Why Christian Bale is my all-time favorite rock music critic

**Janszoon** · 02-06-2009, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gavin B.

The satrical subtext Christian Bale's over-the-top reviews of Huey Lewis and Phil Collins music was this: Only a sociopath is capable of finding deep meaning in music as vacuous and contrived as the music of Huey Lewis or Phil Collins.

I thought most folks were astute enough to catch the double edged message of Bale's histronics in that scene but perhaps I expect too much from people.

I took it a bit differently. I see all of his monologues about music as him simply parroting things he's read about these bands. He listens to the bands in question not because he really finds any depth in them (he's a soulless psychopath, how could he?) but because these bands have been mentioned in the right magazines and are beloved by members of the right social strata. The bands, and his feigned attempts at serious discussion of them, are just another accessory to make him look cool, just like his designer shoes or his fancy business cards. Ultimately it's all about his narcissism.

Gavin B. · 02-06-2009, 06:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janszoon

I took it a bit differently. I see all of his monologues about music as him simply parroting things he's read about these bands. He listens to the bands in question not because he really finds any depth in them (he's a soulless psychopath, how could he?) but because these bands have been mentioned in the right magazines and are beloved by members of the right social strata. The bands, and his feigned attempts at serious discussion of them, are just another accessory to make him look cool, just like his designer shoes or his fancy business cards. Ultimately it's all about his narcissism.

I bow to your more succinct analysis. It's a far more accurate picture of how a sociopath compensates for his lack of a core of human emotion. The sociopath learns by imitating those who have feelings to articulate because he has none. Your comments are an insightful psychoanalytic perspective on the mind set of a narcissistic sociopath.