American Beauty

American Beauty
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sam Mendes
Produced by	Bruce Cohen Dan Jinks
Written by	Alan Ball
Starring	Kevin Spacey Annette Bening Thora Birch Allison Janney Wes Bentley Mena Suvari Chris Cooper
Music by	Thomas Newman
Cinematography	Conrad L. Hall
Editing by	Tariq Anwar Christopher Greenbury
Studio	DreamWorks
Distributed by	DreamWorks (US) United Int'l Pictures (non-US)
Release date(s)	September 15, 1999 (limited) October 1, 1999 (wide)
Running time	122 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Gross revenue	$356,296,601 (Worldwide)

American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film, directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a middle-aged office worker who has a midlife crisis after becoming infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend. The film co-stars Annette Bening and Thora Birch as Lester's wife and daughter respectively. Mena Suvari, Wes Bentley and Chris Cooper also feature. American Beauty marked acclaimed theater director Mendes' film directorial debut; it was also Ball's first produced film screenplay. The film was financed by DreamWorks, which bought Ball's spec script for a six-figure sum in 1998.

Spacey was Mendes' first choice for the role of Lester, though DreamWorks had urged the director to consider better-known actors; similarly, the studio suggested several actors for the role of Carolyn—Lester's wife—until Mendes cast Bening without DreamWorks' knowledge. Principal photography took place between December 1998 and February 1999 on soundstages at the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California and on location in Los Angeles. The film underwent several changes during editing that affected its tone and eliminated expository bookend scenes. American Beauty was positively received by critics and audiences alike; it was the best-reviewed American film of 1999 and grossed over $350 million worldwide. It won the 1999 Academy Award for Best Picture, and was nominated for and won numerous other awards and honors, mainly for the direction, writing, and acting.

Plot

Lester Burnham (Spacey) feels his office job has few prospects for advancement and despises his superiors. His wife, Carolyn (Bening), is an ambitious real-estate broker; their 16-year-old daughter, Jane (Birch), abhors her parents, has low self-esteem and is saving money for a breast augmentation operation. The Burnhams' new neighbors are retired United States Marine Corps Colonel Frank Fitts (Cooper), his dissociative wife, Barbara (Allison Janney), and their teenage son, Ricky (Bentley).

After watching a high school basketball game at which Jane is a cheerleader, Lester develops an infatuation with Jane's sexually precocious friend and classmate, Angela Hayes (Suvari). His recurring fantasies entail a sexually aggressive Angela among red rose petals. Frank controls Ricky with a strict disciplinarian lifestyle and gives him regular drug tests. Ricky, a cannabis smoker and drug dealer, evades detection through the use of clean urine samples obtained from a client. Ricky frequently uses a hand-held video camera to record his surroundings and keeps hundreds of taped videos in his bedroom. Carolyn begins an affair with a business rival, Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher). Lester is informed he is to be laid off, but blackmails his boss, quits his job and takes up low-pressure employment at a fast food chain. He buys his dream car, starts lifting weights and begins running to improve his physique and impress Angela, whom he overheard telling Jane that she would find him sexually attractive if he had muscle. He also takes up smoking cannabis, which he buys from Ricky. Lester continues to fantasize about Angela and flirts with her whenever she visits Jane. The girls' friendship wanes and Jane becomes romantically involved with Ricky; the lovers bond over Ricky's camcorder footage of what he considers the most beautiful imagery he has filmed: a plastic bag blowing in the wind.

Lester discovers Carolyn's infidelity, but reacts indifferently. Buddy breaks off the affair with the excuse that it could lead to a financially ruinous divorce for him. Frank becomes suspicious of Lester and Ricky's friendship and searches his son's room. He finds camcorder footage that Ricky had captured by chance—Lester's lifting weights in his garage while nude. Frank mistakenly concludes that Ricky and Lester are engaged in a sexual relationship after watching their drug rendezvous through the garage window. After Ricky returns home, Frank beats him and accuses him of being gay. Ricky falsely admits the charge and goads Frank into turning him out of their home. Ricky convinces Jane to flee with him to New York City. Angela protests and Ricky answers her vanity by calling her ordinary.

Carolyn loads a gun and drives home. Frank confronts Lester in the garage and attempts to kiss him; Lester rebuffs the advance and Frank flees. Moments later, Lester finds a distraught Angela; she asks him to tell her she is beautiful. He does, and she begins to seduce him. After learning that Angela is a virgin, Lester halts and the pair instead bond over their shared frustrations. Angela tells Lester that Jane is in love, and Lester tells Angela he is happy. While Angela goes to the bathroom, Lester smiles at a family photograph in the kitchen. A gunshot rings out and blood spatters on the wall in front of Lester. Ricky and Jane find him dead. The actions of the other characters in the moments before and after his death are shown: Frank's returning home, bloodied, a gun missing from his collection; Carolyn's crying in their bedroom; Jane, Ricky and Angela reacting to the gunshot. Lester's closing narration explains that despite his death he is happy, as it is hard to be mad when there is so much beauty in the world.

Production

Development

In 1997, Alan Ball signed with the United Talent Agency (UTA) with the intent of making the transition from writing for television to films. After Ball experienced frustration writing for the situation comedies Grace Under Fire and Cybill, his UTA representative, Andrew Cannava, suggested that Ball write a spec script to "reintroduce [himself] to the town as a screenwriter". Ball pitched three ideas to Cannava: two conventional romantic comedies and American Beauty. Ball had been preoccupied with the idea of writing the story behind a "lurid tabloid murder case";^[1] he attempted to turn the idea into a play in the early 90s, but later felt it would work better as a film. Despite the story's lack of an easily-marketable concept, Cannava advised him to write American Beauty because he felt it was the one for which Ball had the most passion.^[2] While the film was in development, Ball continued to work in television, creating another situation comedy, Oh, Grow Up. His anger and frustration at having to accede to network demands on the show, and during his tenures on Grace Under Fire and Cybill, informed his writing of American Beauty. Ball noted, "My experience with the television show is that I bent over backwards to address every single note that everyone gave me, and they seemed to end up not liking it ... My experience with the movie was that I just wrote something ... I wrote it from the heart, I didn't go through development, I didn't have a lot of network executives or studio executives giving me notes, and it became this thing that seemed to really work."^[1]

