Hidden Themes in American Beauty Essay - 851 Words

In American movies there are many times basic plots, hidden themes and subliminal messages. Most of the time the producer is trying to make a point that is not clear to the audience. American Beauty is one such movie. The movie contains affection in two homosexual neighbors, a homophobic father, and a mysterious relationship between an average man and his teen neighbor. American Beauty focuses on the last year of Lester Burnham’s life. Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is married to Carolyn Burnham (Annette Betting), and their marriage is picture perfect on the outside, but the perfection is only superficially. Their marriage is based on projecting one image- a picture perfect suburbia lifestyle when it is in fact quite the opposite.†¦show more content†¦Then Ricky (Wes Bentley) says, â€Å"That’s the whole thing dad, they don’t feel that’s anything to be ashamed of.† The colonel’s idea of homosexuality is that it is something to be asha med of and he despises his son’s open-mind ness toward homosexuality. The Colonel often takes his frustrations out on his son. This could be because he doesn’t want his son to suffer living a homosexual lifestyle like he probably has. Men fear humiliation or weakness because they always have to present everyone this image of being though, dominant and dependent; men despise anything that goes against these traditional views of masculinity. This traditional thoughts lead to homophobia. The media makes sure to portray men in a violent or dominant way in the movies, TV shows, etc. Asians are almost always portrayed as martial artist or violent criminals and Latinos as boxers, criminals or though guys in the barrio. Ever since the Colonel moved in he shows this extreme disgust towards homosexuals around his neighborhood. He even shows this behavior towards his son Ricky when he becomes suspicious of his (Ricky’s) relationship with Lester. Probably when the Colonel was Castaà ±eda 3 growing up, being gay was the worse and he tried to hide it from his parents and thought the army might help straighten him out and got married to try to appear like a normal man. Even though he hates this homosexual behavior, Frank still runs into the arms of his neighbor. FrankShow MoreRelatedThe Little Mermaid : A Sociological Idea Essay947 Words   |  4 Pageshad to find a husband and must relinquished one’s identity (Wood 1994). 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