American Beauty Thesis

American Beauty shows a modern everyday family that appears to be happy and normal on the outside but very dysfunctional with serious problems. On the surface the film American Beauty is about the dream so many Americans have today, and have had for many years. The perfect life. Although American Beauty encompasses an example of emotional sleepwalking and living life as it passes by. The film was made and released in 1999, directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. The title of the film American Beauty was named after a particular Rose Hybrid. American Beauty stars Kevin Spacy who plays the character of Lester Burnham a 42-year-old man that starts to look at his life and seems to be unhappy with it. He is a twisted individual in search of himself or something else, he seemed to be lost. Lester has a wife (Carolyn) and daughter (Jane), a house, two cars, a good job, family dinners, every day of his …show more content…
The movie was very controversial, and opened new dialog and things that were never talked about let alone up in movies. Things like homosexuality, use of marijuana, masturbation and the stereo type of the American dream. Lester seemed to feel like he was trapped in a prison or he was a prisoner of his own life. But his life was falling apart along with his dysfunctional family. In the beginning of the movie, Lester is waking up alone in a bed, with the story explaining he was going to be dead in a year. Lester was already depressed at this point in the movie, he is unable to make any connection with his daughter or his wife, he is irritated, sad, lonely, sexually frustrated and agitated. Lester has a job as a sales person for an advertising company he has been working there for 14 years. He feels his job is meaningless and his home life is a wreck. He and his wife have not had intercourse in a long time, she has a very overbearing personality and a lot of resentment towards