Although Ball did not expect to sell the script—he believed it would act more as a calling card—American Beauty drew interest from several production entities. DreamWorks became aware of the script through producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen. With the assistance of DreamWorks executive Glenn Williamson—with whom Ball had previously worked—and Steven Spielberg in his capacity as studio partner, Ball was convinced to develop the project at DreamWorks; he received assurances from the studio—known at the time for its less edgy fare—that it would not "iron the [edges] out".^[3] In April 1998, DreamWorks acquired the script for a mid-six figure sum,^[4] outbidding Fox Searchlight Pictures, October Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Lakeshore Entertainment.^[5] With Jinks and Cohen attached as producers, DreamWorks planned to make the film for $6–8 million.^[6]

In the same year, theater director Sam Mendes revived the musical Cabaret with fellow director Rob Marshall. Beth Swofford of the Creative Artists Agency arranged meetings for Mendes with studio figures in Los Angeles to see if film direction was a possibility. At Swofford's house, he came across American Beauty in a pile of eight scripts.^[7] He met with Spielberg, who had seen Cabaret and encouraged him to read the script.^[6] Mendes, who was inspired early on by how the film Paris, Texas (1984) presented contemporary America as a mythic landscape,^[8] saw the same presentation in American Beauty, as well as parallels with his own childhood experiences:

All those things I ... described about discovering how contemporary American could be mythic somehow met my own experiences, my own upbringing as an only child. There are two only children in the movie. There are two basically dysfunctional families. They live in suburbia. I lived on the outskirts of Oxford in the oddest house you can imagine. With very odd neighbors, exactly in the same way as the movie. So there were all these things in the movie that chimed with my own experiences.^[9]

Several A-list directors were interested in the project, although Ball was not keen on their involvement as he believed the inevitable budget increase would lead to DreamWorks' becoming "nervous about the content".^[10] During Mendes's visit to Los Angeles, he pitched for the film with DreamWorks executives, and found support from Jinks, Cohen and Ball.^[11] The writer had also seen Cabaret and was impressed with Mendes' "keen visual sense" and they way in which he did not make obvious directorial choices—preferring to look for something deeper in the material, which Ball felt would be a good fit with the themes of American Beauty.^[10] DreamWorks offered the film to Mike Nichols and Robert Zemeckis, but neither accepted.^[6] The studio approached Mendes with a deal to direct for the minimum salary allowed under Directors Guild of America rules—$150,000. Mendes accepted, and later recalled that after taxes and his agent's commission, he only earned $38,000.^[12] In June 1998, DreamWorks confirmed that it had contracted Mendes to direct the film.^[13]

Writing

Although Ball was not inspired by one specific incident,^[3] he was informed by the media circus around the Amy Fisher trial in 1992; he said he "felt like there was a real story underneath [that was] more fascinating and way more tragic" than the story presented to the public. Early drafts drew on aspects of the trial for bookend scenes (excised in post-production) in which Ricky and Jane are prosecuted for Lester's murder.^[2] Ball later felt the scenes were unnecessary, and said they were a reflection of his "anger and cynicism" at the time of writing (see Editing).^[15] Ball and Mendes revised the script twice before it was sent to the actors, and twice more before the first read-through. During rehearsals, several improvisations by the actors were incorporated into the shooting script; by the end of principal photography the script had been through ten drafts.^[10] Ball said the script's mixing of genres—comedy and drama—was not intentional, but that it came unconsciously from his own outlook on life, of which humor is a "major part". He said that the juxtaposition produced a starker contrast, giving each more impact than if they appeared alone.^[15]

Ball identified with Lester and Ricky, feeling he was "equal parts" both.^[16] He drew on his own childhood experiences to craft scenes set in Ricky's household. He said, "I grew up in a household with a somewhat troubled father figure and a somewhat shut-down mother figure, so Ricky's household certainly resembles mine in ways. My father was never violent, but he was deeply conflicted in certain ways that are similar to the Colonel."^[3] Lester's story mirrors Ball's own—out of necessity, putting youthful passions on hold to work for people for whom he had no respect, in jobs he "detested".^[17] Lester's reassessment of his life parallels Ball's too—the common realization in middle-aged men that what seems important has actually dampened the passion they once had for life. Yet Lester's rebellion against society is tempered by the practicality of having to live within it; Ball felt that although some would judge Lester harshly for lusting after a sixteen-year-old, that he was finally "feeling something" was anything but disgusting, and he achieves redemption through his decision not to have sex with Angela.^[16]

In the first draft of the script Lester and Angela did have sex; by the time of shooting, Ball had rewritten the scene to the final version. Ball said his anger had blinded him to the idea that to complete his emotional journey, to achieve redemption, Lester needed to not go through with it. Although the film depicts Lester rediscovering his youthful passions, "regressing to childhood", when he is confronted with a real child—through Angela's admission that she is a virgin—he reverts to becoming a father, in Ball's words, "the father he can't be to his own daughter".^[18] Also present in the first draft was a flashback to Colonel Fitts' time in the Marines that unequivocally established his homosexual leanings. In love with another Marine, Fitts sees the man die and comes to believe that he is being punished for the "sin" of being gay. Ball removed the sequence because it did not fit the structure of the rest of the film—Fitts was the only character to have a flashback—and because it revealed too much to the audience. He said he had to write it for his own benefit to know what happened to Fitts, even though what remained in later drafts was merely subtext.^[19]

The final draft features a scene in Angela's car in which Ricky and Jane have a conversation about death and beauty; the scene differed from earlier versions, which set it as a "big scene on a freeway". The change was a practical decision, as the production was behind schedule and needed to cut costs. Ball agreed on condition that the scene retained a line of Ricky's where he muses on seeing a dead homeless woman: "When you see something like that, it's like God is looking right at you, just for a second. And if you're careful, you can look right back." Jane asks: "And what do you see?" Ricky: "Beauty." Ball said, "They wanted to cut that scene. They said it's not important. I said, 'You're out of your fucking mind. It's one of the most important scenes in the movie!' ... If any one line is the heart and soul of this movie, that is the line."^[20]

