American Beauty (1999 film)

American Beauty
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sam Mendes
Written by	Alan Ball
Produced by	Bruce Cohen Dan Jinks
Starring	Kevin Spacey Annette Bening Thora Birch Wes Bentley Mena Suvari Chris Cooper Allison Janney
Cinematography	Conrad Hall
Edited by	Tariq Anwar Christopher Greenbury
Music by	Thomas Newman
Production company	DreamWorks
Distributed by	DreamWorks (US) United Int'l Pictures (Int'l)
Release dates	September 15, 1999 (limited) October 1, 1999 (wide)
Running time	122 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$356,296,601 (Worldwide)

American Beauty is a 1999 American drama film directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a middle-aged cubicle worker who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend. Annette Bening stars as Lester's materialistic wife, Carolyn, and Thora Birch plays their insecure daughter, Jane. Mena Suvari, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper and Allison Janney also feature. The film has been described by academics as a satire of American middle class notions of beauty and personal satisfaction; analysis has focused on the film's explorations of materialism, conformity, sexuality and redemption.

Ball began writing American Beauty as a play in the early 1990s, partly inspired by the media circus around the Amy Fisher trial in 1992. He shelved the play after realizing the story would not work on the stage. After several years as a television screenwriter, Ball revived the idea in 1997 when attempting to break into the film industry. He channeled his anger and cynicism from frustrating tenures writing for several sitcoms into the modified script. Producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen took American Beauty to DreamWorks; the fledgling film studio bought Ball's script for $250,000, outbidding several other production bodies. DreamWorks financed the $15 million production and served as the North American distributor. American Beauty marked acclaimed theater director Mendes' film directorial debut; courted after his successful productions of the musicals Oliver! and Cabaret, Mendes was nevertheless only given the job after twenty others were considered and several "A-list" directors turned down the opportunity.

Spacey was Mendes' first choice for the role of Lester, although DreamWorks had urged the director to consider more well-known actors; similarly, the studio suggested several actors for the role of Carolyn until Mendes offered the part to Bening without DreamWorks' knowledge. Principal photography took place between December 1998 and February 1999 on soundstages at the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California and on location in Los Angeles. Mendes' dominant style was deliberate and composed; he made extensive use of static shots and slow pans and zooms, as he thought stable shots generated more tension. Cinematographer Conrad Hall complemented Mendes' style with peaceful shot compositions to contrast with the turbulent on-screen events. During editing, the film underwent several changes that affected its tone and eliminated expository bookend scenes.

Released in North America on September 15, 1999, American Beauty was positively received by critics and audiences alike; it was the best-reviewed American film of the year and grossed over $350 million worldwide. Reviewers praised most aspects of the production, with particular emphasis on Mendes, Spacey and Ball; criticism tended to focus on the familiarity of the characters and setting. DreamWorks launched a major campaign to increase American Beauty's chances of Academy Award success; at the 2000 ceremony, the film won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (for Spacey), Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography. The film was nominated for and won many other awards and honors, mainly for the direction, writing and acting.

Plot

Lester Burnham (Spacey) is a middle-aged cubicle worker who despises his job and his superiors. Lester's wife, Carolyn (Bening), is an ambitious real-estate broker; their sixteen-year-old daughter, Jane (Birch), abhors her parents, has low self-esteem and is saving money for a breast augmentation operation. The Burnhams' new neighbors are retired United States Marine Corps Colonel Frank Fitts (Cooper), his dissociative wife, Barbara (Janney) and their teenage son, Ricky (Bentley).

Lester develops an infatuation with Jane's friend, Angela Hayes (Suvari), after seeing her perform a half-time dance routine at a high school basketball game. He begins to have recurring fantasies of Angela in sexually suggestive situations; red rose petals feature prominently throughout. Col. Fitts controls Ricky with a disciplinarian lifestyle and gives him regular drug tests. Ricky, a cannabis smoker and drug dealer, evades detection through clean urine samples obtained from a client. Ricky uses a hand-held video camera to record his surroundings and keeps hundreds of taped videos in his bedroom. Carolyn begins an affair with a business rival, Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher). Lester is informed he is to be laid off, but blackmails his boss, quits his job and takes up low-pressure employment at a fast food chain. He buys his dream car, starts lifting weights and begins running to improve his physique after he overhears Angela telling Jane that she would find him sexually attractive if he were muscled. He starts smoking cannabis, which he buys from Ricky, and flirts with Angela whenever she visits Jane. The girls' friendship wanes and Jane becomes romantically involved with Ricky; the lovers bond over Ricky's camcorder footage of what he considers the most beautiful imagery he has filmed: a plastic bag blowing in the wind.

Lester discovers Carolyn's infidelity, but reacts indifferently. Buddy breaks off the affair with the excuse that it could lead to a financially ruinous divorce for him. Col. Fitts becomes suspicious of Lester and Ricky's friendship and searches his son's room. He finds camcorder footage that Ricky had captured by chance—Lester lifting weights in his garage while nude. After seeing Ricky and Lester's drug rendezvous through the garage window, Col. Fitts mistakenly concludes that the pair are engaged in a sexual relationship. After Ricky returns home, Col. Fitts beats him and accuses him of being gay. Ricky falsely admits the charge and goads his father into turning him out of their home. Ricky convinces Jane to flee with him to New York City. Angela protests and Ricky answers her vanity by calling her ordinary.

Carolyn loads a gun and drives home. Col. Fitts confronts Lester in the garage and attempts to kiss him; Lester rebuffs the advance and Col. Fitts flees. Moments later, Lester finds a distraught Angela; she asks him to tell her she is beautiful. He does, and she begins to seduce him. After learning that Angela is a virgin, Lester halts and the pair instead bond over their shared frustrations. While Angela is in the bathroom, Lester smiles at a family photograph in the kitchen. A gunshot rings out and blood spatters on the wall in front of him. Ricky and Jane find his body. The actions of the other characters in the moments before and after his death are shown: Col. Fitts returns home, bloodied, a gun missing from his collection; Carolyn cries in the bedroom; Jane, Ricky and Angela react to the gunshot. Lester's closing narration explains that despite his death he is happy, as it is hard to be mad when there is so much beauty in the world.

Interpretations

Imprisonment & redemption

Lester's reflection in the monitor is intended to resemble a man in a jail cell, evoking the director's intended theme of imprisonment and escape from imprisonment.

Mendes called the film a "rites of passage" about imprisonment and escape from imprisonment. He used the opening scenes to portray a boring day, and expressed the monotony of Lester's life via his gray, nondescript workplace and characterless clothing. Mendes also intended the scenes to set up stock characters from whom the outer layers would be peeled over the course of the film. The academic and author Jody W. Pennington argues that Lester's journey is the story's center. In early scenes, Lester is depicted as trapped man; the shot of him in a shower cubicle evokes a "jail cell", the first in a series of shots that have the character confined behind bars or within frames: in his office cubicle and car, behind a white picket fence and a window frame, and his reflection behind columns of numbers on a computer monitor. Lester's first turning point is his sexual reawakening through meeting Angela; he emerges from his coma and begins to throw off the shackles of responsibility that his comfortable life has locked him into. Later, at a party with Carolyn, Lester is at his "lowest ebb" when he meets Ricky—according to Mendes, another turning point. The two share a joint, Lester's spirit is "released" and he begins to overtly rebel against Carolyn. Lester's most significant turning point comes when he is caught masturbating by Carolyn; his angry retort is the first time he says aloud what he thinks about her.

Although it leads to his death, Lester's redemption comes through awareness of his repression and "middle class angst". His final turning point is the scene in which he and Angela almost have sex. After she confesses her virginity, he stops thinking of her as a sex object, but as a daughter. He holds her close and "wraps her up". Mendes called it "by far the most satisfying end to [Lester's] journey there could possibly have been". In the final scenes, Mendes intended to convey that Lester was at the end of a "mythical quest". After Lester gets a beer from the fridge, the camera pushes toward him, then stops facing a hallway down which Lester walks "to meet his fate". Having begun to act his age again, he achieves closure. As Lester smiles at a photo of his family, the camera pans slowly from Lester to the kitchen wall, onto which blood spatters as a gunshot rings out; Mendes used the slow pan to reflect the peace of Lester's death. His body is discovered by Jane and Ricky. Mendes said that Ricky's staring into Lester's dead eyes is "the culmination of the theme" of the film: that beauty is found where it is least expected.

