American Beauty

Quite by accident I have watched most of the movie American Beauty twice in the last couple of weeks. Upon the second viewing, I am struck by the symbolism in the movie.

I liked this movie when I originally saw it in the theaters, but it did not strike the chord with me then as it does now. I do not exactly relate to Lester Burnham, but I understand what brought him down in his world. I have seen in others how the stress of life’s routines can create what happened to his family.

There is significant use of color in the movie, and a few other symbols. My take on their meaning:

Red = The unobtainable for Lester

Red is the most significant color in the movie. Lester’s front door is red. Lester’s wife, Carolyn, meticulously grows red roses. Before Carolyn starts to clean the house that she is trying to to sell, she takes off her dress and reveals a bright red slip, in which she runs around the house in a frantic cleaning spree. Lester’s object of desire, Angela, is viewed alternately covered by, showered by, and bathing in a sea of red rose petals.

Lester’s first encounter with Angela at the basketball game concludes with Angela opening her sweater to a burst of red rose petals. Lester sees Angela on his bedroom ceiling awash in red rose petals. In a dream, Lester wanders into the bathroom to find Angela in a bathtub filled with water and red rose petals. Lester’s root-beer encounter with Angela in his kitchen results in him urping up a red rose petal. In the final scenes of the movie, where Lester and Angela almost consummate their lustful relationship, a vase of red roses is in the background behind Angela in nearly every shot. The dancing white grocery bag that symbolizes the ultimate beauty for Ricky Fitz appears before bright red doors; Lester sees this scene while delivering his eulogy at the end of the movie. Red symbolizes the things that Lester wants but cannot or will not have in life.

Blue = sexuality

Jim and Jim, the gay couple that live on Robin Hood Trail with whom Lester jogs, both wear blue. The wife of the Real Estate King wears blue at the party. The Real Estate King wears a blue suit when he seduces Jane at their lunch. When Jane strips in her bedroom for Ricky while he is filming her from his bedroom next door, the curtains framing Jane’s figure are blue.

When Ricky’s father, Frank, watches Ricky and Lester through the window of Lester’s garage, when Frank mistakenly believes that Ricky is going down on Lester, Lester is reclining in a large, round chair with blue cushions. Lester and Carolyn almost get it on their blue and white striped couch in their living room, before Carolyn warns Lester that he’s about to spill beer on the couch and ruins the moment.

Black & white = normalcy

Ricky wears only black and white clothes. Ricky’s room consists of black and white, mostly video tapes lining the shelves. Ricky wears a tuxedo with a white jacket for his catering work at the party. Jane is always dressed in black and white. Her lipstick is some dark, colorless shade. Ricky films things that are white – the dead dove, the dancing white grocery sack. By the end of the movie, despite their troubles, Jane and Ricky are the normal people who survive their twisted family lives and presumably escape to New York to start their new life.

Gun = release and salvation

The Real Estate King tells Jane that he relieves stress by shooting a gun. Jane takes up handgun target practice to relieve the stress in her life. She is most happy after shooting a gun. Frank has a handgun collection that is housed in locked cabinets. Ricky opens a cabinet with a duplicate key to show Jane the Nazi serving plate. His access to an item stored with the gun collection is a way of connecting with Jane, to later escape his world with Jane.

At the end of the movie, Carolyn is walking up to the house in the rain clutching a gun, energized by her self-help tapes and ready to kill Lester. Frank kills Lester at the end of the movie with a handgun, which saves Lester from his depressing world. Lester’s red blood splatters on a pure white wall when he is shot in the head.