Term Paper: American Beauty What are the costs of living in a success-driven‚ consumer-oriented‚ image-obsessed society? This challenge to contemporary America’s suburban culture finds a voice in Sam Mendes’ 1999 movie American Beauty. The film’s complex subtlety underscores its implication that subtlety itself is a casualty in our society. American Beauty’s tagline exhorts viewers to “look closer‚” but the film expresses ambivalence concerning what is revealed by closer inspection. On one hand
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American Beauty PREEEEEEEP Themes Happiness Exists as an myth‚ goal (illusion) All the characters want to achieve it They all have different thoughts and beliefs of what happiness is and how to achieve it Lester Burnham Pursues happiness by reaching out to his true desires and ignoring what the society (mostly his wife) has to say In the end he realizes that he found true happiness‚ however he took it to a significant extent‚ by doing drugs‚ smoking pot‚ getting a cheap job‚ seeking a sexual
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 In American Beauty‚ 1999‚ directed by Sam Mendes‚ we are confronted with the permeating images that have consumed mainstream American life. Mendes exploits these images as constructions that we created around ourselves as a means of hiding our true selves. Mendes is able to implicate us in the construction and make us active viewers by exploiting our voyeuristic nature. In American Beauty Mendes uses the voyeuristic tendencies of the spectator to acknowledge the permeating constructed
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The three terms/concepts are: casting‚ ensemble acting‚ and method acting. The cast of American Beauty won a Screen Actors Guild Award for an Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Theatrical Motion Picture in the year 2000‚ the ensemble acting includes the acting techniques of working together in the film shots‚ and the casting of the group of actors for the characters’ roles includes: Annette Bening‚ Wes Bentley‚ Thora Birch‚ Chris Cooper‚ Peter Gallagher‚ Allison Janney‚ Kevin Spacey‚ and Mena
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American Beauty Character Analysis Everyone knows the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But is this necessarily always true? Apparently not to Kevin Spacey as he played the role of Lester Burnham in the 1999 film American Beauty. His rule was "When you’ve got nothing to lose‚ you might as well risk everything". Lester Burnham and his wife‚ Carolyn‚ portray a perfect lifestyle to the naked eye. Everyone sees Lester as a man with a perfect high-paying job and a perfect
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Existentialism: American Beauty American Beauty is a movie that sets in suburban America. The story is about Lester‚ whom is a middle-aged writer working in a magazine company. He was having a midlife crisis where he felt lonely and numbed by continuous unchanging routine of his everyday life. In the movie‚ his wife portrayed as a successful real estate agent‚ but she was also going through her own midlife crisis in both her career and personal life. Lester’s daughter‚ Jane Bumham had alienated
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Sam Mendes’ American Beauty‚ sound is an crucial tool in communicating narrative and constructing characters. Although many films use both diagetic and non-diagetic sound in their productions‚ American Beauty amalgamates both forms of sound throughout the film. In the film’s cheerleading sequence‚ the protagonist Lester‚ is watching his daughter cheer whilst the synchronous sound of cheering and clapping is accompanied by a diagetic song ‘Lights on Broadway’. The sound changes when Lester notices his
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love. A more specific example is the relationship between Lester and Carolyn Burnham in the film American Beauty. Lester and Carolyn possessed negative qualities that led to several conflicts with each other and‚ eventually‚ overshadowed the positive aspects that kept their love alive. A relationship is between two people‚ each with their own characteristics that can be either loved or loathed by the other person. In the case of Lester and Carolyn’s relationship‚ each possesses a few negative characteristics
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Happiness is the result of love. Lester pursues his own happiness by paying close attention to what he enjoys‚ his desires and ignores the alarming voice of his wife who embodies what society dictates is the right way or appropriate way to live life. Lester finds happiness in the things that are considered frowned upon by society like for example‚ smoking marijuana or pursuing a fifteen year old girl‚ who to top it off is his daughter’s best friend. He even decides to buy an old‚ ugly looking car
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closer. The chilling tag-line of multi award winning American Beauty has great relatability‚ from the lives of all of the characters to the hidden beauty on showcase throughout the film. It cannot simply be filed into one genre‚ instead being a drama‚ comedy‚ tragedy and more. Director Sam Mendes and screenwriter Alan Ball fine-tuned the film‚ resulting in a triumph of writing‚ acting and directing. The movie follows the last few months of everyman Lester Burnham’s (played by the seemingly ideal Kevin
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