American Beauty Analysis

American Beauty, a film that was written by Allan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes in 1999 is a unique piece that demonstrates many sociological themes throughout the development of the plot. The characters strive to portray themselves as the All American Family. They live in a nice house, drive nice cars and seem perfectly normal to the general public, but the audience is allowed to view the deep set issues that plague the main characters; Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening), Jane Burnham (Thora Birch), and Jane's best friend Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari). As the plot develops there are many obvious parallels relating the lives of the characters to Merton's Strain

After a complete analysis of “Beauty” by Tony Hoagland, there are multiple ways he succeeds in writing a meaningful poem. Each of the literary devices used played an important role in perfecting his poem. Hoagland did an excellent job at sending a message and his tone played an important role in making the message more sincere. Hoagland's use of imagery, figurative language, and personification made his poem more entertaining to read. Throughout this poem, Tony Hoagland shows that beauty, along with poetry, goes deeper than the

The short documentary Crooked Beauty, directed by Ken Paul Rosenthal, narrates Jacks Ashley McNamara’s experience in a psychiatric ward and how her time in the facility shapes her new appreciation for her mental illness. One controversial issue has been trying to identify the true cause of mental illness. On the one hand, most people may think mental illness is simply a biological disorder that can be cured with a combination of medication and doctors demanding appropriate behavior until it sticks in the patient’s mind. On the other, McNamara contends that mental illness is a misconception with a patient’s oversensitivity, where it is harder for the patient to ignore certain events than “normal” people, and their doctor’s textbook knowledge. In McNamara’s mental institution, the psychiatrists simply trap her in a padded room and prescribe many different pills to suppress her mental illness instead of embracing her differences or showing her how to use those differences to her advantage. In attempt to prevent those who are mentally ill from feeling the same anger and frustration she felt, she demands a change in the line psychiatric treatment when she says:

In Alice Walker's "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self”, her view of beauty changes through different stages of her life. In her childhood Walker has a misunderstanding of beauty. She is concerned with superficial signs of beauty and fails to appreciate her inner beauty. A tragic mishap as a young child leaves her right eye blind and deformed. She enters a period of depression her life, living her life in shame and disappointment because she believes her beauty to be lost. Even getting surgery as an adult doesn’t help defeat her demons. She continues to struggle until she finds her inner beauty through her daughter’s love. As a child, Alice Walker got her definition of beauty from her family, in her teens she turned to her peers to define beauty, her perception finally changed again in adulthood when she discovered an inner beauty.

Although happiness is a more evident theme in American Beauty, the idea of liberty is substantial; specifically, because free will is difficult to find, not to mention, exceedingly rare. One of the uniting personality traits in the movie is that so many of the characters appear trapped: trapped by their fears, their existences, and their occupations. Several characters such as Colonel Fitts and his wife, Barbara Fitts conclude the film just as entombed as they were when the movie began. Additionally, character’s such as Carolyn Burnham, merely begin to free themselves from the events that bind them in the substantial moments just before the film

American Beauty is a movie that sets in suburban America. The story is about Lester, whom is a middle-aged writer working in a magazine company. He was having a midlife crisis where he felt lonely and numbed by continuous unchanging routine of his everyday life. In the movie, his wife portrayed as a successful real estate agent, but she was also going through her own midlife crisis in both her career and personal life. Lester’s daughter, Jane Bumham had alienated her parents and was going through puberty. They have a new neighbor who is a U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Frank Fitts, and he has a son, Ricky Fitts, who is a drug dealer. Lester was going to get fired from his company that he had worked for fourteen

A growing sense of confidence is a theme found in American Beauty and Demian. After hanging out with Max Demian, Emil gains the confidence to tell Franz Kromer he will not bring his sister for him to meet and also tells his mother that he stole money from her piggy bank. In American Beauty, we see Lester Burnham slowly open up and he begins to speak his mind, instead of being afraid and keeping his mouth shut. An example of this is when he has a dispute with his wife Carol about their sexual frustrations. He says: "This hasn't been a marriage for years, but you were happy as

