Oscar wins: 5- Best Picture, Best Directory (Mendes), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Spacey), Best Original Screenplay (Ball), Best Cinematography
Nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role (Bening), Best Editing, Best Original Score (Thomas Newman)
Directed by: Sam Mendes
Written by: Alan Ball
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper, Allison Janney
Length: 122 minutes
Budget: $15 million
Switching from Gladiator to American Beauty could not have been a bigger shift: Gladiator is a big-budget Hollywood film, while American Beauty is a small, low-budget film; Gladiator is a story of war, honor and courage, while American Beauty is about the simplicity of life, the problems of small, suburb America, and the hidden beauty of it all.
American Beauty is the story of Lester Burnham (Spacey), who narrates the story and tells the viewer early on that he will be dead in less than a year. We step with Lester into his sad, suburban life, with a wife he no longer loves (Bening) and a daughter who hates him and whom he doesn't understand (Birch). Lester has a mid-life chrisis, so to speak, but in it he realizes that he hates his life, and does everything in his power to do what he wants, when he wants, and make sure no one is going to stand in his way.
If you can struggle through the first 30 or so (strange) minutes of this film, you will be greatly rewarded. The first time I saw this film (and this was about my fifth viewing) I almost shut it off because it seemed too off-the-wall, and just too weird; but, I stuck with it, and it is now one of my favorite films.
This is a story rich with symbolism and messages, and one could see it dozens of times and still find something new with each viewing. It asks the quesions: what is beauty? does life have beauty and, if so, what is it? And, the big question: what is the meaning of this life? Lester, his family, and his neighbors go on a cooky, (perhaps) over-the-top ride in the quest for these answers, and all of the viewers find something along the way as well.
Going into the 72nd Academy Awards, there really wasn't a clear-cut leader in the Best Picture race, and it really took a full out, last minute push from Dreamworks advertising to really promote this film and get it the award. I have seen the other front-runner, Cider House Rules, and I can truthfully say I think American Beauty was the better film. Normally, I am against the really political, advertising side of the Oscars, but I think it this case it really opened a lot of people up to American Beauty and got the small picture on a lot of people's radars. The acting in the film is superb, from every person, and Mendes does an amazing job shooting the film and really making sure everything is put together right. As for Alan Ball's script, as I said before, this film is full of questions and messages, and his script is really an incredible example of just how much a script can do for a film-- beyond just the dialogue.
Rankings:
1. American Beauty (1999)
2. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
3. Chicago (2002)
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
5. The Departed (2006)
6. No Country for Old Men (2007)
7. The Hurt Locker (2009)
8. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
9. The Gladiator (2000)
10. Crash (2005)
11. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
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