American Beauty

The setting symbolizes the mental conditions the characters are in. The director chooses to shoot the scene on a rainy day in a garage on purpose. Outside the garage, it is raining heavily. The heavy rain actually symbolizes the devastation Colonel feels. Colonel himself is a homosexual and he knows that middle class people in America are not supposed to be like that. In order to be typical and create a ˇ§healthyˇ¨ image, Colonel has long bee

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After Colonel has been rejected by Lester, he is no longer able to accept his own sexual inclination anymore. This helps the audience focus on the characters instead of the surroundings. The changing of shots actually helps the audience adjust their focus, paying attention to setting and sound again. The noise created by the rain becomes lighter when Colonel gets inside the garage because he thinks that he may get some consolation from Lester. He is discontent with his marriage but he cannot divorce his wife just because they want to be a typical couple among the middle class people. At the beginning of the scene when Colonel is outside the garage, the audience can hear the loud noise created by the heavy rain. All he wants is the excitement of having sex with a young teenage girl. Therefore when Colonel finds out that his son, Ricky, is a homosexual and earns money by performing fellatioes, he feels torn. The calm environment inside the garage, in contrast, symbolizes the peace and content Lester feels when he has found out the way of regaining his so-called passion of life. He thinks Lester is also a homosexual and tries to kiss him. This creates the climax of the scene. As audience, we should not pay attention to the plot only.

Common topics in this essay:
Ricky Fitts, Lester Colonel, Lester Lester, American Beauty, middle class, Lester Burham, setting sound, middle class people, Colonel Fitts, medium shot, gay identity, class people, audience focus, , colonel rejected lester, film elements, scene colonel, heavy rain, sexual inclination, suburb middle class, mental conditions characters, class people america,

Approximate Word count = 1017
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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