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Why American Beauty is a great film

The above statement is quite something for me to say because I'm not really a film buff. I couldn't really care less about the latest blockbuster except on the odd occasion.

And I'm not keen on the cinema, as it does my back and neck in. When someone creates comfy cinema bed cubicles (just to watch ok...) then I'll be there. But usually I'm happy to wait till films come out on

DVD to watch most of them. I also get bored easily and I'm only really into films that have a semblance of real life. Fantasy and science fiction - they basically bore me stupid. Another thing is that

I don't normally remember which films I've seen, or not seen, and even less what films were about. After about a week of watching a film, it's like it's erased from my brain. Just to let you know however that

my poor kids, well, fortunately they have a Dad who doesn't feel the same as me about films....

 

So once in a while, a film will come along which I can't get out of my brain...

 

And American Beauty sure is one such beauty.

 

American Beauty is one hell of a film. It's Oscars were well-deserved IMHO. And it has some great lines that just speak volumes.

 

But the film should come with a warning such as this: If you're one of those respectable people who doesn't like anything to challneg your life, then this film isn't for you.

But if you want to see a film that challenges you to think outside the box, then if you haven't already seen it (it came out 9 years ago) get the DVD now

and sit down with a bag of popcorn or some nuts.

 

This is a film about what happens when a '$4000 sofa uplhostered in Italian silk' becomes more important than living. It's a film that shows how a marriage and

life can be all for show, a lie. All in an effort to maintain an image of normality and success. This film ruins all our notions of what is normal and ordinary.

 

Why I like this film is because, you know what, each character shows us something that, if we are honest, we would probably say we can relate to. It would be wrong, I think,

to pretend to oneself that one relates mainly to Lester Burnham, the protagonist and commentator of the film, whose mid-life crisis leads him to get to know himself a bit

if we can put it like that.  All the characters have a frightening amount of 'relatability' if one is honest. Even the "faggot"-hater who himself turns out to be such because he

himself has preference for men, is understandable in his torment, even if we would handle such inner conflict differently.

 

The film is poignant, sad, funny, serious, shocking, tragic and discomforting to say the least. It shows you what tragic things can happen

when respectability becomes more important than loving relationships and being true to oneself.

 

American Beauty is about a very respectable neighbourhood. One in which the main couple have a marriage where love is no longer shown, and sex is a thing of the past.

One in which the new neighbours are a family ruled by an ex-US naval corp supposedly homophobic and disturbingly violent father. One in which the roses in the front garden

are maintained as if they were taking part in the Chelsea Flower Show.

 

Yet there is much that warms the heart too. When the "faggot"-hating father says to his son, "I'd rather you were dead than a ****ing faggot" and the son

leaves asking his mother to  "take care of Dad", it's a moving scene. We see the one who is considered a weirdo and a freak showing the greatest capacity

for compassion and forgiveness. When Angela, the teenager, desperate to be a model as "there is nothing worse than being ordinary" admits to

her best friend's Dad, Lester, that she is still a virgin (in spite of all the stories she has told her friend of having had sex with any man that wants her), it's a poignant scene.

 

When Lester states in his resignation letter to his company who is about to make him redundant, the real truth of how he feels about his hated job,

it's a great scene that many viewers can vicariously live through. How many people stuck in jobs they hate would love to say that to their boss or employer?

 

The deep-feeling 18-year old neighbour who films scenes such as a plastic bag blowing about in the wind and shares with the equally morose and intense Jane, "that there is

an entire life behind things. There is a benevelont force and there is no need to be afraid." He talks about "so much beauty" that he "can't take it" and that his heart

is going to "cave in." One might say that of all the characters, it is he who is the enlightened one, living in the moment, and appreciating this,

rather than concerns like his father's homophobia or his neighbours' 'commercial marriage.'

 

Indeed as Lester says "Our marriage is just for show. A commercial for how normal we are, when we're anything but."

 

American beauty is about seeing how our own lives are a commercial for our own hang ups, a show for others, when behind closed doors something else is going on.

 

In the end, with Lester's brains blown out as he sits reminiscing over a family photo in the kitchen, he wraps up the commentary from the dead by saying,

"I guess I could be pretty pissed off at what happened to me but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the worold. Sometimes I feel like

I'm seeing it all at once and it's too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that's going to burst. And then I remember to relax and stop trying to hold

on to it. And then it flows through me like rain, and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid, little life."

 

The moral of this film? We need to stop taking our life so seriously, and live a little. We cannot hold on to anything forever. Plus, who cares what others think of us? Worrying about the

'Jones's' is a complete and utter waste of time and energy. Doing the respectable thing is death. Living from our truth is life.

 

If we worry so much about what others will think of us at every turn, then we may end up one day, in our 40s, 50s or older, wondering what happened and feeling empty.

 

We just need to start living a little...you know, have some fun and enjoyment in life. That's what will bring satisfaction, not a high digit on the bank statement.

 

One of my favourite quotes of Jiddu Krishnamurti is: "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. "

I think Lester would have loved this one too.

About the Author

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Reena Gagneja is an Internet Marketer and Spiritual Coach. She works with her team to help them achieve success. She is looking for those who have been waiting for that one opportunity that is about making a difference, not just a dollar. You have found the opportunity in Amega.

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Posted by Mike | Posted in Planting & Gardening | Posted on 11-01-2009

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