Darius Buckley

BCA 508WI
Dr. Corbett
4 March 2016
American Beauty Cinematic Analysis:
I.

The Critical Analysis:

Sam Mendes' award winning 1999 film American Beauty has grown to be one of the

greatest films of all time and a significant example of intricate storytelling. The film has been
praised for its extensive and unique use of symbolism, relatable things of American culture, and
character driven plot. Whether one discusses the repetitive and intricately placed symbol of red
throughout the film or the powerful message that the film presents on different interpretations of
beauty. One must credit Mendes and Alan Ball for how everything is specifically placed and has
an intention. The cinematic analysis of this film will not primarily describe the characters and
obvious symbolism but how the screenplay treats all of these things. The film does a great job of
taking the words within the screenplay and showcasing them with the well given credit and a
strong sense of positive intention in making the words come to life. One of the first things to
discuss extensively is the array of characters and how their relationships not only drive the story
but how Ball treats those relationships within the screenplay.
There's quite an array of different relationships within American Beauty. To name a few
of them, one is the relationship of the Burnham family. The Burnham family obviously consists
of Lester, Carolyn, and Jane. Lester is obviously the main character of the film and has a bit of

an estranged relationship with his family. This is evident in the first piece of dialogue from
Lester in the film when he is going through a description of all of his family members and people
around him. One of the key moments that describes the strained relationship of the family is the
dinner scene towards the beginning of the film. The screenplay describes the dinner where
"nobody makes eye contact, or even seems aware of anyone else's presence..." (Ball). This is
followed by an extremely awkward moment when Lester tries to have a moment with Jane. The
screenplay describes her as being "uncomfortable" when firing back at her dad for attempting to
be friends with her even though hes "barely even spoken to me for months" (Ball). Carolyn
throughout the scene definitely asserts control in the relationship significantly when the
screenplay describes her as "taken a back" for him stating that she treats Jane like an employee.
The screenplay does a great job of showcasing her facial distaste by having her demand "more
authority" when Carolyn repeats herself. This moment shows that the family is quite
dysfunctional, Jane does not find any interest in her dad and Carolyn not only has control over
the family but definitely doesn't appreciate Lester as well. This establishes the relationship of the
family quite early and is a great example of how the screenplay goes about making that tension
apparent. Another significant family relationship is between The Fitts. One of the most
significant scenes that introduces us to this family is the first scene with the family as a whole. In
the moment where Barbara is trying to serve Ricky bacon even though he doesn't eat bacon, this
clearly shows a forgetful tick that his mother has and also describes her in parentheticals as being
"unnerved". Barbara has this unnerved attitude in every single moment that she's in the film and
the screenplay does a good job of holding on to that continuation almost as a tag for her character
as well as a defining point in her relationship with her son. She does this again later when they're
watching TV in the living room and Ricky says something to her, she pauses and then responds

saying "I'm sorry, what" with a parenthetical saying "out of the blue". This moment once again
showcases her tag and how the screenplay shows her as a mentally unaware character. This
unnerved attitude shows up again at the end when Ricky leaves home and she tells him to grab a
raincoat, completely oblivious to the trouble of the situation. Ball does a great job of using
parentheticals in order to bring the emotion to life without necessarily giving the actors blocking.
Another one of the major relationships between characters in the film is Jane and Ricky. Their
relationship establishes better later when Jane first visits Ricky's home. In the screenplay, the
action description describes him as studying her and scanning her during the scene. This is a
significant part of his character because throughout the film he shoots video of not only her
family but various things that surround him. He finds beauty in almost everything and this is one
of the moments within the screenplay that brings him to her beauty for the first time. Studying
and scanning are definitely the appropriate words to use to describe and bring out the sense of
admiration that he has. The screenplay describes her as doing the same before she kisses him.
This is one of the pivotal moments in the film that describes Ricky's point of view on the world's
beauty and it's definitely a moment where he can finally take in Jane's beauty in person and she
finally except that admiration that she seeks so dearly.

One significant moment in the screenplay that not only describes Jane and Angela's
relationship but Angela and Lester's to relationship as well. The action description describes Jane
as "feeling incredibly awkward in her own home" (Ball), which definitely showcases the
awkwardness that comes out of Jane especially when Angela talks about sex and having sex with
her dad. This awkward moment of sex shows up another time in the screenplay when Jane finally
gets tired of hearing Angela's sex stories. This scene in particular is just the beginning of Jane