"Look closer"

Professor Roy M. Anker argues that the film's thematic center is its direction to the audience to "look closer". An early scene—the aerial shot of the Burnhams' neighborhood—presents a familiar tableau from an unfamiliar vantage point. Coupled with Lester's narration—which states that he will soon die—the sequence generates "wonder [and] apprehension", forcing audiences to consider their own mortality and the beauty of everyday life. The narration sets a series of mysteries for the audience, as Anker explains: "... from what place exactly, and from what state of being, is he telling this story? ... if he's already dead, why bother with whatever it is he wishes to tell about his last year of being alive? ... There is also the question of how Lester has died—or will die." The preceding scene—Jane's discussion with Ricky about the possibility of killing her father—adds further mystery.

Through examining Lester's life, death and rebirth, the film satirizes American middle class notions of meaning, beauty and satisfaction. Although Lester is transformed by meeting Angela, he is governed by selfishness; only the prospect of sexual fulfillment delivers him from his docile life, so he remains a "willing devotee of the popular media's exultation of pubescent male sexuality as a route to personal wholeness". Carolyn's attempts at "house beautiful" domestic bliss are similarly driven by preset notions of happiness; from her SUV to her gardening outfit, Carolyn's world is a "fetching American millennial vision of Pleasantville, or Eden". The Burnhams—Jane included—are not aware that they are "materialists philosophically, and devout consumers ethically" who expect to find happiness through the "rudiments of American beauty". Anker argues that "they are helpless in the face of the prettified economic and sexual stereotypes ... that they and their culture have designated for their salvation."

Ricky's view of beauty is the opposite of the Burnhams'; he sees it in the minutiae of everyday life, and videos as much as he can for fear of missing it. He shows Jane what he considers the most beautiful thing he has filmed: a plastic bag, tossing in the wind in front of a wall. He says that capturing the moment was when he realized that there was "an entire life behind things", and says he feels that "sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it ... and my heart is going to cave in." Anker argues that Ricky, in looking past the "cultural dross", has "[grasped] the radiant splendor of the created world" to see God. The Burnhams come to understand this view; Jane is changed through her relationship with Ricky, while Carolyn only sees the beauty of the life she had when it is gone—after Lester dies. Lester's rebellion against society is tempered by the practicality of having to live within it; Ball felt that although some would judge Lester harshly for lusting after a sixteen-year-old, that he was finally "feeling something" was anything but disgusting. Only at the film's end does Lester forswear his notions of personal satisfaction. On the cusp of having sex with Angela, he returns to himself after she admits her virginity. Suddenly confronted with a child, he begins to treat her as a daughter; in doing so Lester sees himself, Angela and his family "for the poor and fragile but wondrous creatures they are". He looks at a picture of his family in happier times, and dies having had an epiphany that infuses him with "wonder, joy, and soul-shaking gratitude"—he has finally seen the world as it is.

Like several other American films of 1999—such as Fight Club, Bringing Out the Dead and Magnolia—American Beauty depicts "male rage, regret and reconciliation" while attempting to convince its audience—male and female—to "[lead] more meaningful lives". Although the film argues that conformity is undesirable, it does not reject the human need for it; American Beauty contends that people just want to fit in. The film uses its "art house" trappings to direct its message of non-conformity primarily to the middle classes; it presents the idea that only the wealthy and those clever enough are free to throw off material concerns to find their inner selves. Even the film's gay characters want to assimilate. Jim and Jim, the Burnhams' other neighbors, are a satire of "gay bourgeois coupledom". Depicted humorously, Jim and Jim are clones that replicate suburban respectability; they are no less guilty of investing in conformity than the heterosexual couples. Despite their desire to fit in, Jim and Jim are outwardly "glad to be gay", a contradiction which the feminist author and academic Sally R. Munt argues may seem strange to heterosexual audiences.

Use of color

Combinations of red, white and blue are used symbolically throughout the film. Mendes uses the colors in a "visual rhythm"; examples include the files in Lester's briefcase, the family's clothes in a photo portrait, the Burnhams' dinner table, the way Carolyn grows roses, and even the dialogue. Patti Bellantoni argues that the colors "burn into our consciousness a terrifying archetype of the classic American family". Red features most prominently, and is an important thematic signature that drives the story and "[defines] Lester's arc". First seen in drab colors that reflect his passivity, Lester surrounds himself with red as he regains his individuality. The American Beauty rose is repeatedly used as symbol; when Lester fantasizes about Angela, she is usually naked and surrounded by rose petals. In these scenes, the rose symbolizes Lester's desire for her. When associated with Carolyn, the rose represents a "façade for suburban success". Roses are included in almost every shot inside the Burnhams' home, where they signify "a mask covering a bleak, unbeautiful reality". Carolyn cuts the roses and puts them in vases, where they adorn her "meretricious vision of what makes for beauty" and begin to die. Carolyn feels that "as long as there can be roses, all is well". Mendes said all the red items were chosen intentionally. The roses in the vase in the Angela–Lester seduction scene symbolize Lester's previous life and Carolyn; the camera pushes in as Lester and Angela get closer, finally taking the roses—and thus Carolyn—out of the shot. Lester's epiphany at the end of the film is expressed via rain and the use of red, building to a crescendo that is a deliberate contrast to the release Lester feels. The constant use of red "lulls [the audience] subliminally" into becoming used to it, "cleverly, almost sadistically". As a consequence, Bellantoni argues, it leaves the audience unprepared when Lester is shot and his blood spatters on the wall.

Sexuality

Pennington argues that American Beauty defines its characters through their sexuality. Lester's attempts to relive his youth are a direct result of his lust for Angela, and the state of his relationship with Carolyn is in part shown through their lack of sexual contact. At the beginning of the film, Lester's masturbating in the shower (the "high point" of his day) shows how "desolate" his life is; later, his masturbating in bed beside Carolyn is a manifestation of his new-found assertiveness. Also sexually frustrated, Carolyn has an affair, during which she goes from "cold perfectionist" to a more carefree soul who "[sings] happily along with" the music in her car. Jane's initial insecurity is depicted through her desire to have a breast augmentation operation. She and Angela constantly reference sex, through the latter's descriptions of her supposed sexual encounters and the way in which they address one another ("total prostitute"; "total slut"). The nude scenes—when Jane allows Ricky to see her topless through her bedroom window, and when Angela and Lester almost have sex—are used to express the characters' vulnerability. By the end of the film, Angela's hold on Jane has weakened until the only power she has over her friend is Lester's attraction to her. Col. Fitts reacts with disgust to meeting Jim and Jim; he asks, "How come these faggots always have to rub it in your face? How can they be so shameless?" To which Ricky replies, "That's the thing, Dad—they don't feel like it's anything to be ashamed of." Pennington argues that Col. Fitts' reaction is not homophobic, but an "anguished self-interrogation". He is so ashamed of his homosexuality that it drives him to kill Lester after the latter rejects his advances.

The film affirms and compares the taboos against incest and homosexuality, a recurring theme in Ball's work. Instead of discriminating between the two, American Beauty looks at the violence that comes from their denial. Col. Fitts' repression causes him to murder Lester (by comparison, the openly gay Jim and Jim are the most well-adjusted characters in the film). Ball said, "The movie is in part about how homophobia is based in fear and repression and about what [they] can do." The film implies two unfulfilled incestuous desires: Lester's pursuit of Angela a manifestation of his lust for his own daughter, while Col. Fitts' repression is exhibited through the almost sexualized discipline with which he controls Ricky; "longing looks" accompany Col. Fitts' attack upon his son. Consequently, Ricky realizes that he can only hurt his father by falsely telling him he is homosexual. Col. Fitts can be read as a representation of Ball's father, whose unfulfilled homoerotic desires led to his own unhappiness. Ball rewrote the character to delay the revelation of his homosexuality, which Munt says could be an expression of Ball's deferment of his own incest fantasies. Col. Fitts' initially humorous depiction is eventually replaced by the "erotic, tender, yet murderous violence" inside.

Music & temporality

The non-diegetic score in the gymnasium scene helps create and maintain the narrative stasis of Lester's fixation on Angela.

American Beauty follows a traditional structure, only deviating with the opening scene of Jane and Ricky that, narratively, occurs in the middle of the story. Although the plot spans one year, the film is narrated by Lester at the moment of his death. Dr Jacqueline Furby says that the plot "occupies ... no time [or] all time", citing Lester's claim that life did not flash before his eyes, but that it "stretches on forever like an ocean of time". Furby argues that a "rhythm of repetition" forms the core of the film's structure. For example, two scenes see the Burnhams' sitting down to an evening meal, shot from the same angle. Each image is broadly similar, with minor differences in object placement and body language that reflect the changed dynamic brought on by Lester's new-found assertiveness. Another example is the pair of scenes in which Jane and Ricky film each other. Ricky films Jane from his bedroom window as she removes her bra, and the image is reversed later for a similarly "voyeuristic and exhibitionist" scene in which Jane films Ricky at a vulnerable moment.

