BY JOHN CARTER JR.
American Beauty is the story of Lester Burnham and his family living in what is often looked upon as the mundane typical suburban American Life, with a few caveats. Lester Burnham is actively aware of how gray the status quo of his life is and throughout the film we see an evolving man looking to break free from his prison of complacency. The film makes a profound commentary on the traditional American Life and the confines of life in mundane circumstances. Through Lester’s efforts to become more adventurous and exciting, the viewer discovers the true beauty of nostalgic contemplations and what it means to value something that you had but no longer think you can have.
The “Classic American Family” is a prevalent troupe dissected in this film. It expresses that the standards held for the wholesome American family is unrealistic, particularly trying to maintain an unattainable standard can be devastating to a family. Take the wife of the film’s protagonist, Carolyn, for the clearest example of this. Carolyn Burnham is a real estate agent who is absolutely deplorable at her job. She tries desperately to sell houses and consistently fails to do so. Because of the consistency of her incompetence (from her initial perspective) she begins to break down and cry upon perceived failure. Her response to this is an emotion suppression through slapping herself.
This emotional “Shut up” is an atypical expression of the idea Buddy, a rival real estate agent and potential love interest for Carolyn, has about marriage
“In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times.”
Carolyn agrees with this ideology. This kind of emotional suppression is a massively harmful gateway for emotional and mental complications {Depression, Self Harm, Etc}. Most interesting, although sad, it is not just emotional suppression. Carolyn not only hides her problems but her personality is victim to this suppression. She does this so much so that she, at first, seems to be astounded that her idiosyncrasies exist. She for a brief moment in the film is even willing to let loose and be open to a cathartic moment of intimacy with her husband Lester, only to sacrifice the rain, so to speak, in the drought that was their long, sexless marriage by worrying about beer spilling on the couch. This desire to meet the standard in which they themselves and society had set up is not only unrealistic but is a self-defeating idea.
The idea to maintain a “perfect image” is contradictory, given that the definition of perfection is dependent on perspective. The biggest issue that both Buddy and Carolyn have is that they take their perceived ideal of what society views as perfect. This type of constant maintenance to meet a perceived societal ideal is unhealthy and unrealistic, as the film goes on it has major repercussions on Carolyn and directly on Lester.
Lester and his daughter, Jane, begin to deviate from the ideal family model the Carolyn perceives. This acts as the driving force for the film. Firstly, Lester’s job is such a drag. Unlike Buddy, Lester doesn’t even attempt to get excited about his job. As it acts as the bars containing him in his cell. It is the first barrier to break from in order to be free of his prison.
(Interestingly the film is shot this way)
They say that a job isn’t work if you love what you are doing and Lester most certainly doesn’t love what he is doing. Lester is sex deprived, bored, and simply a tired person. Operant conditioning causes the strengthening of behavior by pairing that behavior with a stimulus to elicit a response. Lester does not feel rewarded for his work so his response is not an engaged or an exciting one, rather it is unresponsive and unmotivated. Lester later even gets to the point where if the people around him (Boss, Wife, Daughter) make him feel that he isn’t allowed to have an enjoyable life and that if he wants something he is just going to have to take it for himself. When quitting his job Lester lets his boss know how he truly feels about his terrible job, he tells Carolyn that he is going to do what he wants, and he is going to make an attempt to get Jane’s respect. This change in Lester really shows that he isn’t bothered with the desire to be held up by perceived expectations.
Jane is shown to also have this “I don’t care” mentality at first, early in the film Carolyn goes as far as saying that she is trying to be “undesirable”. Her personality is founded in a deep-rooted negative relationship with her parents, particularly Lester. Lester in the film says to Jane that they used to be “cool” but apparently, something happened. This could be attributed to the natural development of teenagers at Jane’s age. As it is often cited as a reason for rebellion by the stereotypical standard and makes four another interesting remark on the status of American Family Life in the modern era. It could be said that Jane’s “loss of interest” in her parents is linked to Lester’s loss of interest in his family.
