Horror is a self-conscious genre. We take pleasure in horror in part because it is reflexive which in turns makes us, as spectators, self aware. “Beyond horror“, then, are films that deal with horror’s propensity to cause uncertainty. Take for example Andrew Tudor’s description of the three part narrative pattern in the horror genre. First introduce instability in a stable situation. Then resist the threat that the instability causes. Finally stability is restored up until the 1960’s or semi-restored in the 1970’s and 80’s. Meanwhile these films generally also blur the line between stability and instability leaving the spectator with the conviction that the stable never truly was (or is), no matter how the film ends. What then, if we force characters to deal with the anxieties to which most horror films allude? What happens if we force Jessie to not only confront Freddie in Nightmare On Elm St. Part II but to also overtly confront his own latent homosexuality. This would be an entirely different film– “self-conscious horror.” American Beauty (Sam Mendez, 1999) is precisely this film. Unlike its horror movie predecessors, American Beauty explicitly deconstructs itself and the binaries that it opposes. Every character must deal not only with the “monster” in the film, a character named Lester, but also the anxieties that they have displaced onto the monster. Because the film is overt, American Beauty resists being a source of fetish and being classified as horror.
The Term Paper on American Beauty
... they will follow. In the movie American Beauty, each of the characters has a choice he or ... can look right back' (American Beauty, movie).Having faced a number of horrors in his home life, Ricky ... thing I ever filmed,' a plastic bag blowing in the wind among leaves (American Beauty). Ricky recalls, 'That's ... her father killed. Jane also has to deal with Angela's growing fascination with the possibility ...
The film American Beauty has influences in German Expressionism with themes ranging from abuse of authority and insanity to death. Further, the film’s focus is on challenging dominant categories of sanity, insanity, beauty, ugly, inside and outside. American Beauty also takes on elements of surrealism by taking every opportunity to reveal the polyvalence of everyday life. Again and again opposites are reconciled. Much of the narrative takes place in the world of the lead character’s dreams. American Beauty is never described as a horror movie, but it has most elements of horror. It is determined at the onset of the film that Lester, the lead character will die. Already we know there is a threat there is the dread of the unknown. Then, the narrative is turned on its head as we discover that the real threat of the film is Lester himself as he represents a threat to the “normality” of society. The film revolves around discovering why and how Lester is a threat. What is different about American Beauty is that what is alluded to in standard horror is made clear. Latent homosexuality is made explicit, the line between insanity and sanity is questioned, and social norms are questioned. In the end, the threat is destroyed and the characters are able to return to their “normal” world where their anxieties are kept hidden.
Carolyn is an ambitious real estate agent in her suburban town. She is married to Lester, the lead male character of American Beauty. According to Mark Seltzer, serial killers tend to evacuate any sense of private and replace this with public information. Carolyn is not unlike Seltzers serial killer, having replaced all of her internality with the role she plays as a real estate agent and suburban mother.# In one scene Lester begins embracing his wife in an attempt to rekindle their long failed marriage. Just as it appears that the couple may be able to begin again, Carolyn chastises Lester for nearly spilling beer on the coach. Her voice is that of an automaton, emotionlessly obeying instructions and performing actions dictated by society. “This is a four thousand dollar sofa upholstered in Italian silk,” she declares, “This is not just a couch.” Lester is appalled, realizing that Carolyn has truly become a shell of the woman he once knew. Carolyn, too, is finding it difficult to cling to the reality she has created for herself. She is not a successful real estate agent nor is she a successful parent: she virtually ignores her daughter. Like that of a serial killer, Carolyn’s life is the product of modernity. The life she has built is governed by logic and reason: she sells abandoned prefabricated homes in a suburb–the vestiges of logic gone too far. In the previous scene Carolyn finally had finally discovered an outlet for her frustrations at not living the life she was promised at a shooting range that she had visited with a male real estate agent. “All I know is,” she states, “I simply love shooting this gun.”
The Essay on Controversy in the Film “American History X”
The controversial American History X is an excellent film directed by Tony Faye starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. This film chronicles the behavior of a ex-nazi skinhead named Derek Vinyard (Ed Norton), the events encompassing his incarceration, and the effects of his life on his younger brother Danny (Edward Furlong) who idolizes him. The film begins with Derek violently murdering two ...
