American Beauty Analysis

Reflection Paper
American Beauty
4/14/2011
American beauty is a quirky film about a middle aged mans rebellion, and the live of the people surrounding him. The opening scene shoots over what appears to be the perfect suburbia. Perfect little white houses, friendly neighbors, the whole nine yards. The question is “Is suburbia perfect. is After watching this film, I felt the best way to go about a reflection paper was to do more of a character analysis. In the beginning of the film, we are introduced to the Burnhams. They are what appears to be the typical American family, or not so typical. The Mother, Carolyn desperately wants the “Perfect family.” Everything in her life that she can control is in perfect order. What people don’t really see behind closed doors is a repressed woman. This explains why she sleeps with King, a fellow real estate agent who appears to be as perfect as it can get. The father, Lester appears to be uninvolved, and unenthusiastic. He just appears to be living. He even say it at the beginning of the film. A perfect scene to sum up Lesters life thus far is when him and his wife attends a social gathering. His wife attempts to strike up a conversation between King , and When Lester introduces himself it appears as if King had forgotten who he was. This is how Lester views himself, someone who is easily forgotten. Even his family think he is just passing through life, a loser so to speak. It’s not until he meets his daughters’ friend that he decides to do something about his boring life. The Final member to the family is Jane. She appears to be going through the typical teenage angst. I felt as though she was a misfit, attempting to fit in. How often do you see a gothic, grunge type of girl on the cheerleading squad? Although she describes her parents as “losers,” she is still attempting to fit into an American standard so they can be proud. It’s not until she meets her new neighbor that she really becomes herself. The Second family we meet are the Fitts. The opening shot is the family sitting in a very messy, disorganized kitchen. Total Opposite of how the Burnhams are introduced. Frank Fitts is a marine vet, owns a lot of guns, loves to be in control and is a self proclaimed homophobe. This all seems very masculine, the typical American dad. The reason why he acts in such a manner is because like Carolyn, he is putting on a show. He ends up being gay in the end of the film. How Ironic. His Wife appears to be out of it, all of the time. It appears as if she is in her own little world. In one of the scenes, she is sitting on the couch with her family, but her body is turned away. Her body language is completely disconnected with the family, just like she was throughout the movie. The last piece to this family is Ricky. He was someone that I really had a hard time analyzing. I feel as if he was protagonist throughout the film. He was a protagonist because he opened up the eyes of the other characters, and in a way saved them, even if the story line ended in tragedy. Another key character in this story line is Angela, Jane’s best friend. She is the reason for the rebellion of Lester Burnham. Angela wants to be anything but ordinary, and craves attention. I feel as if they added her character because subconsciously, no one wants to be just ordinary, the people in the audience can relate to her character. As you can see by my analysis nobody is perfect. No matter how things may look on the outside, nothing is flawless. Although this may not be your analysis, this is the main point that I drew up from the movie. The directors did a great job casting, and the actors did a great job portraying their character. I felt as if I could relate to each character on some level.