What a wonderful movie

Rating: Null/10 (21 July 2000)

I had a teacher (Shirley) who gave me a text about how society was terrible and how we can change it. The world is incredibly beautiful and we can't waste our lives living the way we do.
A few months later I saw that text gain color, images and movements. A wonderful picture, excellent performances and a script never seen before made of `American beauty' one of the most successful movies in 1999 and the 2000 Oscar winner. The great insight was to make a comedy instead of a melodramatic movie.
`American Beauty' can entertain and cause emotion at the same time. The story of a man who realize his life is terrible and try to change it after fall in love with his daughter's friend is fantastic. Some people didn't understand and thought it was vulgar, they didn't know that it's a satire. In a melodramatic movie the reason he would change his life would be different, since it's a comedy that's why he does it.
Some people thought it was merely a critic of the American style of life. It's a critic, but not only to the USA, it's a critic to all the world. In this world everybody is pretending to be something they aren't, like in the movie. Lester pretends he is happy because he has a beautiful family and a good job, but he isn't. Carolyn pretends she is always successful, it's one of the requisites of her career, she says. Angela pretends she is an experienced woman who has had relationships with boys in her age and now is looking for somebody with experience. Ricky pretends he is a good and innocent son, when he is actually a drug dealer. Jane is kind of authentic, but until she meet Ricky she didn't know what she wanted for real. And that's how the society is, we have to pretend, we have to adapt ourselves to the world forgetting who we really are and what we really want.

To became a good friend we have to abstain of some of our ideas and desires and always agree with our friend. To became a good professional we have to forget about our ideals and do whatever is necessary to succeed, whether we agree with it or not. Our differences are repressed to make of this world `one united world' with no wars and nobody against the rules of the society. Rules that were made by the ones who have the power and benefits of this rules.
The union of the world can't be done this way. We have to accept all the differences and learn how to live with them. All defects we can easily find in the people around us is also found in ourselves. Everything we think is the truth may not be for other people.
Everyday we pass through all the kinds of natural beauties and we didn't realize that. We are living like robots, with no feelings, no wishes, no wills, no desires. Live like it's the last day of our life doesn't mean we can't make plans to the future, but it makes us think what we would do if an angel appears to us and tell us it is going to be our last day on Earth and we can do anything to spend this day here. We live like this life was eternal, we really want to do something, but we forget about it, `maybe another time', we think, it may not be another time. Lets do it now!

Everywhere we go seems to be enclosed by imaginary barriers that keep us in the way they traced and there's still people who think we are free. I wanted to became a lawyer but then I realized I would never make real justice, I would just adapted myself to this world. Then I found out that the only way to escape of this whole thing is through the art. A movie like that can open people's mind and together we can try to do something. Funny how many things we can think about just by watching it. And I think each time we see it, we think about other things.

With all this about the script, seems like the other aspects of the movie aren't so great. Everything about this movie is wonderful. Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Mena Suvary and Wes Bentley are all magnificent. It's a masterpiece of the seventh art. Don't miss it!