After you have watched a movie, you should blog your general impressions of the movie (by 5pm on thursdays) and provide 1 example from the movie (scene, character, etc) and how it relates specifically to a theory or construct in Motivation and Emotion.
Your full analyses are due the following Tuesday turned in via eLearning (aka WebCT).
I really liked this movie. I did not realize how much the red roses portrayed "American Beauty" throughout the movie until I looked up the analysis of the movie afterwards, sense I was confused on who actually killed Lester. In our text Reeve (2009) states that Emotions are multidimensional. Emotions can be biological reactions, energy-mobilizing responses that prepare the body for adapting to whatever situation one faces (p. 299). At a first glance are emotions are expressed as feelings. We see a lot of this in Lester’s face and actions when he first sees Angela dancing and the scene turns into a slow strip-tease and Lester visualizes red rose petals covering Angela’s breast when she unzips her shirt, this portrays the whole purity and beauty of “American Beauty.” In the text it shows a diagram of feedback loop in emotion. It starts with an event which leads to cognitionarousal preparation for action feelings expressive displays overt behavioral activity and the feelings lead to emotions. In a way this cycle is seen throughout the movie with Janie and Ricky, Lester and Angela and Carolyn and Buddy. Janie, Lester and Carolyn all have an attraction towards someone, which enhances their arousal, thoughts, actions, feelings, expressive displays and most importantly emotions which in the movie leads to acting in an overt behavioral activity (sex in most cases). Also, in the movie the basic aspects of emotions are displayed, such as disgust, sadness (depression), joy and interest. Lester shows interest in Angela throughout the movie, tries to show interest in Janie, but does not succeed according to Janie. Lester is faced with depression, but we see joy in his face towards the end of the movie once he realizes “I feel great” and means it. He is disgusted in his wife and on the other hand his daughter is digusted in him because of the ways he acts and fantasizes about Angela.
Overall, even though the movie was long, I did enjoy it and it makes you realize that yeah the world is beautiful. I loved the video that Ricky had of the paper bag floating in the wind. I thought it was beautiful.
My thought on what the roses meant was simply beauty and/or love. Since he said a number of times in the film that Angela was beautiful and was "in love with her since he first laid eyes on her." I really enjoyed watching this movie, I thought it was pretty intense at times and I found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next. However, I do wonder why it's called American Beauty, why American? As many teenagers do, I think Angela had a problem with self-image and identity. She wasn't really sure who she was yet. She used sex as a way of identifying herself although she wasn't having sex with anyone, she thought it would impress others. As Reeve's said people with low self-esteem tend to suffer unusually high levels of anxiety. This becomes clear towards the end of the movie, after she takes it a step farther with Lester she becomes extremely nervous and shouts, "this is my first time." Reeve's defines cognitive dissonance as how most people harbor a rather favorable view of themselves. Angela does this to make herself feel better as well as look "cool" and put together by others. She tells Jane how guys often times want to get with her and how she is going to become a model; very full of herself. Although the only guy you see her with in the movie is in fact Lester. Lester's self-esteem was influenced by Angela when she overhears her talking to Jane about how he is good looking and that she would "do him." He begins to care more about his appearance after this and starts working out just like Angela wanted. I also think Lester has identity issues, at the beginning of the movie he is just unhappy and doesn't say much at all. After quitting his job he tries to define himself by basically not caring what others think at all. He acts as though he is twenty years old again and back in the 1970's, smoking pot and working at a near by fast food burger restaurant. Jane on the otherhand practices differentiation which the book explains as, the proceeds as the individual exercises existing interests, preferences, and capacities in such a way that a relatively general and undifferentiated self becomes specialized into several domains. Compared to others in her school Jane is different, she acts like herself, doesn't say things she doesn't mean or that aren't true. Even though Angela doesn't approve of Ricki and talks badly about him, she keeps going out with him and tells Angela off.
I think this movie provided very good examples from Chapter 10, it was all about finding yourself and expressing who you are as a person.
Through the movie American Beauty, we are given the opportunity to understand what emotion truly is. Lester Burnham, the protagonist, has clearly reached a low point in his life, and through various exchanges, he begins to feel more alive and free from the drudgery of the everyday routine he has become accustomed to. According to Reeve (2009), emotions have a four-part character in that they feature dimensions of feeling, arousal, purpose, and expression. The feelings that gave Lester’s emotions personal meaning involved being in control. For such a long time, he had allowed for his wife to treat him as she pleased. He seemed to feel as though life was meaningless—he couldn’t even continue the close relationship he had with his only child, Jane. Soon after meeting the new neighbor, Ricky Fitts, he begins to feel that the best way to change himself would be to make his desires known to others and essential in the functioning of his life. He stands up for himself and takes on an “I have nothing to lose” mentality in every domain in life. He also develops an infatuation with Jane’s friend Angela Hayes whom he is intrinsically motivated to please by becoming physically fit. His arousal for her included biological activities continually built up in preparation for the final moment in which she would submit herself to him. He desired her to such an extent that his purposive component of emotion became goal-directed with pleasing her—the ultimate beauty and prized possession. When the tension of striving for her finally ceased at the movie’s conclusion, he seemed to have grasped life by the reins at last. What causes Lester’s emotions? Cognitively, Reeve (2009) says that emotions arise from mental events such as appraisals of the personal meanings of emotion-causing events. For Lester, the emotions he was experiencing towards Angela were clear appraisals of his personal meaning. He proceeded to alter his behaviors to match the provoked emotions. Initially, the significant stimulus event had been seeing her perform during the halftime show in which he formed his cognitions of desire. He could not stop thinking about her and began performing overt behavioral activities to acknowledge his feelings (e.g. calling her and hanging up). His interactions with her provide expressive displays of liking such as staring at her and exhibiting facial expressions indicating his appeal to her. He feels attraction towards her and prepares for action by working out, eating right, and being more assertive. Jane and Carolyn also demonstrate attraction through arousal, thoughts, feelings, expressive displays and emotions leading to overt sexual behaviors. American Beauty portrays emotions as the solution to life’s challenges. When the characters were able to direct and coordinate their feelings, arousal, purpose, and expression, emotions confirmed their position in the environment and provided the most resourceful responses toward their problems. “Emotions exist as both a masterpiece of evolutionary design and also as excess baggage in the age of reason,” (Reeve, 2009, p. 322).
