American Beauty - A Critique of the American Dream Using Conrad Hall's Cinematography

Rating: 9/10 (7 November 2016)

American Beauty is a film dripping with character. Following primarily the life of the average American middle class suburban worker Lester Burnham, we get to know a whole host of characters. Lester is married to Carolyn, and their daughter Jane is friends with a girl named Angela, but also befriends the neighbor boy Ricky who just moved in nextdoor. The film itself can be interpreted as a critique of the traditional American dream, a somber and warped view of what is usually the goal of most Americans. Lester goes about his day depressed with his family standing because, while he has a wife and daughter, his love life is nonexistent and his relationship with his daughter is absent, leading to a lack of respect among the family members. He becomes enamored with Jane's friend Angela, a girl far too young for him, and a far cry from the normal love interest in a film about the American dream.
The 90s were a time filled with anxiety about the meaning of life. While earlier decades were dedicated to certain clichÃ©s like the teenage rebel, classic nerd boy, or upstanding middle class citizen, the 90s abandoned all rules and regulations. The American dream was stripped to the core and analyzed, and in American Beauty it's put on display from the start as a soul sucking path down which Lester mindlessly ambles. He finds himself in a loveless marriage, and can't seem to connect with his daughter. The first moment he seems to feel something outside of the bland norm is when he becomes enamored with Angela. He also begins to loosen up about his work when he starts smoking pot with Ricky. These two inciting character developments cause him to stray from his monotonous, droning life, and question the traditional American dream. He isn't happy with the traditional monogamous love life, so he lusts after a younger girl, and he isn't happy with his secure but mind- bogglingly boring job, so he smokes pot and cares much less about work.
The first Lester sees of Angela is lit in stark opposition to the rest of the film with a spotlight, and the rest of the gymnasium literally fades away as he immediately lusts after her. The first Lester sees of Ricky is a surprisingly quick request to "party," followed by a smoke break outside with just the two of them. Wides are reserved for only the most necessary and impactful shots, and both of these incidents are shot with wide lenses. This deviation from the norm of mid to telephoto is indication of a literal deviation in the character's life choices.
Although the film is in color, large swaths of the image are often desaturated in tone both in-camera and through color grading. The first huge use of color we notice are Angela's rose petals. After that we begin to notice a pattern: the traditional American dream is desaturated, almost like their idealized white picket fences, whereas the new and meaningful endeavors in life like younger girls and smoking pot are accentuated by color. The lust after Angela is represented in red, whereas the use of marijuana is often accented with rainbows, especially seen in the background of Lester's garage. Deviations from the traditional American dream are indicated using color, and almost rewarded with a splash of saturation in an otherwise dull world.
In general, the cinematography of American Beauty is very purposeful. The lighting is, for the most part, practical or hyper- realistic, and serves to beautify the subject(s). Because it is kept to this norm, when it changes it obviously means something (think Angela's cheerleading routine, with the spotlight). The same is the case for the positioning and movement of the camera. When something other than the still or purposefully maneuvered mid to telephoto shot is used, we pay attention (think about the extremely wide shot of Lester speaking with his boss for the first time). Conrad Hall, the DP, intentionally maintained a theme and system to his shooting and lighting, and deviated from it to punctuate his storytelling. While some of Hall's signature shots like the "liner" or slash light, intense hair light, and soft three quarters to split face lighting are used, this is very much a film with its own visual grammar. We know what we are to expect, because Hall sticks to it almost all of the time. When he doesn't we see and we take note of how and why.
American Beauty is a critique of the traditional old fashioned American dream. Lester's life embodies everything wrong with that way of living, and his lust and experimentation outside of the confines of the normal are representative of a new way of life. This change to something new and different is accentuated using color, lighting, camera movement and composition, among other cinematography tools. Hall creates a style for the film, based off of his own, and deviates from it to both draw attention to the deviation as well as create a meaning behind it. American Beauty is a breakdown of the American dream, and a suggestion of something new and different to aspire to instead. The cinematography goes hand in hand: a traditional, ordinary style, interrupted by a suggestion of what could be.