Analysis of American Beauty

American Beauty is about a 42 year old man called Lester Burnham. He states at the beginning of the film that he only has one year to live but he doesn't tell the audience the cause of his death or how he knows he only has one year left to live. A common theme seen throughout the film is the red rose and its petals. I believe the colour red represents both the danger and the love in the film and how it plays a large part of the film. Other themes that were discussed in the film were homophobia, pedopillia, drug abuse, drug dealing, prostitution, child abuse, red roses, denia and revenge. Homophobia is a theme I picked out of the film as I could very clearly see that the next door neighbour was homophobic as he tells his son, "I'd rather my son be dead than be a faggot". This quote shocked me a large amount as it would with every audience member. This quite was said after the man got the wrong idea, and thought that his son was meeting up with Lester to engage in sexual activities, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, but the son's father was extremely homophobic (or even jealous) and didn't like the idea one bit. Again, later on in the film the make is seen making a move on Lester and kisses him on the lips, before being told by Lester that he must have got the wrong idea as he was not gay.

Social Class

The working class is the main class seen and it is represented through the houses the characters live in, which I think are quite big and expensive looking. They're surrounded by white picket fences, and luxurious red rose plants. The idea of the white picket fence gives me the impression that the family was inspired by the American Dream and the aspiration to one day become one of the many people in America that are happy, successful and possibly rich. The main family type I found was the nuclear family, in which consists of the father, mother and child; though this family seemed incredibly toxic and unhealthy. The child was a rebellious teen who dispised her father and mother with a passion, they didn't get along and they rarely spoke and took interests in each other's day or anything they had to say for that matter. The second nuclear family that is seen consisted of a man that used to work in the armed forces for America and had very strict rules about, sexuality, drugs and the way his family should behave and look to other families.

Gender

The first mother, husband to Lester, is a successful real estate business woman and the mother who lives next door is trapped inside, and would stereotypically be labels as the housewife. She is controlled by the male who used to work in the military. Carolyn later on in the film is seen to have met up with the male real estate agent in which she is in competition with, and they have sex in a local hotel room. This angered me as when she saw her husband again the next day she didn't look the slightest bit quilty or affected at all by the event. Cheating is wrong, it doesn't matter if the relationship your in is really bad and toxic, you should never make your other half feel as if they weren't good enough. On the other hand, Lester didn't look surprised when he served them at a fast food restaurant, he actually seemed quite happy. The women were represented to be a mixture of emotional, crazy, drunk and demanding. At one point, Carolyn was described as a, "bloodless money-grabbing freak" by Lester, her husband. A sexist comment made by the man to Carolyn who works at the shooting club was, "When you first came here, I thought you'd be hopeless". As you may assume, this also angered me as the man simply just assumed that she wasn't capable of shooting a gun really well due to the fact that she was a woman; Carolyn proved him wrong and made the man eat his words when she shot at the target perfectly. Men in American Beauty are represented to be stalkers, sex crazed, controlling, care free and humourous. I am not generalising the entire male population, I am only taking the messages and ideas the film American Beauty has portrayed. The man next door to Lester is controlling as he was once in the armed forces and took the things he learned from that and treats his family as if they are his troops, for example, when he is arguing with his son, his son addresses him as 'sir'. The character, Lester, is represented to be very care free as he quits his high paying job to work in a fast food restaurant, does drugs and buys a car he's always wanted just because he can. 

Age

As there is a range of ages represented throughout the film. The young characters are represented to be very rebellious, drug obsessed, and sex crazed humans. I feel like this in a way is unrealistic, it could apply to some teenagers however, but it is very generalised and makes the audience think that the entire teenage population is exactly like the teenage characters in American Beauty. There is some controversy as the blonde character does in fact turn out to be a virgin, even though she brags about sex quite often to her friend. Which I find the audience could relate to as there is so much pressure of young adults to be accepted and they feel that lying about what they do in their personal lives is the way to become "popular". There is nothing wrong with not having sex or having sex later on in your life as sex does not define a person or give others the right to comment on it. When Lester is having a job interview at a local fast food restaurant, the young male interfering him comments on his age and how it might affect the over all reputation of the restaurant and make him look a little silly. However, Lester didn't agree with this and felt that he should have just as much right and chance as to the job as anybody else, which by the way I completely agree on. The main character who is 42 years of age. At first he played a stereotypical middle aged male who sat at the table and ate dinner with his family, had an office job he dispised and just a regular day to day life that he didn't enjoy. It was once he met his daughter's friend that he decided to make a change. Such as, start running, weightlifting, eating healthily, speaking is own mind, buying new cars, quitting is job to work at a fast food restaurant etc. To put it briefly, he was having a mid-life crisis and in a way turned into a stereotypical teenager; and it was all to impressed his daughter's best friend. In fact she was attracted to Lester and noticed that he had been working out, even though she was an 18 year old female.