I have posted a student essay on ‘American Beauty’ below, what do you think? Please remember that it is a first attempt!
To what extent do you agree that films offer insight into society (past or present)?. Respond to this question with close reference to a film you have studied.
Today’s society is clearly represented in the Sam Mendes directed film ‘American Beauty’. The ideas of materialism, identity and superiority are communicated effectively throughout the film and successfully portrayed through the characters of Lester, Carolyn, Jane, Angela and Ricky.
‘American Beauty’ was easy to relate to as viewers because it directly and truthfully portrays today’s society and shows how materialistic and superficial our lives have become. It describes the emptiness and lifeless lives the characters experience and how they feel trapped in their artificial lives. This is visually communicated through the repeating motif of cages, for instance Lester’s computer screen at work and the window panels of his house, which in both cases show that Lester has been caged, suggesting to the viewers that he is trapped against his will and desires. We as the viewer are thus exposed to what life around us truly is but how it can change with the right attitude. At the beginning of the film, Lester describes how he feels like he “has been in a coma for 20 years, and only now just waking up”. This develops one of Mendes important ideas; if you are not living your own life, you will not be happy and you become emotionally dead.
Lester has become this way; between dead and alive, through the continual pressure of societial expectations. To be successful they must own a fabulous home, secure job and have money. This are the ideas that today’s society is imposing on us everyday, more and more happiness is not an essential key to a successful life. Everyone is trying to live the same idealistic lives that somehow, somewhere, this idea of a perfect life has infected the rest of society and influenced people to trade in their own beliefs and morals, their own happiness to follow the trend, walk the track that has been trodden by so many before them. Angela ironically expresses that “there is nothing worse than being ordinary”, yet the viewer believes ordinary is what is followed by the mainstream which is exactly what Angela is doing and this is expressed further in her bedroom. We observe hundreds of pictures and posters of celebrities, faces that stand for materialistic goods, faces that have no personality, no life in them; all they are, are pictures. They are not what life is. The theme of ordinary is also expressed through Lester when he establishes “don’t worry, I wouldn’t remember me either”, suggesting that because he is not an individual, he is ordinary and how can one remember one particular person if they are just like everyone else. The only character in this film that walks their own path is Ricky, he sees the world in a different way, through his camera we see a bare world, we see life and beauty, which seems contradicting as normally we establish fake lives as what we see through a camera, in movies and plays. Yet it is the opposite through Ricky’s camera, his camera is the only way we observe the world how it should be, how he sees it. “There is so much beauty in the world” that we walk past everyday, take for granted, that society has depicted we ignore such as the plastic bag, the freedom and beauty is right in front of us, staring us in the eyes yet through a lifetime of ignorance and materialism we miss it.
As the film progresses and the interaction between Lester and Ricky continues, we see life enter back into Lester. Through his actions of smoking marijuana, quitting his job after blackmailing his boss, taking on a less responsible job at Smiley’s and buying the car of his dreams, a red 1964 Firebird, we see happiness in Lester, something that has not been observed earlier in the film; we see life. This goes to show that even though the expectations that society suffocates us with, one will only be happy once they are living their own lives. We as the audience observe the idealistic life society had depicted through Lester’s wife Carolyn. She is a materialistic, superficial person who believes “in order for one to be successful, they must portray an image of success at all times”, and in her eyes, success is a lovely house, good job, a well dressed and happy family. This is further shown through her quest for to grow the perfect red rose, a flower without scent, grown only for image which is used to support Mendes’ idea of the materialism in today’s society. The symbolic use of red throughout the film is used in many ways, it projects an image of beauty, not only surface and shallow beauty such as that of the roses and how they make their surroundings also beautiful, but also represents death, and the beauty death holds within its own. Death is beautiful as it is the final step for freedom, and this is visually communicated when Lester is shot and his dark red blood floods the scene and he has been set free.
Mendes has effectively portrayed his ideas of materialism, superiority and identity, through the use of symbols, motifs and metaphors. He has shown that in today’s society individualism needs to prevail over the actions of the mainstream. We observed this through the character of Ricky and his relationships with Jane and Lester and how his actions helped to make Lester live again before death.
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