American Beauty

Year: 1999

Grade: A

Country: USA

Director: Mendes

Review

has some really powerful moments which make the movie great instead of just really good. like great escape and paths of glory it has a depressing ending when taken as a whole, but also has the slighest spike of hope at the very end to provide some balance. in great escape after “the 50” are executed steve mcqueen returns to the pow camp and throws his baseball against the cooler wall providing some good vibes amongst the mostly negative ending. in paths of glory the 3 soldiers are executed and things at the administrative level remain the same despite douglas’ best efforts to the otherwise. but at the very end the german singer (played by kubrick’s wife) calms a crowd of soldiers and signifies the hope and innocence outside of war. in american beauty spacey’s character is killed, but he says in his narration he makes death (and life) seem so precious. movies like that are really great…they take you on this voyage of ups and downs and in the case of the previous three (and others) they have that rare ability to string you along the whole way. with a minute left in paths of glory i was thinking to myself “this world sucks, there’s no justice, i hate life.” but in the last minute kubrick was able to restore my hope for humanity and the world. though american beauty doesn’t succeed at the same level that paths of glory does, it still shines.