An Analysis of the Film “American Beauty”
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An Analysis of the Film “American Beauty” by Angela de Sousa Page 1 of 5 Film Analysis of “American Beauty” Director: Sam Mendes Writer: Alan Ball Release Date: 01 October 1999 Genre: Drama Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher and Allison Janney Breaking stereotypes and finding the beauty beneath the surface. In American Beauty, a drama about the lives of stereotypical American’s living the ‘American Dream’ at the end of the 20th century and, how, in reality this is far from truth. We follow the life of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), your average middle aged suburban father whose mundane life dissipates as he becomes infatuated by his daughters’ attractive best friend. The film is taken from a narrative point of view by Lester as he recalls the last year of events that lead up to his untimely death and his transformation to reach happiness. In Act 1 we are introduced to the protagonist Lester Burnham as he monologues how somewhere upon his life’s journey he has lost his enthusiasm for life. He works a normal job that he doesn’t really like and has also become distant from his wife and daughter. Carolyn (Annette Bening) is Lester’s wife; she is the breadwinner in the family, very appearance driven, uptight and is in denial that she is happy herself. She often irritates Lester by her behaviour. She works as a real estate agent, having to stage up a house in order to sell it as desirable. Talk about irony, that both her career and her life consists of having to put on a show. Jane (Thora Birch) is your usual teenager caught in the dilemma of whether or not she should conform to society’s views of what is acceptable and normal, or should she just hide herself away from it. She often feels neglected by her parents. Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari), Jane’s best friend, blonde hair, blue eyes, thin and beautiful, supposedly leads a perfect life but in truth is insecure and is openly judgmental of others to hide just how judged she feels by others. When she realises that Lester has a fancy for her and she enjoys flirting with him (the power she has over him makes her feel more mature and desirable). Angela de Sousa Screenwriting 1 Assignment – Movie Analysis 08 April 2014 Page 2 of 5 Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper), the Burnham’s’ neighbour is your ideal patriotic military man, the perfect American hero, all country and glory, but he is extremely controlling over his wife Barbara Fitts (Allison Janney) and their son Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley). There are moments where he loses his control and acts out violently. He is also very prejudiced against homosexuals. He too portrays an all-together demeanour but there are some serious skeletons in his closet. Ricky seems to be your loner, creepy, stalker, drug dealer with a troubled past. However we soon realise that he is honest and sees everyone for who they really are. Despite keeping up pretence with his father, he is open about himself to Jane and Lester. He is entranced by Jane’s beauty and often films her, along with filming Lester and random weird things like a dead bird. Jane, at first does not feel comfortable with the attention she receives from Ricky; however she becomes intrigued by his confidence and the fact that he clearly favours her over Angela. With the above mentioned, this is a normal portrayal of people and families in modern times (which is a sad thought when you come to think about it) but they are far from the image we have been subjected to for years by the media of what the ‘perfect American family’ looks like from an earlier era where the husband has a great job, supports’ his family and is a great father. The stay at home mom, making sure the house is clean and that dinner is on the table in time. Then there is the perfect child, whom is happy to do all the chores designated to them plus have their homework finished before bedtime. This depiction came about the time of World War 1 and 2, used for propaganda posters like the picture on the left, but they kept going well into the 1960’s and even still today. The aesthetics of the film depicts the iconic suburban American suburb, white house with blue shutters and a garden with a white picket fence and throughout the film there are multiple uses of the colours red, white and blue, depicting the colours which make up the American flag. The dramatic premise is how Lester is unhappy with his life and believes that he has lost something along the way. It also focuses on the dysfunction of his family and that of some other characters in the film and how they are all torn by the deception of living the ‘American Dream’ and how life must be perfect and they themselves must be perfect and to what end they are willing to go to get it. The dramatic circumstance is that within a year’s time Lester will be dead. We know this because of the opening scene with Jane talking to Ricky (which we only find out later but had reason to believe it was him), about how frustrated she is by her Angela de Sousa Screenwriting 1 Assignment – Movie Analysis 08 April 2014 Page 3 of 5 father’s behaviour, while he is filming her. It is also confirmed by Lester in his narration in the beginning of the film. Plot Point 1 comes when Lester sees Angela at the cheerleading dance, there is something about her that awakens something in him. He often fantasises about her and each time he does there are lose red rose petals (symbolising lust, passion and freedom), whereas whenever the scenes that have his wife and roses are usually intact on the stem (symbolising her so called perfect life). Even the music changes in the fantasy scenes to a faster pace. During Act 2 Lester meets Ricky and watches as he confronts his boss, carelessly and confident. The two of them bond over some pot smoking, this plus overhearing Angela tell Jane that if he were to bulk up a bit she would considered sleeping with him drives Lester to the take charge of his life, to be more careless like he was in his youth and to become the person that Angela would sleep with. He is under the pretence that behaving this way will make him feel alive again and perhaps even get with Angela eventually. Lester’s dramatic need is to be happy again, his lust for Angela and admiration of Ricky seems to be his driving force towards it. There are a few obstacles in his way though, he is married, Angela is underage, he is undermined by his family and he is in a job he doesn’t like. Soon he quits his job, blackmails his boss and then takes a position in a fast food restaurant. He also buys a hot red sports car (this could be representative of him feeling free and alive again), speaks his mind and takes authority over his family. He is taking charge of his life and enjoying it. Basically he is going through a severe yet euphoric mid-life crisis. Lester becomes a customer of Ricky’s (supplying Lester with weed) and all of their backhanded deals lead the Colonel to become suspicious of the two of them. He is under the impression that they are lovers. Carolyn enters into an affair with Buddy (Peter Gallagher), the man she has been admiring for a while, the man that seems to fit perfectly in the way she wants her life to be seen as. Lester finds out about their affair when he accidentally overhears them. He confronts them but doesn’t seem to be bothered about it at all, possibly to give her reason to want to leave him so he is then free to go after Angela. Jane had stopped inviting Angela over as she did not approve of her friend flirting with her father and abhors the fact that he seems to enjoy it. Jane also starts up a relationship with Ricky and confides her true feelings of how disappointed she is with her father (taking us back to the opening scene). She further states that she was only joking about killing him. If Jane and Ricky are not the reason for Lester dying then how does he die (Plot Point 2)? Angela de Sousa Screenwriting 1 Assignment – Movie Analysis 08 April 2014 Page 4 of 5 In Act 3, on the day in which Lester dies an interesting turn of events happen that leads both Carolyn and Colonel Fitts to have motive now to want to kill him. Angela is over at the Burnham’s house and flirts with Lester but backs off when he responds to her advances. Carolyn’s affair is brought to a halt and Buddy leaves, she tries to put on a strong front but is overwhelmed by all her repressed emotions. She works herself up into a frenzy believing she is a victim. She pulls out a gun from her glove compartment and heads on home to kill Lester. On the other hand the Colonel sees Ricky over by the Burnham’s house talking with Lester, but all the angels that he watches from illustrates that they are indeed lovers. Outraged by this he attacks Ricky when he comes home; Ricky retaliates by lying to his father in order to finally get away from his control.