The relationship between Lester and Carolyn is one that represents that the strife between Modern American couples and could even make apparent the cause for the massive increase in divorce rates that plague the nation today. Marriages are said to be the confirmation of consummate relationships, a way for two to prove their intimate, committed, and passionate feelings for each other. Although there are ideas against soulmate/life partners requiring passion, the specific couple we are talking about {like many couples} treat sex in a manner that is always or mostly specific to a life partner.
Throughout the beginning of the film, we discover a major problem in our aforementioned couple. Their sexual relationship has become a dry and dead one, like burnt toast. Carolyn even tells Lester that she is sexually frustrated. Carolyn isn’t the only member of this relationship that is feeling distance in the relationship, as the revelation of Carolyn’s frustration occurs after Lester tries to please himself alone. The basic act of human intimacy has many scientific implications. Like drugs, love stimulates the neurons with neurotransmitters (Dopamine and Oxytocin for example). When two people consistently participate in sexual intercourse a lot of things happen, specifically for this topic we will talk about a desire to maintain the height of excitement with our partner. When this intimacy is not maintained, a person can get withdrawals so to speak or lows. This would definitely be frustrating (for both partners) with a consummate relationship given it is supposed to act as a give and take relationship. For Lester and Carolyn, they represent what this typical event does to people.
Other couples in American Beauty struggle with the different problems concerning their love lives and represent another sect of American Life that is now being more closely examined. Sexuality isn’t just the sex and gender you happen to be attracted to. Sexuality is hard to exactly define but in essence (when referring to attraction) it is what the culmination of traits summate in a desirable partner. So pretty much what traits you find attractive. Often it has been instilled in people that one’s sex determines what sex he/she is allowed to be attracted too. Psychology, however, provides different ideas on sexual continuums.
Colonel Frank Fitts, is the product of the Fundamentalist idea two men can’t be together. It is seen as unnatural, wrong, disgusting by people like the ones who raised Fitts. This caused him to be chained up in sexual repression for so long that he was so disgusted with what he is. The struggle that this self-deprecating man has to deal with is something that he can’t control, although, given his sensibilities, he would never admit it. For the character, Colonel Fitts’ sexuality acts as his prison when contrasted to the protagonist’s own containment.
Like in sexual deprivation, the person being deprived might be frustrated and will resent the cause of the deprivation in Colonel Frank Fitts’ case he seems to resent the fact that he is gay and outwardly shows contempt for those who are gay. When he kissed Lester I laughed because I knew, but the seconded time I watched it I dreaded watching that uncomfortable and depressing exchange. This repression hurt Mrs. Fitts as well. The film makes sure to design her character to represent how the effects of such repression can become oppressive and depressing on the people around you. Repression of gender identity, culture, or religious beliefs could potentially have similar effects. Like her husband, Mrs. Fitt has her own cell in the prison that is her family life.
At the end of the film, Lester is killed presumably by Colonel Fitts. This is most likely due to his apparent rejection of Fitts. When Lester is about to die, again this is unbeknownst to him, he contemplates his life and all the things that made him happy. Whether that was getting a car or having his daughter or most of all his wonderful wife Carolyn he recognized that what he did have made him happy. That while he did need to find himself, he recognized that what he had all along was worth it and was beautiful. He recognized that overall he had it made and he had every happy experience that anyone could have. He needed to find himself in order to accept that what he had was great and that it could be better.
In conclusion, American Beauty represents many facets of American Life. It represents the confines that people perceive and deal with in their daily lives here in the United States. It gives us the opportunity to analyze who we are when we allow ourselves to be controlled by external factors rather than making it a determinant effort to enjoy life and make things exciting. It also shows what happens when we are finally able to be at peace with our past happiness and allows us to examine the true beauty in our existence whether that be a long life or short-lived.
I give American Beauty a 9/10 rating for its interesting commentary on everyday life