Analysis Of American Beauty

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

My views on this heart moving film would be never to give up in life, and with the right amount of determination you can succeed anything. The film tells us the simple, but moving story with a skilled storyteller's voice. The great importance of their

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

I had many emotions at the end of the movie, but they can all be summed up to sad, inspired and relieved. Initially, I felt sad after watching the movie because no one should have to feel hopeless or that they are bound to fail. Also, because in America, one of the wealthiest countries, children should not have to go without their primary needs, such as food. Next, I felt inspired because it showed that people can change. Throughout the movie, Mister, the main character, and his mother made large life adjustments. Mister’s mother stopped using drugs and Mister goes from being a scared fourteen year old to a member of his extended family network, which according to the text book is where “adult members experience a collective social, financial and ethical responsibility to care for family members.” (Waites, 2008) I felt relieved at the end of the movie because in a way Mister and Pete got their happy ending. They ended up together at Riverside and Mister’s mom recovered from her addiction.

American Beauty at first glance may seem to be a snuff film or even a movie that simply dwells on sexual desire but, it is actually a commentary on the monotony of life and the will and means to break out of said monotony. It can also be a tale of the dangers of desires and the downfall that obsessive natures can lead to. This is true for the main character’s wife, Carolyn Burnham, who appears to have both Borderline Personality Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder. While the movie is mainly focused on Lester Burnham and his eventual desire to break free from his conformities, there is a focus on how Carolyn focuses mainly on her work, conformity, and order to the point where she puts her family life on the back burner. These

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

“Hey Brianna, meet me at 12:00 a.m. in the cafeteria so we can discuss what happened in class today.

The purpose of this critique is to analyze the various aspects of a modern family through the film, “This is Where I Leave You”. Different components of marriage, families, and relationships will be explored to better understand the central theme of the movie.

This film got it right because I am sure that many people can relate to this film. Many us have probably gone

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.

The cinematography in the film does a wonderful job conveying the genuine meaning behind the sequence as well. The camera is placed far from the actors at the beginning of the scene and becomes closer and closer as the desire between Lester and Carolyn grows. When Carolyn relapses and becomes upset about the couch almost getting ruined the camera goes out again and the actors are surrounded by all of the material items in the room. In that frame it is clear that the more intimate, close up scene was more tasteful to see than the angry room full of expensive furniture. Through this sequence the viewer should be able to understand the social issue addressed; that today Americans ignore the raw, pure beauty in the world and instead are obsessed with the amount of objects that they can own. Natural beauty is disappearing, while store bought beauty is growing. In time this will destroy true happiness. The film is touching the viewer’s heart and mise-en-scene and cinematography do a wonderful job at exposing the actuality

THe film AMerican Beauty was reviewed to help explain Erik Erikson's theory on psychosocial development. The psychosocial developmental theory consists of eight stages that humans go through from infancy up unto a mature adult over 60. While watching American Beauty several stages of psychosocial development were portrayed. The biggest takeaway from this movie showed that one may fail in order to overcome Erikson's psychosocial development. The stage that was most observed was the identity vs role confusion, during this stage according to our textbook “Adolescents ask themselves “Who am I?” They establish sexual, political, religious, and vocational identities or are confused about their roles.” (Berger, 2017 Table 2.1) Upon reviewing American Beauty I will include examples of the different types of behaviors demonstrated that reflect a particular stage of development or crisis in their life.

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

"Does this make me look fat?” Everyone at one time or another has experienced this iconic question in some way. Your best friend may have asked it, as she was getting ready for a date or maybe you muttered these words to yourself as you stared disapprovingly into a mirror; either way, this six-word question alludes to a standard of beauty that everyone strives to meet. A standard of beauty that is almost impossible to meet. The definition of beauty has evolved greatly over the years and it differs from culture to culture. Today, western culture idolizes the woman who is “thin, large breasted, and white (tanned, but not too brown)” (WVFV, pg. 220). This woman is one that millions of women strive to look like in