and Angelas awkward relationship of her discussing her sexual hierarchy over Jane. On the
flipside, Lester is a bit taken aback as well. He is described in the screenplay as "gazing at her,
still lost in fantasy" (Ball). This is obviously not the first moment that Lester fantasizes about
Angela but it is one of the few that happens in real life for him. From the rose petal gymnasium
scene till now Lester continues to react the same with jaw dropping awe towards Angela and this
is quite apparent in the fantasizing description that the screenplay gives as well as his "coughing
violently" reaction. He even chokes on root beer because of how distracted he is with this girl
and the text does a great job of bringing his almost adolescent admiration to life.
There are quite a few character relationships that lend a subplot to American Beauty. One
relationship that definitely lends to the subplot is Jane and Buddy. One of the first significant
moments between them is at the dinner. Carolyn has a tombstone of tipsy banter on how she feels
about her real estate career in which afterwards Buddy offers to help her. He suggests they
schedule a lunch but considering the fact that his wife is gone from the scene and her husband is
gone from the scene there's a sense that there is more to the scene than meets the eye. This
obviously suggests a deeper feeling between both of them and if their facial expression wasn't
enough on-screen, the screenplay says the "situation is loaded and they both know it" (Ball). This
small piece of text describes a moment that sparks the launch of the affair within the subplot and
this one description is what pushed it forward. Another major subplot in the screenplay that
would be a great example is Ricky and his mother. As discussed earlier, Barbara and Ricky seem
to be close and he cares for her but she is not completely aware. The script describes her as
saying things out of the blue and being completely nonchalant in every scene she's in. One
moment that was not described earlier in the analysis is when Ricky invites Jane over and
introduces her to Barbara. Barbara responds by apologizing for the untidiness of her house

although the camera shows that the house is quite clean. The screenplay doesn't have to do much
in description in order to show her forgetfulness and unawareness. This tag on her character is
only seen specifically when she's interacting with Ricky and although it is not a major part of the
plot, it does show an imperfection in his family life considering that the relationship between him
and his father's quite hard-core.
There are quite a few moments that showcase the relationships and characters that
wouldn't be the same without American Beauty's structure of scenes. One of the key moments in
the film that establishes Jane and Ricky's relationship as well as the video that kills Lester in a
sense is Rickys videotaping. Within the script its structured with the exterior of the Burnham
house scene heading but jumps back-and-forth between on video with an extensive and almost
tombstone style action description of what's being seen on screen and jumps back-and-forth
between that and the Fitts house. Every one of the shots is described in the screenplay as being
continuous, which is seen on screen when the shot continuously changes between Ricky
videotaping and the audience getting a POV of what hes shooting. This choice in the screenplay
works quite well because it is visually interesting on screen. Not only does it allow us to see
Ricky's reaction as he's recording but it also gives us the chance to get a realistic point of view of
what he sees on the video. It not only shows us facially how intrigued he is especially when he
"lowers the camera and smiles" (Ball), but this also plays into Ricky's curiosity and writing into
the script a direction for him to constantly smile during these moments shows that he is
genuinely finding beauty in the most unusual things. Outside of these things, there's no real
significance or out of this world thought that goes in to the structure of the scenes. Theyre
structured as any normal screenplay would be structured. The one really significant piece of the
structure is how Ricky's videotaping scenes are structured but outside of that everything else is

lines, descriptions and parentheticals. One thing that does stand out is the fact that the film does
have quite a few tombstones within action descriptions such as during Ricky's videotaping
scenes. To better answer the question for the analysis of whether it's a good or bad thing one
must consider the situation in the scene. Some of the tombstones could have been broken up but
considering the fact that it looks visually well on the screen, one might not question so harshly in
comparison to the screenplay.
There's quite a few central themes within the screenplay that drive the story. One of them
is sex which is evident throughout the film and present in quite a few of Lester's fantasies. One
of the pivotal moments in the film is the gymnasium scene where Lester is transfixed by Angela
for the first time. This moment is written in the screenplay in split up action descriptions that
present the moment as being "dreamy". The shot goes back-and-forth between zooming in on
Lester and his POV of Angela's "awkward grace". The usage of the word in the description of
Lester is "spellbound" which could not be a better description of how transfixed he is. There are
other moments like this throughout the screenplay of Lesters fantasies but this is the best
example a splitting each action into shorter action description which takes up a lot of these
moments. Most of the symbolic fantasies throughout the film are describe through action and
usually involve the point of view of Lester and/or Ricky. This works well because it allows the
screenplay to not take too much time using dialogue and letting the action speaks for itself. Some
of the other significant things within the film is family which is shown as dysfunctional and or
having a sense of tension. This was discussed earlier about the Burnhams dinner in the
beginning of the film that is full of short parentheticals describing awkwardness and distaste.
This is also evident in the Fitts family interactions. The film does a great job of showing how
even the middle-class family with the beautiful home, and nicely employed American family has

