The theme in American Beauty is suburban life. It's all there, the self-centered good-looking blonde, the morbid unattractive teenage daughter. The similar houses with gardens and perfect grass, and the streets are lined with oak trees. The Burnhams have two cars; a sedan and an SUV. It's the American Nightmare. Nobody is happy, but they pretend to be. It is a world where material possessions mean more in life than actual people. It's a perfect satire on suburbia.

There are several scenes that are shot using a video camera, which is primarily used by Ricky Fitz, the boy next door. The use of these shots helps the viewer to see the world through Ricky's eyes. It's a world that is from a very different outlook. He sees beauty in ways that many other people wouldn't. By using these shots the viewer sees what Ricky is. How he can see the beauty in Jane, a beauty that she can't even see until meeting him. There isn't an

y sound in most of these scenes, except when Jane talks to him. In the scene where Jane is showing him his breast from her bedroom window, he doesn't even really looks at her breasts; he just zooms in on her face. This shows how different of an outlook he has compared to the normal guy. I can bet that most men, including me, were interested in seeing her breasts, but he thinks that she is beautiful so he would rather see her expression.

In the scenes where Lester is talking to the effeciancy expert there are some interesting camera angles used. In the first scene, where Lester is in Brad's office Lester is filmed from a far and Brad is filmed closer. Lester looks tiny in comparison to Lester. This is done to show who is in control, who has the power in this situation. Brad has all the power, he could end Lester's career right at this meeting. In the second scene, the roles have almost been reversed. Brad is filmed in the same way, but Lester is made to look big taking up almost the entire frame. Lester has all the power and he is calling the shots. He's confident, he is right up close to Brad, and he's going to get what he wants. This type of shot is also used when Ricky confronts Jane in the schoolyard. There is a shot where the camera is behind Ricky and you can see Jane, but she is so small in comparison to his shoulder. He intimidates her. He very confident and has all the power in the

Some common words found in the essay are:
Ricky Fitz, Lester Carolyn, Lester Brad's, American Beauty, American Nightmare, Lester Lester, Ricky Jane, scene lester, type shot, scenes shot, scenes lester, brad filmed, camera close, instance scene, foul play, camera frames, american beauty,
Approximate Word count = 953
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)