   
Question for Discussion: What is Lester's problem? Does American Beauty (1999) succeed in portraying an America that has seen through its illusions?
Reading: Levine and Papasotiriou, pp. 199-210; Quart and Auster, pp. 163-182; Scheider, " Cynicism didn't start with Watergate"; Christensen, "Vietnam: The War that Won't Go Away "
Video: American Beauty (1999); Show scenes of Milton in Office Space (1999) ; Show scenes from Roger and Me (GM moves jobs to Mexico) The Big One : (Centralia Workers and Phil Knight Interview)
Critical Reviews of
American Beauty
1. Americans don't trust their Government
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- Scheider, " Cynicism didn't start with Watergate";
- Christensen, "Vietnam: The War that Won't Go Away "
- Where do my Tax Dollars Go? (2011)
2. The 2008 Financial Collapse Increased
Cynicism about the Federal Government
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3. Reaganomics and Globalization
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- The Reagan Revolution as a response to the challenges of Globalization in the 1980s?
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3. The Dilbert Effect and Declining Dreams
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4. Globalization and the Growth of Global Corporations
5. The American Reaction to Downsizing
5. Explaining the End of the American Dream
The double squeeze by corporate America and a U.S. government catering to corporate interest, has forced Americans to give back quite a bit. Indeed, structural adjustment Washington-style is giving the U.S. a
Third World appearance: rising poverty, widespread homelessness, greater inequality and social polarization. But perhaps it is the state of children that most starkly captures the 'Third Worldization' of America. Today United States has the highest rate of child poverty among the industrialized countries, with one in every five children growing up in poverty. For example:
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Despite glowing media reports on our booming economy, as estimated 46 million Americans, nearly 17% of the population, live below the poverty line.
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The top 2.7 million people have as much income as the bottom 100 million. In other words, the richest 1 percent of Americans is projected to have as much income as the bottom 38 percent. Wealth is even more concentrated, with the wealthiest 1 percent of households owning nearly 40 percent of the nation's wealth. The bottom 80 percent own just 16 percent of the nation's wealth. To further widen this inequality, CEOs of U.S. corporations pocketed 419 times the average wage of a blue collar worker in 1998.
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According to the Report on Household Food Security put out by the USDA in 1999, an estimated 36 million Americans in 10.5 million households do not have access to adequate food.
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The strong economy, celebrated by administration is not reducing hunger because even though more households are in workforce, their take-home pay is not enough to feed their families. A full-time worker at minimum wage earns $9,512 a year. For a family of four, that puts the family income well below the federal poverty line of $17,072.
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A survey of 26 cities released in December 1999 by the U.S. Conference of Mayors shows that hunger and homelessness has grown unabated, despite an expanding national economy. Among 2 key findings of the 1999 Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in America's cities, demand for emergency food related assistance during 1999 grew at the highest level since 1992 (18 percent over the previous year), and demand for emergency housing related assistance grew at the highest level since 1994. 21 percent of requests for food are estimated to have gone unmet.
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The government has responded to this crisis by passing legislation such as welfare reform which has resulted in 11 million families, including 8 million with children, losing their income. This happened when total federal spending for food programs before welfare reform was only 2.5 percent of the federal budget. More than half of the $54 billion in welfare cuts are coming from food stamps that 25 million poor Americans depended upon. Over 80 percent of food stamps go to families with children. This has resulted in increased hunger.
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In 1997, Second Harvest, the country's largest chain of food banks provided food for almost 26 million people, nearly 10 percent of America's population. Even then it had to turn away 2.3 million people. To compensate fully for the government cuts, each of the 350,000 churches in the U.S. would have to contribute an additional $150,000 and many churches do not have a budget this big. To make up for the shortfall, the non-profit sector would have to distribute a total of 24.5 billion pounds of food over the next 6 years, four times more then the current distribution and enough to fill 5 million Army National Guard Trucks.
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The number of Americans who lack health insurance continues to increase, climbing to 44.3 million in spite of a prosperous economy.
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An estimated 7 to 8 million Americans are homeless.
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In the Unites States approximately 20.7% of the population age 16 to 65 is functionally illiterate, the majority of whom are low-paid workers such as farm workers, domestic workers and other who labor long hours in low-paying jobs.
Indeed, structural adjustment Washington-style is giving the U.S. a Third World appearance: rising poverty, widespread homelessness, greater inequality and social polarization. But perhaps it is the state of children that most starkly captures the 'Third Worldization' of America. Today United States has the highest rate of child poverty among the industrialized countries, with one in every five children growing up in poverty. The number of children living at or below one-half of the poverty line increased by 426,000 between 1996 and 1997. About 20 percent of all children under the age of 18, or 14 million, live in food insecure homes.
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"American
Beauty is one of those rare, penetrating movies that peers so
deeply into the façades of perfection to uncover hideous scars that
it rivals a masterpiece such as
The Graduate."
-- Barbara Lester, SOUTH FLORIDA
SUN-SENTINEL
Ricky Fitts : It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... and I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in.
Lester Burnham : My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood; this is my street; this is my life. I am 42 years old; in less than a year I will be dead. Of course I don't know that yet, and in a way, I am dead already.
Lester Burnham : [ narrating ] Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser and they're right, I have lost something. I'm not exactly sure what it is but I know I didn't always feel this... sedated. But you know what? It's never too late to get it back.
Lester Burnham : [ narrating ] I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars... And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined my street... Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird... And Janie... And Janie... And... Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday.
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