Casting

By September 1998, DreamWorks announced that it had entered negotiations with Spacey and Bening for the lead roles.^[21][22] DreamWorks had suggested Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner, or John Travolta for the role of Lester,^[23] but Mendes had Spacey in mind following his performances in the 1995 films The Usual Suspects and Seven, and 1992's Glengarry Glen Ross. Mendes said that "as far as I was concerned, he was a good actor and he was cool", and that he did not want a big star "weighing the film down".^[23] Mendes said he cast Spacey because "he is capable of making the hair stand up on the back of your neck". Over the course of the film, Lester's physique improves from flabby to toned; because Mendes shot the scenes out of chronological order, Spacey alternated postures to portray the different stages. Mendes said, "What's extraordinary for me is not only that he changed the way he stood and talked—and the way his eyes and skin and hair looked—but that he changed from the inside, too."^[24] Spacey loosely based Lester's early "schlubby" physical deportment on Walter Matthau.^[25]

DreamWorks suggested Helen Hunt and Holly Hunter for the role of Carolyn, but Mendes had already offered Bening the part without the studio's consent. While executives were upset at Mendes, he was ultimately able to cast her.^[23] Bening recalled women from her youth to help her perform the part: "I used to babysit constantly. You'd go to church and see how people present themselves on the outside, and then be inside their house and see the difference." Bening and a hair stylist collaborated to create a "PTA president coif" hairstyle, and Mendes and production designer Naomi Shohan researched mail order catalogs to better establish Carolyn's environment of a "spotless suburban manor". Mendes also lent Bening the Bobby Darin version of the song "Don't Rain on My Parade", which she enjoyed and persuaded the director to include for a scene in which Carolyn sings in her car.^[26]

By November 1998, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, and Mena Suvari had been cast as Jane, Ricky and Angela respectively. Bentley overcame competition from top actors under the age of 25 to be cast in the role.^[27] Peter Gallagher and Alison Janney were cast (as Buddy Kane and Barbara Fitts) after the start of filming in December 1998.^[28][29] Chris Cooper plays Colonel Frank Fitts, Scott Bakula plays Jim Olmeyer, and Sam Robards plays Jim Berkley.^[30]

Filming

Principal photography took place over 50 days^[25] between December 14, 1998,^[31] and February 1999.^[32] Mendes filmed American Beauty on soundstages at the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California, and at interior and exterior locations in Hancock Park and Brentwood in Los Angeles, California. Aerial shots were captured in North California. The film is set in an upper middle class neighborhood in an unidentified American town. Production designer Naomi Shohan said the initial plan was to set the film in a "New Jersey-ish" neighborhood, before moving on to consider a "high-end" suburb outside Chicago. Shohan likened the locale to Evanston, Illinois, but said, "it's not about a place, it's about an archetype ... The milieu was pretty much Anywhere, USA—upwardly mobile suburbia." The production intended the setting to reflect the characters, who were also archetypes. Shohan said, "All of them are very strained, and their lives are constructs." The Burnhams' household is set up as a direct comparison to the Fitts'. The Burnhams' home is a pristine ideal, but is graceless and lacking in "inner balance", leading to Carolyn's aspiration to make it at least look like the "perfect all-American household"; the Fitts' home is depicted in "exaggerated darkness [and] symmetry".^[33]

The production found it difficult to find buildings that were appropriate for the Burnhams' and Fitts' homes.^[34] They selected two adjacent properties on the backlot's "Blondie Street",^[33] one of which director of photography Conrad Hall had filmed for Divorce American Style (1967). The production rebuilt the houses, and Shohan built several false rooms to accommodate the lines of sight between Ricky and Jane's bedroom windows, and those between Ricky's bedroom and Lester's garage.^[34] The garage windows were designed for the specific purpose of obtaining the crucial shot toward the end of the film in which Frank mistakenly assumes that Lester is paying Ricky for sex after watching the pair from Ricky's bedroom.^[25] The production filmed the homes' interiors on the backlot, on location, and on soundstages when overhead shots were required.^[33] The location interiors for the Burnhams' home were shot at a house close to Interstate 405 and Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles; those for the Fitts' home were shot in the city's Hancock Park neighborhood.^[34] Ricky's bedroom was designed to evoke a cell to suggest his "monkish" personality, while at the same time blending with the high-tech equipment to reflect his voyeuristic side. The production deliberately minimized the use of red, as the use of the color was an important thematic signature elsewhere. The Burnhams' home uses cool blues, while the Fitts' was kept in a "depressed military palette". Lester's epiphany at the end of the film is expressed via rain and the use of red, building to a crescendo that is in deliberate contrast to the release Lester feels.^[33]

Mendes made very little use of steadicams, as he felt that more stable shots better generated tension in scenes. The only hand-held shooting was for the scene in which Frank beats Ricky, which Mendes said provided the film with a "kinetic ... off balance energy", and for the excerpts of Ricky's camcorder footage. Ironically, it took Mendes a long time to get the quality of Ricky's footage to the level he wanted. Mendes tried to avoid filming close-ups, as he believed them to be an overused technique; he also cited Steven Spielberg's advice that he should imagine a row of audience figures silhouetted at the bottom of the camera monitor, to remind him that he was shooting for display on a 40-foot screen rather than for television. Mendes included several homages to other films: shots of family photographs in the characters' homes were inserted to give them a sense of history, but also as a nod to the way that Terrence Malick used still photographs in Badlands (1973). The subsequent slow push in to the Burnhams' dinner table is homage to a similar shot in Ordinary People (1980); Mendes held the shot for a long period because his training as a theater director had taught him the importance of putting distance between the characters. He wanted to keep the tension in the scene for as long as possible, and only cut away when Jane left the table. The shot of Lester's jogging was a homage to Marathon Man (1976).^[25]

