American Beauty (1999): Directed by Sam Mendes

On the heels of the last Movie of the Week, Fight Club, comes American Beauty, a film with similar themes: discontent, frustration and anger associated with being a modern American. Ironically, both movies were released within a month of each other in the fall of 1999, and they make fine companion pieces to one another. Like Fight Club, American Beauty is marinated in nihilism, but focuses more on the personal aspect as opposed to the social.

Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a middle-aged, sexually frustrated everyman with a job he hates, a superficial wife and a pubescent teenage daughter. As he introduces himself, through voiceover, Lester tells us that the highlight of his day is masturbating in the shower each morning, the rest of the day consisting of nothing but disappointment. Though on the surface it looks like he’s living the American dream, he’s a picture of misery. American Beauty examines what lies beneath the façade of that “dream,” as well as the fabrications that exist inside of every disaffected suburbanite’s idea of America and beauty.

His teenage daughter is best friends with a fellow cheerleader—an aspiring model. One night Lester and his wife attend a basketball game to view their daughter’s cheerleading routine, and when Lester sees his daughter’s friend, something inside of him snaps. He quits his job (blackmailing his boss to retain a year’s salary), starts smoking pot, buys a vintage car and begins working out. Though he idealizes his goal as the seduction of his daughter’s friend, his true wish is to just feel something again. He has grown tired of the routine and responsibility of being an adult and the numbness that accompanies it. Lester mentally regresses to a time of innocence and freedom in his life and he struggles to recapture it, hence his yearning/fantasy to seduce a teenager.

The cinematography of this film works wonders within the plot. Mendes shows us a perfect Rockwell-esque suburban landscape with perfect little houses. But behind these characters and their homes lies trouble. Throughout the movie he vibrantly uses the color red to symbolize many things, lust being the most pronounced. There is such a red richness to the color of the roses in Lester’s fantasies that they almost seem surreal. Maybe that’s the point.

Any faults within this film can be attached solely to the script. The opening scene is merely a red herring for an ending that mires in predictability. Oh, that tough-guy homophobe is actually a closet homosexual? This is a lazy cinematic cliché that weakens an otherwise very powerful social commentary. Also, the script tries to build suspense when revealing the killer’s identity, which doesn’t work at all. It’s so painfully obvious that it just makes the ending drag, redeemed only by the beautiful images and confessional voiceover before the film fades to black.

American Beauty still remains an important movie, despite its imperfections. You cannot help but empathize with Lester, because his desires match all of our desires. We want to live freely and enjoy life to the fullest extent, but as we age, our responsibilities tend to obstruct us from actually doing so. This is a film about rebellion, and not just Lester’s. Each character rebels against something, both externally and internally. Much like we all do, to one degree or another.

“Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in.”

Past Movies of the Week:

#1: Gladiator
#2: The Passion of the Christ
#3: Cool Hand Luke
#4: Fight Club

Awsome movie. Just re-watched this about 2 weeks ago for the first time in a long time. The luck they had filming that plastic bag was amazing. Also I still laugh and think of some of the scenes in Austin Powers when the boys dad is looking at Lester and his son making a drug deal but what he sees is his son giving Lester a blow job.

3 stars. I enjoyed it, but I don't watch it regularly.

I absolutely love this movie. Like Fight Club it's been a long time since I watched it so going over what a lot of things meant (like the video of the bag blowing in the wind) have kind of escaped me, but I remember it as being a very powerful experience for me when I saw it in the theater.

In a way, it's shaped the way I've lived my adult life in that I try to avoid making decisions that would make me unhappy the way Lester was in the film. If I could envision myself going down that road where shower masturbation would be the height of my day and peak of my sex life, I ran the other way. There's no way to avoid referecning some MMJ lyrics here, because American Beauty always comes to mind when I hear them:



It seems trite, but there's something profound in that, to not become that guy, to make sure you continue to feel and care and find beauty in your own life. Finally, I love that when Lester is going next door to buy pot from his neighbor's kid he pretends that he wants to borrow Reanimator.

never has a movie portrayed american familys lives so perfectly.

My favorite movie of all time. It's actually been a long time since i've watched it, since I don't want it to get old. But it just blows me away every time.

Not to sound corny, but this is the movie that made me want to study film in college. Through the art of filmmaking, I want to make people feel the way I did after watching this for the first time.

never seen this one.

I love this movie, but I think my reasons are a little atypical.

I like the character of Lester and I understand the suburbia themes, but that's not the big draw for me.

What I relate to is the theme of seemingly mundane things that are truly beautiful and moving. I find Thora Birch's boyfriend (I'm spacing the name) to be a much more compelling and and relatable character than Lester. When the scenes of the plastic bag and the dead bird came on, I was ecstatic inside. I wanted to jump up and scream, "YES! I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING! THAT'S HAPPENED TO ME!"

i want to see the ranking of the poll before i give it x amount of stars, but i like this movie ok. phenomonal acting, though i was a having a hard time caring about the story. it has some fun twists and what not, but overall it's not a movie i MUST have in my collection.

yes. i think this is why it works much better for me. While Fight Club preponders with nihilism, American Beauty is a film that acknowledges the importance of yearning.


it may be cliched, but i suppose i could argue it's cliched for a reason. the movie is intended to be, i think, something of an expose of "perfect" suburban america, and i can assure you those types do exist - and of course, almost all the characters in the movie are really playing overblown caricatures, save Jane and Ricky. There is, of course, also a bitter irony to Frank killing Lester for being a homosexual (or something, anyway) when in fact Lester has just, in a sense, redeemed himself by avoiding a heterosexal "sin" - meanwhile Frank lives next door to a homosexual couple (or two doors down, i forget)

He's my favorite character too, although in some respects he's more of an ideal. I don't know if I've ever really had a moment like the one he's captured, but I've always wanted to. It seems so healthy.

I've always believed that this movie inspired the song Sleight of Hand

one of the better movies to be released in the past 10 years

My wife and I saw this movie on our first "date".

As I grow older, I recognize that not only do I not want to become who Lester was at the beginning of the movie, but I recognize the fundamental flaws in his attempt to escape from that as teh movie progresses. Yeah, we all want to quit our job and smoke pot and fuck teenage girls, but there is as much virtue in responsibilities as there is in freedom. All the time that you are revelling in Lester's tossing off of his shackles, there is also the underlying fear of the danger that he is courting.

They're easier to have than most people think. All you really have to do is stop, take a moment, and really look around you. Two happened to me on campus. The first was when I was looking at the vapor trail of a jet, and it crossed over the path of another jet and the trails made a perfect "X" in the sky. The other was when a little group of birds ate crumbs out of my hand by the library. Now, I'm a sarcastic bastard, but even I can appreciate simply beauty.

But yeah, excellent movie.

Were you tripping?

movie was great. i remember seeing the previews before it was big and thinking what a fucking great movie. the girl i dated at the time didnt appreciate the movie or me.

Sadly, I was incredibly drunk/stoned the two times I've seen this film and as a result I only have small, brief snap shot of a couple of scenes in my mind.

one of my favorite scenes is lester working the drive thru window...