A STUDY ON SATIRE IN "AMERICAN BEAUTY (MOVIE)"
Submitted by - Ashutosh Chandra 2012CH10077
Introduction to the Movie
'American Beauty' is the satirical story of a middle aged family man, Lester Burnham, who is going through a mid-life crisis. Lester is a loser and a low life who is despised both by his wife and his daughter. It is when he sees his daughter, Jane's friend Angela Hayes that he feels that there is still something to look forward in life. He gets infatuated with her and the whole movie revolves around how he transforms himself to be liked by her only to realise at the end what he truly wanted was a happy family with his wife and daughter. In this escapade, Lester affects the lives of his family and that of his new neighbours …show more content…
The time was seeing acceptance to break the general functions of the elements of society and change, in general. But retaliation remained because of the orthodox society. The film takes on homosexuality to reflect such changes and puts forward stereotypes like army personnel, real estate agents and the middle class, in general. The film also takes on the middle class in the context of the above two ideas of stereotyping and materialism showing how they like to pretend to be successful, rich and content with their life while they are stuck in the rat race. The movie beautifully plays with all these views and has sort of a happy ending with most of the characters finding solace with themselves and leaving the audience sympathizing with all the characters as Lester, from the other side, says a monologue that gives you chills every other second while you see a plastic bag flying in the air. The title itself shows the idea of beauty, both outer and inner, and which gives us true satisfaction. As we look forward through each of the characters, we will see how the filmmakers depicted these notions through …show more content…
His portrayal in the movie is quite different from the others. While we see others looking at themselves in the mirror from now and then, we see Ricky through his camera. This technique helps the audience easily differentiate between the perspectives of other characters who are concerned about their external beauty and Ricky's who is able to find beauty and bliss even in inanimate objects like dead birds and plastic bags. He is confident and is seen as a liberated spirit who is not bound by the norms of the society. He is not even insecure about being filmed naked which shows how his appearance and reality are the same thing and he is not afraid to be
Submitted by - Ashutosh Chandra 2012CH10077
Introduction to the Movie
'American Beauty' is the satirical story of a middle aged family man, Lester Burnham, who is going through a mid-life crisis. Lester is a loser and a low life who is despised both by his wife and his daughter. It is when he sees his daughter, Jane's friend Angela Hayes that he feels that there is still something to look forward in life. He gets infatuated with her and the whole movie revolves around how he transforms himself to be liked by her only to realise at the end what he truly wanted was a happy family with his wife and daughter. In this escapade, Lester affects the lives of his family and that of his new neighbours …show more content…
The time was seeing acceptance to break the general functions of the elements of society and change, in general. But retaliation remained because of the orthodox society. The film takes on homosexuality to reflect such changes and puts forward stereotypes like army personnel, real estate agents and the middle class, in general. The film also takes on the middle class in the context of the above two ideas of stereotyping and materialism showing how they like to pretend to be successful, rich and content with their life while they are stuck in the rat race. The movie beautifully plays with all these views and has sort of a happy ending with most of the characters finding solace with themselves and leaving the audience sympathizing with all the characters as Lester, from the other side, says a monologue that gives you chills every other second while you see a plastic bag flying in the air. The title itself shows the idea of beauty, both outer and inner, and which gives us true satisfaction. As we look forward through each of the characters, we will see how the filmmakers depicted these notions through …show more content…
His portrayal in the movie is quite different from the others. While we see others looking at themselves in the mirror from now and then, we see Ricky through his camera. This technique helps the audience easily differentiate between the perspectives of other characters who are concerned about their external beauty and Ricky's who is able to find beauty and bliss even in inanimate objects like dead birds and plastic bags. He is confident and is seen as a liberated spirit who is not bound by the norms of the society. He is not even insecure about being filmed naked which shows how his appearance and reality are the same thing and he is not afraid to be