Many of the school scenes were shot at South High School in Torrance, California, and most of the extras in the gym crowd were South High students. Sam Mendes designed the two girls' appearances to change over the course of the film, with Thora Birch gradually using less makeup and Suvari gradually using more, to emphasize their shifting perceptions of themselves. During the movie's second dinner scene, Spacey was only supposed to throw the plate of asparagus onto the floor. However, while shooting, Spacey improvised and pitched it at the wall, bringing about genuine reactions of shock to Bening and Birch's faces.^{[citation needed]}

Editing

Ball's screenplay was bookended by scenes in which Jane and Ricky are convicted of Lester's murder,^[25] after being framed by Frank.^[35] Mendes filmed the scenes, but trialled several versions of the opening; he said that he spent more time re-cutting the first ten minutes than he did the rest of the film. The first version was true to Ball's screenplay; Mendes excised these scenes in the last week of editing,^[25] as he felt they made the film lose its mystery.^[36] Ball was not happy when he saw that Mendes had eliminated much of Jane and Ricky's trial, but was more accepting after Mendes made further cuts that eliminated the sequences completely; Ball felt that without those scenes the film had a more optimistic tone, as it had evolved into a film that "for all its darkness had a really romantic heart".^[35]

The second part of the opening was a dream sequence in which Lester imagines himself flying above the town before arriving at his own front door. Mendes spent two days filming Spacey against bluescreen, but removed the sequence from the edit as he felt it was too whimsical—"like a Coen brothers movie"—and inappropriate for the tone of the rest of the film. The opening in the final cut reused a scene from the middle of the film in which Jane tells Ricky to kill her father. Originally, this scene was to be the revelation to the audience that the pair were not responsible for Lester's death, as the wider context of the scene—the way it was scored and acted—made it clear that Jane's request was a joke, or a game in which she is playing the part of a "teenage murderess". This is not clear from the portion of the scene that is used in the opening, and in the final cut Mendes included a reaction shot of Ricky that left a lingering ambiguity to his guilt, as he wanted to keep audiences' options open. The subsequent shot—an aerial view of the neighborhood—was originally intended as the plate shot for the bluescreen effects in the dream sequence.^[25]

Mendes extensively re-cut the scene in which Carolyn attempts to sell a house. He found it difficult to get the tone right, as he wanted the Carolyn to be realistic and not appear too ridiculous. Bening improvised many of her lines, and Mendes had to cut most of the potential buyers' comic dialogue because it made the sequence too long. Mendes also cut much of the dialogue between Frank and Barbara, as he felt that everything that needed to be said about the pair—their humanity and vulnerability—was conveyed effectively through their shared moments of silence. In total, Mendes cut about 30 minutes from his original edit.^[25]

Cinematography

Conrad Hall was recommended to Mendes by Tom Cruise, due to the cinematographer's work on Without Limits (1998), which Cruise had executive produced; Mendes was directing Cruise's then-wife Nicole Kidman in the theater production The Blue Room during American Beauty's gestation. Hall was involved for one month during pre-production;^[34] his ideas for lighting the film began early, with his first reading of the script, and further passes allowed him to refine his intended approach before he first met with Mendes. Hall felt that Mendes had a strong sense of the film's visual direction from the start; in that meeting, Mendes showed Hall storyboards of the film's opening shot. The director's visual sense surprised Hall, whose experience was that first-time directors were not strong in this area.^[37] Hall was initially concerned that audiences would not like the characters, to which Mendes replied that to be able to identify with them he had to look at the "dark areas" within himself. Only during cast rehearsals did Hall feel able to properly conceive the film's look,^[34] as he finds it difficult to fully visualize scenes ahead of time;^[37] the drama of the script was given life in these rehearsals,^[34] allowing Hall to express his inner feelings through the visuals.^[37] He said, "That's where drama can occur, and that's where the palette for the visuals can become extraordinary."^[34]

Hall described the film's look as "quiet and simple", with "a certain sense of peace, compositionally", evoking classicism. He believed this approach contrasted with the turbulent events depicted, allowing audiences to better take in the action. Hall said that he and Mendes would first discuss the intended mood of a particular scene, but that he was subsequently able to light the shot in any way he felt necessary.^[37] In most cases, Hall first lit the scene's subject by "painting in" the blacks and whites, before adding the fill light, which he reflected from beadboard or white card on the ceiling. This gave Hall better control over the placement of the shadows, while keeping the fill light unobtrusive and the dark areas free of spill.^[38] Hall shot American Beauty in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio in the Super 35 format, using Kodak Vision 500T 5279 35mm film stock. He shot the whole film at the same T-stop (T1.9);^[39] given his preference for shooting that wide, Hall favors high-speed film stocks to allow more subtlety in the lighting effects.^[38] He used Panavision Platinum cameras with the company's Primo series of prime lenses and zoom lenses. Hall employed Kodak Vision 500T 5274, and EXR 5248 stock for some scenes that required daylight effects. He had difficulty adjusting to the Vision series of stocks, which he said provided too much contrast. Hall eventually contacted Kodak, who sent him a batch of 5279 that was 5% lower on contrasts. Hall used a 1/8" Tiffen Black ProMist filter for almost every scene, which he said in retrospect may not have been the best choice, as the optical steps required to blow Super 35 up for its anamorphic release print led to a slight amount of degradation; therefore, the diffusion provided by the filter was not required. Hall felt upon seeing the film in a theater that the image was slightly unclear, and that had he not used the filter, the diffusion effect provided by the Super 35–anamorphic conversion would have resulted in an on-screen image closer to how he intended it to look.^[39]

