catapult magazine

eventhough the title might be meant to say that you can find beauty right where you’re at if you know how and where to look, I don’t think this is nearly the kind of beauty that one is supposed to find as a Christian in a materialistic culture (and perhaps Christians shouldn’t strive for beauty at all). Instead, the movie seems to suggest that it’s all relative. So, when you’re dead, then you’ll see like the narrator sees things. What a ridiculously unhelpful notion! I liked this movie, but it makes me mad.

…mad and sucicidal. The answers it tries to give are a lie, which leads to the worst kind of film.

I found the ending visual sequence profoundly sad. Maybe more nostalgiacally sad than soulfully sad.

Perhaps this film is existential but maybe we can look at the good side of that. Existential in the sense that no matter how empty the suberban life is, one can still drink in every fascinating moment of it. A wonder at existence itself.

It was nice to see editing and cinematography that is conveyed so poetically. Different than most of hollywood where those elements seem to become functional middlemen between the story and the audience.

Thomas Newman seems to try resolve the music at the end but it comes off a bit flighty. Kind of wonderful but not really joyful. I got almost the exact same feeling from Jon Brion’s score at the end of Magnolia.

Soulfully sad is a good way of putting it. I kinda liked the movie (though it has been a while since I have seen it) because I think it did an excellent job of presenting the first half of Ecclesiastes. Life is vanity. Life is banal and pointless and human attempts to spice it up, whether through sexual fanatsy, having an affair, or anything else, are doomed to failure. In that sense, I think it was a remarkably truthful movie. There was also some very real compassion there, especially in the moment when the father realizes that his fantasy cheerleader sexpot is really just a scared little girl.

It was missing the other half of the equasion though — the hopeful part about God and stuff.

Yet if it had had that, I am guessing I still would have been disappointed in it. Can anybody tell me why I like it more when the equasion is incomplete?

But I don’t think it conveys the message, ultimately, that sexy cheerleaders are just scared little girls inside. Though that’s there, the ultimate message seems to be that a suburban life can be good if you look at it in a different light, a sexy girl can be seen as a scared girl in a different light.

Such a message doesn’t seem Christian. Though the world is revealed differently to people, depending on their religion, I don’t think Christians ought to take this film as a lesson to see beauty in things that appear ugly, just for the sake of beauty (or wonder). Wonder and beauty are nothing if they aren’t aimed in a proper direction. And I might even argue that wonder and beauty are not important senses in the Christian walk. They belong to Greek philosophy and German Romanticism, but I don’t think we should get too mixed up in finding beauty in a floating bag or goodness in a suburban, materialistic life as an ultimate goal of life (or death, as in the case of our narrator).

Why would the message be Christian? I don’t think that was the intent. The message presented probably acurately represents the filmmaker’s view of the way things are. If it doesn’t resonate with you, it means you can’t relate to his perspective. Or do you think he is intentionally deceiving people?

grant, I’m not sure it’s all that helpful to peg wonder and beauty as greek and german concepts that have no large place in christianity. what’s the point of having a sanitized christianity that attempts to exclue all non-Christian cultural sources (in vain, i might add). Christianity from the beginning was a Judeo-Greco-Roman religion that included elements from all. It wasn’t a brand new culture that just popped on the scene in 40AD. It’s inevitable that Christians today will incorporate elements of romaniticism, regardless of whether early Christians were romantic or not. And judging by church history, the church could have used a bit of romanticism at times to smooth out the rough edges. What’s the point of picking out themes that aren’t given a prominent place in the Bible and calling them bad names?

dvdschp — you’ve said that a couple of times now on this discussion board (american beauty makes you “…mad and sucicidal”). what exactly do you mean by that?

i guess i’m a little confused as to why the movie makes you feel that way.

