Essential Films: American Beauty (1999)

There are three ways in which people can react to Sam Mendes' film American Beauty: first, there are those who love it and hail it as a masterpiece, then, there are those who, over time, have come to see it as an overrated film that was popular at one point, but only because of how it was particularly tailored to what critics were looking for at the time. For these people, the film is at its worst, an example of pretentious pseudo-intellectual garbage trying to sweep in awards, and at its best, a film which only has purpose as a window into a specific time and place in American culture. Then there's a third group of people: the people who complain about the movie not because of its quality, but because of its content; people who are so turned off by the film's unseemly premise that they refuse to recognize the protagonist's subtle journey towards redemption. In this video, my aim is to examine each of these reactions and respond to them with my own interpretation of the film, and to provide a perspective which can hopefully reignite discussion about the film while reconciling opposing arguments that have been made in the past.

First, I want to address the latter group-- the group that perceives the film to be 'immoral' simply on the basis of its plot-- mainly because this is the easier of the two to respond to. To explain this group's complaints, first I must describe the plot of the film to those unfamiliar with it: American Beauty is set up as a satirical protest against the calm conformity of suburban life in the late 90s. We begin with central character Lester Burnham voicing his frustrations with the apathy he feels towards his own life and his estranged relationships with his wife Carolyn and his daughter Janey. He complains, "both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser, and... they're right. I have lost something. I have lost something. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I know I didn't always feel this... sedated." We see his face "shown reflected in his desktop monitor, with vertical bars of numbers evoking digital imprisonment."¹ He is, however, awakened from his listless state by his daughter's cheerleader friend Angela, who he immediately develops a passion for, leading Lester to spend the rest of the film attempting to pursue relations with her. But even though this is the basic backbone of the story, there's a huge problem with seeing the Lester-Angela sexual tension as the main 'plot' of the film, which is why I'm personally kind of upset with the film's marketing for focusing so heavily on Angela-- just from looking at the posters, the DVD cover, or even some clips from some of the film's more iconic scenes, it's easy to assume that the film supports and even celebrates Lester's attempts to bed the underage teen, when in reality, the film does anything but. What the film celebrates is Lester's reawakening and his search to rediscover meaning within his own life: Angela, and his subsequent desire for her, is merely a stimulus which provokes him to do this, so for most of the movie, what we see is someone who is trying to enact positive changes in his life, but for completely wrong and misguided reasons... now, hopefully, you can begin to see why this film is so difficult to talk about. Its characters and the situations they find themselves in are complicated, which brings me to my second reason for why focusing on Lester's desire for Angela is a bad idea: because the film barely even focuses on it at all-- instead, the film defies traditional plot structures by focusing on a variety of different characters and subplots, including the neighbor Ricky Fitts and his relationship with his parents, Janey and her relationship with Ricky, and Carolyn and her issues with accepting failure. Trying to condense the film into one basic plot is at best an oversimplification, and at the worst, painfully incomplete: which brings us to the other argument about the film, that argument being that the film is pretentious.

Many people have felt that American Beauty was successful only because it did its best to appear that it contained some deep meaning, when it was really just regurgitating vague pseudo-philosophical religious statements behind good cinematography all for the purpose of obscuring the vain emptiness at its center. I believe that this view stems from a particular interpretation of the film which is shared by both the film's fans and its enemies: this interpretation being that American Beauty is, at its heart, one of many 90s counterculture films promoting a spirit of rebellion against a consumerist society, and that its story is one of a man who undergoes an experience which prompts him to free himself from an oppressive job and an even more oppressive wife and go after what's really important to him, inspiring us to chase after our own desires. But there's one problem with this interpretation: it's completely wrong. Granted, this is only my opinion, but a close analysis of the film strongly suggests that while it's fun to see Lester asserting control over his own life, his actions are ultimately supposed to be seen as mistaken and even reprehensible. Let's take a look at the film's tagline, used in all of its trailers and posters: "...look closer." In one sense, it's telling us that if we look closer behind the surface of 'normal American suburbia' that people are more complex and flawed than they would like you to believe, but in another sense, it's an invitation to look past our initial reactions towards the film to understand the deeper meaning that's buried within.

