A societal mirror?

Rating: 3/10 (29 March 2000)

WARNING: THIS IS A POSSIBLE "SPOILER"
There is way too much to discuss with a film like this, from the meaning of the title to the music selection during the closing credits. I will just deal with one area - that being the one positive thing (yes, I said POSITIVE)which one can get from watching this film. Let me first give the disclaimer that I do not recommend the film; it is absolutely depressing. Now for that one positive thing. Although the film made the human condition seem hopeless, it still taught a very important lesson. Think of the means gone through for the characters to end up in their hopeless situations. We'll look only at Lester for brevity's sake. Lester was going through what most people would call a mid-life crisis. How did he cope with it? He nihilistically gave into all of his pleasures. This is a great thing for the remainder of his life - the whole one year of it until he was ruthlessly murdered by his neighbor. But what if he didn't live for a year? Giving in to all of his desires can only satisfy one for so long. Think of King Solomon, the wisest and possibly the richest man to have existed, who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. After trying out every possible feel-good experience life had to offer, he came to the conclusion that "nothing is worthwhile under the sun." This is a man who has reached the top only to discover nothing was there. Likewise Lester would have found nothing was there. Had he lived on, another year or so of pleasure would have left him in a more desperate situation than he had been. Who knows, maybe he would have ended up in jail. That's what happens when one selfishly does whatever they want all in the name of "happiness." "But," you say, "Lester wouldn't have ended up in jail; he knew where to draw the line. After all, he didn't have sex with his teenage daughter's friend when he had the perfect opportunity to." Sorry friends, but Lester crossed the line the minute he allowed his mind to be filled with erotic fantasies of that young cheerleader. In fact, that moment in the school gymnasium was, I believe, the turning point of the film. The decision to make her the object of his desire and not his wife had many other decisions implicitly attached. First of all, by doing this he violated the sacredness of his marriage vows. He decided that feeling good was more important than keeping a promise. The decision also included sacrificing a potentially healthy relationship with his daughter. The ultimate decision implicit in the willingness to fantasize was that of making himself, and only himself, all that mattered. Imagine if everyone made this decision. We would live in chaos. Morality cannot be based on an individual's feelings, or more specifically, their happiness. What if we all felt like killing our neighbor like Lester's neighbor did? It just won't work. American Beauty shows how "only counting on yourself" (as Lester's wife so confidently said) leads to disaster. Without something to measure against, without a moral law to abide by, life is not livable - at least not for long - as we have seen.