Screen writing as art

Rating: 10/10 (8 January 2010)

Every once in a while a screenwriter creates an original script that manages to maintain its originality all the way to the screen. Alan Ball's American Beauty is such a script. Though it is not obviously filmic in a "Star Wars" kind of way, it is a classic example of the screenwriter's art.
To see how it works, you first have to see how it deviates from the traditional Hollywood movie structure. If there is any one story element that defines the classic Hollywood movie it is a strong desire line. The hero comes up with a goal early in the story and then goes after that goal with great speed and intensity.
But American Beauty cannot use this strategy because it is the story of a man who is purposeless. In other words, his problem through much of the story is precisely that he has no desire line. What's more, his wife, Carolyn, and his teenage daughter, Jane, can't stand him. So instead of a hero with a single, driving story line we have a family where centrifugal force is pulling everyone apart.
The writer, Ball, thus faces some crucial questions: How do you create narrative drive for a character with no desire and a family that is exploding? How do you show the journey the hero takes internally when he is literally going nowhere? How do you take the time to show the forces destroying this family when there is no forward momentum to keep the audience interested? Ball's solution is the storytelling structure. Conventional wisdom looks down on the voice-over in movies as uncinematic. Conventional wisdom has never been more wrong. The storyteller is one of the great film techniques because it allows you to sequence a story by deep structure, not simple chronology.
In American Beauty, the first-person voice-over tells the audience almost immediately that the hero will be dead within a year. This puts a sensational piece of information up front that is also somewhat mysterious.
The writer gains two great benefits from this strategy. First, he tells the audience that big things are going to happen later, so they don't become anxious in the first half of the film while the hero has no desire line. That allows Ball to spend more time detailing the mini-society surrounding the hero and so show the causes of its breakdown.
Second, this information forces the audience to focus on the steps of the hero's journey - both his fall and rise - instead of on what's going to happen at the end. In other words, Ball sacrifices suspense for understanding, texture and depth.
Problem/Need: After the initial voice-over information, Ball uses the first few scenes to depict a man living a suburban nightmare. Not only is Lester hated by his wife and daughter, he has a dead-end job from which he is about to be fired.
Opponent: With the voice-over structure buying him time, Ball has the luxury of detailing the hero's intimate opponents. In a wonderful filmic sequence, wife Carolyn cleans, then shows a house she represents to a number of uninterested buyers. The process ends with her breaking into tears of frustration, then slapping herself to get back on the track to success. This is an opponent with a strong desire of her own, but she is so lost in the hollow optimism and denial of the salesman's life she can only psych herself back up and try again.
Daughter Jane is an opponent who loathes her weak, purposeless father, but she has no purpose of her own, other than to go to school the way she's supposed to.
Desire: In the midst of this family nightmare, Lester gains a desire line that galvanizes him. But it is a desire line he cannot act upon. He falls head-over-heels for dream teen, Angela, his daughter's blond cheerleader friend. Every effort he takes to accomplish his desire - fawning over her, calling her, fantasizing about her - only makes him more pathetic. The inappropriateness of his desire is underlined when we hear Angela speak. She is a walking stereotype who likes when men drool over her because it means she has a chance to become a model.
To kick this story to the next level, Ball introduces another ring of society. Frank, an army colonel who hates gays, and his obedient wife move in next door, along with their weird son Ricky who shoots videos. A gay couple lives across the street and Carolyn is attracted to her idol, real estate king, Buddy King.
Ricky becomes the catalyst for the freedom of both Lester and Jane. He gets Lester high and shows him the liberation that comes from telling your boss to screw off. Through his camera, he literally opens Jane's eyes to the beauty that is all around her, even in the "dance" of a grocery bag.
Lester's desire alone cannot drive the story because he cannot act upon it. So Ball extends the story by tracking the desire lines of all the characters in this society. Carolyn wants Buddy, Jane wants Ricky, Ricky wants Jane, Angela wants to be adored by men, and Frank wants to control his son.
These often conflicting desire lines have the ironic effect of both liberating many of these characters and making them hate Lester even more. Lester is still infatuated with Angela, but he is also becoming stronger, challenging his wife and turning the tables on his boss.
This complex of conflicting desires leads to a pivotal scene. Carolyn, feeling great from having sex with Buddy and shooting her pistol at the firing range, returns home to find Lester feeling great too. He is dazzled by how she looks and comes onto her, reminding her of her wild college days.