American Beauty is a film directed
by Sam Mendes that tells the story of an American family living in the suburbs
dealing with family issues. The mise-en-scene of this film truly is amazing and
can be very much appreciated by any film lover. The brilliant foreshadowing,
the unique edit cuts to scenes, and the use of music/sound effects to convey
emotions is absolutely divine. The interaction between characters, and the
intertwining of their lives is genius and very well artistically thoughtout.
Each main character has a rich back-story, and lots of personality traits are
showcased in order for audiences to fully understand who these characters are.
American Beauty examines self worth, self-motivations, love, hate, desires,
regrets, passions, life and death; American Beauty asks you to question your
own existence, to truly question why you are motivated to do the things you do
or to question what it is you yourself honestly and whole heartedly desire.
I
wouldn’t say this is a soundtrack driven film, because the acting is
phenomenal, but the music used in the film is very resonating, and after
viewing the film once a viewer will most definitely make emotional connections
with the main theme music in this film. For example, the intro and outro song
are the same. The song is a soft acapella piece and when first heard, I
believe, is meant to establish a warm euphoric feeling for the viewers while
the actor’s credits appear over a black screen. However, the first initial shot
of the daughter (Jane) being filmed by someone while she talks of her disgust
for her father and she reveals her desire to kill him. This is Mendes’s first
example of foreshadowing (in the first few minutes!, brilliant) and it allows
the audience to make assumptions of what is too happen later on and to fathers
character as well as the daughters character ;and it leaves us wondering who
the camera man is filming this deadly confession.
Following
the euphoric music, we are led into an establishing wide angle aerial shot of
the suburbia area where the family dwells accompanied with the films signature
theme music which appears multiple times when the main actor (Lester) has his
“moments of blissfulness”. Along with
the wide-angle shot and theme music, Lester, begins to talk introducing himself
and his mundane existence while foreshadowing his own demise. The main theme
music is very iconic for me after viewing this film more than twice it becomes
apparent the music is very much a staple and main component for achieving
emotional scenes. Without the use of the iconic theme music, much of the
scene’s would not make sense, but due to the calculated and proper placement of
the music it becomes very powerful and memorable.
The
use of alternative camera views due to the character that attracts Lester’s
daughter, Ricky, is unbelievably delightful and the depth of Ricky’s persona is
truly intriguing in my opinion. Ricky’s
character has an intense stare, and maybe this is due to his use of a potent
marijuana, but the ideas that Ricky presents are simply sublime in the sense
that he seems to always make complete sense and maintain a somewhat cool
attitude. Ricky becomes Lesters dealer in youth, his role model and supplier of
what could have been stony possibilities; but ultimately proves positive on
Lester’s life and outlook on life for awhile. One could argue the reason why
Lester is still smiling when he dies is because he is still high, but the
intense scene in which Ricky stares into Lester’s dead eyes and bloody red head
for an awkward but sublime moment of “American beauty” we are introduced to
another moment of pure depth into Ricky’s overall intellect much like the
infamous scene in which Ricky shows Jane the recording of a paper bag blowing
around in the wind. When I originally viewed this film at a younger age, the
scene with the bag made no sense to me, but now maybe due to my majority this
scene holds some much truth because I understand what Ricky is seeing when he
watches the bag blown around by the earths endless and spontaneous
possibilities. There is a saying I believe Ricky and Lester both use at
separate points which goes along the lines of something involving there being
to much love in the world to handle, and that you should basically enjoy as
much of it as you can but don’t stress out about being happy.
Ricky’s
father is a whole new perspective; the point of view assumed by the main
characters is much different in terms of life experience and ultimately the
personalities; but Ricky and his dad’s relationship almost presents a male
perspective on being apart of a sort of suburban nightmare similar to the one
Jane is experiencing, One could say Sam Mendes’s American Beauty is a film
about two families, but of course Ricky’s family is not the main ingredient but
an ingredient that adds to the overall message and flavor of this film. Ricky’s
dad, Col. Frank Fitts, is a man who has held a powerful and well respect
position throughout his life and lives on a very intense regiment (due to his
past military background); which consists of being a candidate for the most
over protective and randomly spontaneously weird antics (Nazi memorabilia, and
contradictive gay impulses). I really liked the intense interactions with Rick
and his father Col Fitts, the father son beat downs and verbal slapping,
because I felt as if this was a more intense approach of parental discipline
type scenes verses the single slap which Jane experiences from her mother.
The
use of color and metaphors is definitely purely artistic and original, Mendes
applies the intense affect of Red to illuminate themes such as lust, betrayal,
and vanity among many others; which is truly the idea of Mendes’s use red, he
wanted audiences to question why was it shown her particularly and what is the
significance of the roses around the house, or the roses which come out of
Jane’s friends cheerleading top. Among the multiple times red makes its
appearance in this film it is so artistically put in it that is makes me smile,
I undoubtedly loved the endless possibilities red created for my mind to
interpret.
Ultimately
this film is about people trying to be happy, and non more so than the mother,
Carolyn, and arguably though thanks to unbelievable writing all of the Burnham
family is all basically equally miserable but the mom has her own unique way of
masking her frustration (the over use of roses surrounding the front of the
house). There are precise moments in which the sound is edited to allow
audiences to predict scenarios due to the association of the recognizable theme
music also tied to Lester’s fantasies of Jane’s friend Angela, who is Lester’s
young fantasy girl.
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