Subject: Re: American Beauty (notice: spoilers)
From: joel (bluefringe@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Tue Feb 22 2000 - 01:02:28 EST
let me start off by saying that i just got back from seeing American Beauty for
the 3rd time. Let me also say that i don't see a ton of movies; i
tend to be picky about what i'll even go see, and i tend to look at
movies and music with a critical eye, sometimes to the point where
i annoy myself.
i don't mean to be disrespectful of your son and his girl, but to me
they're sounding an awful lot like the collegiate phony types who
disgusted Franny so much.
> This, they tell me, is a collection of transatlantic cliches
> - the compulsive, Mary Tyler Moore-type wife,
> the 'wise child', the sad middle-ager who establishes
> his integrity by confessing to shower wanking -
this is one of the few films i've seen where a lot of the
supporting/secondary characters are well-rounded, as well as the
primary characters, obviously.
lester is definitely a 3-dimensional character. i think something
that's missed sometimes is that at points, he is just as selfish a
character as his wife. there's a thin line between selfishness and
assertiveness and he wanders back and forth across the line, and i
think he was written that way.
annette bening's character (shoot, i forget the name, but she plays
lester's wife).....i think she's definitely is in the role of the
antagonist, but at the same time, there are several times
throughout the story when she is anything but. she's shown as a
real woman who has let her goals and materialism get the best of
her. the critical point in her character's development is when she
and lester are on the expensive couch. lester is coming on to her
and attempting to help their relations and drop whatever else is
between them; she plays along for a couple minutes and you see
her melt and think that she's really going to change....then she
snaps at lester that he might spill beer on the couch, and her
character goes downhill from there. so yeah, she's an antagonist,
but not without her human and protagonist points.
jane.....one might think she's definitely a protagonist, and for the
most part, yeah, she is. but i think she's less a protagonist than it
would appear at first, if you're looking at the movie from lester's
perspective. i think she's the most complex character here. she
definitely shares the blame for the relationship problems with her
dad. she also seems rather inconsistent in that here she is, a
"freak" and seems to be that from the very outset, yet she has as a
best friend someone who obviously deplores those who are freaks
or "ordinary." i think she's that way on purpose, though....a lot of
us have been in the same sort of friendship.
speaking of which....angela. even though angela definitely plugs
into the "floozy" stereotype, she kind of becomes rounded at the
very end, a nice surprise. here she's talked up her sexuality as
being of near-prostitution status, it turns out she's a virgin. another
interesting thing is here she is, definitely this icon of sexuality
throughout the film, yet (according to my girlfriend, she has me
close my eyes during these parts :-) ) her breasts are smaller than
jane's breasts, and jane is anything but a sexual stereotype or in
much of a sexual role. even when she is naked in the window for
ricky, he focuses the camera on her face rather than her breasts.
angela is also shown as having fear strong fears of being ordinary,
though one can see that coming.
ricky....i love ricky's character. he seems to be the anti-thesis of a
drug dealer and seems to be one of the most moral characters in
the movie. and while he seems to show his emotions less than
anyone else in the film, he seems the most sensitive and self-
aware.
ricky's dad (frank fitts): probably the most clearcut antagonist
here, obviously. i can understand where you'd come from and say
he's this stereotypical military homophobe who turns out a
homosexual. of all the characters, i actually think he's the
weakest. yes, there are some real assholes out there but i think
someone who would beat his 18yearold son for getting into a
cabinet is overblown a bit. maybe i'm wrong, i grew up with a great
dad and didn't know of many physically abusive parents.
something i thought about tonite was that when frank goes into
ricky's room and starts watching tapes, somehow it struck me that
maybe that wasn't his first time of watching the tape of lester. the
tape that was in the player, he didn't even glance at for more than a
moment, then the first one he picked up happened to be one of
lester, but it had to have been filmed months earlier. i haven't
thought a ton about how this ties in totally, but it's somethin to
think about. and we could talk for a long time about possible
motives he had for killing lester.
finally, mrs. fitts. there's a lot more to her than meets the
eye....gosh i need to go but she's really interesting to watch.
something i wonder about a ton is what ricky whispered to her at
the end.
well, i need to take off....
joel
p.s. anyone going to see it anytime soon...when lester's in the
drivethrough, look at the signs. one of them says "free napkins,"
it's hilarious.
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Thu Mar 02 2000 - 19:30:21 EST