Subject: Re: American Beauty
erespess@nji.com
Date: Tue Feb 22 2000 - 23:12:06 EST
>And you know something...the real beauty wasn't the bag itself, but the fact
>that this guy saw beauty in the bag...
I felt the same way. The bag in itself was a bag caught in the wind.
Trash. But the moment he experienced completely transcended the bag.
As he described how he felt, I began to recognize and relate to the
beauty he saw, but it didn't make the bag beautiful. It just made me
realize that Ricky will look at anything, anywhere(including death),
and find beauty. And that to me was beautiful.
I just returned from seeing the movie for the first time. I hadn't
read any of the posts about it until after I got home because I
wanted to go into it without any preconceptions.
I am not going to comment much now as I want to let it marinate
awhile longer first. I will say this - American Beauty was of such
a higher caliber than the majority of movies out these days. It
almost makes me not want to see another movie again - to end my
career as a movie watcher on a high note.
From Mattis's comments about the script, it seems that the director
took a lot of liberties with character development. If American
Beauty had been the movie Mattis described, I don't think I would
have liked it, either. At least not nearly as much as I did. I
think these stereotypes exist because their outer shells walk our
streets everyday, and people are willing to let them be a complete
picture of how we perceive those around us. But the actors in
American Beauty truly found the humanity in these characters,
portrayed the misery and confusion they experienced by attempting to
live lies, and gave them opportunities they needed to find their way
out. Some made it and didn't.
I thought it was truly beautiful.
Elizabeth
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