Hall said that one of the most difficult scenes to light was the scene at the beginning of the film that depicts Jane and Ricky in the latter's bedroom. The shot begins with a hand-held camera video image that pans around the room; the confined space made it difficult for Hall to place lighting equipment out-of-shot. He used three lights: a Kino Flo was hidden in a shelf and used as the backlight on Ricky, as a sidelight, and a downlight onto the bookshelf; a low power light that was aimed at a piece of beadboard behind the bed; and the fill light. The most difficult aspect was ensuring the television set did not reflect any of the light sources. The later shot that depicts Lester and Ricky behind a building sharing a cannabis joint was a result of a misunderstanding between Hall and Mendes. Mendes had asked Hall to set the shot up in his absence; Hall assumed the characters would look for an area of privacy and set the scene up accordingly, with Lester and Ricky in a narrow passageway between a truck and the building. When Mendes returned, he indicated that the point of the scene was that the characters were smoking the joint in the open, that they did not care if they were seen. The truck was removed and Hall had to rethink his lighting scheme, as he had intended to use the top of the truck. He lit it from the left, with a large light that crossed the actors, and with a softer light from behind the camera. Hall felt the consequent wide shot "worked perfectly for the tone of the scene".^[39]

The scene toward the end of the film where Lester encounters Angela in his living room begins with a shot of Lester in silhouette against the doorway, with the light only on his face. Hall wanted to make the light imperceptible enough that it would not spill into the dark areas around Lester, so he used a low power light in place of a fill light, a diffusion glass across the barn doors, and flags to prevent spill. Hall attempted to keep the bouquet of roses in-frame throughout, but instead of keeping them well lit, he aimed low-power, narrow-focus lights at the back edges of the flowers to keep them dark while suggesting a red tinge.^[37] Hall lit the edges of other objects to provide definition, and a rain effect on the foreground cross light through the windows for consistency—rain, or the suggestion of it, features in every shot in the last part of the film. Lester approaches Angela and the shot switches to a wide silhouette of the pair against the French windows. Lester and Angela are lit from one light above, and from several through the doors. Hall added material to the windows to make the rain run a little slower, intensifying the light; he said the strength of the outside light was unrealistic for a night scene, but that his liking for strong contrasts made it acceptable. Hall added the fill light and lit the roses to finally show them in full. The result was an image of low color saturation—almost bordering on black-and-white—with a hint of red from the roses.^[38] Hall said he did not like to create depth through contrasting colors, but via a color's saturation. He said, "I don't like the separation in an image to be due to the fact that a couch is gray and the walls are orange. Instead, I do it by treating the colors as values of gray and then lighting for depth."^[40] Mendes said all the red items in shots were chosen intentionally. The roses in this scene symbolize Lester's previous life and Carolyn; the camera pushes in as Lester and Angela get closer, finally taking the roses out of the shot.^[25]

Lester and Angela move to the couch. For each close-up, Hall attempted to keep rain in the shot. He lit the scene through the window onto the ceiling behind Lester. Hall said the ceiling light was the most important component of the shot: at 12–32 fc, it allowed Hall to shape the darkness and provide the contrast necessary to keep these areas black. Lester has only a low-power edge light on him to suggest a stray piece of light rather than full illumination, which Hall said would have created a different mood.^[38] Hall kept the subsequent wider shot simple, with a structured framing from the light on Angela's back and the light on the couch. Hall described the looser framing as intending to give "peace and comfort", allowing the viewer room to breathe. He placed the fill light behind Lester and Angela; this prevented spill onto their faces, but was of an intensity that allowed Hall to light the couch without also lighting the back wall, which he preferred to keep dark with the couch's silhouette. Hall used rain boxes throughout the scene, which he could light through to produce a rain pattern where he wanted, without lighting the entire room.^[40]

Music

Thomas Newman composed the score for American Beauty. The score was "an unusual collection of moods and colors created largely by percussion instruments" for which inspiration came from director Sam Mendes. Newman recalled, "Sam wanted things that hammered and thwacked a bit. He was interested in percussion and mallet instruments, so I started working on various ideas that involved xylophones and marimbas." Percussion instruments included tablas, bongos, and cymbals. Other instruments included guitars, piano, flute, and world music instruments. Newman believed the score helped move the film along without disturbing the "moral ambiguity" of Alan Ball's script: "It was a real delicate balancing act in terms of what music worked to preserve that ambiguity."^[41]

The soundtrack features songs by artists such as Bobby Darin, The Who, Free, Eels, The Guess Who, The Folk Implosion, Gomez, and Bob Dylan, as well as a cover version of The Beatles "Because" performed by Elliott Smith. The film also features the Neil Young song "Don't Let It Bring You Down" performed by Annie Lennox, though this was not included on the soundtrack. KCRW DJ Chris Douridas served as the film's music supervisor. The resulting album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The Original Motion Picture Score was later released on January 11, 2000. This contains 19 tracks composed by Thomas Newman for the film.

Interpretations

American Beauty argues the case against conventionality at the same time as expressing the human need for it. It reveals the repression of those who outwardly yearn to fit in, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual.^[42] In this, the film expresses "the death of the nuclear family". Its "art house" appeal allows it to speak to middle class audiences, to whom it instructs a rejection of material attachments. Though it ultimately leads to his death, Lester is first redeemed through the awakening knowledge of his own repression and middle class angst. The film presents the idea that only the wealthy—and those clever enough to style their actions as a sympathetic rebellion—have the freedom to be able to experience the luxury of successfully eschewing material trappings to find an inner self; it overtly attempts to convince its audience into a similar rebellion against their own repression, as its critique of conformity can only be properly understood through pre-existing bourgeois criticism of middle class communities.^[43] Mendes said the film is about imprisonment and escape from imprisonment—a "rites of passage". He intended the opening scenes to portray a boring day, to show the drabness of Lester's existence through his gray, nondescript workplace and characterless clothing, and to set up stock characters from whom the outer layers would be peeled over the course of the film. Lester is a trapped man; the early shot of him in a shower cubicle depicts a "jail cell", the first in a series of shots that have the character trapped behind bars or within frames: in his work cubicle and car, behind a white picket fence and a window frame, and his reflection behind columns of numbers on a computer monitor. His voice over is a throwback to Sunset Boulevard (1950), which is also narrated by a dead character in retrospect. Mendes felt it evoked Lester's loneliness. The early scene of the Burnhams' leaving for work and school—which was not in the original draft of the script—was inserted at a late stage in production to show the low point that Carolyn and Lester's relationship had reached.^[25]