its struggles. This is structured in the plot by giving a good amount of space between the scenes
of the Fitts and Burnham family and showing a clear difference between both. One clear
difference is that Lester in the beginning of the film has less power as the husband unlike the
Fitts family. Of all the central themes the biggest one is beauty. This theme connects closely to
the symbols within the film. The color red is definitely a major symbol along with roses. This is
seen when Lester fantasizes about Angela above his bed with rose petals falling on him. The
same rose petals showed up in the beginning of the film during the gymnasium scene when
Lester fantasizes about Angela opening her clothes and revealing a mass array of petals flying
towards the screen. These moments are written primarily as either Lester commenting with short
lines such as when he discusses feeling woken up after standing up to Carolyn with a decent
amount of action description. The action description works significantly by showcasing the
physical aspects of the scenes that reveal the symbolism such the description of the rose petals
falling as a "deluge. This could be said as well for the earlier key moment when Lester is
fantasizing at the gym and the rose petals are falling toward the camera in which the screenplay
uses the same type of wording but with longer action descriptions to allow the action of the
fantasy to speak more fluidly and not distract with words. The choice in the screenplay of having
more action description works during the symbolic moments and is definitely a good idea
because it allows for the symbol to really have its moment and be understood without something
to distract the audience from it.
To discuss a few of the major changes to the original screenplay. Ricky and Jane are seen
in a completely different light. Jane is described as saying things such as "why are we listening to
this whiny ass music" during a drive with her mom and earlier in the screenplay she is "naked,
smoking a joint". The same characterization is seen in Ricky who sits in the jail cell singing

almost as if he's completely lost his mind. This definitely takes the innocence and youth away
from these characters that we see in the final screenplay. The opening scene spends so much time
on Ricky, Jane, and Angela at the DAs office and a few other things that it completely takes the
first 10 minutes away from the actual story's protagonist. Another big change is the real estate
king's name from Leonard to Buddy which seems a bit more fitting for the character. The name is
a bit more playful and makes the character a little less serious, which you get a sense of in the
actual film. Another significant change is the song played during the gymnasium scene from The
Carpenters' "Top of the World" to Stevie Wonder's "On Broadway" which was probably changed
for the speed of the song as well as the transition from the song into Angela's movement which
accented better with the score and played more into the showgirl aspect of the scene. Some of the
biggest changes are to the end of the film. In the original screenplay, the ending involved Ricky
and Jane being sentenced and found guilty for Lester's murder, it definitely takes away from that
final moment. Most likely this change was made to the conclusion of the film because it
completely kills the sentimental moment that Lester has when he looks at the picture of his
family for the last time. Also having a montage of precious moments in between the jail sentence
felt unfitting and snatches away the small sense of innocence that we get from the image of
young Jane in the end. All of these flashbacks to these various moments are supposed to be a
look back at Lester's life and how much beauty was in it and the beauty is taken away when the
viewer is distracted by unjustified court shots. Its also quite depressing that Ricky's videos that
are supposed to be seen as beautiful are used against him in the end in the original screenplay.
You understand Ricky's unique vision in a sense in the finalize film we see today. The original
screenplay twists the images as well as the closing image of him singing in jail to almost make
him look like a madman. There's a sentimental value that comes with the end of this film and the

montage of various moments throughout Lester's life. If the original screenplay had its way this
final moment would've been poisoned with an unjust court decision, destroying the real reason
behind Ricky's videotaping, and taking away from the beauty of Lester's life.
The central plot of American Beauty is quite unique considering the fact that in the early
draft of the film it opened with Ricky in jail and a trial for murder. I feel like the new opening
definitely lent more to what the plot needed. The finalized version of the plot that we see today
definitely allowed the first 10 minutes of the film to get out lots of backstory and important
information about the various characters in the film and the protagonists dilemma. As discussed
constantly in class, the first 10 pages of the screenplay are some the most significant and
important and the first draft with Ricky singing in jail definitely did not push the story into gear.
The plot is structured within a three act system like most traditional Hollywood films. Obviously
as discussed earlier, within the first act or to be more specific within the first 10 minutes, the
essential information needed is explained. Within the screenplay and the first 10 pages, this is
treated as various shot changes throughout the Burnham household from him jerking off in the
shower as being "the highlight of his day" (Ball), to him watching his wife tend to the roses.
These first 10 minutes are completely narrated in the screen by Lester and treated as voice over
with various parentheticals to accent his mood in the vocalization. This decision of letting Lester
explain his dilemma over various visuals of the people he's talking about is a great idea. The
audience within the first 10 minutes of the screenplay is able to get a full understanding of who
Lester is, who is family is, and what his dilemma is. The combination of voiceover and video
definitely complements each other. As for the overall structure of the film, after the establishment
of information about Lester, act one sets into gear. Within the first 16 pages, Lester meets Angela
which slowly pulled him out of his midlife crisis and sets the story in motion toward his sexual

