American Beauty Essay

Today, a woman is presumed successful if she can emulate the standards of beauty portrayed in the media. Unfortunately, this subliminally enforced standard is unattainable to some women, regardless of the quality of their character. Let’s examine how western women went from being pioneering superheroes, to people who measure their worth against airbrushed photographs of impossibly beautiful women. Timeline of American Beauty People have used women in print media to sell their products since the

characters are essentially "roses", in that they personify the empty extravagance the flower represents. The true beauty in American Beauty is the antithesis of the rose. While Lester, Carolyn, and Angela (and virtually every other character) spend the whole film pretending to be someone they're not, Jane and Ricky spend it being nobody but their authentic selves. The true beauty in American Beauty,

''... look closer'' (American Beauty, 1999) is the tagline of the film American Beauty, telling us to look underneath the surface, the image of the picture-perfect family, living the dream that many are trying to achieve. Lester and Carolyn Burnham, along with their teenage daughter, Jane, are a middle-class American family, living in a wealthy suburban area. Nonetheless, beneath the image of success and happiness, lies a dysfunctional family in which each individual is fighting their own battle

American Beauty is more than a satire on suburban life, it is an allegory that asks: what is beauty? This films rich metaphors provide not only an obvious thorough storyline but also provide a rich subtext that explores themes such as life and death, infidelity, homosexuality, however most importantly beauty. The film’s tagline “Look closer...” reminds the audience to not only look at the misery in the characters lives and what they define as beauty, but the beauty and misery in the audience’s own

Lester Burnham: In the midst of a mid-life crisis 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

Stereotyping In Modern Film Stereotypes are extremely prominent in modern cinema, the first example that springs to mind is that of the film "American Beauty", directed by Sam Mendes, in 1999. Here is a seriocomic look at suburban America, which utilizes various stereotypes in order to make a broader statement on the symptoms supposedly brought upon us by living boring suburban lives. While the stereotypes work to the filmmakers' advantage in the film's cutting comic stages, once the film devolves

comedic drama film that was nominated for 8 Oscars and won 5, including Best Picture. The movie, American Beauty, is about two families whose members are all trying to achieve happiness in different ways. This takes place throughout the entire movie and explores the different ways people search for happiness, along with the positive and negative results of their actions. The theme of American Beauty is that the pursuit of happiness is the driving force in everyone’s life, but is overall an impossible

Cultural beliefs and patterns regarding appearance have played a key role in reflecting the effects of beauty standards in Asian-American society. Through recent decades, it has transformed to become a key component to consider when understanding how body image fluctuates from country to country. In east Asian-Americans’ case, they are more than likely to trace back their cultural identity within two main geographic locations: either from their ethnicity background (China, Japan, South Korea) or

Fantasy, sitcom, thriller, or a moral fable? The answer is “all of the above” when attempting to categorize the film American Beauty into one genre. Some may say this movie is about a marriage gone very bad. Others claim it to be about the meaning of life. In my opinion, the film resists any one interpretation. While it is difficult to pinpoint the meaning of the movie, it is not difficult to conclude that each character is struggling with his or her own problems and that each character grows to

American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball, explores the Burningham family’s projection of a “perfectly normal” lifestyle or the “ideal” American family portrayal. This film is about how everything is not as it seems behind closed doors. As the storyline progresses the film adheres to multiple genre codes and conventions to deepen the story arc, this is known as Genre Hybridity as it refers to two or more established genre’s through storyline, etc. (REF TO TEXTBOOK) American