The so-called black humor is to combine solemnity with humor, righteousness with evil, and talk about tragedy in the form of comedy. "American Beauty" undoubtedly has a typical black humor style. The whole film is full of cynical jokes. Exaggerations, paradoxes, and irony can be seen everywhere, but its background is "how painful to understand". Director Sam Mendes painted us a Ukiyo-e of the middle class in the United States, and used film to make a specimen of American social problems.
"American Beauty" actually talked about the mid-life crisis of three men. Leicester's family was unsettled and his career had no success. He had long lost enthusiasm for life. He had no status at home, was despised by his wife, hated by his daughter, and had no parents. Authority. As one of Leicester’s references, Lieutenant Colonel Frank of the neighboring Marine Corps is an iron man. He said that he has a serious tendency to violence. He is a powerful character. His family is very afraid of him. However, his strength does not keep the crisis away from him. , His son sings against him, his wife doesn’t accord with him, and he himself has an incomparable guilty conscience hidden under his arrogant and tough appearance. This tough guy who hates homosexuality has actually been suppressing his homosexuality. He is not humane. pain. The real estate king Barty, who is the second reference of Leicester, has a successful career and is quite successful, but because of his focus on work, he neglected his wife, leading to the breakdown of his marriage. It seems that successful people are not in the middle-age crisis. Free of death gold medal. With authority and accomplishment, in the face of crisis, after all, there is still something to rely on, and Lester, who has nothing, can only let life tease and ravage.
Lester was stuck in a gloomy mood of boredom and boredom, neglecting the communication with her daughter Jane. Jane, who was in puberty, needed the guidance and care of her family when she had a lot of problems, but her mother was only sneered at her, Dad. Ignoring her, Jane is lost and angry. Her punk makeup is a manifestation of mania. She was peeped at by the boy next door, and she was secretly delighted, which shows that her lack of attention and care has reached an outrageous level. The long-term indifference to her daughter has caused her daughter to have a deep estrangement from him. Lester wants to enjoy the happiness of family, that is an unattainable luxury. Lester and his wife Caroline are very different in terms of values. Caroline has a deep American dream and is captured by money worship. She always cheers herself up, listens to inspirational radio stations, slams into spiritual chicken soup, and is deeply anxious about success. Looking at her, in her eyes, her husband, who has no ambition and can't support the wall with mud, is of no use. There was a fire in Leicester's backyard, and the front yard was not optimistic. The company that had worked for many years planned to lay off him.
His daughter, his wife, and his renunciation is one aspect of Leicester's change. Another aspect comes from two young people. One is Angela, her daughter’s classmate. She aroused Leicester’s desire. This desire is not only about sex, but contains a passion for life. Leicester’s fantasy of her is always accompanied by a sky full of roses. There is no lack of romance. With the help of Angela's youthful vitality, Lester is freed from the emotions of greater grief than death, and has the power of action and imagination. The other was Richie, the boy next door who peddled marijuana to him. In front of Leicester, Rich easily quit his job as a waiter. This made Leicester admire and Lester learned from this young man. courage. When the company asked him to leave, Lester blackmailed a high severance payment. The supervisor said: You are a fucking pervert. Lester said: I am just an ordinary person who has nothing to lose, which means I am barefoot and not afraid. Wear shoes. The cheapest person is invincible, and the blackmail succeeds. The changes in Leicester can be described as Days of Being Wild by the English name of "A Fei Zheng Chuan". Lester bought an old-fashioned car with the money from the blackmail and started working out. He went to a fast food restaurant to find a job that was "not responsible" and focused on his own remodeling. He completely gave up his family role. And social identity, choose the least effortless id from id, ego, and superego, adhering to the principle of happiness, and completely loosening oneself. Even when working in a fast food restaurant, he accidentally broke his wife's adultery with others, and he could not care and laugh as usual. This kind of self-Han-style life attitude does not actually rescue him from the mid-life crisis. What should be cared about is still very much, and the hurt is still very hurt.
On rainy nights, Lieutenant Colonel and Angela opened their cards in front of him one after another. The Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Frank kissed Lester's lips tremblingly. When a tough soldier showed her homosexual nature, and Angela, who was as good as possible, said that she was still a virgin, Lester saw her own absurdity from the absurdity of others, repented, and her mood changed from surly and irritable to peaceful and peaceful. Ready to be a good husband and father again. Suddenly knowing the secret that others can’t tell, Lester was greatly impacted, letting him understand that there were many people ravaged by life, and he was not fighting alone, so he went back and looked at his cards and found this. This kind of "relevant" life is not what he really wants, it is just a refuge he created after being rejected by life, so he decided to withdraw from this disguised freedom and happiness, back to the right track, and face his true self. Cherished, Jane and Caroline, daughter and wife. Lester's attitude towards life has gone through three stages of pros and cons. He has returned to the original point, looking at mountains or mountains, and water or water, but the people who look at landscapes are those who have enlightened. And the tough guy father of the boy next door did something extraordinary (come out of the closet) during the mid-life crisis. Unexpectedly, he was unsatisfied. The imagination of Leicester turned out to be a big misunderstanding, and he was embarrassed. Shoot and kill. The ancients said that he could die after hearing about Taoxi, but just as Lester woke up, the pistol in the back of his head fired, but now that he had the awakening of love and the realization of beauty before his death, all the entanglements in his heart have disappeared, and naturally No regrets, so the boy next door saw the incredible beauty on his face after death, and sighed: Wow.
There are many characters in the movie who have experienced mid-life crisis, such as Miles, whose marriage failed and no one cares about his work in "A Life with Wine", and the advertising elite Klein, whose career has risen but his family has disintegrated in "The Cramers". Leimer, the outdated star of "Lost in Tokyo" who has entered a period of career stagnation and a period of emotional gaps, "Paradise Lost" encounters Kuki, who has only one pure love in his life. However, the midlife crisis faced by Leicester in "American Beauty" is undoubtedly more complex and comprehensive. The spiritual purgatory and rebirth he experienced are naturally more typical, and his understanding of life is undoubtedly deeper and more thorough. It can be said that the role of Leicester can be observed in movies involving the theme of mid-life crisis.
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