The story described a "weird" joyless American middle-class family and the death of Lester Burnham.
Lester Burnham, who is in his middle age live a boring life. he doesn't have a "successful" job, doesn't have passion for life and doesn't even have good relationship with his wife Carolyn and his daughter Jane. In a way he's dead already.
Carolyn, a women desires to be successful but always fails in her career, acts strong but inside weak. She's just some money-grabbing freak, as many people are. "In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times." is what she believed, which in fact destroyed her whole life.
Their 17 year old daughter Jane is a typical teenager, angry, insecure, confused. She has no confidence in herself, always thinks she's not pretty. and she has cold relationshop with her family.
Jane's friend, Angela, is a kid with flashy appreance. "there's nothing worse in life than being ordinary" is her twisted values. she is proud and refuses to be ordinary but this cant cover her ordinary mind.
Jane's nextdoor neighboor, Ricky fall in love with Jane. He always use DV to record some strange things----in his eyes they're beautiful. Ricky makes money through dealing drugs.
Ricky's father, an extremely strict old man who hates homosexuality to death, hides the truth that he himself is a gay.
We can feel that the conversations between these people is full of meaning, words are selected and emotions are real to life. Every character is so typical that we can actually realize such people do exist around us. maybe we're just one of them. Due to their personalities, the tragic story happened.
Who in reality have the guts to change their everyday life? Who would give themselves a new try? Who dare to challenge what most people against? Few people do i believe. Maybe that's the reason why Lester Burnham is written dead in the end. There's no such hero in our reality.
American Beauty not only shows an ironic reflection of "American dream"'s life but also tells us that there's beauty everywhere. That's one of the reasons i love this movie.
There's one scene that Ricky shows Jane a 15 minutes short movie he shoot. It was just a plastic bag floating in the sky, flying as the wind blowing. But in Ricky's eyes ----
" this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... and I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in."
As Ricky saying these words, a light blue melody flows out slowly. His eyes are clear and shiny like there're some tears in them. So beautiful.
The end of movie is the most touching part. Lester finally find out the most important in his life is his daughter, his family. He gently held the photo of his happy family, stared at the three people on it, whispered to himself and sunk into the memory of the past with a smile on his wrinkle face. At this time, GUNSHOT! Lester fell down in blood. Surprisingly, we don't see dead people's scary face but a tender face, still, smiling... now he must be in his happiest moment.
Lester discovered the beauty of his life and left this world with gratitude. What I'm thinking is either a sensitive person like Ricky or a miserable guy play a small role in life like Lester can have a sense of beauty. Not only them, but anyone who is grateful for their life all have it. We need to feel the beauty around us in this cold society, which is actually full of beauty, not coldness. Someday, you will understand.
Teacher's note: Amazing summary, but who will the police arrest? Did I miss something? Thanks for posting --mike
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