Beer Nuts Movie
The Beauty of American Beauty
Post World War 2 living tended towards suburbia and more individual houses. Out of the three houses in Lester’s neighborhood, two families had one offspring each and another couple did not have any. This is representative of much of America where people are having fewer children than before.
It is ironic how Colonel Fittz (the Nazi dad), at the start of the movie, says, “This world is going to hell.” Then, at the end of the movie, he kills Lester. People, especially in America (an individualistic country), like to blame others for the bad things in this world. A gay couple living next door to Lester is shown in an upscale manner. Colonel
Fittz says, “what is this, the f***ing gay pride parade?” in response to the gay couple and Lester jogging. This represents the growing acceptance of gays and the decreasing acceptance for extreme right-wing “nuts.” Fittz’s opinion represented the anger and fear many people have about homosexuality. Later in the movie, he told his son (Ricky), “I’d rather you be dead than be a f**ing faggot.” As for Ricky’s mom (Colonel Fittz’s wife), she showed obvious signs of the negative effects of being submissive and living in a male dominated society with an over-controlling husband.
American Beauty represented well how some people strive to be something that they are not. Lester’s wife was upset to find out that her daughter did not look up to her. The wife tells her daughter (Jane) “when I was your age, we lived in a duplex. We didn’t even have our own house.” Lester’s wife is a real estate salesperson and drives a Mercedes-Benz M-class. She idolizes The King (her competition in real estate) because he believes it is necessary to have a successful facade in order to be successful. Lester’s wife follows the dramaturgical approach so much that she almost kills her husband. By the end of the movie it gets way out of hand. She only cares about herself and does not want anyone (including Lester) to get in the way of her success. Angela (Jane’s friend) is also self-absorbed.
Angela wants to be a model and more than anything is she does not want to be normal. Some people, especially at a young age, are self-obsessed. Angela said, “I hate how everybody takes their insecurities out on me.” She, however, was the one that was always taking her insecurities out on other people.
This movie showed how, more today than ever, Americans are obsessed with belongings. Lester’s family had only three members and yet they owned a house big enough for two medium sized families. Lester’s wife drove an unnecessarily expensive SUV. Angela drove a later model BMW 3-series. Lester comes close to spilling his beer on the sofa and his wife quickly interrupts their moment and says that he might spill his beer. It’s an expensive import couch, she says. Lester, sooner than the others, realizes that the couch is just stuff. Even though there is a stigma about being forty-five and working at a fast-food restaurant, Lester finds that the lack of responsibility is more rewarding than his advertising job.
After Lester “quit” his job, his wife complained about having to be the main breadwinner. Even though women are making more money than they used to, it is still the norm for a husband to make more money than his wife does. The idea of marriage was shown to have little importance in this movie. Lester’s wife was a control freak and she bossed him around. She was never interested in what he had to say. She had an affair with The King and Lester was sexually obsessed with his daughter’s friend. His wife was upset because he sold his Camry and bought a Firebird without her consent even though she never drove his car. Lester never respected anything his wife had to say. Lester’s marriage was more of a financial matter than of love. As opposed to earlier years, marriage is not completely necessary. The family next door was anything but functional.
Ricky was a member of a counterculture that sells illegal drugs instead of working legally for money. He enjoyed filming people and was overwhelmed by the beauty of everything. Even death made him smile. However crazy all the characters in this movie seemed, American Beauty represented American suburbia well. The only two likable characters in this movie were Jane and her boyfriend Ricky. The thing that was lacking in everybody else’s personality, up until the very end, was that they were afraid to be themselves.
By the end of the movie, everything worked out. Lester’s wife decided that she loved her husband and wanted to get back together with him. Ricky and Jane found each other and decided to move away from their “hell.” Angela was confronted with her worst fear (being normal) by Ricky. Lester, for the first time in a long time, was able to say that he was “great.” Colonel Fittz finally felt emotion after many years of trying to act the way he thought he was supposed to. He wanted to communicate with his son but did not know how. After so long of holding in feelings and upon believing that his son was gay, he “broke-down.” Colonel Fittz was not gay but in his slowly building hysteria he confided in Lester. A little while later he killed Lester. Lester, even though was dead, was not upset. He said that he could not be angry when there is so much beauty in the world.
Lester said, “…you probably don’t know what I’m talking about, but one day soon you will.” That was a sobering comment (about death) that most people do not think about for very long. I like how he commented on his life as being a “stupid little life.”—Not being overly godly about the greatness of life. He took his fate well and was not angry.
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Beer Nuts