic character he turns out to be, which could be suggests that with such power over every aspect of his life and being so in control leads to mental break down from such a powerful person.

Patrick Bateman – The dominant male.

In this screen shot we can see the main character looking dominate and brave and being in complete control. Here we see a lot of examples of Mise en Scene being used, one being the costume he is wearing which is a suit. Suits are normally related to power which is befitting of this character, in thrillers we mostly see the characters with the most power being the one destroying others’ lives and this is evident in this film. The use of the weapon being an axe instead of a simplistic weapon such as a gun or knife shows his power of wanting to destroy that person’s life in the most brutal way possible, to show that he has that sort of power and likes to see the suffering of others. This is typical of a psychopath in thriller films they are seen to have such power and self-apparent self-control that they mentally destroy themselves and want to bring down others with them. We also his stern facial expression as he stares at the weapon and this shows he is not fazed by what he Is about to do, as if he needs to do this to prove his dominance, it is typical to see men being comfortable with weapons within thrillers and this is evidently seen here. Overall we see the typical stereotype of the male being seen here through the use of Mise en Scene, through the stern facial expression, the use of a violent prop and the costume. All this contributes to the stereotypical psychopathic dominant male that is seen in the thriller genre.

Patrick Bateman –The dominant male.

In this screen shot we see a low angle being used to convey the characters dominance and showing how powerful he is. Low angles are effective in thrillers as they give the audience a good idea of the dominance in characters and show them the powerful character and just how powerful they are. This scene could have been very different if a high angle was used as it could convey that he himself had been injured as is screaming for help. As a low angle has been used it shows the complete opposite that he has the blood of the people he has killed on him and his facial expression of him screaming with the thrill of doing It, therefore this shows the effect of the positioning of the camera and how it can change the audience perception of a character. Thrillers use these angles mainly on the main character as seen here and create the effect that even the audience may feel dominated and scared by this stereotypical dominant male. Altogether the use of the low angles creates the stereotypical dominant psychotic male that has been overtaken by power and is no longer in control.