Lester's fantasies are emphasized by slow motion and "repetitive motion episodes"; Mendes uses double-and-triple cut backs in several sequences, and the score alters to make the audience aware that it is entering a fantasy. One example is the gymnasium scene—Lester's first encounter with Angela. While the cheerleaders perform their half-time routine to "On Broadway", Lester becomes increasingly fixated on Angela. Time slows to represent his "voyeuristic hypnosis" and Lester begins to fantasize that Angela's performance is for him alone. "On Broadway"—which provides a traditional underscore to the onscreen actions—is replaced by discordant, percussive music that lacks melody or progression. This "non-diegetic" score is important to creating the narrative stasis in the sequence; it conveys a moment for Lester that is stretched to an indeterminate length. The music is used like a visual cue, so that Lester and the score are staring at Angela. The sequence ends with the sudden reintroduction of "On Broadway" and teleological time.

Songs

Drew Miller of Stylus says that the film's pop music is not "as crucial to [its] emotional tenor" as the score, but that the songs are not filler. He says they "[give] unconscious voice" to the characters' psyches, and sometimes—through their lyrics—complement a scene's subtext. Peggy Lee's version of Bali Ha'i at the start is intended—in conjunction with "wholesome" images of the Burnhams' and their strained happiness—to convey the "resurrected innocence of a bygone era". Early on, the music that plays with the Burnhams' family dinners is set by Carolyn. A "maternal American archetype", she chooses upbeat 1940s and 1950s tunes with "lavish" backing—in Jane's words, "elevator music". Later, Carolyn plays "Call Me Irresponsible", a more discordant tune that conveys the "escalating tension" at the Burnhams' table. Its lyrics reflect Carolyn's attitude to the behavior of Lester, who has just given up his job. Toward the end of the film, Carolyn sings to “Don't Rain on My Parade”, echoing the way in which life has "figuratively and literally [rained] on her parade".

The clearest use of pop music in this way is during Lester's attempts to recapture his youth; remeniscent of how the counterculture of the 1960s combated American repression through music and drugs, Lester begins to smoke cannabis and listen to rock music. Using music from the 1940s through to the 1990s, Mendes' choices "progress through the history of American popular music"; Miller argues that although some tracks may be overfamiliar, there is a parodic element at work, "making good on [the film's] encouragement that viewers look closer". Lester's singing to "American Woman"—an especially recognizable song—is difficult to watch without considering its previous uses. When Jane plays "Cancer for the Cure", only a few moments are heard before she switches it off as her parents return home. The song again invites the audience to look closer, this time for the "homicidal references" that presage the end of the film and Jane feelings toward her parents. The moment reinforces her status as one whose voice is "cut short" throughout, as does the film's refusal to associate her with as clearly defined genres as her parents.

Toward the end of the film, Thomas Newman's score takes precedence over the pop songs; the latter's "conspicuous absence [creates] a disturbing tempo" that matches the tension of the visuals. The exception is the use of "Don't Let It Bring You Down" during Angela's seduction of Lester. At first appropriate, its tone becomes discordant as the seduction is stopped by Angela's revelation that she is a virgin. Miller says the lyrics, which speak of "castles burning", are a metaphor for Lester's view of Angela—"the rosy, fantasy-driven exterior of the 'American Beauty'"—as it burns away to reveal "the timid, small-breasted girl who, like his wife, has willfully developed a false public self".

Authorial intent

The literary critic Wayne C. Booth argues that successful films have a controlling voice who "[unites] all of the choices". In American Beauty, neither Mendes nor Ball is this true author. Mendes considers the film's voice to be Ball's, but although the writer was on set and "strongly influential" throughout, he often accepted that some of the suggested changes were better than his version. The film does not include Ball's framing device, in which Jane and Ricky are convicted of Lester's murder. The omission transforms the tone from Ball's conclusion that "the world sucks" into something more optimistic that sees "Lester's spirit affirmatively taking wing" at the end. Similarly, in Ball's original script, Lester and Angela had sex; Lester's refusal to go through with the act gives the character a "moral illumination" that was not present before. Ball's cynical intent was lost, so his cannot be considered the controlling voice. Mendes' hesitancy when considering what American Beauty is about consolidates the problem of finding the controller. He said the script seemed to be about something different each time he read it: "a mystery story, a kaleidoscopic journey through American suburbia, a series of love stories ... it was about imprisonment ... loneliness [and] beauty. It was funny; it was angry, sad." Critics are similarly divided, not as much about the quality of the film as their interpretations of it.

Other elements take the film farther from Ball and Mendes: improvisations, music and lighting choices—and chance. An audio commentary on the American Beauty DVD offers an example of the separation between intent and chance. Mendes and Hall attempt to offer insight to their intents with particular scenes, but Hall sometimes contradicts Mendes' praise of his cinematography, as what Mendes sees as a thematic choice Hall explains as accidental based on practical considerations, or because it produced pleasing imagery. One example is the scene in which Lester is confronted by his manager. Hall shot Spacey in a way that Mendes believed intentionally diminished Lester. Mendes says, "Conrad's added something so beautiful to the shot ... the way the light hits Lester ... it pulls him down away from the wall ... [Hall has] also done something very crucial, [cutting] his feet off at the bottom of the frame." Mendes believed the shot weakened Lester "by cropping him and pushing him down the frame, making him even less authoritative in the face of Brad ... who is consistently shot from below." Hall says that was not his intent and that he formed the image merely to get a ceiling lamp in the frame. While their goals were separate, the result is one that satisfied both filmmakers.

Booth concludes that one interpretation of the film is not sufficient:

[The film] cannot be adequately summarized as "here is a satire on what's wrong with American life"; that plays down the celebration of beauty. It is more tempting to summarize it as "a portrait of the beauty underlying American miseries and misdeeds"; but that plays down the scenes of cruelty and horror, and Ball's disgust with our mores. It cannot be summarized with either Lester's or Rickie's philosophical statements about what life is or how one should live; [Ball's] commitment to ... some form of religious perspective [has been] cut or reduced in the released version.

With "innumerable voices intruding on the original author's," Booth says, those who interpret American Beauty "have forgotten to probe for the elusive center". According to Booth, the film's true controller—the center—is the creative energy "that hundreds of people put into its production, agreeing and disagreeing, inserting and cutting".

Production

Development

In 1997, Ball resolved to move into the film industry after several frustrating years writing for the television sitcoms Grace Under Fire and Cybill. He joined the United Talent Agency (UTA), where his representative, Andrew Cannava, suggested he write a spec script to "reintroduce [himself] to the town as a screenwriter". Ball pitched three ideas to Cannava: two conventional romantic comedies and American Beauty, which he had originally conceived as a play in the early 1990s. Despite the story's lack of an easily-marketable concept, Cannava selected American Beauty because he felt it was the one for which Ball had the most passion. While developing the script, Ball created another television sitcom, Oh, Grow Up. He channeled his anger and frustration at having to accede to network demands on that show—and during his tenures on Grace Under Fire and Cybill—into writing American Beauty.

Ball did not expect to sell the script, believing it would act as more of a calling card, but American Beauty drew interest from several production bodies. Cannava passed the script to several producers, including Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, who took it to DreamWorks. With the help of executives Glenn Williamson and Bob Cooper, and Steven Spielberg in his capacity as studio partner, Ball was convinced to develop the project at DreamWorks; he received assurances from the studio—known at the time for its more conventional fare—that it would not "iron the [edges] out". In an unusual move, DreamWorks decided not to option the script; instead, in April 1998, the studio bought it outright for $250,000, outbidding Fox Searchlight Pictures, October Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lakeshore Entertainment. DreamWorks planned to make the film for $6–8 million.

Jinks and Cohen involved Ball throughout the film's development, including casting and director selection. The producers met with about twenty interested directors, several of whom were considered "A-list" at the time. Ball was not keen on the more well-known directors because he believed their involvement would increase the budget and lead DreamWorks to become "nervous about the content". Nevertheless, the studio offered the film to Mike Nichols and Robert Zemeckis; neither accepted. In the same year, Mendes (then a theater director) revived the musical Cabaret in New York with fellow director Rob Marshall. Beth Swofford of the Creative Artists Agency arranged meetings for Mendes with studio figures in Los Angeles to see if film direction was a possibility. Mendes came across American Beauty in a pile of eight scripts at Swofford's house, and knew immediately that it was the one he wanted to make; early in his career, he had been inspired by how the film Paris, Texas (1984) presented contemporary America as a mythic landscape and he saw the same theme in American Beauty, as well as parallels with his own childhood. Mendes later met with Spielberg; impressed by Mendes' productions of Oliver! and Cabaret, Spielberg encouraged him to consider American Beauty.

