Back in our first year of college, we were introduced to ‘The Definitive Guide to Scriptwriting’ by Syd Field. It’s a great book to learn the classic narrative structure to a films story. The classic structure being that there is “three acts” to every (or most) film stories.
- Act 1 – the beginning (setup)
- Act 2 – the middle (confrontation)
- Act 3 – the end (resolution)
There is a whole lot more to it than just those three lines but that, in a nutshell, is what the three acts stand for.
Field goes in depth and breaks down the aforementioned structure and uses certain great films as reference. ‘American Beauty’ is one of these great films mentioned, and it was the first film we watched for Scriptwriting class during our first year studying TV & Film Production.
I had seen the film back when it had come out, but I had never seen a film from this perspective before. When delving into the dramatic premise (what the story is about), character study, plot points and so on, your view on films is taken to another level. Now, understanding these elements, you begin to appreciate films a whole lot more and understand them. I confess that I even admire some of Quentin Tarantino’s works now, but I’ll leave Tarantino for another time.
I have tweaked my original 2014 college analysis and added more images, happy reading.
If you are in need of a scriptwriter or script reader (doctor) you can get in contact with me on my website here.
SPOILER ALERT! I suggest you watch the film before reading further.
An Analysis on ‘American Beauty’
Director: Sam Mendes
Writer: Alan Ball
Release Date: 01 October 1999
Genre: Drama
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari,
Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher and Allison Janney
Breaking stereotypes and finding the beauty beneath the surface.
In ‘American Beauty’, a drama about the lives of stereotypical American’s living the “American dream” at the end of the 20th century, and how, in reality, this is far from truth. We follow the life of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), your average middle aged suburban father whose mundane life dissipates as he becomes infatuated by his daughters’ attractive best friend Angela (Mena Suvari). The film is taken from a narrative point of view by Lester as he recalls the last year of events that lead up to his untimely death, and his transformation to reach happiness.
In Act 1 we are introduced to the protagonist Lester Burnham, as he monologues how somewhere upon his life’s journey he has lost his enthusiasm for life. He works a normal job that he doesn’t really like and has also become distant from his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) and daughter Jane (Thora Birch) .
Carolyn is the breadwinner in the family, very appearance driven, uptight and is in denial that she is happy herself. She often irritates Lester with her behavior. She works as a real estate agent, having to stage up a house in order to sell it as desirable. Talk about irony, that both her career and her life consists of having to put on a show.
Jane is your typical teenager caught in the dilemma of whether or not she should conform to society’s views of what is acceptable and normal, or should she just hide herself away from it. She often feels neglected by her parents.
Angela Hayes (Suvari), is Jane’s best friend. Shes blonde haired, blue eyed, thin and beautiful. Angela supposedly leads a perfect life but in truth is insecure and is openly judgmental of others to hide just how judged she feels. When she realises that Lester has a fancy for her, and that she enjoys flirting with him (the power she has over him makes her feel more mature and desirable).
Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper), the Burnham’s’ neighbour is your ideal patriotic military man, the perfect American hero, all country and glory, but he is extremely controlling over his wife Barbara Fitts (Allison Janney) and their son Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley). There are moments where he loses his control and acts out violently. He is also very prejudiced against homosexuals. He too portrays an all-together demeanor but there are some serious skeletons in his closet.
Ricky seems to be your loner, creepy, stalker, drug dealer with a troubled past.
However we soon realise that he is honest and sees everyone for who they really are. Despite keeping up the pretense with his father, he is open about himself to Jane and Lester. He is entranced by Jane’s beauty and often films her, along with filming Lester and random weird things, like a dead bird. Jane, at first does not feel comfortable with the attention she receives from Ricky; however she becomes intrigued by his confidence and the fact that he clearly favours her over Angela.
With the above mentioned, this is a normal portrayal of people and families in modern times (which is a sad thought when you come to think about it) but they are far from the image we have been subjected to for years by the media, of what the ‘perfect suburban American family’ looks like from an earlier era where the husband has a great job, supports’ his family and is a great father. The stay at home mom, making sure the house is clean and that dinner is on the table in time. Then there is the perfect child, whom is happy to do all the chores designated to them plus have their homework finished before bedtime. This depiction came about the time of World War 1 and 2, used for propaganda posters but they kept going well into the 1960’s and even still today.
