Both of these texts expose a reality that reveals the isolation and loneliness experienced from pursuing American dream.. And we see quick flashbacks of the wife whom he grew to despise -- young, laughing, fully alive and radiant spinning on a merry-go-round. I wrote an essay about American Beauty in my philosophy class, and how the color red could be affiliated with the concept of existentialism. Instantly lust-smitten, Lester looks at his life and decides to live it the way he wants to: he quits his job, starts smoking pot, and begins working out in a persistent hope to impress Angela. Anyway thats probably why you can see it as creepy, it blurs the morality lines. Yaakov wished his family farewell, and after a year he finally reached the island. Where, for example, are Angela's parents during the rally at the gym? You might use this metaphor when talking about someone in a gown at a ball who walks with such elegance that it feels like they float. Be as is may, he is suddenly met with his ultimate demise, but not before his penultimate realization. At the close of the film, Lester finally realizes that he has found true happinessand in the most unlikely way. His own wife wont fuck him so of course he is sexually frustrated. Produced and Directed By Sam mendes, Starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Benning. It was too late now, and as he scooped up a few diamonds, he figured that all the fats and oils would make him rich at home. Thats because angels can also represent innocence, which is associated with young people. I think it is the film's most compelling scene. For all its ambitions, when it works, it does so only on the immediate level (excepting Spaceys great performance). Scene 1 ("The High Point of My Day") through Scene 4 ("The Gym"), Scene 5 ("Spectacular") through Scene 8 ("My Personal Hero"), Scene 9 ("I Love Root Beer") through Scene 12 ("I Want to Look Good Naked"), Scene 13 ("Mom's Mad") through Scene 16 ("The Most Beautiful Thing"), Scene 17 ("Pass the Asparagus") through Scene 20 ("Massive Psychological Damage"), Scene 21 ("The Day You Die") through Scene 24 ("Our Marriage is Just for Show"), Scene 25 ("You Couldn't Be Ordinary if You Tried") through Scene 27 ("My Stupid Little Life"), Read the Study Guide for American Beauty, Sweet Release: The Redemption of Carolyn Burnham. With them showing up again here, in a non-sexual scenario (and indeed, in real-life) it could be said they symbolize the contributing factor as to why Lester had to be killed. When the gun is pressed to Lesters head, the camera pulls away from the gun and past the American Beauties before the shot is fired. It appears in various forms the red rose that Lester holds between his teeth symbolizing his love/lust for Angela, the young friend of his daughter. Writer Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes created a dark satire of suburban culture that delivers sharp jabs at a typical middle-class American family, kills off its flawed yet likable main character, and still delivers a message of . Really well done. If he hadnt started working out, Colonel Fitts wouldnt have spotted him working out naked. The Burnham family dinners simmer with anger and awkwardness: these are people who have fundamentally forgotten how to love each other. Mendes, along with contemporaries like Fincher and Nolan, all delve into a more psychological and typically dark analysis into the human psyche. On the one hand, American Beauty seems to be a film uniquely comfortable with sexuality. Color is so important in the impact of visuals. This concept of the eyes being an ocean can often be used to say that the eyes have depth, which is complemented by many other eye metaphors like eyes are a window into the soul. He dropped his bags and quickly began to gather whatever he could get his hands on, stuffing them into his pocket. Love that they used red to attract attention to so many different things that all somehow relate. Its easy to look at any of the characters in the film and categorize them into whatever cliches they seem to fit, but if you look at any character in the film you can see how they change from beginning to end. It was beauty killed the beast. Others can be used to describe how their beauty makes you feel, such as: Her beauty is intoxicating. What does it mean? Even the storyline can be, in true Hollywood fashion, summarized as a combination of two recent films: Office Space and American Pie. This old view of the color red is one of the reasons for the popularity of pink, particularly among men. This metaphor is also invoking the idea that butterflies have beautiful patterns on their wings. Their dreams are nothing but illusions. If, on the other hand, you (b) go and sleep with him, then you win -- you are a character in a Hollywood film! For the protagonist Lester, happiness lies in sexual conquest of his daughters friend by becoming youthful again, which reflects his desire to pull himself out of his current family situation where he is controlled by his wife and her perceptions of what is socially correct. As the camera drifts across the sky, it drifts across the cast of characters, their reactions and ultimately drifts to the killers identity. Slowly - and then with growing intensity - he begins to pursue happiness by