American Beauty (1999; DreamWorks Pictures, Jinks/Cohen Company) is not my favorite film (by far), but it was released in an awfully interesting year. While some people lived it up at the end of the millennium (you know, “party[ing] like it’s 1999″…), 1999 certainly was not a time of complete merriment and celebration.
In January of that year, President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial commenced. After a five-week circus, the President was acquitted of charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. He said he was “‘profoundly sorry’ for the burden his behavior imposed on Congress and the American people.”
On April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado, two teenage boys shot to death 12 of their fellow students and 1 teacher before turning their weapons on themselves in what became known as the Columbine High School Massacre, still one of the deadliest school shootings on record.
And, of course, there was the dreaded Y2K, a.k.a. the Millennium Bug. According to many now-seemingly-paranoid people, Y2K was supposed to usher in the end of the world. The computer glitch would shut down everything from transportation and food shipments to banking institutions and military defense systems. But nothing much happened in the way of computers destroying the world.
If we can read into the above occurrences a bit, we find a fascinating–but deeply tragic–commonality: each of the incidents involves a facet of life with which we are all familiar, but one that has been twisted and darkened and corrupted. In the President’s case, we see a man–husband and father–tempted by another woman (or, in Clinton’s case, multiple women) and guilty of covering up his lust and infidelity. The wrong choices he made in his personal life affected his work life as well–and incidentally, the lives of all Americans. With regard to Columbine, we have young adults entering their place of learning–something they did every day–and destroying the illusion of safety we all felt in school prior to April 20, 1999. With regard to Y2K, I’m using a computer right now–as are millions and maybe billions of people–and the idea that something as simple as how a machine reads a date could wreck havoc on every system we know is horrifying and causes more than a little unease.
True to its times, American Beauty presents scenarios that we all consider relatively normal and reveals to its viewers the darkness that “the norm” can conceal. What appears to be an average American family living harmoniously in a peaceful suburb is in reality a disintegrated marriage between two neglectful parents, both of which would rather indulge their own lusts instead of involving themselves in the life of their lonely, misguided teenage daughter. The film channels 1980’s BP winner Ordinary People in its examination of hidden family issues, but it goes way beyond Ordinary People in its graphic sexuality. That’s where it loses me–even if its premise is relevant both in the year of its release and for us today.
American Beauty took home five Academy Awards for its eight nominations and nearly joined the rare group of films which have won the Big Five, falling short only in the Actress in a Leading Role category when Annette Bening was defeated by Hilary Swank of Boys Don’t Cry. The golden statues American Beauty received on Oscar night were for: Cinematography, Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen), Directing for Sam Mendes, Actor in a Leading Role for Kevin Spacey as Lester Burnham, and Best Picture. In addition to Bening’s Best Actress category, the film failed to win Film Editing and Music (Original Score).
For more thoughts on American Beauty and its significance, please check out this weekend’s post!