American Beauty

This film can change your life.

This film is so much more than just another Hollywood Blockbuster.

Forget the Speilberg involvement.

Forget the cheesey American sitcom trailers.

This film explores the fundamental psyche of modern man.

Nothing is left untouched. Love, Death, Hate, Sex, Gay, Drugs, Murder, Masturbation, Success, Power, Life and quality of life.

The most memorable moment for me is not the comic relief. It's not even the death scene, or the suggested Gay scenes. The most memorable moment is the plastic bag scene. Yep. Plastic Bag. A plastic bag is whirlwinding around on screen. Following the currents of air in a late August blustery street. To-ing and fro-ing, dancing amongst the windswept leaves. And the movie suggests that all is pre-ordaned. That there is a more powerful force controlling the seasons, making the bag move. Making beauty out of the bags movement. It was like watching Swan Lake.

There is SO much beauty in the world, but we don't appreciate it. We don't give the simple things credit, we tend to focus on the negative, and labour over the hardship no matter how trivial or major that may be.

This film is dangerous. It is a true tap into the human condition. It shrouds itself in comedy and sex, but it is at the deepest core of the human psyche. I watch it only as often as my spirit can take.

Perhaps the film relies on sympathy for the main character Lester? If so, then I guess it is banking on a whole gaggle of thirty somethings finding solstice in Lesters plight. So, it may not have the younger generation appeal. But, they have certainly tapped direct into the middle-aged, stuck in a rut, feverishly addicted to youth, folk like me.
If ever I sympathised with a character then Lester is it. The drug dealing, life capturing, neighbour acts as a disciple for God. We are shown how beautiful the world is in every frame that he captures. We are shown how fragile and shallow everyday life can be. Everything we value tends to be linked to some act of defiance, or unconventional act. Yet, in our middle-aged years we strive for conformity.

Again, I will stress that this film is dangerous. If you have any remote sense of appreciation for the beautiful things in life, then your materialistic, capitalistic world will be under threat.

I once remember saying to my Dad that I didn't want to join the 'rat-race' - Instead I wanted to appreciate the beauties of life and living and loving and then die under a pile of leaves in a beautiful green forest. My naive cravings have not subsided alongside my desire for wealth and comfort in my later years. I still believe in what I proclaimed to my father, but my family committements render my "childish notions" obsolete. However, this film will re-kindle any desires you once had to fight back, and throw away the shackles of modern life. Reveal what shallow story it tells.

This film is life changing. Only watch it when balanced and ready for it.

If you want to watch something approaching biblical proportions then buy this film. If you want a shallow Hollywood sit-com then think again.