American Beauty Essay

Choose one effective scene from 'American Beauty' and analyse the effectiveness.

This comedy drama is about a man called Lester Burnam, who is going through a mid life crisis. The film includes themes such as dysfunctional families, crumbling marriages and obsessions. The scene I have chosen to do occurs shortly after Lester has quit his job. In this scene Lester is singing along to the music in his car, arriving at the burger joint and talking to the lady at the serving window.
From Todorov's narrative theory, this scene is part of the disequilibrium section of the film. Lester is starting to change his life and behaviour. In this scene, we are led to believe that Lester has resolved the problem of his wife Carolyn, being shown as the head of the family, normally a mans role. This is shown by Lester driving himself around whereas at the start of the film his wife was driving him about. Later on in the film we find out it may not be the case that Lester has resolved the problem.
From Propp's character role theory, Lester is supposedly the hero in this scene. This is because he has just quit his job. An example to show this is where you can see the reflection of office buildings rollig off his car windscreen. The connotation of this is that he is leaving that lifestyle behind and is going to start a new life. More evidence of this heroic role is where he is singing and bopping along to music and smoking drugs. This connotes that he is leaving his "old boring self" behind and changing his character. Many people would relate to the way he behaves here because they also may want to leave their jobs and responsibilities behind.
Barthes' theory tells us that there are cultural codes. Lester sees an application for a job at the burger bar. Working in a burger bar is seen as one of the lowest jobs in American society requiring very few qualifications and often one of the jobs teenagers get. Lester wants to apply for the job, which shows he wants the least responsibility.
In the scene, Lester is acting like a teenager because he is smoking and listening to some really loud music whilst singing along to it at the top of his voice. Also, he is rude to the person at the speaker by being bad mannered and sarcastic. When he sees the application for the job, Lester says, "Im looking for the least possible amount of responsibility". This tells us that he doesn't want to be depended on. Teenagers may admire him because he is acting like them. People in mid life crisis would think he has changed and why can't I. Most people though would feel embaressed by him and the way he is acting. In addition, the scene is quite bright which means Lester's life has improved and he is taking control and becoming more dominant and confident. This contrasts with the beginning of the film because the lights are dim showing he was timid and his life was dark and boring.
This scene has two establishing long shots, which show the start of the car journey, along a typical American city road, and when he arrives at the burger place. There are some mid shots when he is singing in the car and when he is at the burger place. The camera is looking down on him on some parts of the scene, which shows Lester thinks he is the "big guy", when really it shows how small he really is. This scene has about eleven cuts in it, which means it has slow editing. The scene is lit as natural light: an example of this is where Lester is in the car and the camera is looking at him through the windscreen. You can see the background of buildings blocking the sunlight until there is space in between the buildings letting the sunlight through and Lester is lit up. There is the same diegetic music all the way through the scene, from him singing along to the song, to keeping it turned low when he is talking to the lady at the burger place. The title of the film, "American Beauty" and the song, about an American woman, link together with the character, Angela, who Lester is obsessed with. The car screeches to a halt at the burger window connoting his lack of responsibility, acting more like a teenager than a middle-aged man. He is still wearing a suit, which connotes that he hasn't completely lost his responsibility.
The target audience would be anyone who likes comedy dramas. Some of the audience might be going through the same things as Lester, in the scene I chose.
The scene is showing us how he has changed his behaviour. He was boring and dull at the beginning but then he shows us that he is trying to change. I feel that the scene has been effective in showing us that Lester has changed.