Mendes found that he still had to convince DreamWorks' production executives to let him direct. He had already discussed the film with Jinks and Cohen, and felt they supported him. Ball was also keen; having seen Cabaret, he was impressed with Mendes' "keen visual sense" and thought he did not make obvious choices. Ball felt that Mendes liked to look under the story's surface, a talent he felt would be a good fit with the themes of American Beauty. Mendes' background also reassured him, because of the prominent role the playwright usually has in a theater production. Over two meetings—the first with Cooper, Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, the second with Cooper alone—Mendes pitched himself to the studio. The studio soon approached Mendes with a deal to direct for the minimum salary allowed under Directors Guild of America rules—$150,000. Mendes accepted, and later recalled that after taxes and his agent's commission, he only earned $38,000. In June 1998, DreamWorks confirmed that it had contracted Mendes to direct the film.

Writing

"I think I was writing about ... how it's becoming harder and harder to live an authentic life when we live in a world that seems to focus on appearance ... For all the differences between now and the [1950s], in a lot of ways this is just as oppressively conformist a time ... You see so many people who strive to live the unauthentic life and then they get there and they wonder why they're not happy ... I didn't realize it when I sat down to write [American Beauty], but these ideas are important to me."

—Alan Ball, 2000

Ball was partly inspired by two encounters he had in New York in the early 1990s. In about 1991–92, Ball saw a plastic bag blowing in the wind outside the World Trade Center. He watched the bag for ten minutes, saying later that it provoked an "unexpected emotional response". In 1992, Ball became preoccupied with the media circus around the Amy Fisher trial. Discovering a comic book telling of the scandal, he was struck by how quickly it had become commercialized. He said he "felt like there was a real story underneath [that was] more fascinating and way more tragic" than the story presented to the public, and attempted to turn the idea into a play. Ball produced around 40 pages, but stopped when he realized it would work better as a film. He felt that because of the visual themes, and because each character's story was "intensely personal", it could not be done on a stage. Although all the main characters appeared in this early version, Carolyn did not feature strongly; Jim and Jim instead had much larger roles.

Ball based Lester's story on aspects of his own life; Like Lester, Ball had put his aside his true passions to work in jobs he hated for people he did not respect. Lester's re-examination of his life parallels feelings Ball had in his mid-30s—a realization he felt was common in middle-aged men that what seems important has dampened the passion they once had. During writing, Ball identified with Lester and Ricky, believing himself "equal parts" both. He used his childhood experiences to inform scenes set in Ricky's home. He said, "I grew up in a household with a somewhat troubled father figure and a somewhat shut-down mother figure, so Ricky's household certainly resembles mine in ways. My father was never violent, but he was deeply conflicted ..." Ball suspected that his father was homosexual and used the idea to create Col. Fitts, a man who "gave up his chance to be himself". Ball said the script's mix of comedy and drama was not intentional, but that it came unconsciously from his own outlook on life. He said the juxtaposition produced a starker contrast, giving each trait more impact than if they appeared alone.

In the script that was sent to prospective actors and directors, Lester and Angela had sex; by the time of shooting, Ball had rewritten the scene to the final version. Ball initially rebuffed counsel from others that he change the script, feeling they were being puritanical; the final impetus to alter the scene came from DreamWorks' then-president Walter Parkes. He convinced Ball by indicating that in Greek mythology, the hero "has a moment of epiphany before ... tragedy occurs". Ball later said his anger when writing the first draft had blinded him to the idea that Lester needed to refuse sex with Angela to complete his emotional journey—to achieve redemption. It was at this point that Ball realized Lester should revert to a father figure; for Angela, "the father he can't be to his own daughter". Jinks and Cohen asked Ball not to alter the scene straight away, as they felt it would be inappropriate to make changes to the script before a director had been hired. Early drafts also included a flashback to Col. Fitts service in the Marines, a sequence that unequivocally established his homosexual leanings. In love with another Marine, Col. Fitts sees the man die and comes to believe that he is being punished for the "sin" of being gay. Ball removed the sequence because it did not fit the structure of the rest of the film—Col. Fitts was the only character to have a flashback—and because it removed the element of surprise from Col. Fitts' later pass at Lester. Ball said he had to write it for his own benefit to know what happened to Col. Fitts, even though all that remained in later drafts was subtext.

Ball remained involved throughout production; he had signed a television show development deal, so had to get permission from his producers to take a year off to be close to American Beauty. Ball was on-set for rewrites and to help interpret his script for all but two days of filming. His original bookend scenes—in which Ricky and Jane are prosecuted for Lester's murder after being framed by Col. Fitts—were excised in post-production; the writer later felt the scenes were unnecessary, saying they were a reflection of his "anger and cynicism" at the time of writing (see "Editing"). Ball and Mendes revised the script twice before it was sent to the actors, and twice more before the first read-through.

The shooting script features a scene in Angela's car in which Ricky and Jane talk about death and beauty; the scene differed from earlier versions, which set it as a "big scene on a freeway" in which the three witness a car crash and see a dead body. The change was a practical decision, as the production was behind schedule and needed to cut costs. The schedule called for two days to be spent filming the crash, but only half a day was available. Ball agreed, but only if the scene could retain a line of Ricky's where he reflects on having once seen a dead homeless woman: "When you see something like that, it's like God is looking right at you, just for a second. And if you're careful, you can look right back." Jane asks: "And what do you see?" Ricky: "Beauty." Ball said, "They wanted to cut that scene. They said it's not important. I said, 'You're out of your fucking mind. It's one of the most important scenes in the movie!' ... If any one line is the heart and soul of this movie, that is the line." Another scene was rewritten to accommodate the loss of the freeway sequence; set in a schoolyard, it presents a "turning point" for Jane in that she chooses to walk home with Ricky instead of going with Angela. By the end of filming, the script had been through ten drafts.

Casting

Principal cast. First row, left to right: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari
Second row: Chris Cooper, Wes Bentley, Allison Janney

Mendes had Spacey and Bening in mind for the leads from the beginning, but DreamWorks executives were unenthusiastic. The studio suggested several alternatives, including Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner or John Travolta to play Lester, and Helen Hunt or Holly Hunter to play Carolyn. Mendes did not want a big star "weighing the film down"; he felt Spacey was the right choice based on his performances in the 1995 films The Usual Suspects and Seven, and 1992's Glengarry Glen Ross. Spacey was surprised; he said, "I usually play characters who are very quick, very manipulative and smart ... I usually wade in dark, sort of treacherous waters. This is a man living one step at a time, playing by his instincts. This is actually much closer to me, to what I am, than those other parts." Mendes offered Bening the role of Carolyn without the studio's consent; although executives were upset at Mendes, by September 1998, DreamWorks had entered negotiations with Spacey and Bening.

Spacey loosely based Lester's early "schlubby" deportment on Walter Matthau. During the film, Lester's physique improves from flabby to toned; Spacey worked out during filming to improve his body, but because Mendes shot the scenes out of chronological order, Spacey varied postures to portray the stages. Before filming, Mendes and Spacey analyzed Jack Lemmon's performance in The Apartment (1960), because Mendes wanted Spacey to emulate "the way [Lemmon] moved, the way he looked, the way he was in that office and the way he was an ordinary man and yet a special man". Spacey's voiceover is a throwback to Sunset Boulevard (1950), which is also narrated by a dead character in retrospect. Mendes felt it evoked Lester's—and the film's—loneliness. Bening recalled women from her youth to inform her performance: "I used to babysit constantly. You'd go to church and see how people present themselves on the outside, and then be inside their house and see the difference." Bening and a hair stylist collaborated to create a "PTA president coif" hairstyle, and Mendes and production designer Naomi Shohan researched mail order catalogs to better establish Carolyn's environment of a "spotless suburban manor". To help Bening get into Carolyn's mindset, Mendes gave her music that he believed Carolyn would like. He lent Bening the Bobby Darin version of the song "Don't Rain on My Parade", which she enjoyed and persuaded the director to include for a scene in which Carolyn sings in her car.

For the roles of Jane, Ricky and Angela, DreamWorks gave Mendes carte blanche. By November 1998, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, and Mena Suvari had been cast in the parts. Bentley overcame competition from top actors under the age of 25 to be cast. The 2009 documentary My Big Break followed Bentley, and several other young actors, before and after he landed the part. To prepare, Mendes provided Bentley with a video camera, telling the actor to film what Ricky would. Peter Gallagher and Alison Janney were cast (as Buddy Kane and Barbara Fitts) after filming began in December 1998. Mendes gave Janney a book of paintings by Edvard Munch. He told her, "Your character is in there somewhere." Chris Cooper plays Col. Fitts, Scott Bakula plays Jim Olmeyer, and Sam Robards plays Jim Berkley. Jim and Jim were deliberately depicted as the most normal, happy—and boring—couple in the film. Ball's inspiration for the characters came from a thought he had after seeing a "bland, boring, heterosexual couple" who wore matching clothes: "I can't wait for the time when a gay couple can be just as boring." Ball also included aspects of a gay couple he knew who had the same forename.

