| American Beauty
is about waking up from ordinary day-to-day life and discovering,
revealing, and defining beauty and pleasure. The film presents different
ways people relate and respond to grace and elegance. "Look
closer." The words are never spoken- but it's the film's central
theme. Those words are written on a card hanging on the wall of
the main character's cubicle at work. The turning points in the
film all hinge on either a character's ability to look closer at
their lives or their failure to do so.
It is appropriate that a movie that
puts so much emphasis on recognizing beauty is itself a very beautiful
film. American Beauty showcases a brilliant use of color, inventive
use of the camera and special effects, and also gives us great
performances from talented actors. Cinematographer Conrad Hall
is able to convey the mood of the film with just color alone.
He peppers the drab, beige interiors of the Burnhams' home with
rich, deep, reds (the color of roses and blood.) First-time screenwriter
Alan Ball gives us a script that boldly steers clear of typical
and safe Hollywood writing conventions and instead delivers a
fresh and sometimes unnerving blend of social satire and domestic
tragedy. Big-screen newcomer, director Sam Mendes, does a fabulous
job of bringing together all the different elements of the film
into one cohesive work of art.
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is
narrating the story from beyond the grave and in a way he is already
dead. Lester is in a rut. He hates his job. Lester's wife Carolyn
(Annette Bening) and daughter Jane (Thora Birch) both think he
is pathetic. He is in a joyless marriage and never shows any interest
in the life of his daughter. He is cynical, weak, and never stands
up for himself. He feels sedated and is no longer happy. However,
he believes it is never too late to change.
His decision to make changes comes
in response to meeting his teenage daughter's gorgeous and well-proportioned
friend, Angela (Mena Suvari). He starts working out because he
wants to look good naked after overhearing that Angela would have
sex with him if he was in better shape. Later on he quits his
job and blackmails his company out of tens of thousands of dollars.
With added freedom, Lester begins to relax, enjoy his life again,
and seek after all that brings him pleasure.
The Burnham's new next door neighbors
are just as dysfunctional. Marine Corps Colonel and closet homosexual
Frank Fitts and his nearly catatonic wife have only one child,
18 year old Ricky (Wes Bentley). The boy sells pot to Lester Burnham
and helps him revisit his own teenage years. Ricky is a little
odd and mysterious, videotaping everything he finds interesting.
He believes there is a benevolent force that can be seen through
beautiful things that tells him that everything is ok and that
there is no reason to be afraid. And he is not. He is firm in
his beliefs, confident, smart, and strong-willed.
The use of music in American Beauty
clearly illustrates the gap between fantasy and reality. There
are three fantasy scenes in which Lester has near sexual encounters
with young Angela. She is mostly naked in these scenes, covered
in rose pedals and soap bubbles. For these scenes, Thomas Newman
put together some exotic, experimental music that includes the
use of gongs, metallaphones, drums, power tool sounds, and animal
cries to express feelings of forbidden desire and voracity.
Near the end of the movie Lester
has an actual sexual encounter with Angela. We hear an altogether
different kind of music during this rather stark and unsettling
scene in which Lester undresses a 16 year old girl. It is a very
straightforward piano composition in a minor key. Over this soft,
delicate music we can hear Angela's nervous, heavy breathing.
The reality of being intimate with this young woman was not as
Lester had expected. To his credit, he saw that there was something
beautiful in Angela's innocence and does not have sex with her.
I think the popularity of this movie
reveals that American society is interested in the polite, nonjudgmental
God that Ricky Fitts believes in. It is comforting to think that
we can ignore sin in our lives so long as we don't ignore beauty.
This movie makes a few good points about the need to change a
mundane life. However the answers presented leaves the viewer
with vague notations of relativism and skips over the moral implications
of people's choices.
Certainly God does not want us to
ignore beauty. The first thing God did was create wonderful, amazing
things. In Genesis chapter one after He created things each day
He said that those things were good. After creating people He
looked at everything and said that it was very good. God delights
in beauty. Paul tells us in Phil 4:8 to meditate on lovely, praiseworthy
things: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is
noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think
about such things." It's through the natural world that God
speaks to people like Ricky Fitts in Romans 1:20: "For since
the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal
power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood
from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
Unfortunately, Ricky didn't see that these wonderful qualities
belonged to his Creator and Lord.
Paul reveals to us two very important
responses we should have to God's creation in Romans 1:21: "For
although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor
gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their
foolish hearts were darkened."
First God wants us to give Him glory.
He wants us to rejoice triumphantly in the light of every good
thing that He has done: all the things He's created that we find
wonderful, all the things He is doing for us, all that He will
to for us, and everything He has done for us. God is interested
in everything and everyone pointing back to Him and saying, "God
is responsible for all majestic beauty and splendor in heaven
and on earth!"
A natural response to God's glory
is to give Him praise. C.S. Lewis sums up the purpose for praise
and worship very well in his book "Reflections on the Psalms,
"I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise
not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed
consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on
telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete
till it is expressed."
Also, God tells us that He wants
us to thank Him when we see His beautiful work. Initially, the
idea of thankfulness might seem like mere courtesy or polite behavior.
However, failure to give God thanks is one of the reasons sighted
as cause for peoples' hearts to be darkened. Certainly gratitude
is more than simply maintaining proper decorum in the presence
of your God. The word gratitude comes from "gratis"
meaning without price or payment. To be grateful is to acknowledge
the goodwill behind the gifts we've received. After realizing
that God gives us good and wonderful gifts we should be appreciative
of the benefits we have received from those gifts. The other part
of gratitude is an emotional response. When we are thankful for
a gift we've received we spontaneously express the joy and pleasure
that we feel. It is this spontaneous expression of gladness that
God takes great delight in.
After we understand the importance
of giving God glory, praising Him, and giving Him thanks, there
are several things we need to do in order to stay awake to His
glory and not allow our thankfulness and praise to remain an intellectual
and emotional experience. In Hebrews chapters 11-12 we are encouraged
to respond to God and the faithfulness we can see in people. All
of chapter 11 looks at many great people of faith throughout history.
In Hebrews chapter 12:1 we have our proper response not only to
the faith of great people, but also to God's power and grace:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud
of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the
sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance
the race marked out for us." The writer of Hebrews is encouraging
us to wake up, get up, and do God's work.
God has wonderful plans for our lives
and wants to use our talents to bring Him glory and honor. We
should be doing all we can everyday to seek out His will for our
lives and then boldly go forward and do the work that He has created
us to do. What better place to get direction for your life than
from the God who designed you in the first place?
Copyright © 2000 by Shane Scanlan
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