Subject: Re: American Beauty
From: Robbie (shok@netcom.com)
Date: Fri Feb 04 2000 - 17:50:39 EST
Becky asked:
<< Just out of severe curiosity, what did everyone think of the movie
American Beauty. >>
I thought it was one of the best movies of the year.
I have a theory that movies almost always come out in pairs, or to put
it another way, that almost every movie has a partner movie of some
kind. It's often strikingly obvious (like the Two Volcano Movies and
The Two Meteor movies). I've often wondered how the hell it always
works out this way, if screenwriters are sharing ideas or if concepts
are being blatantly stolen or something. Sometimes, though, it's much
more subtle; just subtle enough to notice and almost subtle enough to
get me to think that the ideas aren't being stolen at all but that
they're just timely and insired by the same times and events.
Anyway, I thought that American Beauty and Fight Club were strikingly
similar. Maybe that's not a very popular comparison, but both of them
evoked the same thing(s) in *this* viewer, even if perhaps Fight Club
did it in a far more aggressive, and maybe even pornographic way. This
is superbly demonstrated (their similarity and their differing
approaches) in the scenes where Kevin Spacey and Edward Norton quit
their jobs.
The stiking parallels between those two scenes, however, slowly push me
back into thinking that somebody is either sharing their ideas or having
them blatantly stolen.
Anyway, American Beauty was amazing. I about fell out of my chair in
sheer awe at the end of the movie when my eyes followed the path of the
bullet from the gun, through the head, through the photograph, and
through the roses. I found myself wishing that rose petals would have
been in the blood that splattered all over the white wall. (I wondered
whether that scene or, more specifically, the placement of the objects
in it, were the brilliance of the writer or the director. I found a
copy of the script; it was the writer. I recommend you read the script,
as well.)
And the "most beautiful thing in the world" was staggering (how the hell
did they film that?). I thought to myself, that if I ever met a *girl*
who asked me if I wanted to see the "most beautiful thing in the world"
and then, upon a positive reply, showed me a video tape such as that, in
which she had filmed such a thing for its entire duration (and that she
noticed it to begin with, and was struck enough to film it and keep the
tape and call it the most beautiful thing in the world!), I would
probably propose marriage on the spot. Even if I had just met her. No,
*ESPECIALLY* if I had just met her. And I'd want to elope immediately.
yup,
-robbie
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