American Beauty is a 1999 American drama movie produced by Sam Mendes and Alan Ball. It is about a group of individuals who live in the suburbs that have been repressed by the brutishness that society sets on its people, that their only alternative is to fight for freedom or to break down and fall apart from within. In this film, the main characters are: Lester Burnham, his materialistic (as Lester describes her) wife, Carolyn Burnham, and their timid daughter named Jane Burnham. Lester, in his 40’s, is a writer for a company called Media Monthly Magazine, who inevitably has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with Jane's friend Angela Hayes. He quits his job at the magThroughout the movie, Lester’s fantasies involve a sexually aggressive
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In the beginning Jane had body image issues, specifically with her breasts, but after meeting Ricky and spending time with him, she experiences her own form of awakening. Carolyn is desperately fighting in a male dominant world to keep up the appearance of strength as she projects herself as a powerful woman. This in terms leads her to a point where she has a breakdown and expresses her sexual repressions…she starts a stifling affair with Buddy Kane, “The Real Estate King”, who inspires envy and awe in her. With this affair, both Carolyn and Buddy seem to be more aroused by Buddy's status than by anything else. At a point in the movie, Lester attempts to reconnect with Carolyn but fails when he almost spills beer on the sofa, causing her to protect the sofa from getting …show more content…
The new neighbor, Colonel Fitts also Ricky’s father, appears to be deeply homophobic. Indications of Colonel Fitts’s homosexuality are first revealed as he feels somewhat awkward and uncomfortable in speaking to his gay neighbors (Olmeyer and Berkley). He complaining about it to Ricky in the car asking, “How can they be so shameless?”. This seems to suggest that Colonel Fitts feels ashamed for his own homosexual desires. It is also perceived in his immense variety of guns, which some say resembles external male genitalia. This suppressed homosexuality ends up in him beating on Ricky, whom he falsely thinks is engaging in homosexual acts on Lester. When Colonel Fitts sees Ricky and Lester together through their adjacent home windows and mistakenly believes they are engaging in a sexual encounter, this misinterpretation of what’s really happening signifies Colonel Fitts' belief and desire for total control. After being beat up by Colonel Fitts for supposedly being with Lester sexually, Ricky then realizes that the only way that he can truly escape the abusive control is to convince his homophobic father that he is a homosexual. Towards the end of the movie, we ultimately learn that he is merely repressing homoerotic desires when he kisses Lester during what seems to be a mental breakdown and is rejected. This is his own personal
In the beginning Jane had body image issues, specifically with her breasts, but after meeting Ricky and spending time with him, she experiences her own form of awakening. Carolyn is desperately fighting in a male dominant world to keep up the appearance of strength as she projects herself as a powerful woman. This in terms leads her to a point where she has a breakdown and expresses her sexual repressions…she starts a stifling affair with Buddy Kane, “The Real Estate King”, who inspires envy and awe in her. With this affair, both Carolyn and Buddy seem to be more aroused by Buddy's status than by anything else. At a point in the movie, Lester attempts to reconnect with Carolyn but fails when he almost spills beer on the sofa, causing her to protect the sofa from getting …show more content…
The new neighbor, Colonel Fitts also Ricky’s father, appears to be deeply homophobic. Indications of Colonel Fitts’s homosexuality are first revealed as he feels somewhat awkward and uncomfortable in speaking to his gay neighbors (Olmeyer and Berkley). He complaining about it to Ricky in the car asking, “How can they be so shameless?”. This seems to suggest that Colonel Fitts feels ashamed for his own homosexual desires. It is also perceived in his immense variety of guns, which some say resembles external male genitalia. This suppressed homosexuality ends up in him beating on Ricky, whom he falsely thinks is engaging in homosexual acts on Lester. When Colonel Fitts sees Ricky and Lester together through their adjacent home windows and mistakenly believes they are engaging in a sexual encounter, this misinterpretation of what’s really happening signifies Colonel Fitts' belief and desire for total control. After being beat up by Colonel Fitts for supposedly being with Lester sexually, Ricky then realizes that the only way that he can truly escape the abusive control is to convince his homophobic father that he is a homosexual. Towards the end of the movie, we ultimately learn that he is merely repressing homoerotic desires when he kisses Lester during what seems to be a mental breakdown and is rejected. This is his own personal