| American Beauty (Widescreen Edition) | 
| Director: Sam Mendes
Actors: Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Sam Robards
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $12.99
Buy New: $2.70
You Save: $10.29 (79%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (1131 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1406
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dvd-video, Special Edition, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 122 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.5 x 0.7
MPN: MCAD85382D
Model: 85382
ISBN: 0783241232
UPC: 667068538229
EAN: 9780783241234
ASIN: B00003CWL6
Release Date: October 24, 2000
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
When youve got nothing to lose you might as well risk everything. Lester burnham is in a rut. Facing a midlife crisis lester reverts into a maddening rebirth of adolescence. His sudden irreverant rebellion enrages his wife and confuses his daughter when he turns a lustful gaze toward her friend. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 01/17/2006 Starring: Kevin Spacey Thora Birch Run time: 122 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com essential video
From its first gliding aerial shot of a generic suburban street, American Beauty moves with a mesmerizing confidence and acuity epitomized by Kevin Spacey's calm narration. Spacey is Lester Burnham, a harried Everyman whose midlife awakening is the spine of the story, and his very first lines hook us with their teasing fatalism--like Sunset Boulevard's Joe Gillis, Burnham tells us his story from beyond the grave. It's an audacious start for a film that justifies that audacity. Weaving social satire, domestic tragedy, and whodunit into a single package, Alan Ball's first theatrical script dares to blur generic lines and keep us off balance, winking seamlessly from dark, scabrous comedy to deeply moving drama. The Burnham family joins the cinematic short list of great dysfunctional American families, as Lester is pitted against his manic, materialistic realtor wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening, making the most of a mostly unsympathetic role) and his sullen, contemptuous teenaged daughter, Jane (Thora Birch, utterly convincing in her edgy balance of self-absorption and wistful longing). Into their lives come two catalytic outsiders. A young cheerleader (Mena Suvari) jolts Lester into a sexual epiphany that blooms into a second adolescence. And an eerily calm young neighbor (Wes Bentley) transforms both Lester and Jane with his canny influence. Credit another big-screen newcomer, English theatrical director Sam Mendes, with expertly juggling these potentially disjunctive elements into a superb ensemble piece that achieves a stylized pace without lapsing into transparent self-indulgence. Mendes has shrewdly insured his success with a solid crew of stage veterans, yet he's also made an inspired discovery in Bentley, whose Ricky Fitts becomes a fulcrum for both plot and theme. Cinematographer Conrad Hall's sumptuous visual design further elevates the film, infusing the beige interiors of the Burnhams' lives with vivid bursts of deep crimson, the color of roses--and of blood. --Sam Sutherland
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1126 more reviews...
 Excellent, Great, Convincing movie! December 23, 2008
This movie is really great. It doesn't seem much like a best picture movie, but who cares, it's an awesome movie! It is very disturbing, depressing, and serious. It's supposed to be a comedy-drama, but if you ask me, it's mostly a drama, not to say it isn't funny, it's just very serious, especially at the end. They said before I saw it that the movie would get stuck in my head for days. It concerned me forever. Of course, they said the same thing for Million Dollar Baby, but that didn't concern me that much, that is, not as much as it would've if I haden't seen Scary Movie 4. But still, those who haven't seen this movie, see it, it's a great best picture movie. The acting is great, Kevin Spacey won an oscar for it. The actors, such as Chris Cooper, are very convincing in the movie. The movie is dark, depressing, and disturbing. I know i've already said that, but it's just so true, still, it may spook you, not that it's a horror, it is, however, very, well, you know, but it's still a very good, dark film, so give it a chance.
 A dreary story well told December 19, 2008
American Beauty is superbly performed and technically excellent. Despite this, I didn't care for it when I saw it in a theater.
I decided to view it again to see if time would give me a different perspective. Nope. This tale about empty suburban lives still disappointed me. Examining how people can break out of a mind numbing rut can be illuminating and even entertaining, but every character choose a path that would only lead to aggravating their personal problems. Selfishness and death are substitutes for boredom, not solutions.