After leaving the shooting range Carolyn shows sincere joy for the first time in the film happily singing, “Rain on My Parade” (from the musical My Man in which a woman separates from her once-successful husband) while a gun lays on the seat next to her. This moment is the ultimate critique of modernity: Carolyn is the embodiment of rationalism and yet seems to be on the brink of a psychotic breakdown. The real horror in this moment, however, is that Carolyn has done nothing outside of what is deemed normal in American society. There is nothing unusual in American culture about visiting a shooting range, and Carolyn is presumably licensed to carry the weapon in the car with her. The danger that Carolyn poses to the status quo in American society is not her serial killer type persona, but that she is on the brink of cheating on her husband. Her gun is tossed nonchalantly on her seat next to books on how to acquire wealth–a testament to what material wealth can buy. American Beauty goes beyond horror by questioning the idea that Carolyn is a threat to America not because she finds console at the barrel of a gun, but because she is on the verge with breaking with the patriarchal hierarchy.
Jane is Lester’s self conscious daughter. One of the subplots of the film revolves around her relationship with a social outcast named Ricky. Ricky represents what Lester, through out the film is striving to become–free of inhibitions. Fittingly, Ricky sells and consumes large quantities of marijuana and spends much of his time filming the world around him. He uses these tools as mechanisms to escape a world that he feels is dictated by what Robin Woods terms surplus repression, or ideological norms beyond those needed for society to function. In much of the film Ricky is portrayed as a predator, constantly lurking about with his camera and filming the world around him. He seems to follow Jane and is always filming her. They eventually engage in a sexual relationship, but it is always he who holds the camera and penetrates her. What is to be said then, of the moment when Jane takes the camera from Ricky and he and allows her to videotape him. If we are to believe the popular view, that the camera is a phallic symbol, then in this moment Ricky is allowing Jane to penetrate him. This is a break in the traditional horror movie narrative and a moment when the film goes beyond horror.
The Essay on Mid Life Lester Ricky Fitts
April 2001 American Beauty Psychology Analysis American Beauty depicts modern dysfunctional families that appear to be happy on the outside, while on the inside they have tremendous deep-rooted problems. The movie begins to show many Freudian psychotic traits when unhappy Lester Burnham loses his job and begins a stereotypical male mid-life crisis by buying a red sports car, smoking marijuana, ...
“Ha! How does it feel now?” Jane asks as she yields the camera. The spectator then sees two Rickys: the Ricky that Jane sees and the Ricky that is playing simultaneously on their television set. Ricky is completely nude. The moment is horrific not only in that Ricky has sacrificed his gaze, his identifying feature, but that it contains a duplicity that Freud describes as innately horrific. Ricky is willingly both sacrificing his gender role and rendering himself horrid.# It is not a stretch to read the film this way because we later learn that his father suspects that he is a homosexual. While this is not the case, Ricky does not refute the charge and sees the accusation a way out of his overbearing father’s home. Here again, Ricky sacrifices his traditional gender role.
Angela is Jane’s narcissistic best friend. She is very much the archaic mother. Drawing on Sigmund Freud, Barbara Creed describes the central characteristic of the archaic mother as her total dedication to procreation.# She is outside of law and morality. Angela is a highly sexualized presence in the film. She uses her sexuality to attract and manipulate others. Angela’s favorite topic of discussion are her sexual exploits. Although she is in reality constantly talking about sex, including her willingness to have sex with Lester were he more physically fit, she exists primarily in Lester’s fantasies. In his dreams Angela is the ultimate seductress, usually emerged in a bath or virtually nude covered only in red rose petals. Angela’s presence is monstrous in that she presents a challenge to traditional boundaries of right and wrong. She is still in high school, and presumably too young to legally have a sexual relationship with Lester. However, throughout the film Lester has systematically rejected social norms and his fantasies about Angela represent his movement towards breaking this final boundary. In his fantasies, Angela is obliging, constantly “opening up” for Lester, at various points opening her blouse, her legs, and her arms.
The Term Paper on American Beauty Film Analysis
American Beauty tells the story of one man's search for happiness. The film introduces the audience to Lester Burnham, an ordinary- looking married man and father in his forties. Lester is in a loveless marriage. Lester's wife, Carolyn, is so wrapped-up in her real estate career that Lester often claims that Carolyn doesn't even acknowledge him. Furthermore, Lester's daughter, Jane, is completely ...
