Film Study American Beauty - Essay Example

Film Study: American Beauty Introduction The movie “American Beauty” is all centered on the character Lester, who is undergoing a mid- life crisis throughout the story. In this movie, Lester who is in his forties is accompanied by Carolyn his wife and a teenage daughter, Jane. He is an older man under the pressure of mid – life crisis and getting romantically involved with his daughter’s friend. This girl is in the post pubertal stage and entices Lester in an attempt to seduce him. In this movie, Lester his attempting to rediscover his youth as his married life is under threat.The movie is holding the many themes t it but exclusively portrays the midlife crisis behavior of men in their 40s. The midlife crisis often makes people be skeptical about their purpose in life and future plans. Lester here is craving for his youthful days and is in a state of nostalgia. When Lester encounters the virgin girl Angela, his unfulfilled sexual desires get awakened. With the flirtatious moves of Angela, Lester starts fantasizing about the girl and falls for her. In reality, Lester’s fragmenting family is the reason for his attraction towards Angela. Lester has been having a rough relationship with his overpowering and demanding wife. He has been alienated from his daughter Jane and also was facing chances of losing his 14-year-old job. All of this put Lester in a state of despair and depression and he finds solace by romancing Angela. It is a global phenomenon for vengeful wives too often lead their husbands into the midlife crisis. Themes in the movie from a psychological perspective The movie “American Beauty “reflects various theme as it is a family oriented movie with characters of different mentalities. In this movie, all the characters have the psychological issue but the focus in is on Lester who is the central character. The general themes which can be related to the characters of the movie are as follows: i)Happiness : In this movies, happiness is portrayed as a goal or as a myth. Basically, all the character, are in the search of happiness, although the idea they nurture about happiness is distinctive. All the characters are skeptical of the ways to find happiness. In this movie, the central character, in the pursuit of happiness initiate a desire which is counter to the ideals of respectable society. He gets addicted to drugs, engages in a wasteful job, and ignite the passion for a teenage girl who is his daughter's age. In order to recapture the joy once enjoyed by him, he walks on all wrong paths. Once Lester comes in association with Angela we can find that his attitude towards life changes. He transforms into a romantic hero who is fantasizing about his lover throughout day and night. He suddenly realizes that he can get back his youthful times and get happy if he follows his innermost hidden desires. The Lester’s desperate situation is due to the isolation he is undergoing in his middle age life. He lacks intimacy with his wife, which provokes him to initiate an affair with a teenage girl This situation of Lester can be related to the intimacy vs. isolation stage of Erickson’s developmental theory. This stage applies to people in the age range between 19 to 40 years of age. Since Lester is around 42 years old, it is sensible to apply this stage to him. According to this theory, if a person in a committed relationship lacks intimacy then it can lead to his isolation. Lester here is married and experience less bond and intimacy with his wife. His wife is engaged in domestic work and career and is demanding and mentally and physically less connected with him. This has led to the isolation of Lester and as a result, he wanders in search of happiness and love. This isolation could also be related to Lester’s experience of midlife crisis where he is feeling dies-oriented and confused. He is having a lesser self – confidence and is devaluating himself and his goal in life. Erickson believed that a person with inferior self-worth will not be able to form and maintain an intimate relationship. According (Cherry 2011)"Erikson believed that having a fully formed sense of self (established the identity versus confusion stage) is essential to being able to form intimate relationships”. Lester in his isolation gets attracted to a young girl and fantasizes himself only to later realize that he was delusional. ii)Love ; The movie in the first half projects the absence of love in Lester’s life. The Burnham family is presented as one which has forgotten to love and care for each other. Even when dining, they reciprocate awkwardness and angriness. Lester and his wife Carolyn are maintaining an unromantic married life. Both of them fail to satisfy each other emotionally and physically. Lester being desperate in this situation discovers love in a delusional manner. His longing for love and care leads him to Angela, the teenage friends of his daughter. It is due to his alienation from his daughter that attracted him towards this young girl. He is less intimate with his daughter and when a girl of similar age displayed affection to him, it impacted him positively. Lester has no idea of what is to be a lovable person. He is unaware of emotions like love and care from his family members. Moreover, he is undergoing a bad phase in his life as he is suffering difficulties in his career. In this mode, he requires understanding and support from his wife, which is absent here. He needs a relationship where his neediness for love is reciprocated and nourished. Being depressed and unloved, Lester looks out love in a best possible option, which is Angela. A marriage is a relationship which requires constant nurture, love, and care. A man in a middle age especially needs a lot of intimacy and physical and mental closeness in his relationship with wife. This condition of Lester and his family can be associated with the Erickson’s theory of Intimacy and isolation. If the Lester shared an intimate relationship with his wife