Lying, blackmail, drugs, infidelity, fantasies about statutory rape, gay bashing, and reckless behavior grow weary. The only moral act in the film seemed so fleeting that the viewer is left unsure if it had any liberating value.
I found the characterizations fascinating, but, in the end, I didn't care about any of these people, which made it hard to connect with the film. I also have a more optimistic view of life. Disregarding the dreary storyline, American Beauty rightfully appeals to enthusiasts who appreciate art in filmmaking. Oh yeah, and city-dwellers that need to feel superior to their suburban cousins.
artistic attack on middle class values November 29, 2008
This is a good film and and I would like it except for two things: The title and the fact there was nothing to feel good about in watching this film--it was depressing. It is a not-so-subtle attack on middle class American values and institutions. Targets are the American Military, Marriage, gun ownership, corporate America/capitalism, consumerism, traditional morals and sexual mores etc....The only thing the writers left out was religion--none of the cast of dysfunctional people were church going christians. I am sure this was a oversight. The title was off putting because it suggests that Americans have empty, dysfunctional, meaningless lives. This film is a left-wing diatribe with a social agenda to bash american society using many liberal cliches and unlikable, one-dimensional characters. Maybe I read too much into it.
The only semi normal, healthy people were the two gay neighbors; everyone else is a mess. Of course, the worst writing came with the new family next door with the father being a Marine Colonel. He was portrayed as a domineering man incapable of expressing his feelings and love for his family. He imposed harsh discipline and physical abuse for even minor infractions. Of course he had a large gun collection and Nazi memorabilia. His disdain for his gay neighbors is on complete display and of course we find out that this disdain is only there to hide his own latent homosexuality. How tiresome! The realtor/wife of the main character builds confidence and feels "powerful" by learning to shoot a gun. The only semi-likable character is Kevin Spacey's who is a guy in a mid-life crises brought on by his own sexual frustration and infatuation with---the friend of his daughter. He quits his job, and tells off those corporate creeps. He black mails them into a year's salary. We are supposed to feel okay about that because they deserve it. Then he pursues and seduces his daughters best friend. In the process he buys the car he wanted as a teenager, starts smoking pot again and listens to rock music. The only redemption for him comes at the end when he doesn't go through with the little affair he had been planning--but he comes awful close. The message of this film is: don't be uptight-express your feelings, smoke pot and have sex. Sounds a bit like turn on, tune in and drop out. A classic film for 60's rejects.
The artistry in this film comes in the way it is told on the screen. It moves along at a nice pace and keeps you off-balance and guessing. There are a few poetic scenes when the neighbor boy and son of the marine talks about his desire to film and his contemplation of beauty, which gives the film its title. I don't care to see it again.
Absolutely Amazing November 18, 2008
This is one of my favorite movies and it gets better each time you watch it. You can identify with some of the characters in the movie and although it is dark and sad, it has a moral to the story and the ending was just amazingly done. Even though your sad for the main character, you still realize that his life had finished in a weirdly positive way. Hence the smile at the end. I highly recommend this movie. It should be in everyone's DVD collection and is one of those movies you can watch over and over again without getting bored. And it is not entirely always dark. There is comedy woven into the movie as well. Again, one of the best Kevin Spacey movies ever.
Loved this Movie! November 16, 2008
American Beauty reflects the beginnings of the "Impressionistic" stage of movie making. The scenes and characters are conglomerations of situations and "types" of people... The real estate agent, the bored commercial writer, the unhappy teenager, the uptight military officer, the Stepford wife, the abused son, etc. Each person plays his role according to his type.
The movie successfully reveals pent up emotions beautifully such as when the real estate agent ends her day of promoting a home she's selling by bursting into tears after the last visitor leaves. I'd never really thought about how painful it is to be upbeat about selling so-so real estate.
Yes, this movie has shortcomings, but it succeeds in its ability to reveal emotions without filling in every detail. Be reminded that on one hand the story is depressing, yet on the other it is uplifting because the harmed party did it his way.
Not a first date type of flick. It is genuinely made for intense discussion.
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