attraction to her which drives the story. To comment on that specifically, there aren't a lot of
scenes between Lester and Angela until the very end. It might have been interesting to have seen
more than fantasy but one could argue that the closing of the film did tie everything together and
had a significantly stronger effect then if they had sex just to add more scenes between them.
Also within the first act the relationships begin to build between all of the main characters, The
Burnham family, Lester and Angela, Jane and Ricky, and various other supporting characters.
Having all of these interactions happen so early in the film definitely establishes the characters
relationships early and doesn't allow any to drag on into the other acts so the rest of the film can
concentrate on the continuation, strengthening, and possible decline of certain relationships such
as Lester and Carolyn's marriage.
Meeting Ricky towards the end of the second act definitely sets Lester into a whole new
gear of beating his midlife crisis. After the scene and as we venture into act two, Lester finally
stands up to Carolyn, blackmails his job, and begins working out. Within act two we have seen a
complete change in Lesters character to what he really wants to be, free and in a sense young.
He's breaking from the jail bars that held him behind his computer screen (another small piece of
symbolism in the beginning of the film) and no longer peering through windows longing. The
screenplay doesn't make a big deal of describing these symbols extensively other than stating that
he's looking at a computer screen or that roses are being clipped. The important thing though is
that the symbols are placed there without having to say too much which helps to drive the plot
and show its different from Lester just watching from the window with everyone unaware of
him as described in the screenplay, to Angela being "suddenly insecure" from Lester's voice and
demeanor that has evolved to be "low and intense" as described in screenplay. This happens later
towards act three, but back to act two. Ricky and Jane draw closer to each other and there is a

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pivotal moment where Ricky and Jane watch a video he taped of a bag flying through the air and
describing the beauty he admires in it. Having this moment and discussion of beauty towards the
center point of the screenplay is an interesting place but definitely sets in motion a contrast
between what Angela and Lester are aspiring for in beauty and the simplicity that Ricky sees.
Towards act three, Carolyn has denied him hitting on her and it is also revealed at the end of act
two that she is cheating on him which pushes him to give up on his family and make his sexual
attraction to Angela his main goal for the rest of the film. In act three the speed of the film
definitely revs up as we reach the climax. Theres definitely more scenes with Frank which
would make sense considering what he does in the end. By having a little bit more of Frank
within this third act definitely conveniently places him at the scene in order for him to act out
what he plans to do in his search for acceptance of his self. Everything within this third act
comes together quickly including the moment where Angela and Lester are finally intimate
which reveals a different side of Lester. He decides not to have sex with her, which places a
quick wrap up on Lester and Angele's relationship which felt very surprised but worked. Some
might see it as a weakness within the plot, but it just happens to be placed right before he looks
at a picture of his family and truly discovers what real beauty is, love. This happens right before
his death and seems to be placed very intricately in order to play off of the theme of redemption
even in his final moments. It seems that every single person's breakdown was conveniently
placed with an act three including Frank, Carolyn and the end of Angela and Janes relationship.
This all ties in closely to Lesters death, which closes the film with the montage of everyone's
reactions to that exact moment. Placing all of these emotionally driven moments all together and
slowly bringing them in connection to Lesters death is unique choice for the dnouement, but
ties everything together by having all of their situations concentrate on one final moment. This

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might've been a unique choice structurally but it's definitely a unique closing to the roller coaster
ride the film takes the audience on. It's in a way bringing all of the characters and bringing their
stories full-circle, which is conveniently accented with the voiceover from Lester just like in the
beginning. The film does fully come full circle because Lester tells us that he's going to die in the
beginning, he dies in the end and closes the entire film with everyone's reaction to his death
conveniently with him talking about it in peace. Having him comment on his life throughout the
film and finally comment on his death as we see him in peace is a great way to close the film
because he has finally discovered what is truly important in his life, he finally discovers the true
beauty in this life and in a sense, having this film end this way structurally allows the audience to
be at peace with this character's last moment.

II.

The Structural Outline:

1. Ricky begins videotaping Lester and his family.
2. Lester meets Angela.
3. Lester meets Ricky.
4. Lester stands up to Carolyn.
5. Lester starts buying drugs from Ricky.
6. Lester quits and blackmails job.
7. Lester discovers that Carolyn is cheating on him.
8. Frank thinks Ricky and Lester are having sex.
9. Lester kisses Angela but doesnt have sex.
10. Lester discovers what true beauty is.
11. Frank kills Lester.

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Works Cited
American Beauty. Dir. Sam. Mendes. Screenplay by Alan Ball. Dreamworks Pictures, 1999.
Film.

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