Reception Theory - Conor Walker

American Psycho  

My chosen text is a film from 2000 called American Psycho and is about the life of a successful Wall Street businessman who is a psychopath and secret serial killer. Patrick Bateman, the lead character played by Christian Bale is presented as a materialistic person who only cares about his appearance and his status. 

Target Audience 

Using the income status model, I believe that this film would be mainly targeted at someone who is a part of group D which is working class. I think this because the film shows rich people in a very negative light, therefore, if rich people would view this they would have an oppositional view of the film. However, working class people may feel bitter about rich and successful people because they are jealous but they would enjoy watching this film because it would make them feel better about themselves. 

Also using, Hartley and Fiske's subjectivities I believe the target audience of this film would be men because there is a large amount of violence and women are depicted in a very promiscuous manner. I think the ideal age would be from 18-35 as the majority of the characters are relatively young so it would appeal to this age group. Ethnicity wouldn’t really matter for this film but it consists of mainly white Americans so it would be aimed at this. 

Preferred Reading 

With this film the encoders want to reinforce the stereotype that rich and successful people are only out for themselves and care more about their appearance and status than anything else. This is shown by the representations of the characters in the films. Patrick Bateman often goes into great detail describing his possessions or his workout routine to reinforce this stereotype. The majority of the characters are mainstreamers to such an extent that they look so much alike they often mistake their friends for each other. 

Also another underlying message is that these people of high status are only out for themselves in the end and don’t care about other people other than what they appear as. This is shown when Patrick Bateman goes up to strangers and tells them about his urges to kill and how he likes to "dissect women". These people don’t even react which shows that they don’t care because they only care about themselves. 

The characters are materialistic to such an extreme level that it makes you realize just how stupid they are and it helps you realize the things that do actually matter in life.  

This film is a critique of Capitalism as this is a film that depicts a person who will do anything no matter how ruthless for money and status. This is essentially the ideology of capitalism but it is shown in the film in a much more shocking visual manner in order to make people think more about what this regime is actually like. 

Oppositional reading 

I believe a person who has an oppositional reading of this text would be likely to say that they understand the films aim is to show these materialistic people in a bad light but they are much like the characters and believe that these possessions and their status can bring them happiness in life. 

This may be because of their cultural experiences. For example, this person may have been born into the kind of lifestyle that is showcased in this film. Therefore, all they would know would be that status and material possessions would make them happy and they would believe that Patrick Bateman lives a very happy life because he has the best apartment with the best job, body and girlfriend. However, this is not how the writer and directors wanted the text to be perceived but these peoples life experiences have altered their judgements. 

Also, someone may hold this view because they are from New York, where the film is set, and they would believe that the film is trying to stereotype the people living in this area to be like the main characters. However, this person would understand what the film was trying to do but would reject it because of their own cultural experiences. 

Another reasoning for this viewpoint would be that the directors and writers are trying too hard to reinforce the stereotype of materialism and hubristic behavior. This person may believe the amount of time put in to showing this ideology makes it less believable and less realistic because they are exaggerating on it too much. 

The majority of people choose the political parties they follow because of their parents. Therefore, someone who grew up in a home of Capitalists they would believe this film is unfairly depicting their ideology and may take offense to the messages encoded in this film. 

Another oppositional reading of this text would be if a woman viewed the text they could see as it glorifying male dominance in society because of how the women are represented as being prostitutes, ad secretaries which are possessions of the males that control them. They may believe this is a very misogynistic film for this reason. 

Negotiated reading 

Someone who takes a negotiated reading to this text would view it superficially and would not understand any of the encoded messages or ideologies presented. Therefore, they would only view the film visually on the surface. This means that they would believe that the film is trying to overly violent and shocking just for the purpose of being shocking. They would also believe that the film is a glorification of violence because they don’t understand the film fully as really the film is critiquing this violent behavior rather than glorifying it. 

Situated culture could also have an effect on somebodies viewing of this film. If you were to watch this film while focusing on other media texts or with some sort of distraction you may not be able to focus entirely on the ideologies represented in the film which could make someone believe that the film is just essentially about someone who kills others and they would, too, believe that it is glorifying violence because they wouldn’t understand the whole message. 

Uses and Gratifications 

One of the gratifications of this text is very obscure given what the film is about and the seriousness which is on the surface of the film. I believe that if you are able to decode the messages of the film you are able to find humor throughout the film even in the particularly shocking scenes because of the way they are filmed. For example, when Patrick Bateman kills Paul Allen it is very brutally depicted with a lot of blood and an axe but while this is happening Patrick Bateman is dancing to Huey Lewis and the News. 

Another gratification would be that people would be shocked by what happens in the film. This is because of the numerous violent murder scenes as well as the very graphic sex scenes that are in this film.  

Also someone would get a sense of self worth because they may think that they are better than the characters that are in this film because of how they are represented. For example, these characters are shown to only care about what they look like or their status but for people who realize that people are worth much more than this they would feel better about themselves because they would realize they aren't that bad.