She opens her body for Lester as if to ask that he penetrate her.# At one point she says, “I was hoping you’d give me a bath. I’m very very dirty.” Throughout the film Lester readies himself physically for the moment in which he will finally approach Angelina with the intention to penetrate her. In one of the final scenes the moment finally arises and Lester begins embracing her. It is then that Angelina makes the shocking revelation that she is a virgin. Until this point Angelina has been posited as the evil seductress. Here the traditional horror view that all women are open is turned on its head as the spectator is forced to see Angelina not as a loose woman but as a frightened girl.
The final scene begins with a typical horror movie perspective. It is dark and rainy, and the camera is swiftly approaching a garage door. Inside of the garage is the narrator, Lester Burnham, who has told us early in the film that he will die. The question is not whether he will die, but how and by what means. The point of view is that of a would-be assailant, and there is no shortage of characters who have motive to see him dead. His wife is engaged in an adulterous affair, his daughter hates him and has jokingly asked her mentally unstable boyfriend to kill him, and his homophobic neighbor mistakenly suspects him of having sexual interactions with his son. Inside of the garage is brightly lit and Lester is half dressed and his nude torso is bobs up and down through the garage window. He is vulnerable. Lester is also a sexual deviant, preparing himself physically to have sex with his daughter’s best friend. The moment is charged with both sex and violence. The camera is moving quickly and there is a sense that there will soon be a breach, an unbidden boundary crossing. Inside and outside, wet and dry, darkness and light will soon be blurred.
The Term Paper on Film Genres
Film genres are identifiable types, categories, classifications or groups of films that have similar techniques or conventions such as: content recurring icons subject matter stock characters structures narrative events themes situations mood motifs period styles plot props settings stars Film Genres Primary film genres include the following: Action Films ...
Then the gaze is reversed, and the audience sees a distinctively male figure approaching through the garage window. The attacker can no longer be Lester’s wife. The camera returns to the point of view of the assailant only now that he is closer only Lester’s crotch is visible through the window. A red light shines through the window as if to signal a “red light district” type of illicit sexual experience. The camera reverses shot again and finally, the male figure is close enough to be distinguished as Lester’s homophobic neighbor, Col. Fitts. The two men are fundamental oppositions of each other. Lester has recently released himself of all inhibitions and taken to breaking with societal norms. Lester smokes marijuana, disavows all responsibility and plans to soon break the barrier between adult and child having intercourse with a child. Having been in the military, the colonel adheres strongly to social norms and abhors the use of drugs and homosexual behavior. As he approaches the garage, the colonel is drenched from the rain and is wearing a t-shirt. It is Lester who breaks the barrier, and opens the garage for Col. Fitts. Fitts is breathing heavily and, strangely, not carrying a weapon.
The audience soon realizes that this scene is not about murder at all, but about the colonel’s repressed homosexual desires. Col. Fitts is literally shaking as he misinterprets Lester’s words of friendship as a profession of his own homosexuality. Fitts hugs, then kisses Lester. The expression on Lester’s face speaks volumes: he is horrified. This is a boundary Lester is not prepared to cross and he immediately shoves Col. Fitts away, recreating the delicate wall between the homosocial and homosexual.# In the end, every character in the film has found a way to displace his or her own insecurities onto Lester. For everyone Lester represents a threat to the walls that they have created. It does not matter who pulls the trigger. However, killing Lester does not return stability to the film. Rather, by the end of the film the spectator understands that there never was stability in this suburban world. Lester may have died, but the demons have not.
The Term Paper on Censorship And Omission Of Homosexual Facthints In British Literature And History
Censorship and Omission of Homosexual Fact/Hints in British Literature and History According to Lawrence J. Hatterer, author of Changing Homosexuality in the Male, Homosexual is one who is motivated, in adult life, by a definite preferential erotic attraction to members of the same sex and who usually, but not necessarily, engages in overt sexual relations with them. The homo in the term ...
Works Consulted
Benshoff, Harry. Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film (Manchester University Press, 1997)
Benshoff, Harry. “The Monster and the Homosexual,” Horror: The Film Reader, ed. March Jancovich (New York: Routledge, 2002).
Creed, Barbara. “Kristeva, Femininity, Abjection,” The Monstrous Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (New York: Routledge, 1993).
Leach, William. Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture (Vintage; 1st Vintage Books Ed edition , 1994)
Tudor, Andrew. “The Knowledge Narrative.” Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989).
Williams, Linda. “Discipline and Fun: Psycho and Postmodern Cinema,: Re-Inventing Film Studies, eds. Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams (London: Arnold, 2000).