If you didn't like it, look closer

Rating: Null/10 (6 September 2001)

I've read the most recent 100 reviews here, and only 2 of them revealed any understanding of this movie.
(SPOILERS)
There's more here than just a satirical depiction of suburban America. This film is about the tension between three major schools of philosophy.
Lester Burnham tells you at the beginning that he might as well be dead. Why live if you don't have desire? He's been without it for years, but once a spark re-ignites it, he embraces the existential view that choice defines who you are. His view on work and marriage is reminiscent of Sartre's hell in "No Exit".
Meanwhile, Ricky Fitts, the psycho guy next door who films everything, clearly represents Zen. Consider this exchange he has with Jane about his decision to make a videotape of a homeless woman who had just died:
Jane: Why would you film something like that?
Ricky: Because it was amazing.
Jane: What's amazing about it?
Ricky: When you see something like that, it's like God is looking at you, just for a second, and if you're careful, you can look right back.
Jane: And what do you see?
Ricky: Beauty.
Totally Zen. Notice the video camera is a modern adaptation of the traditional Zen mind-as-mirror metaphor. He then shows her a video of a plastic bag, ordinary to most people, against a brilliant red brick all, which he ignores. Ricky's commentary on it is textbook Taoism.
He never fights his father, the Marine colonel, but not out of fear. He simply accepts his father's behavior and tries to adapt. Col Fitts represents the Aristotelian view that the world is subject to order and taxonomy. Notice the house is neatly arranged but starkly furnished, devoid of any warmth.
Judging from the variety of clients Ricky has, he's very well connected in the community. His father of course is in denial about this, much as occidental science is reluctant to accept that people can find truth outside the realm of rational thought. Notice also that Col Fitts struggles to reject his latent homosexuality -- it's something he can't account for through conventional reasoning. This is an unusual but interesting metaphor of homosexuality as Truth. (The gay couple, I think, represents the harmonious union of Truth and Beauty. Notice how the two men look alike, dress alike, are both named Jim, and are always seen together.) Also watch how the different characters react to Truth. Western science sees it and realizes its own limitations. Existentialism pursues it. Zen simply accepts it.
Lester's natural liking for Ricky represents a certain affinity between Zen and existentialism. On the opposite end of the spectrum are his wife Carolyn (superficial obsession with material wealth) and Jane's friend Angela (superficial obsession with physical beauty). Both are afraid of being ordinary, because they can't see the beauty in the ordinary. This division is underscored by the use of color: red represents surface beauty and blue represents depth. Humorously, the use of red is visually obvious while the use of blue is subtle.
Jane, the angst-filled teenager in search of her own identity, is the perfect way to represent the philosophical problem of defining the self. Will she define it by her appearance, or by her choices, or will she ultimately repudiate the self?
American Beauty holds up a mirror in front of you and asks who's looking.