So let's start with the film's symbolism. Without question, the film's most prominent symbol is the American Beauty rose, after which the film is named, or, more broadly, the color red in general. The color red is widely acknowledged by the film's fans and critics as being symbolic of desire within the narrative: we see it attached to both the flowers that surround Angela and the Pontiac Firebird that Lester buys towards the film's second act. But the crimson color of desire is also associated with Carolyn's desires-- the roses that she places inside and outside the house towards the beginning of the film represent her desire for success perfection, and the emphasis on the red door towards the film's end represents her desire to regain control over her household. But wait-- Carolyn is supposed to be the cold-blooded, manipulative unlikable shrieking harpy in the film, right? Then why is it that there's such a strong thematic link between Lester's pursuits and her pursuits? Yes, you can argue that this is to contrast the two characters but I maintain that in context this is done to compare the two characters and to establish that they're equally misguided. I mean, consider things from Carolyn's perspective: her husband quits his job, leaving her as the sole breadwinner of the house, at a time when she's failing at her current business, begins smoking marijuana in her garage and buys a new car as part of some mid-life crisis, and then when she threatens divorce, claims that he will receive half of everything she owns if she decides to do anything about it. Lester isn't a hero, he's an asshole. I mean, seriously, a lot of people look at this film as championing anti-consumerism, but remember how as soon as he quits his job, the first thing that he does is buy an expensive car and start working for a large corporation. Lester is no less a consumerist at this point in the film than he is at the beginning. He believes he is free, but he is only running away from responsibilities and allowing himself to remain a slave to his own desires, just as Carolyn remains enslaved to hers-- and in fact, I believe that this is something that really applies to all of the characters, so let's take a look at them one by one, shall we?

The idea of relationships between different generations is a key component to the film's character dynamics. I'm referring on one level to the relationship between Lester and Angela: Lester is drawn to Angela because wanting her makes him feel young again, and he immediately begins to try to relive that youth and recapture the passion that he felt in those days-- hence the marijuana, the exercise, the car, and the job at the burger joint. But I'm also referring to Lester's relationship with Ricky, who he describes as "his personal hero". Ricky's rebellion against his parents' strict regime inspires Lester, who is jealous of Ricky's wisdom, happiness, and self-assertiveness, and this also shapes much of Lester's behavior throughout the rest of the film. He is trying to escape the 90s and return to the dream of the 60s, a feeling that many older audiences could connect to at the time. (Note how composer Thomas Newman uses vibraphones and pianos to symbolize the sterile sophisticated world that Carolyn attempts to uphold, while beneath it a tribal beat played out on hand drums corresponds to Lester's primal instincts that simmer beneath). Meanwhile, Carolyn is motivated by success and power, whereas Janey is striving towards a projected image of herself. This is part of what makes the opening sequence of the film work so well, because right from the start we are shown that this is not just a story about Lester, but rather about all three members of the family and their respective journeys to fill a hole within their lives. Even the most minor characters like Carolyn's lover Buddy Kane or Ricky's mother are incredibly developed-- especially Angela, who could have been written as a mysterious and vague object of Lester's desires, but instead has her own life within the story, and her own problems. "For her part," writes critic Gary Hentzi, "the girl is the most believable teenager in the film. The energy she devotes to trying to live up to an unworthy image of herself is painfully familiar, and there is a nice symmetry in the fact that she is chasing empty images of adulthood at the same time that Lester is cultivating equally empty fantasies about youth."² This is one of numerous contrasts and connections between characters: while many of the film's young characters, such as Angela or Jane, crave to be seen as special, the adult characters, such as Carolyn or Col. Fitts, long to be seen as normal. Each character longs to find fulfillment, but they all seem to be searching for it in the wrong places. So what is the film's solution for this dilemma? Where can true happiness and satisfaction be found?

The answer, I believe, lies in the film's ending, when Lester is about to bed Angela, when suddenly she reveals that she is a virgin, causing him to instantly change his whole perspective of her. From that point forward, Lester begins to see Angela not as a conquest or an opportunity to regain his own youth, but rather, as a daughter and a precious human being; and he demonstrates this by apologizing and beginning to care for her, as well as taking initiative into restoring his relationship with his own daughter, thus he begins to return to the responsibility associated with his own role as an adult and a father. In his video on the film, YouTube film critic Josh Bradley illustrates how this change in the characters and their relationship with each other is exemplified through a change in the framing and the staging itself. Here's how he breaks down the climactic scene:

It begins with flirtatious conversation: notice Lester on the right side of the frame and Angela on the left. And he begins to undress her,  and even though the characters have moved in the room... this established space of the characters remains the same: Lester on the right, Angela on the left. Then Angela drops the bomb on him. Lester's disposition completely changes, and lo and behold, he's now on the left side of the shot, and Angela's on the right. This break in the 180 degree rule shows that while their physical locations may have remained the same, these two characters' relation to each other has been drastically altered.³

This is a story where, in the end, love wins out over lust, except this time, it's not a romantic love, but an unconditional fatherly love, nurturing and protecting. Lester's transformation doesn't happen at the gymnasium, and it doesn't happen when he quits his job. It happens right there in the living room, and it it is only after he is transformed by the power of love that Lester fully realizes that everything that he was truly searching for was with him all along. In this moment, his family is not something to complain about, but to celebrate, and it is this not any external action that he performs, but rather an internal spiritual change which redeems him. David L. Smith, writing for the University of Nebraska's Journal of Religion & Film, says that:

