Third Aerial Scene

The third aerial-scene of the neighborhood marks the final stage of the film. We have witnessed Lester being filmed constantly inferior in the scenes in the first portion of the movie and have witnessed him challenging that connotation in the second, where he is usually engaged in eye-level shots or rising above others, even if only for a moment. The third part of the movie, which encompasses one day, the last day of Lester’s life, shows the results of his work from the second section of the film. Lester had acquired a job at a local fast food joint, as a means of keeping busy with the littlest amount of responsibility possible. When presenting an order to a couple in the drive-thru, he finds his wife in the vehicle, with another man kissing her neck. Carolyn started the affair earlier in the film to find her own sense of happiness, but as the camera looks down at her from Lester’s point of view, we are able to see that he realizes he can finally stop belittling himself for her. This interaction effectively frees him up to finally pursue what he believes will finally bring him his happiness: Angela.
Coincidentally enough, Jane had already asked her parents if Angela could sleep at their house that evening, but what Lester hadn’t foreseen is that Angela and his daughter had a disagreement which led to Angela isolating herself in
However, cinematography was long ago defined as an art of storytelling(6). The dialogue in American Beauty told us of Lester’s transition from someone who disliked himself and his lackluster life to someone who found happiness, but the cinematography, specifically the camera angles, told us that story as well. The power of cinematography is not that it creates a spectacle(6). The power comes from the way we interpret the story beyond words, such as how the high and low angles of the camera show Lester’s transitioning