Jeff's usual media consumption habits are quite ridiculous. This guy is a media junkie. He has hundreds of movies (VHS and DVD), CDs, MP3 files, video games, a satellite dish with 600 channels (literally), and a DSL Internet connection in his apartment. He rarely misses an advanced screening of a movie (good or bad) and has a bad habit of ruining most films before the opening credits are done. But, for some strange reason that I have yet to understand, he had never seen American Beauty! Of all the people I have met in my life, this guy would be the last to miss out on a great movie such as this. I was also excited to see how he would react to the movie because most people I have spoken to ei

Both Jeff and I have similar reactions to the movie and while we both interpret it in the same ways, we each identified with different characters. I personally connect with the character of Lester Burnham in that I feel trapped at this point in my life. I am 20 years old, living at home, attending community college, and feel like I am missing out on some of the best experiences of my life right now. In the movie Lester changes his life and frees his soul, something that I have been struggling with over the past few months. My favorite theme in this movie is that of liberation and free will.

Based on the readings in chapter 12 of the Questioning the Media text, my viewing subject exemplified a few parts of the 'Uses and Gratification' section. Jeff was able to find personal identity in the movie and was quite entertained at the same time. American beauty is great because it is not mindless entertainment like so much of the garbage on TV and in the movie theaters these days. This movie does not insult the intelligence of its audience and directly goes against what we are supposed to 'like' in a film or show. American Beauty does not require a 'smart' audience to understand the film, but it is far from the stuff tailored for 'couch potatoes.'

American Beauty is more than a movie to me. Every time I watch the film, I catch something different about the characters, the cinematography, or how the film relates to life in general. This movie is a great commentary about social life in 'white suburban America.' It touches on subjects like homosexual stereotypes, child abuse, casual drug use, and teen angst. I think American Beauty is a much more realistic picture of what life in suburbia is like compared to the worlds we see on network television. While some scenes in the movie are exaggerated to the point of being ridiculous (the scene where Lester threatens his boss), the picture that is painted makes us think twice about what we are viewing. It's this ability to connect with the charac

Some common words found in the essay are:
American Beauty, Fight Club, Freaks Geeks, Questioning Media, Lester Burnham, Fitz Ricky, Ricky Fitz, Carolyn Lester's, , Jeff Hell, american beauty, american beauty movie, ricky fitz, mindless entertainment, beauty movie, mass media, network television, character lester, life movie, scene lester, watch movie,
Approximate Word count = 1355
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)