Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000)
Vitals
Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, investment banker and killer
New York City, Spring 1988
Film: American Psycho
Release Date: April 14, 2000
Director: Mary Harron
Costume Designer: Isis Mussenden
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy 50th birthday to Christian Bale!
Prior to his blockbuster performances as Gotham’s caped crusader in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and his Academy Award-winning performance in The Fighter (2011), the Welsh-born actor’s breakthrough adult role was arguably as the sociopathic businessman—and suggested serial killer—Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, adapted by Mary Herron from Bret Easton Ellis’ dark satirical novel of the same name.
Ellis himself had considered the novel to be unfilmable and, despite its cult following and the accolades around Bale’s performance as the materialistic murderer, continues to have “mixed” feelings about the movie, as the author shared on Marc Maron’s podcast in 2014. One of Ellis’ objections was to the ambiguity around whether or not Bateman was actually committing the murders that were so grotesquely described in his novel.
One sequence that particularly highlights this begins with Bateman breaking off his engagement with the vapid socialite Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) the day after committing a debauched double chainsaw-murder. “Evelyn, I’m sorry… you’re not terribly important to me,” he begins. Despite her initial denial, Evelyn can tell he’s serious when he offers her all of their mutual friends in the breakup.
Evelyn: What about the past? Our past?
Patrick: We never really shared one.
After assessing the situation and, uh, going, Bateman hallucinates an ATM asking him to feed it a stray cat and, after gunning down a protesting bystander, becomes the subject of an NYPD manhunt as he guns down several police officers (and one of their cars) before desperately dashing to his office to make an unhinged confession to his lawyer. As we see the following day, even blatantly confessing to his crimes can’t save him as his mask of sanity continues to slip.
What’d He Wear?
Patrick Bateman’s vast wardrobe includes a rotation of well-made suits in conservative shades of navy and gray, all appropriate for the ambitious American businessman of the 1980s. According to his narration, Bateman shares his penchant for Valentino Couture suits (and Oliver Peoples glasses) with “this dickhead Marcus Halberstram”, though costume designer Isis Mussenden reportedly also dressed Christian Bale in Cerruti suits… at least when he wasn’t actively murdering anyone, according to IMDB.
For his meal-into-manhunt day, he debuts a handsome navy wool suit with a subtle windowpane check, consisting of a dark rust-colored vertical stripe bisecting a light-blue horizontal stripe. The two-button jacket is cut like his other single-breasted suits, with a welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, and three-button cuffs, as well as the requisite concessions to ’80s fashion trends like lower-gorge notch lapels, padded shoulders, and a ventless back. Though we see little of his trousers, we can assume they are pleated and held up with suspenders (braces) like his others, styled with side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms.
The movie thankfully foregoes the sadistic dessert that Bateman had cruelly prepared for Evelyn in the novel: a Godiva-covered urinal cake.
Bateman regularly shows a preference for shirts with dramatic spread collars like the narrow cutaway collar on this solid light-blue cotton shirt, which also features a front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs. His silk tie is “uphill”-striped in mid-blue and navy with a narrower yellow stripe, knotted in a half-Windsor that fills the considerable tie space created by his shirt’s widely spread collar.
The face of someone who is in touch with humanity.
In the chapter “Chase, Manhattan” that aligns with this sequence, Ellis describes Bateman retrieving “my Giorgio Armani wool overcoat” from a restaurant’s coat check, but no further description is given.
Before and after this scene on screen, Bateman typically wears a dark navy wool overcoat, which makes this camel coat a welcome irregularity. The knee-length coat has notch lapels that roll to a three-button covered-fly front and a long single vent. Similar to a suit jacket, the coat features a welted breast pocket and straight flapped hip pockets. The sleeves are roped at the shoulders and finished with “kissing” three-button cuffs.
Bateman also wears black leather gloves that look especially villainous once he pulls a Glock from his coat and the carnage escalates.
Bateman’s well-shined black leather cap-toe shoes are likely the same derby shoes we had seen him wear with his charcoal chalkstripe double-breasted suit during Paul Allen’s murder. While I don’t know the brand of shoes that Bale wore on screen, Ellis’ novel described Allen Edmonds, Armani, A. Testoni, Baker Benjes, Brooks Brothers, Cole Haan, Ferragamo, Manolo Blahnik, and Ralph Lauren shoes among Bateman’s collection.
Bateman is notably protective of his wristwatch, identified in the novel as a Rolex—a symbol of ultimate status. Although Bale’s on-screen watch bears a resemblance to a two-toned Rolex DateJust, it’s established that, due to Rolex’s reluctance to be associated with the character, he actually wears a similar Seiko SNXJ90. This Seiko features a stainless steel 38mm case, a fluted gold bezel, a white dial with day-date windows at the 3 o’clock position, and a gold crown positioned just before 4 o’clock, secured around his left wrist on a two-toned “Jubilee” bracelet. (You can read more at Superwatchman.)
The Gun
The “Chase, Manhattan” chapter also describes Bateman’s sidearm, a .357 Magnum that’s clearly meant to be a semi-automatic pistol given his reference to attaching a silencer and feeding from a magazine. At this point in the 1980s, the only major production semi-automatic handgun chambered for .357 Magnum would have been the massive Desert Eagle, a video game favorite and hardly practical for concealing in business-wear.
The movie takes a more practical approach by arming Bateman with a Glock 19 for his rampage through Manhattan. Glocks were relatively new to the market through the ’80s, beginning with the launch of the Glock 17 in 1982 and its more compact variant, the Glock 19, introduced in 1988—making it new at the time this scene would have been made. It makes sense that someone as status-obsessed as Bateman would insist on using the latest handgun.
How to Get the Look
Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho (2000)
- Navy rust-and-blue windowpane check wool suit:
- Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
- Pleated trousers with side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Light-blue cotton shirt with cutaway spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs
- Navy, blue, and yellow “uphill”-striped silk tie
- Black leather cap-toe derby shoes
- Camel single-breasted overcoat with notch lapels, 3-button fly front, welted breast pocket straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and long single vent
- Black leather gloves
- Seiko SNXJ90 two-toned watch with 38mm stainless steel case, fluted gold bezel, and round white dial (with 3:00 day-date window) on two-tone “Jubilee”-style bracelet
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie
The Quote
I have to return some video tapes.
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