American Beauty Critical Review

AMERICAN BEAUTY: Academic Review

The film, American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes, is a modern day drama revolved around an outwardly regular family living in suburbia America. The film follows the story of a middle aged man Lester Burnham as he goes through his mid-life crisis and his will to change himself to win over the affections of his daughter's teenage friend . The story encapsulates the struggles individuals face in pursuit of personal idealism, while trapped by the boundaries of a judgmental society. Mendes effectively conveys this message by using excellent camera techniques mixed with clever symbolism into a series of carefully constructed mise-en-scenes. Resulting in a bold masterpiece praised by Steven Spielberg himself (American Beauty: Look Closer, 2000).

Throughout the film, Mendes uses camera techniques such as the angle shot, the point of view shot and shooting from behind the glass to visually express contrasting subjective perceptions.

The angle shot is a great example how a camera can be strategically placed to effectively convey the strength or weakness of a character (Kidd, 1998). In a scene when the protagonist, Lester, was taken into the office by his superior. The camera was placed slightly above eye level. It shot down at Lester, who appeared frail and vulnerable, especially when centered in an awkwardly large room. This scene alone, has the power to establish the ignoble position held by him in the eyes of wider society. As the story of Lester's rebellious characteristics develops, a similar scene was constructed later in the film with the camera angled upwards towards Lester, to convey strength and progress. Combined with the actor's body language, these scenes demonstrates the effectiveness of the angle shot.

The point of view shot is taken with the camera placed approximately where the character's eyes would be, showing the character's perspective of the situation; usually cut in before or after a shot of the character...