The first of several personal turning points for Lester is the sexual awakening he has as a result of meeting Angela; he states in voiceover that he feels as if he has awakened from a coma and begins to discard the responsibilities and trappings of the comfortable life that he despises.^[25][43] Later, at a party with Carolyn, Lester is at his "lowest ebb" when he meets Ricky. In another turning point, the two share a joint outside the party; according to Mendes, Lester's "soul is released" and he begins to overtly rebel against Carolyn. The next significant turning point for Lester is the scene in which Carolyn discovers him masturbating; his spontaneous outburst of anger towards her is the first time he can say out loud what he thinks about her. A further awakening occurs in Ricky's bedroom, where Lester has gone to buy cannabis; Lester is almost childlike, while Ricky behaves as the adult. In common with the other instances of nudity in the film—such as when Jane allows Ricky to see her topless through her bedroom window—in the scene towards the end of the film in which Lester and Angela almost have sex, Angela's nudity is an expression of her extreme vulnerability. It is also a final turning point for Lester, as after she confesses her virginity he ceases to think of her as a sex object, but as a daughter figure. He hugs her close and "wraps her up". Mendes called it "by far the most satisfying end to [Lester's] journey there could possibly have been". In Lester's final scenes, Mendes wanted to convey that Lester was at the end of a "mythical quest". For example, after Lester gets a beer from the fridge, the camera pushes in toward him, then stops facing a hallway down which Lester walks "to meet his fate". He achieves closure, and is happy that Jane is happy. As he stares smiling at a photo of his family, the camera pans slowly away from Lester to the kitchen wall, onto which blood spatters as a gunshot rings out; Mendes used the slow pan to reflect the peace of Lester's death. His body is discovered by Jane and Ricky. Mendes said that Ricky's staring into Lester's dead eyes is "the culmination of the theme" of the film: that beauty is found in places it is least expected.^[25]

"American Beauty affirms taboos against incest,^[44] while drawing comparison with those against homosexuality, a recurrent theme in Ball's work.^[45] Rather than making a distinction between these taboo desires, American Beauty focuses on the violent repercussions of their denial.^[46] The film implies twin incestuous desires:^[42] Lester's pursuit of Angela is a manifestation of his longing for his own daughter,^[47] and Colonel Fitts' repressed homosexuality—a result of his masculinity and previous military homosociality—manifests in the severe, sexualized discipline with which he controls Ricky; "longing looks" accompany Fitts' attack upon his son.^[42] Fitts is a representation of Ball's father,^[48] whose unfulfilled homo-erotic desires led to his own unhappiness.^[49] Ball rewrote the character several times, each time delaying the revelation of his homosexuality, which feminist author and academic Sally R. Munt says is a possible expression of Ball's deferment of his own incest fantasies.^[46] Fitts' unconventional behavior is presented humorously, but this is eventually replaced by a depiction of the "erotic, tender, yet murderous violence" within him. As a critique of "narcissistic conformity", the film presents a desire even its gay characters to fit in.^[42] Jim and Jim, the Burnhams' neighbors, are a satire of "gay bourgeois coupledom". In effect, they are "the same";^[50] depicted humorously, Jim and Jim are clones that replicate suburban respectability,^[42] and are presented as no less guilty of happily investing in the conformity that the film criticizes in heterosexual relationships.^[51] Despite their desire for conventionality, they are clearly "glad to be gay", a contradiction that may seem strange to heterosexual audiences.^[42]

Sound

As well as presenting actions to the audience, films will present the observation of these actions. For example, a "point of view" shot shows objects or actions from a character's perspective.^[52] This promotes observation from an almost invisible action to one that can be characterized through sound and music in the same way as a straightforward depiction of screen activity.^[53] American Beauty goes further than scoring a perception of space to score observations of time. One example is the gymnasium scene, in which Lester first encounters Angela. As the cheerleaders perform the half-time routine, "sexual desire, sight, and music" converge to depict Lester's growing fixation on Angela. External narrative time slows to represent his "voyeuristic hypnosis"; objects and people fade until Lester imagines Angela's performance is for him alone.^[54] The music becomes similarly discordant, replacing the traditional narrative underscore of the pep band's rendition of "On Broadway" with a percussive composition that lacks melody or progression. The non-diegetic score does not just reflect the narrative stasis, it is a fundamental component of its creation and continuance.^[55] The effect is music that conveys a single moment stretched to an indeterminate length, during which the onlooker determines the pace and scope of the observation and so sees nothing less than they require.^[56] The aural sensations are more reminiscent of visual ones; in this way, both Lester and the score stare at Angela. The sequence ends with the sudden reintroduction of "On Broadway" and teleological time.^[57]

Authorial intent

The DVD edition provides new avenues of interpretation for viewers of the film;^[58] the surface enhancements of DVD editions—promotional and marketing material, improved technical facets—offer but one type of reconstruction. Others come through extensive commentaries from writers and directors.^[59] Though they might not necessarily be the most reliable analyzer of their own work,^[60] self-conscious filmmakers can offer a reorientation that in effect offers viewers a "new edition" of the film;^[59] the commentary can also highlight the limitations of holding authorial intent paramount over other interpretations.^[60] American Beauty's commentary provides a clear disconnect between intent and chance.^[61] Throughout, Mendes and Hall attempt to offer insight into their intent with particular scenes, but often Hall will contradict Mendes' praise of his work; what Mendes sees as thematic choices, Hall explains as accidental based on practical lighting considerations or simple pleasing imagery. One example is a scene in which Hall shot Spacey in a way that Mendes believed intentionally diminished Lester; Mendes says, "Conrad's added something so beautiful to the shot ... the way the light hits Lester ... it pulls him down away from the wall ... [Hall has] also done something very crucial, [cutting] his feet off at the bottom of the frame." Mendes believed the shot "effectively diminishes Lester both by cropping him and pushing him down the frame, making him even less authoritative in the face of Brad, the consultant, who is consistently shot from below." Hall corrects Mendes by saying that the shot was constructed without such an intent, and that it came about merely because he wanted the ceiling lamp in the frame; the independent intents of the filmmakers do not converge, yet their applications collide.^[61]

