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American Beauty

edited July 2008 in Movies
This movie is one of the greatest ever made. I saw it for the first time moments ago. My heart was beating in my throat for the entire last quarter. My hands are still trembling a little.

Comments

  • It's a good movie. Top 50 possibly, but there are better. I rank Shawshank Redemption as my pinnacle of cinema.
  • edited October 2008
    ==SPOILERS==

    I guess I would have liked the film better if not for the incredibly positive buzz, but this movie was very bland and expected.
    It pretends to reveal the "true face of the suburbs", with their dirty secrets and hidden skeletons, when dozens of other films and books preceded him. Nothing wrong with retelling an old story, but this movie fails to say anything new.
    It's a character driven drama, but every character is extremely clichéd at the begging, and evolves to being an even greater cliché in the end. It's simply follows a boring formula of breaking the Christian values, and than going to the moral current ruling morals.

    hard working man who wasted his life => hippie who lives his sexual fantasies
    embittered wife in failed marriage => happy wife in an affair
    homophobic "YES SIR!" soldier => sensitive secretly gay soldier
    1950's suburbs' morals => 1990 western liberal morals (it sounds sophisticated, but it's not - it's really fucking simple!)

    why can't Hard Working Joe find freedom in his friends or co-workers? why can't his wife be miserable in her affair? the soldier part is plain embarrassing. And no, saying a 40 year old can be sexually attracted to a 16 year old (without acting on it) isn't a big deal. it's preaching to the quire.
    this fear of morals other than the accepted ones is a fear to say something that might upset the audience. In my case - entertain him.

    this is not to say the movie isn't done well - the actors are great (Kevin Spacey!), the music is nice, the photography is beautiful (naked woman with roses, classic), the pace is balanced, and so on. It's a fun movie to watch, but the sheer banality of the creative side ruins the film. it's not a classic, and surely not a top 50.
    Post edited by Adelbert on
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