As far as collapsing marriages, dysfunctional families, and all around slow motion life train wrecks go, American Beauty succeeds in expressing just what can happen to an American family. Sam Mendes’ American Beauty captures its audience with a dulled Dali-esque shock-with-perversion presentation, packing depthful character development and impressive cultural analysis within. American Beauty’s appeal is predicated on its characters rather than its story line.
Mendes feeds us the ending of this film right from the opening scene. We sore over the neighborhood as Kevin Spacey’s character, Lester Burnham, let’s us in on the fact that he is going to die in less than a year. With this, we not only get our curiosity piqued but also a taste of Lester’s personality; a particularly dark personality filled with sarcastic levity. We soon learn this is a sexually frustrated man who becomes obsessed with a Dionysian hedonistic perspective on life. When Les is met with his daughter’s beautiful cheer-leading friend, he can do nothing but indulge in an obsessive fantasy, extending throughout most of the film, of sinking his teeth into the young girl, sexually. But Les finds an Existential freedom through the journey of this film. Les may start, chained to his hedonistic obsessions and simple pleasure seekings but he ends by making a crucial decision for himself.
The characters used in American Beauty act as their own analysis of certain people in America. Carolyn, Lester’s wife, represents the calloused housewife trying difficulty to provide for her family while maintaining a representation to the outer world of beauty and success. My favorite part of Carolyn is her commitment and focus to her goals. What we see a lot on the film is her use of mantras; “I will sell this house today,” “I must project success,” and “I refuse to be a victim.”
Mr. Fitz shows us the overly proud veteran who takes his homophobic fears out on his son while hiding his own homosexuality inside. Studies have shown that about 20% of supposed highly straight individuals, who showed homophobic behaviour, actually had homosexual tendencies in testing. Our beloved teenage romance between Jane and Ricky shows the often typical high school dating dichotomy of a very insecure individual and a very secure individual. My favorite stretch to make, perhaps not too far a stretch, is the use of the name Buddy for Carolyn’s male mistress. I will directly say that this is just a use of the term “Fuck Buddy” for a characters name.
Sexual perversion in America gets put right in the crosshairs of American Beauty. From Lester’s creepy infatuation with Angela Hayes, to Ricky’s obsessive voyeurism. We also get to see the suffocated homosexuality released as homophobia through Mr. Fitz. Finally, the simple, marital affair done by Carolyn.
American Beauty is a tightly crafted film as not a scene goes by that cannot be extracted and elaborated on as an analysis of America, American families, and the American Dream. Let’s address, right away, the color use in this film. Direction on the themes of colors in this film is exemplary. The three main colors, very appropriately chosen, we are exposed to with thematic importance are Red, White, and Blue. From my own analysis, the meaning behind these colors seems to indicate, Red (passion, love), Blue (cold, logical, proper), and White (purity, rebirth, growth).
One of our first experiences to red is that of Jim and Jim, the gay couple in the neighborhood. They are seen by Carolyn, Lester’s wife, as she comments, “I love the color of your tie.” Jim’s tie is, of course, red; representing Jim and Jim’s loving relationship. Carolyn’s obsession with roses seems to have penetrated into Les’ mind as every time he brings about the fantasies of Angela, the young cheerleader, he always imagines a deluge of rose petals. More red, of course, to indicate passion and infatuation. It would also seem that, even though Les has fallen out of love with Carolyn, she has affected his psyche in such a way that he has no way of imagining love and passion without her roses.
Use of blue is used in the most cold and harrowing scenes of the film. Initially, we see blue used more benignly such as Carolyn’s dress when she comes in to confront Les about his new Red Firebird. Carolyn exudes a logical, rule following, and cold figure, enforcing properness in her household as she scolds him for his childish choices. But when the film progresses into it’s final movements, the blue and darkness is used to express the chilling feelings of all the characters as they near Lester’s murder.
Finally, white is used right from the beginning when Jim is explaining his botany secrets to Carolyn. He chalks up his beautiful flowers to the use of eggshells. The white the egg shells expressing growth. In Lester’s final moments, we see him turn down taking the virginity of Angela. Lester goes against everything he has been primally pursuing to make a decision for himself. Lester is then seen in the next shot wearing a purely white shirt. This expresses Lester’s new found purity, growth, and rebirth. It is at this moment that Les experiences his truest freedom as well as his peak of happiness. In the end, Lester did attain the American dream. That dream is not one surrounded by the fluff we realize means nothing through watching this movie; it is simply freedom. Freedom is America’s Beauty.
Sources
Film
American Beauty. Dir. Samuel Mendes. Perf. Kevin Spacey. Dreamworks, 1999. DVD.
Text
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies: With Dvd & Wam3. S.l.: Ww Norton &, 2012. Print.
Study
Ryan, R. (2014). Homophobic? Maybe You’re Gay. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/homophobic-maybe-youre-gay.html?_r=0 [Accessed 10 Nov. 2014].
Pictures (In order of appearance)
(American Beauty Poster)
Upload.wikimedia.org, (2014). [online] Available at: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b6/American_Beauty_poster.jpg [Accessed 10 Nov. 2014].
(Carolyn)
Gonemovies.com, (2014). [online] Available at: http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/Raketnet/Drama/AmericanCarolynRoos_sm.jpg [Accessed 10 Nov. 2014].
(Frank Fitz)
Img3.wikia.nocookie.net, (2014). [online] Available at: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110929163949/villains/images/2/24/Frank_Fitts.gif [Accessed 10 Nov. 2014].
(Red Square)
Fc06.deviantart.net, (2014). [online] Available at: http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs13/f/2007/040/b/7/Photo__Large_red_square_by_TheLastDanishPastry.png [Accessed 10 Nov. 2014].
(Blue Square)
1.bp.blogspot.com, (2014). [online] Available at: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nEhaLEQxUQ8/UlZLzOb21vI/AAAAAAAAADk/6y8H_Gvf5ME/s1600/DarkBlueSquare-341×341.png [Accessed 10 Nov. 2014].
(White Square)
Polyvore.com, (2014). [online] Available at: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-thing?.out=jpg&size=l&tid=33783950 [Accessed 10 Nov. 2014].
Movie Going 