Release

Publicity

DreamWorks contracted the website Amazon.com to create the official website for American Beauty, which marked the first time that the commercial website created a special section devoted to a feature film. The film website included an overview, a photo gallery, cast and crew's filmographies, and exclusive interviews with actors Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening.^[62] The film's tagline—"look closer"—originally came from a cutting pasted on Lester's workplace cubicle by a set dresser.^[25]

Theatrical run

American Beauty's world premiere was held on September 8, 1999, at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, California.^[63] The film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 1999.^[64] It was also screened at several American universities, including University of California at Berkeley, New York University, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Texas at Austin, and Northwestern University. The screenings, at which filmmakers and the cast appeared, were intended to help "to bridge the gap between generations" explored by the film.^[65]

Graph to show number of theaters in which American Beauty played in 1999–2000

American Beauty premiered to the public in a limited release on Wednesday, September 15, 1999. The film screened in three theaters in Los Angeles and three theaters in New York on its first day, grossing $72,768 for the day. On Friday, September 17, the film also screened at 10 additional theaters in Toronto, Boston, and San Francisco,^[66] grossing $861,531 on its opening weekend.^[67] On the following weekend of September 24, DreamWorks expanded the number of theaters from 16 to 429, and American Beauty grossed $5,939,646 in its wider release that weekend.^[68] On October 1, DreamWorks distributed the film to 277 more theaters across the United States and Canada for a total of 706 theaters, crossing the 600-theater threshold into wide release.^[69] The film grossed $8,188,587 over its first weekend of the wide release, ranking third at the box office.^[67] Following American Beauty's wins at the 57th Golden Globe Awards, DreamWorks re-expanded the film's presence at theaters from its low of 7 theaters in mid-February,^[70] reaching a peak of 1,990 theaters.^[67] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave American Beauty a "B+" grade.^[71] In the film's theatrical run in the United States and Canada, which lasted from September 15, 1999 to June 4, 2000, it grossed $130,096,601.^[67]

The film's European premiere took place at the London Film Festival on November 18, 1999.^[72] In January 2000, it was screened at various territories outside the United States and Canada.^[73] On January 14, it debuted in Israel at nine theaters, grossing a "potent" $100,000 in four days for an average of $11,000 per screen.^[74] On January 21, American Beauty debuted on limited screens in six European markets: Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, and Finland. In the course of four days, the film grossed $791,000 in 45 theaters in Germany, $853,000 in 62 theaters in Italy, and $652,000 in the rest of the European markets.^[75] In the film's two weeks in Israel, an expansion to 25 screens led to a "terrif" $560,000.^[76] Following the weekend of January 28, American Beauty had grossed $3.3 million in Italy, $2.9 million in Germany, $579,000 in Austria, and $468,000 in Holland. The film also premiered in Australia with $1.8 million from 108 theaters, in the United Kingdom with $695,000 from 23 theaters, in Spain with $291,000 from 26 theaters, and in Norway with $214,000 from 15 theaters. American Beauty's overseas performance for the second weekend was overall $7 million in 12 countries for an accumulated total of $12.1 million.^[77]

On the weekend of February 4, American Beauty debuted in France with $1.6 million from 256 theaters and in Belgium with $562,095 from 40 theaters. In the United Kingdom, it continued to rank first at the box office with $1.7 million from 303 theaters, defeating its competition, House on Haunted Hill.^[78] On February 11, the film ranked third in its fourth weekend in Germany, grossing $2,072,635 from 257 screens. It also grossed $719,060 in its second weekend in Belgium.^[79] On February 18, following the announcement of American Beauty's eight nominations for the 72nd Academy Awards, the film grossed $11.7 million from 21 territories for $65.4 million to date for territories outside the United States and Canada. Weekend performances included $316,000 from 26 theaters in Germany, $256,000 from 31 theaters in Turkey. The film had "dazzling" debuts in the territories Hungary, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and New Zealand. As of that weekend, the following territories were the most successful for the studio: $15.2 million in the United Kingdom, $10.8 million in Italy, $10.5 million in Germany, $6 million in Australia, and $5.3 million in France.^[80] On February 25, strong performances continued in the light of the Academy Award news.^[81] The total increased from $65.4 million to $82.8 million following a weekend gross of $10.9 million in 27 countries. The film had strong debuts in Brazil with $828,000 at 135 theaters, in Mexico with $387,000 at 91 theaters, and in South Korea with $404,000 at 38 theaters.^[82] Other highlights included $640,000 in six days from 50 theaters in Argentina, $291,000 at 26 theaters in Greece, and $340,000 at 31 theaters in Turkey.^[81]

On the weekend of March 3, 2000, American Beauty debuted in three Asian markets that were normally "not receptive to this kind of upscale fare". The film grossed $272,000 at 14 theaters in Hong Kong in four days, $245,000 at 48 theaters in Taiwan in two days, and $165,000 at 13 theaters in Singapore. It also continued a strong performance in South Korea with $1.2 million after nine days.^[83] After the weekend of March 10, the film crossed the $100 million milestone with $12.6 million from 23 territories outside the United States and Canada. Highlights included $1.3 million in 12 days in South Korea and $13.3 million in seven weeks in Italy.^[84]

Home media

American Beauty was released on VHS on May 9, 2000 and on DVD on October 24, 2000.^[85][86] Before the film's North American rental release on May 9,^[87] Blockbuster Video wanted to purchase hundreds of thousands of extra copies of the title to enter it into its "guaranteed title" range, whereby any customer that wanted to rent to film would be guaranteed a copy. Blockbuster and DreamWorks failed to come to an agreement on the sharing of profits from the scheme; the rental chain wanted a similar deal to the one it had with Universal Pictures—DreamWorks' distributor. As a result, Blockbuster ordered two thirds the number of copies it originally intended.^[88] DreamWorks made around one million copies available to rental stores; Blockbuster's demand would usually account for about 400,000 of these. In some urban stores, the rental chain only displayed 60 copies of the film;^[89] in areas of lower demand, Blockbuster instructed some of its store managers to remove the film from its shelves to force customers to ask for it.^[88][89] The instruction also required Blockbuster staff to read a statement to customers explaining the situation. Blockbuster claimed that the strategy was intended only to "monitor customer demand" for the title due to its reduced availability.^[88]

