Beauty and American Culture We live in a society that is saturated with a concept of physical attractiveness that spills into our newspapers‚ magazines‚ TV‚ movies and into our minds. From childhood‚ we have seen images of idealized men and women. We may convince ourselves that they are more attractive‚ fit‚ and somehow better than we are. Body weight‚ in particular‚ is one of the most twisted issues of our day‚ with women striving to be as gaunt as the women seen on TV or in the movies. We are
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director develop character. To what extent do you agree with this view? American Beauty is a 1999 American drama directed by Sam Mendes. The film centres on the less-than perfect lives of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) and his family as they are trapped within the confines of the Middle American image. Entrapment is a recurring theme in Mendes’ film—Lester is trapped by the notion of conforming to the middle-class American ideal; his wife Carolyn (Annette Benning) is trapped within the image of being
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In the movies Fight Club and American Beauty‚ the values of happiness are interpreted incorrectly. This interpretation is consumerism. Consumerism is the myth that consuming will gratify an individual. Consuming can be purchasing anything from a yacht to a book. Consumerism is encouraged through advertising in corporate America. Advertising and consumerism go hand in hand because advertising is necessary for consumerism to play such a huge role in culture. In American culture‚ consumerism is a degenerative
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American Beauty Things Aren’t Always‚ As They Seem American beauty (1999‚ Sam Mendes) is a very unique film with many different themes. The main characters in the film‚ Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening) prove that there is a big difference in appearance versus reality. With the help of Colonel Frank Fitts‚ (Wes Bentley) we learn that people cannot just be judged by their outer appearance‚ but rather by what’s inside‚ because people are not always what they seem. Lester
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Finding the Source of the Power of the Gaze In almost all of literature‚ women are represented as objects of desire. They are supposed to be submissive and their male counterparts are supposed to possess the power. This power structure is ever-present in books‚ photographs‚ and advertisements‚ but especially in film. In the film Gilda (Charles Vidor‚ 1946)‚ the main character and her male counterparts exemplify that women are mean to be recipients of the male gaze‚ and it becomes problematic if these
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Sequence Analysis: The Graduate The Graduate is a subversive‚ wistful coming-of-age tale epitomizing the ambiguity of reaching adulthood‚ and the struggle of this experience. Robert Surtees‚ the cinematographer‚ successfully uses mise-en-scene to illustrate these particular themes. A variety of props are scattered throughout the opening sequence that allude to Ben’s melancholy and detachment. Additionally‚ the same sequence uses social and graphic blocking to depict the impedance Ben
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The Mayan and American Religious practices are very different and similar in many ways. The Mayans have different styles of beauty than we do. They Mayans parents start making their child beautiful at a very young age‚ when they are infants the parents squish the head between two pieces of board. Additionally‚ they suspend a pearl between the child’s eyes which causes them to be cross eyed forever. In American beauty‚ we usually don’t use beauty products until about middle school. But‚ they are still
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American Beauty demonstrates how construction of spectacles can be used to obfuscate our true selves. Mendes reflects on society during the 90’s whereby technological advances had been made evident through the computer and success of the mobile and Internet. The mass production of goods‚ rapid industrialisation and urbanization enabled individuals to compare their prosperity‚ achievement and success to each other. Mendes thereby refers to “spectacle culture” developed by theorist Guy De Bord (1931
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American Beauty Film Analysis The film American Beauty was a complex story of a “traditional American family” as seen by the media. The intriguing part of the film was that it showed what happens behind the doors of a “typical American family” or a family that put on a persona of a typical family. The Family Crucible written family psychiatrist Augustus Y. Napier‚ PhD‚ with Carl Whitaker‚ M.D. it tells a story of an American family who initially seeks counseling because of the abnormal and rebellious
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American Beauty Character Analysis One of the most interesting and most obviously disturbed character in the movie would have to be Ricky Fittz: a drug-dealing-film-maker who is able to find beauty in seemingly mundane things. He’s an obsessed observer using his camera and endless supply of videotapes to capture the beauty he finds no matter where he finds it. He portrays a non-conformist attitude with his strange clothes‚ hobbies and mindsets that contradict those of his militaristic father. His
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