Mendes insisted on two weeks of cast rehearsals, although the sessions were not as formal as he was used to in the theater, and the actors could not be present at every one. Several improvisations and suggestions by the actors were incorporated into the script. An early scene showing the Burnhams' leaving home for work was inserted late on to show the low point that Carolyn and Lester's relationship had reached. Spacey and Bening worked to create a sense of the love that Lester and Carolyn once had for one another; for example, the scene in which Lester almost seduces Carolyn after the pair argue over Lester's buying a car was originally "strictly contentious".

Filming

Principal photography took place over about 50 days between December 14, 1998, and February 1999. Mendes filmed American Beauty on soundstages at the Warner Bros. backlot in Burbank, California, and at Hancock Park and Brentwood in Los Angeles. The aerial shots at the beginning and end of the film were captured in Sacramento, California, and many of the school scenes were shot at South High School in Torrance, California; several extras in the gym crowd were South High students. The film is set in an upper middle class neighborhood in an unidentified American town. Production designer Naomi Shohan said the initial plan was to set the film in a "New Jersey-ish" neighborhood, before considering a "high-end" suburb outside Chicago. Shohan likened the locale to Evanston, Illinois, but said, "it's not about a place, it's about an archetype ... The milieu was pretty much Anywhere, USA—upwardly mobile suburbia." The intent was for the setting to reflect the characters, who are also archetypes. Shohan said, "All of them are very strained, and their lives are constructs." The Burnhams' household was designed as the reverse of the Fitts'—the former a pristine ideal, but graceless and lacking in "inner balance", leading to Carolyn's desire to at least give it the appearance of a "perfect all-American household"; the Fitts' home is depicted in "exaggerated darkness [and] symmetry".

The aerial shots of the Burnhams' neighborhood at the beginning and end of the film were captured above Sacramento, California.

Finding suitable locations for the Burnhams' and Fitts' homes was difficult. On the Warner backlot's "Blondie Street", the production selected two adjacent properties, one of which director of photography Conrad Hall had filmed for Divorce American Style (1967). The production rebuilt the houses to incorporate false rooms that established lines of sight—between Ricky and Jane's bedroom windows, and between Ricky's bedroom and Lester's garage. The garage windows were designed specifically to obtain the crucial shot toward the end of the film in which Col. Fitts—watching from Ricky's bedroom—mistakenly assumes that Lester is paying Ricky for sex. Mendes made sure to establish the line of sight early on the film to allow for the callback. The house interiors were filmed on the backlot, on location, and on soundstages when overhead shots were needed. The inside of the Burnhams' home was shot at a house close to Interstate 405 and Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles; the inside of the Fitts' home was shot in the city's Hancock Park neighborhood. Ricky's bedroom was designed to be cell-like to suggest his "monkish" personality, while at the same time blending with the high-tech equipment to reflect his voyeuristic side. The production deliberately minimized the use of red, as it was an important thematic signature elsewhere. The Burnhams' home uses cool blues, while the Fitts' is kept in a "depressed military palette".

Mendes' dominating visual style was deliberate and composed, a minimalist theme that provided "a sparse, almost surreal feeling—a bright, crisp, hard edged, near Magritte-like take on American suburbia"; Mendes constantly directed his set dressers to empty the frame. He made Lester's fantasy scenes "more fluid and graceful", and although Mendes made minimal use of steadicams, feeling that stable shots generated more tension, he used a hand-held camera for the scene in which Col. Fitts beats Ricky. Mendes said the camera provided the scene with a "kinetic ... off balance energy". He also went hand-held for the excerpts of Ricky's camcorder footage. Ironically, it took Mendes a long time to get the quality of Ricky's raw footage to the level he wanted. For the plastic bag footage, Mendes used wind machines to move the bag in the air. The scene took four takes; two by the second unit did not satisfy Mendes, so he shot the scene himself. He felt his first take lacked grace, but for the last attempt he changed the location to in front of a brick wall and added leaves on the ground. Mendes was satisfied by the way in which the wall gave the outline of the bag definition.

Mendes tried to avoid close-ups, as he believed them to be an overused technique; he also cited Steven Spielberg's advice that he should imagine a row of audience figures silhouetted at the bottom of the camera monitor, to remind him that he was shooting for display on a 40-foot screen rather than for television. Spielberg—who visited the set a few times—also advised Mendes not to worry about costs if he had a "great idea" toward the end of a long working day. Mendes said, "That happened three or four times, and they are all in the movie." Despite Spielberg's support, DreamWorks and Mendes fought constantly over the schedule and budget—although the studio interfered little with the film's content. Spacey, Bening and Hall worked for significantly less than their usual rates. American Beauty cost DreamWorks $15 million to produce, slightly above the projected sum.

Mendes included several homages to other films: family photographs in the characters' homes were inserted to give them a sense of history, and as a nod to the way that Terrence Malick used still photographs in Badlands (1973). The slow push in to the Burnhams' dinner table references a similar shot in Ordinary People (1980); Mendes said he held the shot because his training as a theater director taught him the importance of putting distance between the characters. He wanted to keep the tension in the scene, so he only cut away when Jane left the table. The second scene of Lester's jogging was a homage to Marathon Man (1976). Mendes watched several films to improve his ability to bring a "heightened sense of style" to proceedings: The King of Comedy (1983), All That Jazz (1979) and Rosemary's Baby (1968). Mendes was so dissatisfied with his first three days' filming that he obtained permission from DreamWorks to reshoot the scenes. He said, "I started with a wrong scene, actually, a comedy scene. And the actors played it way too big ... It was badly shot, my fault, badly composed, my fault, bad costumes, my fault ... And everybody was doing what I was asking. It was all my fault." Aware that he was a novice, Mendes drew on the experience of Hall: "I made a very conscious decision early on, if I didn't understand something technically, to say, without embarrassment, 'I don't understand what you're talking about, please explain it.'"

Mendes encouraged some improvisation; for example, when Lester masturbates in bed beside Carolyn, the director asked Spacey to think of several euphemisms for the act in each take. Mendes said, "I wanted that not just because it was funny to hear him say 'chasing the carrot' ... but because I didn't want it to seem rehearsed. I wanted it to seem like he was blurting it out of his mouth without thinking. [Spacey] is so in control—I wanted him to break through." Spacey obliged, eventually coming up with 35 phrases, but Bening could not always keep a straight face, which meant the scene had to be shot ten times. The production used small amounts of computer-generated imagery. Most of the rose petals in Lester's fantasies were added in post-production, although some were real and had the wires holding them digitally removed. The steam in Lester's fantasy of Angela in a rose petal bath was real, save for in one overhead shot. To get the required camera angle, a hole had to be cut in the ceiling, through which the steam escaped; it was instead added digitally.

Editing

Christopher Greenbury began as the film's editor, but Tariq Anwar replaced him halfway through post-production because of Greenbury's scheduling conflict with Me, Myself and Irene (2000). Mendes and an assistant edited the film for ten days between the appointments. Mendes realized during editing that the film was different to the one he had envisioned. He believed he had been making a "much more whimsical ... kaleidoscopic" film than what came together in the edit suite. Instead, Mendes was drawn to the emotion and darkness; he began to use the score and shots he had intended to discard to craft the film along these lines. The opening included a dream in which Lester imagines himself flying above the town. Mendes spent two days filming Spacey against bluescreen, but removed the sequence as it was one he believed to be too whimsical—"like a Coen brothers movie"—and therefore inappropriate for the tone he was trying to set. The opening in the final cut reused a scene from the middle of the film in which Jane tells Ricky to kill her father. This scene was to be the revelation to the audience that the pair were not responsible for Lester's death, as the way it was scored and acted made it clear that Jane's request was not serious. However, in the portion he used in the opening—and when the full scene plays out later—Mendes used the score and a reaction shot of Ricky to leave a lingering ambiguity as to his guilt, as he wanted to keep audiences' options open. The subsequent shot—an aerial view of the neighborhood—was originally intended as the plate shot for the bluescreen effects in the dream sequence.

Mendes trialled several versions of the opening; he said that he spent more time re-cutting the first ten minutes than the whole of the rest of the film. The first edit included Jane and Ricky's trial, but Mendes excised these scenes in the last week of editing; he felt they made the film lose its mystery, and said they did not fit with the theme of redemption that had presented itself during production. Mendes believed they drew focus away from the characters and turned the film "into an episode of NYPD Blue". Instead, he wanted the ending to be "a poetic mixture of dream and memory and narrative resolution". When Ball first saw a completed edit, it was a version with truncated versions of these scenes. He felt that they were so short that they "didn't really register". He and Mendes argued, but Ball was more accepting after Mendes cut the sequences completely; Ball felt that without the scenes the film was more optimistic and had evolved into something that "for all its darkness had a really romantic heart".

