   American Beauty
  If you haven't seen the movie, dont read this, go and rent it ... now.I saw the movie last night... Damn that was an excellent, excellent movie.  Anyone else see it?Anyway, I thought it was great because there was some character or situation in there that everyone could connect with, or connect someone they knew with.  For example, there was the horny old guy, the generic angry teen, the blonde-ditz-who-thinks-shes-so-hott, the hysterical, overreacting mother, the artsy guy, and the ex-marine repressed homosexual faggot hater.  There was also the situation of the old guy hating his job and pulling an "Office Space," the angry teen hating her dad, the overstressing of a job by the mother, the whore-osity of the ugly blonde, and the lets-get-in-love feeling of the artsy guy.  Before i saw the movie i though it was some depressing weird movie but i ended up being majorly surprised.  It was by no means depressing, and it was even hilarious at some points.  Anyway, yeah, i thought this was an icredibly awesome movie... One of the best i've ever seen.I stuck a pen in my ear and i have a lemonade box in my mouth, anyone happen to do similar things at times?So what did everyone else think of the movie?edit: and most importantly, after watching this movie i really really want to become a pot dealer[edited by - MrPoopypants on August 19, 2003 3:16:26 AM]
  I''ve never gotten the ending.I just don''t understand Mr Fitts'' motivation for the end scene. **** SPOILERI suppose it could be the external projection of Lester, in an homage to "Death of a Salesman" ? ;quote:Original post by Mithrandir  I''ve never gotten the ending.I just don''t understand Mr Fitts'' motivation for the end scene. **** SPOILERI suppose it could be the external projection of Lester, in an homage to "Death of a Salesman" ?   I think he''s just so torn between fag-hating and being a repressed and rejected ghey himself that he cracks like private pile from Full Metal Jacket.  His straitforward mind overflowed. ;  I thought it was a great movie as well, one of my favourites. But I know other people I''ve told to watch it just think "Promoting drugs", "Old guy, young girl, ew", "it''s okay to try and kill your spouse?", "wtf is with the queer guy?", and nothing else.So I''m still not sure if finding a deeper meaning in it makes me wise, or just a dreamer who''s too detatched from reality. When I watched it for the first time, I felt at peace for several days afterwards. Isn''t that weird? It''s such a twisted movie, and there''s so many "wrong" things in it."I just don''t understand Mr Fitts'' motivation for the end scene."Complete confusion and self-doubt. He''s been hating gays his whole life, then "finds out" that his son is gay (not really but to him he is). Not only that, but he thinks his son is willing to leave him in order to be gay. This makes him depressed, so he goes (still horribly confused) to see if there''s something he''s been missing in the whole gay thing that is going to make him understand what''s going on. When he''s turned away, he''s even more confused (why does he like my son and not me? what''s wrong with me?) and becomes more frustrated (what''s wrong with you   that makes you not like me?). So he acts on anger and kills the person who both turned him down and drove his son away.At least that''s my take on it, although emotions are always too hard to put into words... ;quote:Original post by LockePick  When I watched it for the first time, I felt at peace for several days afterwards. Isn''t that weird? It''s such a twisted movie, and there''s so many "wrong" things in it. Yeah, oddly enough i did, and still do, feel at peace after seeing that.  It was an extreme case of every real person''s life, so many people can attach to it.And yes, that movie blatantly promotes pot... i want to become a pot dealer now, just gotta find some sources;  Well I didn''t like it...but I think I''d be old enough to appriciate it now. ;  Here''s my two cents:American Beauty''s true contribution was the contrasting of today''s youth''s freaksihly superficial idolism with all the subtleties in the world - that is, the the bag. The bag was what made the movie, really - it was so simple, so unpredictable, so innovative. And look what it was in the middle of - pot-dealing, gay-hating, adultery-driven, false-idolatized chaos. If you don''t see the relation of the bag to the rest of the story you''re missing out on a lot. The culmination, of course, was the end where Lester was killed - to me it''s as if a reference to witchcraft in the middel ages or something: he was an enlightened individual who actually understood what was going on around him, who was killed by a heretic whose mind was boxed in by family tradition and cultural blindness. He died because he was supposed to die - that''s simply what happens to those that are not understood by other people (I must say if Lester (Kevin Spacey) was my friend, I wouldn''t really support his actions 100% either).The other face (a similar one in nature) of the story was the two girls and the neighbour guy (what was his name again?). Anyway, the brunette played by Thora Birch actually turned from a capital bitch (for the lack of a better word) into someone who is capable of appreciating the world around him (look who she ended up with). It didn''t happen to Suvari''s character, though... As for the wife - to me she was the disturbance necessary to build the storyline on - she propelled the story, causing it to make unexpected twists, but she didn''t play a major role in the movie itself. ;  I enjoyed it the first time I watched it.The second time I saw it, the lines seemed forced and acting was wooden. I couldn''t sit through more than 15 minutes of it and I will never watch it again. ;  The motivation for Mr. Fitts to kill Lester is that Lester is the only person who really knows Fitts'' secret. The reason Fitts hates homosexuals so much, is because he is gay himself. When he found out Ricky was gay (even though it was a complete misconception), he was so angry at him, but out of love, he didn''t want Ricky to have to "suffer" through life being gay. I think Fitts killed Lester out of total confusion though... *shrug* It''s too early to be analyzing this movie. ;  I thought his advance to Lester was more of a last-ditch attempt to identify with his son, more than anything else - I don''t think Fitts actually *was* gay, but I think he wanted to be so that his son would love him again. When Lester denied that, he killed him out of anger that this person was preventing him from getting his son to love him again.   Superpig- saving pigs from untimely fates, and when he''s not doing that, runs The Binary Refinery.Enginuity1 | Enginuity2 | Enginuity3 | Enginuity4