Part of the reason I simply don’t like this movie is because it’s a cheap shot at suburbia. Hey, I don’t like that kind of world either, but I feel like a lot of people like this movie because its making fun of something they already don’t like. Aren’t we already quite aware of the hypocracy and vaacuous nature of this lifestyle, and if not, where have you been? There’s nothing new here. And that ex-USMC homophobic, wife-repressing neighbor living next door? How cookie cutter is that? It’s just cheap and reinforces what people already want to believe. Plus, although I can understand the problem and I find it fascinating myself, I have a hard time feeling pity for the bored rich. Look at me, I have money and my life still isn’t complete. Well, wake up. These are the choices you’ve made and there are countless people in this world who have it much worse then you.
I think American Beauty will go down in film history along side Easy Rider in two ways: trapped within its historical context, and an example of stereotypes knocking down straw men (I’m quoting Schrader here), which everyone loves, but ulimately makes it shallow.
Anyway, it can make me so depressed sometimes because the answers it tries to give are just so misleading. “Let’s concentrate on the little things.” Ok, the wind blowing in the trees. But if there’s nothing behind it that, there’s still nothing. Nothing against the glory of creation, but if there’s no Creator behind it, it’s still a meaningless event. The sun rises and sets and cares nothing for your existence, but if you sit alone in your room staring at garabage, this is supposed to make you feel better, like there’s a point to life? Then these “small things” are all just a distraction from the fact that everything is meaningless. So why don’t we all just smoke crack? If the narrator is right, and our lifes are stupid and the only thing we can find comfort in are things, cold indifferent objects, then please pass me the shotgun.
And I’ll admit the first time or two I was dupped by the ending; I bought into it. But once you realize that the answer is no answer at all, the whole thing seems like one gigantic lie.

Beautiful. Exactly! Thank you, DvdSchp.

I was not dissing the wonder at the beauty of God’s creation. I was saying that the wonder promoted in American Beauty is not this kind of wonder, but is of the Greek philosophical variety, the kind that later became an existential appreciation of beauty in whatever situation you find yourself. A very dangerous idea. Beauty has also been used as a “Universal Value” (again in Greek thought—poor Greeks—and German Romanticism) that has plagued the art world for centuries now, and even helped to justify racism and attempted genocides throughout our history, most prominently in Germany (coincidence?). These uses of wonder and beauty are not helpful for society in the long run, as we’ve already seen throughout history. And now, to add relativism to the mix, which is what I feel American Beauty does, is doubly dangerous.

So, yes, I have a problem with the perspective the film-makers present and I have a problem if other Christians say this movie teaches people to appreciate the majesty of God’s creation. That’s just not happening in this film!

The film is not hard enough on the characters of this film, is not nearly critical enough of suburbia. In fact, according to its own message, we wonder how it would be possible to be critical of anything at all. If all it takes is a simple change of perspective to turn a bad marriage into a fulfilling one, a murder into a helpful life-lesson for the audience, suburbia into a wonderland of potential goodness, flying trash into a spiritual awakening, then all we need to do to feel better is to start looking on the bright side of life doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo. And that just doesn’t ring true. That’s why we laugh at the end of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and why we are ashamed to be laughing at the end of Todd Solondz’ Storytelling.

Awe and wonder are from Greek and German influence? We should questions them? Am I understanding what you are saying?
Didn’t most of us memorize this already as children?

O Lord, our lord,how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens
Frm the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

I just quoted select verses from Psalm 8. But I think looking for wonder in the world is a huge part of our calling.
Romans 8 states that all people may know God through the creation. Verse 19, 20.: “since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plaing to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understtod from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

How we define beauty may be culturally biased but that we seek beauty is part of our longing for wholeness. God has put eternity in our hearts and I think most cultures would think that an apple blossom or a dew coated spider’s web is beautiful. But through grace, we can also find awe and wonder, beauty in the works of man-liturature, paintings, film . Like a plastic bag floating in the breeze. That was one of the most breath taking pieces of film I have ever seen! How beautiful the mundane can be.
I loved/hated American Beauty. The overwhelming sinfulness made me shudder but the small pieces of beauty shown here and there to me were hints of salvation. I know that the film makers did not have that intent but that is what I took from it.