American Beauty: One of the greatest films in 20 years.

Rating: 10/10 (14 September 2005)

"Close on a single, dewy American Beauty rose, perfect in shape and colour. As we pull back, a pair of gloved hands with clippers appear and snip the flower off.
We continue pulling back to discover Carolyn Burnham"
This is an excerpt from the script to the film "American Beauty", and in this small piece of text accurately portrays one of the meanings of the story of this film, something as beautiful as a perfect red rose, symbolising life, love and passion, being cut off left to wither away and eventually die. Sam Mendes, the film's director, mentioned that "Red roses are a symbol of Carolyn, a symbol of his (Lester's) other life", throughout the movie red roses and dark crimson colours dominate nearly every scene in some aspect.
The film "American Beauty" deals with many issues of modern suburban life in middle-class America, but the main issue that it seems to confronted is how people who live these suburban lives can feel trapped, isolated, and worst of all, absolutely helpless to get back the joy that they once had.
This film is about one suburban man, Lester Burnham; played by Kevin Spacey, who breaks free from his entrapping suburban life and starts to take control, and for once in a long time, do what he really wants to do even if that means quitting his monotonous job, buying a 1970 Pontiac Firebird, smoking weed, doing weights and working in a fast-food shop a job with as little responsibilities as possible. The scriptwriter of "American Beauty", Alan Ball, sums this up in one quote; "the movie is about people who are searching for the meaning in their lives".
The conflict in the film was actually hard to pick out, because there was so much conflict and tension between so many of the characters already, not to mention to conflict that is shown between the individual and society, when looking at it on a large scale. Throughout the film the main conflicts are of Lester and his wife Carolyn, Lester and his job, Ricky Fits (Lester's dealer and daughter's boyfriend) and his dad last of all Ricky's dad, Col. Frank Fits; played by Chris Cooper, and himself, as shown later in the movie.
The tag line to the movie is "Look closer", this does not mean scan each scene and use a digital zoom to look for some hidden meaning. Even though there are many important features hidden in the background of the film, the meaning of "Look closer" is that sometimes we need to stop and just look at something to find the meaning and beauty of it, as many people in America are always in such a rush to do things they cannot see these things because they aren't looking.
Alan Ball commented on the meaning of "looking closer"; "Beauty is in the strangest places. A piece of garbage floating in the wind, and that beauty exists here in America. It exists everywhere. You have to develop an eye for it to be able to see it."
"American Beauty" deals with the issue that modern American people no longer have the time available to then to enjoy simple things in life, they have placed material goods over the joys of being alive. This is seen in a scene in the film when Lester and his wife Carolyn manage to briefly rekindle their love life, but just as Lester is about to kiss Carolyn she stops him because he was about to spill beer on their six-thousand dollar couch. Gone, the passion is once more destroyed my Carolyn's materialism.
Climax comes at a point near the end of the film, it is as all things seem to be coming to an end, the older characters have ended their journeys, whilst the younger characters have only just begun theirs.
In the last few scenes of the movie Lester is shown to know that his story is ending, but keeping to aspects and conventions of a tragedy, he does nothing about it. Lester gets an opportunity to fulfil his fantasy with his daughter Jane's friend, Angela; played by Mena Suvari, but when she tells him that she is a virgin he realises how old he really is, and the paternal side of him comes out. That is the end of his fantasy, the end of his journey of self discovery and also, to an extent, the end of Angela's journey as well, because she is exposed to the viewers and herself of who and what she really is, not what she makes her self out to be to other people.
The viewers are positioned to believe that Carolyn is going to do something exceptional, but her opportunity is spoiled by Frank Fits. At this point both Frank and Carolyn have also ended their journeys, the end product; Lester is dead, a hole blown into the back of his head.
In a conclusion I have to say that even though I enjoyed "America Beauty" I had troubles with it because of the sheer amounts of content possessed in the film, every single scene had an important point, comment or meaning to it, whether it reflected characters in the film, influences the story of the film, or comments on the real world there was always something to be seen or made out.
Directed by: Sam Mendes. Written by: Alan Ball.
Script found at: http://scifiscripts.name2host.com/msol/A_B.html