Throughout the essay “The Ugly Truth About Beauty,” Dave Barry tries to explain how cosmetics are not important to the average male, but is an important topic for women. Men usually do not place as much importance in one’s appearance as women do. As Barry points out, if a group of men were instructed by Brad Pitt to apply cosmetics, they would quickly realize that the task was pointless, even demeaning to an extent. Most women on the other hand, place higher importance on their looks, even to the point of setting unobtainable goals of beauty. An example that Barry makes, is that women become obsessed with these looks because men want women to look that way, even though majority of men don’t care about cosmetics for the most part. These different

The first shot of the clip captures a man named Walter Neff in a medium long shot boarding an elevator while the camera is stationary. Another man also enters the elevator and the shot quickly changes to a medium two-shot as the men engage in a conversation. The shot is illuminated using high key lighting, and the two men are framed with their backs in front of the camera where Walter is shown on the left side of the frame and the other man on the right. As Walter walks out of the elevator, the shot changes to a long shot and the camera begins to track him in the forward direction. Moreover, low-key lighting is used as shadows are cast upon the long coat of Walter as he is moving forward. The camera tracks Walter until he comes to a stop to gaze down at a series of desks at which point the camera tilts down and becomes stationary. The shot lasted for a duration of forty-four seconds making the shot a long take.

“American Beauty”, the 1999 film, is a motion picture that more or less shows a different side of the average suburban family. Although all of the characters have significant issues, I have chosen to take a closer look at Lester Burnham. Lester Burnham is a 42-year-old businessman who is married to the career-obsessed Carolyn and they have one daughter, a teenager named Jane. One of the first scenes of the movie explains how the family works: Carolyn is driving, just like she “drives” the family, Jane is sitting right next to her in the front seat, and Lester is slouched in the backseat, visually becoming more miserable by the second.

American Beauty, released in 1999, was a tragic comedy, created by Sam Mendes. The movie had audiences questioning the ideal American family. You see the usual midlife crisis that most people go through but watching further uncovers a deeper conflict of feeling oppressed with what society considers a “normal” life. The movie has many connecting themes through plot, characterization, and cinematography and these themes carry well throughout the movie. The main themes are listed accordingly, appearance versus reality, loneliness versus feeling connected, denial and repression, and beauty.

I utilize two scenes from the movie American Beauty, the two office scenes including Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Brad (Barry Del Sherman).The cinematic techniques are identified with mise-en-scene, which is the term used to portray everything 'put into the scene'. I concentrate on decor, lighting and props, costumes, body language (e.g., posture, gestures and facial expressions) and composition. I additionally take a gander at how these components are confined as far as camera stature, camera point and camera separate, all of which fall under the class of cinematography. The scene seems right off the bat the movie. Toward the start of American Beauty, the hero, Lester Burnham is disappointed with his life. At home he and his materialistic, aspiring

Winning a Golden Globe and Oscar in 2000 for Best Motion Picture – to name a few – American Beauty is an American drama starring Kevin Spacey as Lester Burnham. Lester Burnham, a middle-aged depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to make some major changes in his life after becoming infatuated with his daughter’s attractive friend, Angela. When he drastically changes his life while in the midst of his mid-life crisis not only his wife, Carolyn, and daughter, Jane, affected but everyone around him as he goes through the stages of his mid-life crisis: Depression, Nostalgia, and Freedom.

“I have lost something...It’s never too late to get it back,” stated Lester Burnham, the main character of American Beauty. American Beauty is a 1999 film that provides a look into the lives of a modern married couple that is dealing with issues within their relationship. As the story progresses, it is easily identifiable that the roles of the husband and wife are not what the viewers would expect. On the other hand, the homosexual couple presented throughout the movie seems to be the normal pair. Furthermore, society’s definition of beauty and contentment is questioned. Throughout American Beauty, the homosexual couple has a healthier relationship than the heterosexual couple and beauty is falsely represented.

images as constructions that we created around ourselves as a means of hiding our true selves. Mendes is able to implicate us in the construction and make us active viewers by exploiting our voyeuristic nature. In American Beauty Mendes uses the voyeuristic tendencies of the spectator to acknowledge the permeating constructed images. Mendes, through the use of narration, the mise en scene and cinematic techniques implicates the spectator in to using their voyeuristic tendencies to deconstruct