Blockbuster's intended strategy leaked before American Beauty's rental release, leading to a 30% increase in orders from independent retailers—including some Blockbuster outlets owned by franchisees—and Blockbuster's closest rival, Hollywood Video. Commenters speculated that Universal or DreamWorks was the source of the leak.^[87][88] DreamWorks did not have profit-sharing deals with the independent retailers, meaning that it made much of its money on rental copies of American Beauty up front. DreamWorks had a profit-sharing deal with Hollywood Video, but copies of the film were rented in high enough quantities that both companies benefited. In its first week of release in the rental market, American Beauty made $6.8 million. This return was lower than would otherwise have been expected had DreamWorks and Blockbuster reached an agreement; the same year's The Sixth Sense made $22 million, while Fight Club made $8.1 million, even though the latter's domestic theatrical performance was just 29% that of American Beauty. Blockbuster's strategy also affected rental fees for the title; American Beauty averaged a $3.12 fee, compared with the average $3.40 fee for films that Blockbuster promoted in full that year. Only 53% of the film's rentals were from large outlets in the first week, compared with the usual 65%. ^[88]

In the DVD commentary, Mendes refers to deleted scenes for the viewer to find on the disc. However, these scenes are not on the DVD as he had changed his mind after recording the commentary.^[90] He felt that to show scenes he previously chose not to use would detract from the film's integrity.^[91]

Critical reception

American Beauty was one of the most positively received films of 1999. Variety reported, "No other 1999 movie has benefited from such universal raves."^[92] The film's world premiere in Los Angeles inspired a "phenomenal response" from the audience,^[63] and it was the best-received title at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where it was praised by critics and film industry professionals;^[64] American Beauty won the People's Choice Award after a ballot of the festival's audiences.^[93] TIFF's director, Piers Handling, said, "American Beauty was the buzz of the festival, the film most talked about."^[94]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it four stars, saying it's "a comedy because we laugh at the absurdity of the hero's problems. And a tragedy because we can identify with his failure--not the specific details, but the general outline". ^[95] Jay Carr, writing for The Boston Globe, described American Beauty as "a bracing and biting comedy of American emptiness, both sad and corrosively funny". The critic called the performances "rich" and commended Mendes' avoidance of letting the film "decline into a series of easy shots". Carr concluded, "In ways that few films even attempt, American Beauty dazzlingly and knowingly reflects the ways in which the toxic lovelessness of millennial life can be horrible and funny at the same time."^[96] Kevin Jackson of Sight & Sound said that through effortless and "brilliant" execution, the film transcended its clichéd structure and setup to become a "wonderfully resourceful and sombre comedy". He said that even when the film played for blatant situation comedy laughs, it infused these scenes with "unexpected nuance". Jackson praised Spacey's performance; he said that although the actor had already demonstrated his ability in previous films, American Beauty allowed him to impress in different ways; the critic said the most satisfying aspect was Spacey's ability to portray "both sap and hero". Jackson stated that Mendes only occasionally betrayed his roots as a theater director; Jackson believed the "most remarkable" aspect to be that the strength of Spacey's performance did not overshadow the rest of the film, as Mendes managed to stage Ball's "intricate" script smoothly, and to the ensemble's strengths, "deftly serving every change of tone from goofy knockabout to beady observation."^[97]

J. Hoberman of the Village Voice was critical of the film's script and direction, if not its performances.^[98] Filmmaker Robert Altman and long-time New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael both hated the film.^[99][100]

The generally positive critical reception of the film led to DreamWorks arranging a first look deal with American Beauty's producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen.^[101] Sam Mendes was also coveted by various studios following the film's success. Drawing on his newfound influence, Mendes began developing a script with Scott Frank for what later became the 2007 film The Lookout, meeting with potential cast members like Leonardo DiCaprio.^[73]

Scenes from the Los Angeles and Toronto premieres, as well as other unique footage related to American Beauty, are featured in the 2009 documentary My Big Break, directed by Tony Zierra, which follows Wes Bentley before and after he landed his breakout role as Ricky Fitts.

Awards and honors

In addition to awards and honors for the film, DreamWorks was also recognized by the Publicists Guild of America for the best publicity campaign in film with American Beauty.^[102] The studio launched a major campaign to promote the film five weeks before the ballots for the Academy Awards were due. Its campaign combined traditional advertising and publicity with smaller and more focused strategies to reach 5,600 Academy voters. While direct mail campaigning was prohibited, DreamWorks reached the voters by promoting the film in "casual, comfortable settings" in the voters' communities. The studio's candidate for Best Picture from the previous year, Saving Private Ryan, lost to Shakespeare in Love, so the studio took a new approach to marketing American Beauty by hiring outsiders to provide input for the campaign. Three veteran consultants were hired, and they offered advice in brainstorming sessions with the studio: "You've thought big for months, but now it's time to think small." One consultant, Nancy Willen, encouraged DreamWorks to produce a special about the making of American Beauty, to set up displays of the film in the communities' bookstores, and to arrange a question-and-answer session with director Sam Mendes for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Dale Olson encouraged DreamWorks not to advertise in just major newspapers, but also in free publications that circulated in Beverly Hills, home to many voters. Olson also arranged to screen American Beauty to a thousand members of the Actors Fund of America since many participating actors were also voters. The third consultant, Bruce Feldman, took screenwriter Alan Ball to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, during which Ball found opportunity to join a private dinner that was a tribute to actor Anthony Hopkins, meeting several voters who were in attendance.^[103]

See also

Film portal

• 1999 in film
• Cinema of the United States
• List of American films of 1999

Notes

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: American Beauty

• Official website
• American Beauty at the Internet Movie Database
• American Beauty at Rotten Tomatoes
• American Beauty at Metacritic
• American Beauty at Box Office Mojo
• Journal of Religion and Film: American Beauty and the Idea of Freedom