paying close attention to his true desires, and ignoring the screeching dictates of society (as embodied by his wife, Carolyn). Carolyn is wearing a red dress and holding a gun which leads us to believe it may be her. And at the end, somehow, improbably, the film snatches victory from the jaws of defeat for Lester, its hero. I realize Im comparing a film which is ostensibly a work of art to two unabashedly simplistic pop comedies. Over subsequent viewings, Ive come around to enjoying the meatiness of American Beauty. It has this certain tangible atmosphere to it that I have not seen from many other movies. Each supporting character in the aftermath of Lesters death is wearing or near something that is red. Thats why it gets help from our memory. On the day that Lester dies, towards the end of the film, she is wearing a bright red dress as if she were celebrating the event. This is one of the qualities that truly make American Beauty a film about the modern American experience: if being American means having the intrinsic right to the pursuit of happiness, why is the "typical" American so deeply unhappy? The use of beauty in this metaphor gives us the sense that the persons beauty is as powerful as a hurricane. She fears being "ordinary" because she has confused ordinariness with physical plainness, and has confused physical plainness with having no identity. When Adelaide is a young girl, she picks out the "Thriller" t-shirt for her prize. But the thing is, her character is intensely annoying; therefore, each second she was on screen, I felt like I was listening to the loud sound of fingernails screeching on the blackboard. American Beauty comes with an aura of dazzlingly positive reviews -- which, I presume, simply reflects the film critics thirst for something original, irrespective of quality. A metaphor is generally an outward symbol that is used to depict something else. These obstacles are known as developmental tasks. The red represents his search for beauty which is inherent in the youthful color, but this search ends in death a colossal waste resulting from his failure to appreciate what he had. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. I could eat a horse: I am very hungry. Mendes seems to choose sex as a consistent metaphor not because of its associations with America, but rather because of its associations with modernity. American Beauty, American dramatic film, released in 1999, that was a critical and box office success and earned five Academy Awards, including best picture. Metaphor matters because it creates expectations. It was his lust. Wolf does not leave one wondering what she means by the "beauty myth" long. As she makes her bid to sell a house and pulls off her clothes, she is dressed in a red slip. Both texts present the possibility of different pursuits of the American Dream and portray a multiplicity of challenges imposed by the societies of their contexts. Well, it could be any of a number of things. Its light is cast around your campfire and its heat makes you feel cozy. ", The next day he began to pick up diamonds and noticed that no one else was doing it. She is an open book: she has nothing to hide. What makes this film so unique is that Lester pursues happiness in a manner that runs directly counter to the ideals of "respectable" society: he does drugs, takes a meaningless job, and pursues a sexual affair with a fifteen-year-old girl. The only charachter that is different from the others is Lester Burnham, he represent the travel from understanding the Inner Beauty instead of the Outer and its pretty much the meaning of the film that wants to let us change our way of seeing the world by his Outer Beauty and to understand the beauty that also simple things , like a flying plastic bag , could have. The rhetorical critic must therefore endeavor to produce criticism concerned with intricacies of rhetorical strategies and the effects they are thought to have produced. (Foss, 1989, p. 25). A rose is considered one of the most beautiful flowers, so the analogy to a beautiful woman is obvious on the surface. Each metaphor is associated with the tenor and its vehicle that help to transmit the metaphorical allusion to the viewer, in order that the underlying message that is associated with the artifact is transmitted through the metaphors. It really brought a good start to the age of film in the 00s, which was greatly centered on psychological explorations. While happiness is a more overt theme in American Beauty, the theme of freedom is significant precisely because free will is so rare and difficult to locate. How Time Loop Movies Have Avoided Their Own Groundhog Day, Platos Cave and the Construction of Reality in Postmodern Movies, Persona: A Journey through the Shadow in Ingmar Bergmans Masterpiece, Lost in Translation: The Sounds of Silence, Hollywoods Fascination with Silence and Horror, Cinematic Vampires: From Shadows to Spotlight. With Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper. That says a lot for the Burnham family. He wears his heart on his sleeve: he shows his feelings readily. Incorrect email. Ricky and Jane are lying on red-colored bed sheets. When he reports for his new job, hes wearing a red shirt and a red hat. 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