Mendes extensively re-cut the scene in which Carolyn tries to sell a house. He found it difficult to get the tone right, as he wanted the Carolyn to be realistic and not appear too ridiculous. Bening improvised many of her lines and Mendes had to cut most of the potential buyers' comic dialogue because it made the sequence too long. Mendes also cut much of Barbara's dialogue, including conversations between her and Col. Fitts, as he felt that what needed to be said about the pair—their humanity and vulnerability—was conveyed successfully through their shared moments of silence. Mendes cut many of the opening and closing lines from scenes, as he wanted to keep the film one step ahead of the audience. In total, he cut about 30 minutes from his original edit.

Cinematography

Conrad Hall was not the first choice for director of photography; Mendes believed he was "too old and too experienced" to want the job, and he had been told that Hall was difficult to work with. Instead, he asked Fred Elmes, who turned Mendes down because he did not like the script. Hall was then recommended to Mendes by Tom Cruise, because of Hall's work on Without Limits (1998), which Cruise had executive produced. Mendes was directing Cruise's then-wife Nicole Kidman in the play The Blue Room during pre-production on American Beauty, and had already storyboarded the whole film. Hall was involved for one month during pre-production; his ideas for lighting the film began with his first reading of the script, and further passes allowed him to refine his approach before meeting Mendes. Hall was initially concerned that audiences would not like the characters; he only felt able to identify with them during cast rehearsals, which gave him fresh ideas on his approach to the visuals.

Hall's approach was to create peaceful compositions that evoked classicism, to contrast with the turbulent on-screen events and allow audiences to take in the action. Hall and Mendes would first discuss the intended mood of a scene, but he was allowed to light the shot in any way he felt necessary. In most cases, Hall first lit the scene's subject by "painting in" the blacks and whites, before adding fill light, which he reflected from beadboard or white card on the ceiling. This approach gave Hall more control over the shadows while keeping the fill light unobtrusive and the dark areas free of spill. Hall shot American Beauty in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio in the Super 35 format, using Kodak Vision 500T 5279 35mm film stock. He used Super 35 partly because its larger scope allowed him to capture elements such as the corners of the petal-filled pool in its overhead shot, creating a frame around Angela within. He shot the whole film at the same T-stop (T1.9); given his preference for shooting that wide, Hall favors high-speed stocks to allow more for more subtle lighting effects. He used Panavision Platinum cameras with the company's Primo series of prime and zoom lenses. Hall employed Kodak Vision 500T 5274 and EXR 5248 stock for scenes with daylight effects. He had difficulty adjusting to the Vision series of stocks, which provided too much contrast. Hall contacted Kodak, who sent him a batch of 5279 that was 5% lower on contrasts. Hall used a 1/8" Tiffen Black ProMist filter for almost every scene, which he said in retrospect may not have been the best choice, as the optical steps required to blow Super 35 up for its anamorphic release print led to a slight amount of degradation; therefore, the diffusion from the filter was not required. Hall felt when he saw the film in a theater that the image was slightly unclear and that had he not used the filter, the diffusion from the Super 35–anamorphic conversion would have generated an image closer to how he intended.

One of the most difficult moments for Hall to light was the scene at the beginning of the film featuring Jane and Ricky. The shot begins with a hand-held camera video image that pans around the room; the confined space made it difficult for Hall to place lighting equipment out-of-shot. He used three lights: a Kino Flo hidden in a shelf for Ricky's backlight, as a sidelight, and a downlight onto the bookshelf; a low power light aimed at a beadboard behind the bed; and the fill light. The most difficult aspect was ensuring the television set did not reflect the light. A later shot where Lester and Ricky share a cannabis joint behind a building came from a misunderstanding between Hall and Mendes. Mendes asked Hall to prepare the shot in his absence; Hall assumed the characters would look for privacy, so he placed them in a narrow passage between a truck and the building, intending to light from the top of the truck. When Mendes returned, he explained that the characters did not care if they were seen. He removed the truck and Hall had to rethink the lighting; he lit it from the left, with a large light crossing the actors, and with a soft light behind the camera. Hall felt the consequent wide shot "worked perfectly for the tone of the scene".

Lester's encounter with Angela at the end of the film begins with Lester in silhouette against the doorway, with only his face lit. Hall made the light subtle enough to not spill into the dark areas by using a low power beam, a diffusion glass across the barn doors, and flags. Hall kept a bouquet of roses in frame throughout, but he aimed low-power, narrow-focus lights at the flowers' back edges to keep them dark with a red tinge. Hall gave definition to other objects by lighting their edges, and created a rain effect on the foreground cross light for consistency—rain, or the suggestion of it, is in every shot toward the end. The shot switches to a wide silhouette of Lester and Angela against French windows; the pair are lit from one light above, and from several through the doors. Hall added material to the windows to make the rain run slower, intensifying the light; although strength of the outside light was unrealistic for a night scene, Hall felt it justified because of the strong contrasts it produced. Hall added fill light and fully lit the roses, resulting in low color saturation—bordering on black-and-white—with a hint of red from the roses. For the close-ups when Lester and Angela move to the couch, Hall tried to keep rain in camera, lighting through the window onto the ceiling behind Lester. Hall believed the ceiling light the most important component of the shot: at 12–32 fc, it allowed him to provide the contrast necessary to keep the dark areas black. Lester has a low-power edge light on him to suggest stray light, rather than full illumination, which Hall said would have created a different mood. Hall kept the wider shot simple, with structured framing from the lights on Angela's back and the couch. The looser framing was intended to give "peace and comfort", allowing the viewer room to breathe. Hall directed fill light behind Lester and Angela, preventing spill onto their faces, but intense enough to show the couch without lighting the back wall. Hall used rain boxes through which he could produce rain patterns where he wanted without lighting the entire room.

Music

For track listings, see American Beauty (soundtrack) and American Beauty: Original Motion Picture Score.

Thomas Newman's score was recorded in Santa Monica, California. He created its mood and rhythm mainly through percussion instruments, the inspiration for which was provided by Mendes. Newman "favored pulse, rhythm and color over melody", making for a more minimalist score than he had previously created. He built each cue around "small, endlessly repeating phrases"—often, the only variety through a "thinning of the texture for eight bars". The percussion instruments included tablas, bongos, cymbals, piano, xylophones and marimbas; also featured were guitars, flute, and world music instruments. Newman also used electronic music and on "quirkier" tracks employed more unorthodox methods, such as tapping metal mixing bowls with a finger and using a detuned mandolin. Newman believed the score helped move the film along without disturbing the "moral ambiguity" of the script: "It was a real delicate balancing act in terms of what music worked to preserve [that]."

The soundtrack features songs by Newman, Bobby Darin, The Who, Free, Eels, The Guess Who, Bill Withers, Betty Carter, Peggy Lee, The Folk Implosion, Gomez, and Bob Dylan, as well as two cover versions—The Beatles' "Because" performed by Elliott Smith, and Neil Young's "Don't Let It Bring You Down" performed by Annie Lennox. Produced by the film's music supervisor Chris Douridas, an abridged soundtrack album was released on October 5, 1999 and went on be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album. An album featuring 19 tracks from Newman's score was released on January 11, 2000, and won the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack Album. Filmmaker considered the score to be one of Newman's best, saying it "[enabled] the film's transcendentalist aspirations". In 2006, the magazine chose the score as one of twenty essential soundtracks it considered to be speak to the "complex and innovative relationships between music and screen storytelling".

Release

Publicity

DreamWorks contracted Amazon.com to create the official website, marking the first time that Amazon had created a special section devoted to a feature film. The website included an overview, a photo gallery, cast and crew filmographies, and exclusive interviews with Spacey and Bening. The film's tagline—"look closer"—originally came from a cutting pasted on Lester's workplace cubicle by the set dresser. Reviewing the posters of several 1999 films, David Hochman of Entertainment Weekly rated American Beauty's highly, saying it evoked the tagline; he said, "You return to the poster again and again, thinking, this time you're gonna find something." DreamWorks did not want to test screen the film; according to Mendes, the studio was pleased with it, but he insisted on one where he could question the audience afterward. The studio reluctantly agreed and showed the film to a young audience in San Jose, California. Mendes claimed the screening went very well.

