American Beauty: A film for a generation

Rating: 10/10 (29 February 2000)

American Beauty, like The Graduate, exposes the issues of a generation. The dysfunctional suburban American family as the nucleus of society, is shown in all its humanity, divisions and fading glory, as the new generation, in the form of the hero with his video camera and unique insight, is left to pick up the pieces of an older generation's conflict and shattered dreams, portrayed by the two middle-aged men- one who is a naive, unsuspecting victim who has just begun to realise his lost dreams of youth- his deep attraction to young Angela, (who is one aspect of "American Beauty",) and the other an embittered, paranoid authoritarian whose intense, video-camera-eyed son shares a genuine bond that spans the generations with his unsuspecting generational counterpart. Jane, who represents the elusive, complex beauty that is for the first time within the artistic and psychological grasp of the new generation of filmmakers, finds love with this young hero who finds beauty in both life and in death. The opening and closing words of the film are those of Jane's youth-driven, socially alienated father. His fresh realisations as to the meaning of his life- elusive and barely reborn even as he unwittingly prepares for death, are passed on to his daughter Jane's newfound soul-mate with the camera. As the new chronicler and artist- complex, darkly aware, and above all, human, he must now carry on a lost legacy and fresh hope, in this passing of reins from one generation to the next. As a sixties "boomer," of The Graduate days I was greatly impressed, reminded, and uplifted by this entertaining and poetically cinematic piece, and it was not without some degree of recognition and sadness that I realised how we had our chance, and whatever hope there was must be now handed down to my daughter's generation, who will reinterpret, criticise, glean insight and meaning in all aspect of human existence, and make something that has never been made before. This is the job of any artist, and indeed according to the film's insightful director, of any human being who cares to give his life meaning. Picking up the pieces from an older generation's legacy and heretofore unexplored conflicts, cannot be easy, but the work has begun and it astounds me. Go see the film.