American Beauty (1999)

Director:

Sam Mendes

Writer (WGA):

Alan Ball (written by)

Release Date:

1 October 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

... look closer

Plot:

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation for his daughter's attractive friend.

Plot Keywords:

Dissatisfaction | Narration | Barefoot | Only Daughter | Boyfriend Girlfriend Relationship

Awards:

Won 5 Oscars. Another 83 wins & 74 nominations

Cast

Kevin Spacey	...	Lester Burnham
Annette Bening	...	Carolyn Burnham
Thora Birch	...	Jane Burnham
Wes Bentley	...	Ricky Fitts
Mena Suvari	...	Angela Hayes
Chris Cooper	...	Col. Frank Fitts, USMC
Peter Gallagher	...	Buddy Kane
Allison Janney	...	Barbara Fitts
Scott Bakula	...	Jim Olmeyer
Sam Robards	...	Jim Berkley
Barry Del Sherman	...	Brad Dupree
Ara Celi	...	Sale House Woman #1
John Cho	...	Sale House Man #1
Fort Atkinson	...	Sale House Man #2
Sue Casey	...	Sale House Woman #2

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexuality, language, violence and drug content.

Runtime:

122 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Malaysia:(Banned) | Denmark:15 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | France:-12 | Mexico:C | Canada:14A (British Columbia) | Colombia:18 | Canada:18A (Alberta) | Brazil:18 | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Netherlands:12 (re-rating) | Argentina:18 | Australia:MA | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-14 | Germany:12 (bw) (original rating) | Germany:16 (bw) (re-rating) | Hong Kong:III | Iceland:14 (original rating) | Iceland:16 (video rating) | India:A | Ireland:18 | Israel:PG | Italy:VM14 | Japan:R-18 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Peru:18 | Poland:15 | Portugal:M/16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18 | USA:R (certificate #36807) | Philippines:R-18 | Singapore:R(A) | Singapore:M18 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

11388 Homedale Street, Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

DreamWorks SKG

Trivia:

Executive Producer Steven Spielberg personally recommended Sam Mendes to direct this film.

Goofs:

Continuity: The amount of hair over Angela's shoulder when she stands up after asking about the stereo.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Jane Burnham: I need a father who's a role model, not some horny geek-boy who's gonna spray his shorts whenever I bring a girlfriend home from school. What a lame-o. Someone really should just put him out of his misery.
Ricky Fitts: You want me to do it?
Jane Burnham: Yeah. Would you?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001) (VG)

Soundtrack:

Open The Door

The greatest movie ever made - * * * * *

British stage director Sam Mendes was asked to direct this brooding black comedy drama which centres around an ordinary family, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is the man of the house but his life is going no where, only when he meets his daughters friend (Mena Suvari) does he suddenly decide to take a hold of his life and get it back in order, at the same time neighbours move in next door, the only child of that family (Wes Bentley) begins a relationship with Lesters daughter (Thora Birch) and at the same time Lesters wife, Caroline (Annette Bening) is having an affair...

When Mendes finished the picture he showed it to executive producer Steven Spielberg, Spielberg liked to watch movies alone, so Mendes was waiting for him to finish, pacing the corridors waiting for word, when he was told that Spielberg had finished, Mendes rushed into the next room and saw Spielberg with tears in his eyes and the first thing he said was "You've made a classic movie" He couldn't be more true, American Beauty is an awe-inspiring and incredible movie with some hilarious comic moments and some heartbreaking and heartwarming drama at the same time, most of this is means of the magnificent acting and the tremendous and flawless script, but what really sticks out is Mendes's keen eye for detail, which help in creating this stunning, vivid masterpiece and making it what it is considered to be today, a modern masterpiece.

The movie itself won several Oscars, all very well deserved, one of them went to Kevin Spacey for his marvellous and often mesmerising performance and showing us that no matter who was attached to the project, no other actor could have done a job even half as good as Spacey's, another acting Oscar was nominated in Annette Benings name, who very much deserved to win, but alas only had to stick with a nomination, her resulting performance is simply worshipful, so good that it even matches up to Spaceys high-flying career-topping turn, but there are members of the back up cast like Wes Bentley, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari and Chris Cooper that should all get special recognition in name of their masterful turns.

The script is like i said before something very special, genius one-liners and sensational dialogue fills up the edgy and hard boiled screenplay that goes among some of the finest written directly for the screen and very much the movies grace, what can really make a movie great is if its script is acted out by some truly fantastic performances, this is done here and to a great result, the script masterfully combines drama with elements of jet-black humour and some hilarious gags at the same time which paint a vivid portrait of family life with one small twist, the way its obviously passed on is great and quite frankly an excellent achievement in directing, acting, writing and the whole movie itself.

You cant call yourself a true movie fan unless you have seen this quite a few times, the Oscar it deserves most of all is the best picture Oscar it picked up just for the general brilliance of this resulting flick that is sure to tickle the taste of movie fans from far and near, I'm a proud lover of this masterpiece and have absolutely no shame in calling it one of the best movies ever created in the history of cinema.

* * * * * out of * * * * * 11.0/10.0