American Beauty: an Analysis of Lester Burnham and Ricky Fitts

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

When I was told to choose a movie to perform a psychoanalysis on a character. I did not know what movie to choose. After watching the two hour long film on the multiple characters that seemed to be struggling to find their inner happiness: American Beauty. I knew that I should not look any further. One character that especially stood out was, Lester Burnham. A forty-two year old father with a mid-life crisis. In the film, American Beauty Lester Burnham is portrayed as an ordinary man, with a perfect life, but of course that is far from the truth. From the outside, Lester seems to have a perfect salary, and a perfect family who lives in a perfect neighborhood. In reality, things are not

Boyz N the Hood shows the challenges black men face due to their home life and the conditions of the area their community. In the film, we see the difference in how Tre, Darren, and Ricky live. Ricky and Darren are brothers who have different fathers and who are both different as day and night. The film shows how important it is to have a male role model in the home. This is evident in Tre life because he has male leadership.

An important idea that is relevant to young people in the text is the idea of change is needed for social and personal development and progression in society. This is relevant to young people today because without change we would not be able to better ourselves and evolve. Ross uses the techniques of colour, symbolism and cinematography to assist the viewer and help us understand this important idea. The film is about two teen age siblings named David and Jennifer who are teleported into an ideal and restrictive community which is in a 50’s black and white television show called Pleasantville. Jennifer and David introduce the idea of change to the community of Pleasantville which change the community from restrictive and ideal to an open and

The Jarrett family is in the movie Ordinary People is an example of a family that is hurting and needs help. Conard the youngest son has been and going through a lot throughout the movie. His mother Beth does not know how to cope with Conrad and his dad after losing her favorite son in a drowning accident. Calvin the father of Conrad tries to show that he cares about how his son is feeling, but him showing that he cares about Conrad which freaks him out since he is getting mixed emotions throughout his family. This family many emotional conflict throughout this movie. It is a constant fight or flight between these characters and the people around them.

Family. Both experienced what it is like to have family issues. Jay Moriarity grew up without a father, who abandoned him and his mother at a young age. Leaving him to only have a mother who suffered from poor choices, inferior boyfriends, and alcoholism. While Chris McCandless’ parents were together, although his father had been living a double life. McCandless’ father had been fathering children and was engaged to another woman, who wasn’t Chris’ mother. However, Jay Moriarity had one positive influence, his mentor Frosty Henson. Frosty had told Jay “So today's lesson was about the power of observation. Simple fact is you got two choices: you can fight things head on, or you can observe the laws of nature. You look hard enough, there’s always a way through it,” (Chasing Mavericks). This quote is only one example of how Frosty had influenced Moriarity in a positive way. In which, McCandless had lacked the positive influence. “He was so enthralled by these tales, however, that he seemed to forget they were works of fiction, constructions of the imagination that had more

This family comes together in a time when they all need it. Phillip at one point tells Judd he’s on his side and has his back no what the situation is. Then every time Judd and Wendy meet on the roof to talk they are creating a turning point during a bad time. It can be see that each brother, sister, brother, brother, and/or mother, child moment is a growing point where something/someone else is thinking and acting different. The Altman family displays resilience by walking away at the end and assuring each other that they have their backs.

The early 1970’s was marked with fervent political activists and the commercialized introduction of TV sets in middle-class homes, catalyzing a shift in politics, power, and media. Consequently, films such as Rocky and Breakfast at Tiffany’s began to emulate and reproduce the idea of docile women and macho men through repetitive socialization. Within UCSB’s art exhibit, Westmore: Making Faces for Film, the artifacts center on the well-renowned Westmore family during the 60’s and 70’s and their accomplishments in prosthetics and beauty makeup during the “American New Wave.” Aside from the representation of the overtly feminine Audrey Hepburn and the masculine heterosexual identity of Sylvester Stallone, there is a blatant misrepresentation of

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

“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.

Lester follows an american stereotype way of living but when he meets Fitts in a business party of Carolyn. They smoke weed together and Fitts who is working at this party, resigns. This situation change Lester, his way of acting and thinking. He doesn't want to be that stereotype anymore because it doesn't make he happy. So he quit his job, buy the car that he always wanted and start working out to have sex with Angela, the girl that he wished since the first time he saw her.

The opening scene of American Beauty shows a teenage girl lying in a bed, venting her feelings towards her father. In this, the audience sees her in dull clothing and colours, minimal make-up and has greasy-looking hair. As she sits up, her hair falls around her face and she stares directly into the camera, giving a sense of unease to the audience.

“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.

Since its humble beginnings in the later years of the nineteenth century, film has undergone many changes. One thing that has never changed is the filmmaker’s interest in representing society in the present day. For better or worse, film has a habit of showing the world just what it values the most. In recent years, scholars have begun to pay attention to what kinds of ideas films are portraying (Stern, Steven E. and Handel, 284). Alarmingly, viewers, especially young women, are increasingly influenced by the lifestyle choices and attitudes that they learn from watching these films (Steele, 331). An example of this can be seen in a popular trope of the “romantic comedy” genre in this day and age: the powerful man doing something to help, or “save” the less powerful woman, representing a troubling “sexual double standard” (Smith, Stacy L, Pieper, Granados, Choueiti, 783).

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