Theatrical run

American Beauty had its world premiere on September 8, 1999, at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles. Three days later, the film appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival. With the filmmakers and cast in attendance, it screened at several American universities, including the University of California at Berkeley, New York University, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Texas at Austin, and Northwestern University.

Graph to show the number of theaters in which American Beauty played in North America in 1999–2000

On September 15, 1999, American Beauty opened to the public in a limited release at three theaters in Los Angeles and three in New York, grossing $72,768 for the day. Two days later, ten theaters were added in Toronto, Boston and San Francisco; by the end of the weekend, the film had grossed $861,531. On September 24, DreamWorks increased the theater count to 429, where the expansion brought in $5,939,64. On October 1, the film officially went into wide release when it screened in 706 theaters across North America. The film grossed $8,188,587 over its first weekend of wide release, ranking third at the box office. Audiences polled by the market research firm CinemaScore gave American Beauty a "B+" grade on average. The theater count increased to a high of 1,528 at the end of the month, before a gradual decline. Following American Beauty's wins at the 57th Golden Globe Awards, DreamWorks re-expanded the theater presence from a low of 7 in mid-February, to a peak of 1,990 in March. The film ended its North American theatrical run on June 4, 2000, having grossed $130.1 million.

American Beauty had its European premiere at the London Film Festival on November 18, 1999, and in January 2000, it screened in various territories outside North America. On January 14, it debuted in Israel in nine theaters, grossing a "potent" $100,000 in four days for an average of $11,000 per screen. Limited releases in six European markets followed on January 21; over four days, the film grossed $791,000 from 45 theaters in Germany, $853,000 from 62 theaters in Italy and $652,000 in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Finland. Expanding to 25 screens in Israel over two weeks, the film grossed $560,000. Following January 28 opening weekends in Australia ($1.8 million), the United Kingdom ($695,000), Spain ($291,000) and Norway ($214,000), American Beauty earned $7 million in 12 countries for a total of $12.1 million outside North America. On the February 4 weekend, American Beauty debuted in France with $1.6 million and in Belgium with $562,095. Expanding to 303 theaters in the United Kingdom, the film ranked first at the box office with $1.7 million. On February 11, the film's fourth weekend in Germany led to a gross of $2,072,635, and it took $719,060 in its second weekend in Belgium. On the weekend of February 18—following American Beauty's eight nominations for the 72nd Academy Awards—the film grossed $11.7 million from 21 territories, for a total of $65.4 million outside North America. The film had "dazzling" debuts in Hungary, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and New Zealand.

As of February 18, the most successful territories were the UK ($15.2 million), Italy ($10.8 million), Germany ($10.5 million), Australia ($6 million) and France ($5.3 million). The Academy Award nominations meant strong performances continued across the board; the following weekend, American Beauty grossed $10.9 million in 27 countries, with strong debuts in Brazil ($828,000), Mexico ($387,000) and South Korea ($404,000). Other high spots included $640,000 in six days from 50 theaters in Argentina, $291,000 from 26 theaters in Greece and $340,000 from 31 theaters in Turkey. On the weekend of March 3, 2000, American Beauty debuted in three Asian territories, markets traditionally "not receptive to this kind of upscale fare". It debuted strongly, grossing $272,000 in Hong Kong over four days, $245,000 in Taiwan over two, and $165,000 in Singapore. Its strong South Korean performance continued, with a return of $1.2 million after nine days. Over the weekend of March 10, the film took $12.6 million from 23 territories. Highlights included $1.3 million in 12 days in South Korea and $13.3 million in seven weeks in Italy. In total, American Beauty grossed $130.1 million in North America and $226.2 million internationally, for a total of $356.3 million.

Home media

American Beauty was released on VHS on May 9, 2000 and on DVD on October 24, 2000. Before the film's North American rental release on May 9, Blockbuster Video wanted to purchase hundreds of thousands of extra copies of the title to enter it into its "guaranteed title" range, whereby any customer that wanted to rent to film would be guaranteed a copy. Blockbuster and DreamWorks failed to come to an agreement on the sharing of profits from the scheme; the rental chain wanted a similar deal to the one it had with Universal Pictures—DreamWorks' distributor. As a result, Blockbuster ordered two thirds the number of copies it originally intended. DreamWorks made around one million copies available to rental stores; Blockbuster's demand would usually account for about 400,000 of these. In some urban stores, the rental chain only displayed 60 copies of the film; in areas of lower demand, Blockbuster instructed some of its store managers to remove the film from its shelves to force customers to ask for it. The instruction also required Blockbuster staff to read a statement to customers explaining the situation. Blockbuster claimed that the strategy was intended only to "monitor customer demand" for the title due to its reduced availability.

Blockbuster's intended strategy leaked before American Beauty's rental release, leading to a 30% increase in orders from independent retailers—including some Blockbuster outlets owned by franchisees—and Blockbuster's closest rival, Hollywood Video. Commenters speculated that Universal or DreamWorks was the source of the leak. DreamWorks did not have profit-sharing deals with the independent retailers, meaning that it made much of its money on rental copies of American Beauty up front. DreamWorks had a profit-sharing deal with Hollywood Video, but copies of the film were rented in high enough quantities that both companies benefited. In its first week of release in the rental market, American Beauty made $6.8 million. This return was lower than would otherwise have been expected had DreamWorks and Blockbuster reached an agreement; the same year's The Sixth Sense made $22 million, while Fight Club made $8.1 million, even though the latter's domestic theatrical performance was just 29% that of American Beauty. Blockbuster's strategy also affected rental fees for the title; American Beauty averaged a $3.12 fee, compared with the average $3.40 fee for films that Blockbuster promoted in full that year. Only 53% of the film's rentals were from large outlets in the first week, compared with the usual 65%.

The DVD release included a behind-the-scenes featurette, film audio commentary from Mendes and Ball and a storyboard presentation with discussion from Mendes and Hall. In the film commentary, Mendes refers to deleted scenes for the viewer to find on the disc. However, these scenes are not on the DVD as he changed his mind after recording the commentary; Mendes felt that to show scenes he previously chose not to use would detract from the film's integrity.

Critical reception

American Beauty was widely considered the best film of 1999 by the American press; the film received "overwhelming" praise, chiefly for Spacey, Mendes and Ball. Variety reported, "No other 1999 movie has benefited from such universal raves." It was the best-received title at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), where it won the People's Choice Award after a ballot of the festival's audiences. TIFF's director, Piers Handling, said, "American Beauty was the buzz of the festival, the film most talked about."

Writing in Variety, Todd McCarthy said Spacey's "handling of innuendo, subtle sarcasm and blunt talk" was "scintillating", and praised the way Spacey imbued Lester with "genuine feeling". He said the rest of the ensemble "could not be better". Janet Maslin in The New York Times said Spacey's performance was his "wittiest and most agile" to date, and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times also singled out Spacey, saying the actor successfully communicated a man who "does reckless and foolish things [but who] doesn't deceive himself". Kevin Jackson of Sight & Sound said that Spacey impressed in ways distinct from his previous performances, the most satisfying aspect being his portrayal of "both sap and hero". Writing in Film Quarterly, Gary Hentzi praised the actors, but said that several characters, such as Carolyn and Col. Fitts, were "plainly conventional" stereotypes. Hentzi accused Mendes and Ball of identifying too readily with Jane and Ricky; he said the latter was a "fantasy figure" for the filmmakers—an absurdly wealthy artist able to "finance [his] own projects". Hentzi said Angela was the most believable teenager in the film, in particular with her "painfully familiar" attempts to "live up to an unworthy image of herself". Maslin agreed that some of the characters were unoriginal, but said the fine detail of their characterizations made them memorable. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said it was "hard to overestimate" the difficulty of the roles, and that the actors coped "faultlessly"; he thought the female leads convincing, and believed Bentley brought "a commanding but low-key intensity" to his role. Turan said Spacey's performance was "the energy that drives the film", as the actor commanded audience involvement despite Lester's not always being sympathetic. "Against considerable odds, we do like [these characters]," Turan concluded.

Maslin felt that Mendes directed with "terrific visual flair", saying the director's "rueful, cleanly minimalist" style balanced "the mordant and bright". She said the film was "replete with the kinds of delicate, eroticized power-playing vignettes" found in Mendes' theater work. Jackson felt that Mendes only occasionally betrayed his theatrical roots, and said the "most remarkable" aspect was that Mendes did not allow Spacey's performance to overshadow the rest of the film. He said that Mendes managed to stage the intricacies of the script smoothly, and to the ensemble's strengths, "deftly serving every change of tone from goofy knockabout to beady observation." McCarthy said that American Beauty acted as a "stunning card of introduction" for film débutantes Mendes and Ball. He said Mendes displayed a "sure hand" that was "as precise and controlled" as his theater work. McCarthy said Hall's involvement was fortunate for Mendes, as the cinematographer was "unsurpassed" at conveying the themes of a work through its visuals. Turan agreed that Mendes' selection of collaborators was "shrewd", citing Hall and Newman in particular. Turan suggested that American Beauty may have benefited from the coupling of Mendes' theater experience and film inexperience, as his "anything's possible daring" made him attempt beats that more seasoned directors might have avoided. Turan said that Mendes accomplishment was to "capture and enhance [the] duality" of Ball's script—the simultaneously "caricatured ... and painfully real" characters. Hentzi, while critical of many of Mendes and Ball's choices, admitted that the film showed off their "considerable talents".