Lester in the end thus finds and exercises freedom - not the freedom to do what he wants, but the freedom to deal mindfully with what is real - and so discovers the beauty in his necessities. He has not found a way out of his circumstances, but he has found a way to own them that makes possible his final affectionate review of the moments of joy that punctuated his "stupid little life". What is "attained" in such freedom is thus paradoxical, because it brings nothing that one did not previously have. What is recovered is something from which one was never really separated.⁴

Opponents of this movie will claim that the film uses a lot of clever-sounding dialogue and fancy symbolism to make the film sound a lot smarter than it actually is, and that the film is really just giving us something that we've seen a hundred times before-- but if it really were that simple, if the message of the movie was so straightforward, then why is it that there's so much contention about the movie, and how few people seem to be able to pinpoint exactly what the movie is saying, and even when they do, their answers often feel incomplete? Even my analysis here has no doubt ignored a few significant aspects of the film-- because, honestly, you could write multiple essays on this film's portrayal of society, family, sexuality, etc. Nonetheless, I do want to try to tie this up as best as I can. I think the reason that American Beauty is so complex that not even the screenwriter seems to be able to explain it in full, is because so many different people put so much into it-- the story meant so many different things to each of the actors involved, that each of them brought something different to the table, the end result being that the philosophical core of the film is not the result of one man's design, but rather the collective outpouring of the screenwriter, the actors, and the director. The film is able to strike a chord with such a wide audience because it is both spiritual and secular: it openly mentions God, but fails to identify with any one religion, instead assuring us that there is life after death and that there is this great force of benevolence and love and beauty, but more importantly, it assures us that these things are beyond our comprehension and that one day all things will be clear to us. Garry Leonard of the University of Toronto describes this vague spirituality as "a meta-narrative of transcendence that will be suited to our own situations" describing how, at the end of the film:

the polarities of the secular and the sacred have been reversed, and once again it is this life on Earth that is silly and inconsequential, and it is the ‘beyond’ that is benevolent in ways we cannot possibly imagine. American Beauty closes, as the camera zooms out, with a transcendent meta-narrative of cosmic order and moral justice; it implies that those of us in the de-sacralized world of a sequestered modernity are the ones in the dark, despite our insistence that we are not.⁵

This echoes both Asian doctrines like Buddhism and concepts presented in the Christian New Testament by the Apostle Paul: " For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." (1 Corinthians 13:12). Compare this to what Lester says, speaking from beyond the grave in the film's final line: "You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry. You will someday."

I refer to this spiritual element within the film because I believe that it allows for a better understanding of the film's central motif. Earlier I mentioned that the film portrays characters who are enslaved by their desires, but it's important for me to point out that unlike Eastern philosophers like Buddha or Western philosophers like Zeno and Epictetus, American Beauty asks not that we suppress or reject our desires (the character of Col. Fitts illustrates how disastrous that can be). Rather, it asks that we reevaluate and master our desires, and especially, that we should not fixate on them. When Lester, Carolyn, and Janey allow themselves to be ruled by their desires, it distracts them paying attention to the most important thing in their lives: each other. This is why the paper bag is so central to the film-- it's a frequently criticized scene because, well, really, a piece of trash being blown around by the wind is seriously the most beautiful thing this kid has ever seen? But remember, for Ricky, it's not about the bag itself, but the experience of being there. He even addresses this: "video's a poor excuse, I know." But more importantly, the scene is about discovering beauty in the mundane, and not just about that, but about how every day you have the opportunity to marvel at the miracle of life itself, how all around us there are windows through which we can find transcendence, how maybe what we're searching for is already here with us, in the people and the places that we interact with every day. Lester realizes this at the end of the film, but for him, it's too late, and the tragedy is he doesn't have the opportunity to share his newfound love with his family. But for us, the audience, it's not too late, and though time is running out, we still have the chance to do something with it.

Sources

¹Weeks, Mark. "American Beauty: The art of work in the age of therapeutic masturbation". European Journal of American Culture, vol. 34, no. 1, 2015, pp.49-66

²Hentzi, Gary. "American Beauty (Review)". Film Quarterly, vol. 54, No. 2, 2001, pp. 46-50

³“Movies I Love (and so can you): American Beauty (1999) [*Spoilers*]” YouTube, uploaded by Movies I Love (and so can you), 2 Nov, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J4M9o_fNrg.

⁴David L. Smith. "Beautiful Necessities: American Beauty and the Idea of Freedom". Journal of Religion and Film, vol. 6, no. 2, 2002. n.p.

⁵Leonard, Garry. "Tears of Joy: Hollywood Melodrama, Ecstasy, and Restoring Meta-Narratives of Transcendence in Modernity". University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 79, no. 2, 2010, pp. 819-837.