The aesthetics of the film depicts the iconic suburban American suburb, white house with blue shutters and a garden with a white picket fence, and throughout the film there are multiple uses of the colours red, white and blue, depicting the colours which make up the American flag.
The dramatic premise is how Lester is unhappy with his life and believes that he has lost something along the way. It also focuses on the dysfunction of his family and that of some other characters in the film and how they are all torn by the deception of living the ‘American Dream’ and how life must be perfect and they themselves must be perfect and to what end they are willing to go to get it.
The dramatic circumstance is that within a year’s time Lester will be dead. We know this because of the opening scene with Jane talking to Ricky (which we only find out later that it’s Ricky she is confiding too about how frustrated she is by her father’s behaviour) while he is filming her. It is also confirmed by Lester in his narration in the beginning of the film.
Plot Point 1 comes when Lester sees Angela do her cheer-leading dance, there is something about her that awakens something in him. He often fantasises about her and each time he does there are lose red rose petals (symbolising lust, passion and freedom).
Yet whenever the scenes that has his wife and roses are usually intact on the stem (symbolising her so called perfect life). Even the music changes in the fantasy scenes to a faster pace.
During Act 2 Lester meets Ricky, watching as he confronts his boss, carelessly and confident. The two of them bond over some pot smoking, this plus overhearing Angela tell Jane that if he were to bulk up a bit she would considered sleeping with him, this drives Lester to the take charge of his life. To be more careless like he was in his youth ,and to become the person that Angela would sleep with. He is under the pretense that behaving this way will make him feel alive again and perhaps even get with Angela eventually.
Lester’s dramatic need is to be happy again, his lust for Angela and admiration of Ricky seems to be his driving force towards it. However, there are a few obstacles in his way. Lester is married, Angela is underage, he is undermined by his family and he is in a job he doesn’t like.
Soon though, he quits his job, blackmails his boss and then takes a position in a fast food restaurant. He also buys a hot red sports car (this could be representative of him feeling free and alive again), speaks his mind and takes authority over his family. He is taking charge of his life and enjoying it. Basically he is going through a severe, yet euphoric, mid-life crisis.
Lester becomes a customer of Ricky’s (supplying Lester with weed) and all of their backhanded deals lead the Colonel to become suspicious of the two of them. He is under the impression that they are lovers.
Carolyn enters into an affair with Buddy (Peter Gallagher), the man she has been admiring for a while, the man that seems to fit perfectly in the way she wants her life to be seen as. Lester finds out about their affair when he accidentally overhears them. He confronts them but doesn’t seem to be bothered about it at all, possibly to give her reason to want to leave him so he is than free to go after Angela.
Jane had stopped inviting Angela over as she did not approve of her friend flirting with her father and abhors the fact that he seems to enjoy it. Jane also starts up a relationship with Ricky and confides her true feelings of how disappointed she is with her father (taking us back to the opening scene). She further states that she was only joking about killing him. If Jane and Ricky are not the reason for Lester dying then how does he die (Plot Point 2)?
In Act 3, on the day in which Lester dies, an interesting turn of events happen that leads both Carolyn and Colonel Fitts to have motive now to want to kill him. Angela is over at the Burnham’s house and flirts with Lester but backs off when he responds to her advances and goes to Jane.
Carolyn’s affair is brought to a halt and Buddy leaves, she tries to put on a strong front but is overwhelmed by all her repressed emotions. She works herself up into a frenzy believing she is a victim. She pulls out a gun from her glove compartment and heads on home to kill Lester.
On the other hand the Colonel sees Ricky over by the Burnham’s house talking with Lester, but all the angles that he watches from illustrates that they are indeed lovers. Outraged by this he attacks Ricky when he comes home; Ricky retaliates by lying to his father in order to finally get away from his control. Ricky grabs his things and heads on over to Jane’s to ask her to run away with him. She accepts but Angela tries to stop her. Ricky tells her off, exposing Angela for the messed up little girl she truly is.
The Colonel heads on over next-door to confront Lester (he is working out in the garage), however instead of giving him a beat-down he makes a move on him. It turns out that this whole time he was gay, but Lester turns him down.