Turan cited Ball as the reason for the film's uniqueness; he said the script's ability to "[change] colors as subtly and gradually as a kaleidoscope" was the stamp of a writer "pouring everything he felt constrained from doing in one medium into ... another." McCarthy said the script was "as fresh and distinctive" as any of its American film contemporaries, and praised how it analyzed the characters while not compromising narrative pace. He called Ball's dialogue "tart" and said most of the characters—Carolyn excepted—were "deeply drawn". The one other flaw, McCarthy said, was the revelation of Col. Fitts' homosexuality, which he said evoked "hoary Freudianism". Jackson said that the film transcended its clichéd setup to become a "wonderfully resourceful and sombre comedy". He said that even when the film played for sitcom laughs, it infused the scenes with "unexpected nuance". Hentzi criticized how the film made a mystery of Lester's murder, believing it to be manipulative and simply a way of generating suspense. McCarthy cited the production and costume design as pluses, and said the score and songs were good at creating "ironic counterpoint[s]" to the story. Hentzi concluded that American Beauty was "vital but uneven"; he believed the film's examination of "the ways which teenagers and adults imagine each other's lives" was its best point, and that although Lester and Angela's dynamic was familiar, its romantic irony stood beside "the most enduring literary treatments" of the theme, such as Lolita. Nevertheless, Hentzi believed that the plot was not always successful, and that the film's themes of materialism and conformity in American suburbia were "hackneyed". He expressed bemusement that other commentators had not criticized this perceived thematic limitation. McCarthy conceded that the setting was familiar one, but said it merely provided the film with a "starting point" from which to tell its "subtle and acutely judged tale". Maslin agreed; she said that while it "takes aim at targets that are none too fresh", and that the theme of nonconformity did not contain any surprises, the film had its own "corrosive novelty". Ebert awarded the film four stars out of four, and Turan said American Beauty was layered, subversive, complex and surprising; he concluded that it was "a hell of a picture".

Awards and honors

Main article: List of accolades received by American Beauty

Despite opening to critical acclaim, American Beauty was not considered an immediate favorite to dominate the American awards season. Several other contenders opened at the end of the 1999, and US critics spread their honors among them when compiling their end-of-year lists; the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Society of Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association all recognized American Beauty, but chose to give their top awards to other films. At the 57th Golden Globe Awards in January 2000, American Beauty won Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor (for Spacey); however, as the nominations for the 72nd Academy Awards approached, a frontrunner had not emerged.

DreamWorks had launched a major campaign for American Beauty five weeks before ballots were due to be sent to the 5,600 Academy Award voters. Its campaign combined traditional advertising and publicity with more focused strategies. Although direct mail campaigning was prohibited, DreamWorks reached voters by promoting the film in "casual, comfortable settings" in voters' communities. The studio's candidate for Best Picture the previous year, Saving Private Ryan, lost to Shakespeare in Love, so the studio took a new approach by hiring outsiders to provide input for the campaign. It hired three veteran consultants, who told the studio to "think small". Nancy Willen encouraged DreamWorks to produce a special about the making of American Beauty, to set up displays of the film in the communities' bookstores, and to arrange a question-and-answer session with Mendes for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Dale Olson advised the studio to advertise in free publications that circulated in Beverly Hills—home to many voters—in addition to major newspapers. Olson arranged to screen American Beauty to about 1,000 members of the Actors Fund of America, as many participating actors were also voters. Bruce Feldman took Ball to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where Ball attended a private dinner in honor of Anthony Hopkins, meeting several voters who were in attendance.

In February 2000, American Beauty received nominations in eight Academy Award categories; its closest rivals, The Cider House Rules and The Insider, both received seven. In March 2000, the major film industry labor organizations all awarded their top honors to American Beauty; perceptions had shifted—the film was now considered a firm favorite to dominate the Academy Awards. As the ceremony approached, American Beauty's closest rival for Best Picture was still The Cider House Rules, from Miramax. Both studios mounted aggressive campaigns; in the weeks before the ceremony, DreamWorks bought 38% more advertising space in Variety than Miramax. A Gallup Poll of American public opinion a week before the ceremony revealed that 12% of respondents hoped the film would win the Academy Award for Best Picture, behind The Sixth Sense (18%) and The Green Mile (29%). On March 26, 2000, American Beauty won five of its eight nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography. The film's success was seen as vindication for DreamWorks, a studio which had formed six years previously—to industry skepticism—and had only released its first film in 1997. In 2000, the Publicists Guild of America recognized DreamWorks for the best film publicity campaign.

At the 53rd British Academy Film Awards, American Beauty won six of the fourteen awards for which it was nominated: Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Film Music and Best Editing. The National Board of Review named American Beauty Best Film and awarded Bentley its Best Breakthrough Performance prize. The Chicago Film Critics Association also named the film the best of 1999 and awarded it Best Director and Best Actor, and gave its Most Promising Actor award to Bentley. The film won the Broadcast Film Critics Association's Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Director awards. The Toronto Film Critics Association named Spacey Best Actor. In September 2008, Empire named American Beauty the 96th "Greatest Movie of All Time" after a poll of 10,000 readers, 150 filmmakers and 50 film critics.

References

Annotations

Footnotes

Bibliography

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• Bellantoni, Patti (2005). If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die. Oxford, UK: Focal Press. pp. 25–27. ISBN 9780240806884. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Booth, Wayne C. (2002). "Is There an 'Implied' Author in Every Film?". College Literature. 29 (2). West Chester, Pennsylvania: West Chester University: 124–131. ISSN 0093-3139. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Chumo II, Peter N. (2000). "American Beauty: An Interview with Alan Ball". Creative Screenwriting Magazine. 7 (1). Los Angeles: Creative Screenwriters Group: 26–35. ISSN 1084-8665. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Furby, Jacqueline (2006). "Rhizomatic Time and Temporal Poetics in American Beauty". Film Studies (9). Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press: 22–28. ISSN 1362-7937. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
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• Hentzi, Gary (2000). "Review: American Beauty". Film Quarterly. 54 (2). Berkeley, California: University of California Press: 46–50. ISSN 0015-1386. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Kazan, Nicholas (2000). "True Beauty". Written By. Los Angeles: Writers Guild of America, West: 24–37. ISSN 1055-1948. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Kemp, Philip (2000). "The Nice Man Cometh". Sight & Sound. 10 (1). London, UK: British Film Institute: 24–26. ISSN 0037-4806. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Link, Stan (2004). "Nor the Eye Filled with Seeing: The Sound of Vision in Film Author(s)". American Music. 22 (1). Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Society for American Music: 76–90. doi:10.2307/3592968. ISSN 0734-4392. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Lowenstein, Stephen, ed. (2008). "Sam Mendes on American Beauty". My First Movie: Take Two. New York: Pantheon: 243–275. ISBN 9780375423475. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mendes, Sam; Ball, Alan (2000). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) American Beauty, The Awards Edition: Audio commentary [DVD; Disc 1/2]. (Los Angeles: DreamWorks).
• Munt, Sally R. (2006). "A Queer Undertaking: Anxiety and reparation in the HBO television drama series Six Feet Under". Feminist Media Studies. 6 (3). London, UK: Routledge: 263–279. ISSN 1471-5902. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Parker, Deborah; Parker, Mark (2004). "Directors and DVD Commentary: The Specifics of Intention Author(s)". Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 62 (1). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing: 13–22. doi:10.1111/j.1540-594X.2004.00131.x. ISSN 0021-8529. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Pennington, Jody W. (2007). The History of Sex in American Film. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group: 103–107. ISBN 9780275992262. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Probst, Christopher (2000). "American Beauty". American Cinematographer. 81 (3). Hollywood, California: American Society of Cinematographers: 80–82. ISSN 0002-7928. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Probst, Christopher; Heuring, David; Holben, Jay; Thomson, Patricia (2000). "Impeccable Images". American Cinematographer. 81 (6). Hollywood, California: American Society of Cinematographers: 74–109. ISSN 0002-7928. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• Official website
• American Beauty at IMDb
• American Beauty at Rotten Tomatoes
• American Beauty at Metacritic