then he would not have felt so depressed and unloved. He is reluctant to share his problems and feeling with his daughter Jane, which has worsened his life. A human has various needs in his life and a middle aged man like Lester deserves ample attention and love than younger people. Being dejected by both wife and daughter he resorts for love in Angela who is under aged. Lester‘s wife is unwilling to compromise for the betterment of their relationship and is consistently shown to be rude and aggressive. When intimacy is lacking a man goes into isolation and feels lonely and depressed. The bitterness and harshness in Lester’s wife have led to his isolation and despair. Lester is gradually shown to be victimized by drugs due to desperation and frustration. His intense isolation has led him to fantasize on a girl of his daughter’s age. Additionally, Lester has the intense urge for sex and as it is impossible to have a physical intimacy with his wife, he resorts to sexual fantasizing and day dreaming. Isolation is the opposite of being intimate and this is the exact condition of Lester. In absence of love and intimacy, any person can feel dislocated and disoriented. A person in Lester’s age values love and care significantly and lack of it has pushed him to a midlife crisis. The Character Lester in Midlife Crisis Mild life crisis which Lester has undergone is prominent in the movie as he is desperately striving to rediscover himself throughout the story. Here, Lester tries to disintegrate himself from job and family relationship and hibernate in the love of a young girl. He in an endeavor to establish his self-worth clings on to the flirtatious Angela. Despite all the mistreatment from his wife and boss, he believes that he is worth the love of Angela. Lester is in an effort to break free from his loveless life develops an identity of a romantic lover. His behavior can resemble delusion as most of his love inspiration is illusionary. In the movie, Lester resigns his job, smokes marijuana and ultimately end up working in a restaurant. . His mid life crisis turns him to be infatuated with Angela and further in the movie it dismantles his whole life. Lester takes himself as hopeless and worthless and less deserving of love. Lester lost his identity as an employee, husband and a father and poses himself as a complete failure. This situation of his can be largely blamed upon his wife Carolyn. Instead of being loving and compassionate, Carolyn reacts harshly and vengefully. This has induced Lester to hate his life and feel secluded and isolated. This state of Lester can be associated with generatively vs. isolation theory of Erickson. When one is emphasizing his weakness more than strengths then he evaluates himself and gets into isolation. Ultimately, in the end, he loses his life due to his erratic behavior. Psychological evaluation of Lester’s family Lester has been proved to be psychologically isolated, stagnated and depressed. When considering Erickson' theory his mental status can be related to both intimacies vs. isolation and generatively vs. stagnation stages. He has established himself to be unsuccessful in all areas of life and got killed due to his eccentric behavior. His status is a residue of the ill behavior of his wife as she is not depicted as an ideal wife or mother in the movie. Lester’s daughter despises both him and his wife and holds vengeance against them. Lester being separated from wife and daughter ends up chaotic. Here we can observe that even Carolyn did not possess a healthy mental attitude towards her family. Carolyn was egoistic, selfish and aggressive.As per (Cassel) “The term most often used in reviews to describe Lester's wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening) is "neurotic, as she sublimates her nurturing instincts in her prize roses because there is no love at home”. In the movie, Carolyn only has cultivated contempt for her husband.In an attempt to seduce the business dealer; she even gets caught by Lester and this further decorates their relationship. Even his daughter Jane is on the verge of slipping into stage of intimacy vs. isolation stage as described by Erickson. If she fails to achieve care and attention from her parents, she can fall prey to isolation and depression Conclusion The movie "American Beauty" depicts psychological conditions of different members of a middle-class American family. In the movie, the director strives to spread the message that lack of love and care in a family can lead to disastrous situations. In the movie, Lester undergoing isolation and despair advances to death. It is essentially the minor things in life which end up in major loss and inflictions. From a psychological perspective, we can apprehend the importance of love and intimacy in a relationship. When analyzing the character Lester, the theory of Erickson comes well in to play. The depressed state of Lester has affected his generativity and resulted in stagnation. It is not alone Lester who suffers psychological distress, his wife, daughter and every other character display signs of mental instability. His wife being neurotic is egoistic and can relate to being at a stage of intimacy and isolation. This can be also the case of Angela and Jane. Angela is missing the love of a father and compensates it by flirting with Lester, who is her father’s age. Jane who is emotionally distant from her parent's bid to connect with neighbor Ricky. The father of Ricky who is a colonel is also a psychologically imbalanced person. Ricky’s and his mother is victimized by his dictating father. In a nut shell, every character in the movie is psychologically imbalanced and is in look out for love, compassion and caring for each other. References Cherry, Kendra. "Intimacy Versus Isolation." About. The New York Times Company, 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. . Cassel, Elaine. "American Beauty, American Dysfunction." Cengage Learning. Houghton Mifflin Company, Web. 15 Dec. 2011. . Read More