A little while later Lester finds Angela downstairs; she is upset and feeling self-conscious after her argument with Jane and Ricky. Angela is feeling very self concise and down but Lester emphasises what a beautiful and desirable girl she is. Their flirting soon escalates into what Lester’s believes is going to be his fantasy come to life. However before getting too far Angela confesses that she is a virgin and acts mature to make people like her, causing Lester to stop.
Angela becomes confused because she thought that he found her beautiful. Lester then consoles her that she is indeed beautiful and covers her up. This is the most mature thing he has done throughout the entire film. He and Angela continue in discussion, he smiles truthfully for the first time in the film, and again later when he hears that Jane is happy. Angela asks how he is, to which he responds that it had been some time since someone had asked him that, and as if by some epiphany, realises that in that moment he is happy.
When he realises that he is happy this is the first climax. The second climax is reached when he is shot at the back of the head by an unknown perpetrator and killed.
The resolve also comes in two parts, the contrasting scenes of his life flashing before his eyes when dying that shows what Carolyn, Jane, Ricky, Angela where doing during the moment he got shot. Firstly Lester achieved happiness, even if his intentions weren’t necessarily the right or moral way in which to do so, he eventually got back on track but it was just too late as the odds were against him. The second is revealed that it was the Colonel who killed him. His motive was a desperate attempt to keep his life in control and from being exposed for who/what he really is.
The film doesn’t follow the typical ‘Three Act Structure’ in the sense that its opening scene is actually a flash-forward from another scene somewhere in the Second Act and that we know the protagonist is going to die, but it is still the films beginning and we don’t know how he dies at that point. There are also many stories going on with the different characters that make it hard to believe that Lester Burnham is the main character, however he is as it is his death that we are headed towards, and without all the in-depth characterisations from the others we wouldn’t grasp their motives to want to kill him nor would the events unfold to his happiness and eventual death.
What is interesting about the film is that all the characters are on their own journey to find happiness and acceptance in the world. This is very true in every-day life, we are all along a journey to search the meaning of life, but to show all the characters paths is often not portrayed in many film. Here we get to see their transformations, some towards the dark and others finding the light, or in particular, truly seeing beauty. The characters are also easy to relate with, since they are practically all stereotypes, yet their emotions give reason for the viewer to be sympathetic towards them and it’s a fascinating portrayal of how no one is normal. It was touch-and-go though for liking Lester as a protagonist. His actions were morally wrong and behaviour unethical, yet you still feel for him and want him to be happy.
The most likeable character was Ricky. In my original analysis I painted Ricky as being the real protagonist (the hero). In my years of character studying I have learnt that not every protagonist character will be moraly good. Nor will they have it all together. The protagonist is the one that undergoes the most change and the one we journey along with. Therefore Lester Burnham is the protagonist. I will also change that Lester is actually a likeable character, despite all his flaws mentioned above.
I do still agree that Ricky is a very important character. If it weren’t for his friendship with Lester, Lester would not have had the extra push he needed to change his life. Also if Ricky wasn’t in the picture to meet and fall in love with Jane, Lester would not have had that final epiphany of happiness when he found out that his daughter was in love, but who knows he might still be alive if he never met Ricky either.
The film also breaks some of the stereotypes we have become accustomed to, the “American dream” isn’t so pretty, perfect suburban family’s have skeletons too, the popular girl is just as self concise as anyone else, the patriotic soldier does not have everything under control, and that the awkward basket-case could actually be the sane one.
In conclusion the film is inspirational, in a backwards kind of way, but it portrays that we should be happy with our lives because there is so much beauty and wonder in it. That it’s a waste to hold onto negativity, and the views society, and the media, have brainwashed us with to be appearance and materialistically driven. We should also take time to appreciate the small things, as depicted in one of the most memorable offbeat moments where Jane and Ricky are watching a floating plastic bag that he had recorded. Ricky goes on to explain how we shouldn’t hold onto fear and that there is so much beauty in the world.
The only thing I had a problem with in the resolve of the films ending is that none of the characters have a clue that the Colonel killed Lester, however the film is made more for our own benefit as opposed to the characters and does provide closure as to who killed Lester Burnham and why.
If you are in need of a scriptwriter or script reader (doctor) you can get in contact with me on my website here.
Angela de Sousa 
I must thank you for the efforts you have put in penning this website. I really hope to see the same high-grade content from you later on as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my very own website now 😉
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Thank you very much, I hope you will enjoy the rest of my writings as well. I wish you all the best with your website 🙂
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