Page 1 of 3

American Beauty (1999)

Posted: March 14th, 2014, 7:07 pm
by MiracleSleeper2
Image

The bumped Fight Club thread inspired me to make this thread. What are your thoughts on this faptastic movie? Personally I rank it as my 4th favorite film of all time.


Spoiler ahead:





PS: I got the go-ahead from DoubleD, so my recent thread-making-addiction is justified here.

Re: American Beauty (1999)

Posted: March 14th, 2014, 7:34 pm
by Sky007
It's fuckin awesome. I can't think of many other movies that make me see life in such a vastly different way. It's so simple and beautiful, yet almost everyone doesn't see it like Ricky does. I love all the character's arcs but Spacey as Lester is just perfection. The climax with him and Angela is so masterfully executed. Lester finally realizes it wasn't about her. In his final moments he finds the true beauty of the world. I won't lie, I get teared up at him talking about the best moments in his life. His family is gone to shit but he still manages to find the beauty....And not man tears. Real tears.

Re: American Beauty (1999)

Posted: March 14th, 2014, 8:00 pm
by MiracleSleeper2
Sky007 wrote:It's fuckin awesome. I can't think of many other movies that make me see life in such a vastly different way. It's so simple and beautiful, yet almost everyone doesn't see it like Ricky does. I love all the character's arcs but Spacey as Lester is just perfection. The climax with him and Angela is so masterfully executed. Lester finally realizes it wasn't about her. In his final moments he finds the true beauty of the world. I won't lie, I get teared up at him talking about the best moments in his life. His family is gone to shit but he still manages to find the beauty....And not man tears. Real tears.
Couldn't have said it better. I have the audio of Ricky's plastic bag speech and Lester's final thoughts on my iPod. I listen to them all the time, they're so inspirational. Allen Ball, the screenwriter, really has a beautiful perspective on life.

PS: I've read about 15 screenwriting books in the past few years, and you know what movie is mentioned in just about all of them? American Beauty. That really says something.

Re: American Beauty (1999)

Posted: March 15th, 2014, 12:04 am
by Sky007
MiracleSleeper2 wrote:
Sky007 wrote:It's fuckin awesome. I can't think of many other movies that make me see life in such a vastly different way. It's so simple and beautiful, yet almost everyone doesn't see it like Ricky does. I love all the character's arcs but Spacey as Lester is just perfection. The climax with him and Angela is so masterfully executed. Lester finally realizes it wasn't about her. In his final moments he finds the true beauty of the world. I won't lie, I get teared up at him talking about the best moments in his life. His family is gone to shit but he still manages to find the beauty....And not man tears. Real tears.
Couldn't have said it better. I have the audio of Ricky's plastic bag speech and Lester's final thoughts on my iPod. I listen to them all the time, they're so inspirational. Allen Ball, the screenwriter, really has a beautiful perspective on life.

PS: I've read about 15 screenwriting books in the past few years, and you know what movie is mentioned in just about all of them? American Beauty. That really says something.
It really is life-changing. Love everything about it. Some days I consider it my favorite movie.

Re: American Beauty (1999)

Posted: March 15th, 2014, 2:46 am
by Numbers
One of my favorites of all time as well..

Re: American Beauty (1999)

Posted: March 15th, 2014, 2:53 pm
by bootsy
Great movie. Still holds up very well. I wish the Blu-Ray looked a little bit better though.

Re: American Beauty (1999)

Posted: March 15th, 2014, 3:02 pm
by Disney+'s solo2001
i did a group presentation on AB like a month ago where I actually had to dress up as Ricky and pretend to film the audience with a video camera

Re: American Beauty (1999)

Posted: March 15th, 2014, 3:19 pm
by MiracleSleeper2
mchekhov 2: Chek Harder wrote:i did a group presentation on AB like a month ago where I actually had to dress up as Ricky and pretend to film the audience with a video camera
Were you high too?

Oh and I was outside of Starbucks before and guess what was blowing around on the sidewalk because of the wind... A plastic bag lol.

And just for poops and giggles:




Re: American Beauty (1999)

Posted: March 15th, 2014, 4:35 pm
by RIFA
This movie is in my top 10 fav movies of all time. Nuff said. :)

Re: American Beauty (1999)

Posted: March 15th, 2014, 10:42 pm
by ComptonTerry
I think it's a pretty great film. Not the best of 1999 IMO, but that's not a bad thing because I think 99 was very possibly the greatest year ever for movies. Such an incredible year, and American Beauty not being my number 1 favorite of the year shows how great it is cuz most other years it would have been. I think sometimes the film got a little too much into hardcore expository dialogue, but it doesn't bother me that much, personally. I'd put it in my top 30 favorite films I've seen.