American Beauty was a pretty entertaining movie I felt, especially with regards to Lester's personality throughout the movie. It was interesting to see him progress from one psychological state to the next, going from a quiet father within a dsyfunctional family to a young adult living life, smoking pot, without a care in the world. It was pretty humorous at times listening to his dry humor and sarcasm, especially around his crazy wife, who has problems of her own (I think she struggled with a consistent self; as Reeve (2009) states, "Once an individual establishes a well-articulated self-schema in a particular domain, they generally act to preserve that self-view. Once established, self-schemas become increasingly resistant to contradictory information.") For Lester, his turning point in "American Beauty" came when he saw Jane's friend Angela, as he says he feels like he has been in a coma for twenty years and is just now waking up. It's here that I believe he has found a meaning in life at which he had lost. Her beauty reinstilled a notion of vigor for life, giving him a sense of directedness and objectives for living. She made him feel there is a meaning to present and past life. This recognition of his purpose for living is one of the six dimensions of psychological well-being. This in turn affected the five other dimensions of psychological well-being: Self-acceptance (he regained a positive attitude toward himself, ridding himself of previous dissatisfaction in life), positive relations with others (found a friend in Rick Fitz who helped him see the beauty in the world; previously had isolation and frustration in relationships with his wife and daughter), Autonomy (he became self-determining, controlling his own life and regulating his behavior from within--not from his wife or from his job; he didn't care anymore what people thought about him), Environomental Mastery (he was able to create a context suitable to his personal needs and values, as he bought himself a car he had always wanted, started smoking pot, got himself a job he wanted at the local fast food place; he was finally in control of the complex array of activities that surrounded his daily life), and finally Personal Growth (he finally witnessed the beauty in the world with Angela and his youth; he was open to new experiences and he changed in ways that to him, reflected a greater self-knowledge and effectiveness within life; before I believe he had felt a personal stagnation as he was bored with life--but by the end of the movie he wasn't afraid of death, he felt a gratitude toward life saying, "... 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 not try 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. Don't worry ... you will someday.").
I thought this was a perfect quote symbolizing his growth and acceptance of his identity. He was satisifed with his new self-concept on life and overall self-schema. When Lester changed the way he behaved early in the movie, his new self-schema was verified through feedback from his new actions like smoking pot, talking back to his wife, etc. As Reeve (2009) states, people self-verify because they seek to know themselves. All these things helped relinquish the cognitive dissonance or psychological uncomfort he had been feeling the twenty years he had been in his self-proclaimed psychological "coma." Rick Fitz was the only character in this movie who I believe truly was at ease with his self, and this self-confidence is arguably what attracted Jane to him in the first place.
Overall, it really is a great movie to psychologically analyze each and every character within each one's personal world and strivings. I think it is a great choice for this class, especially in relation to chapter ten.
Possible self represents the future self. The motivational function of a possible self operates like that of a goal or personal striving. A possible self provides the individual with an attractive incentive for which to strive (Reeve, 2009). In this movie we see Lester, a middle aged man that hates his job and longs to be happy like he was when he was younger, that being a burger flipping skirt chasing care free soul. To get back to those days Lester quits his office job and starts working in a burger joint again. He even buys his dream car, a totally boss 1970’s cherry red Firebird, and also starts buying weed from his neighbor. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure it’s in the Constitution that if you drive a 1970’s Firebird you have to have weed in your possession. Lester’s wife thinks he’s completely lost it as she strives for better things in life opposed to Lester who strives for a happier existence. Lester even starts to fantasize about hooking up with his daughter’s hot friend and hears her say she would hook up with him if he was more toned. For Lester, “the possible self’s motivational role is to link the present self with ways to become the possible (ideal) self” (Reeve, 2009). In other words, if Lester hits the weights he can be the guy that hooks up with the young hot chick. This change in behavior is not without notice from his wife and daughter. His daughter thinks it’s repulsive the way he stares at her friend, and the wife isn’t too pleased about the whole quitting work thing, smoking weed or even the fine 1970 Firebird in the driveway. But nothing to worry about any more for Lester as his homophobic neighbor with homosexual tendencies splatters Lester’s thoughts all over the wall with one pull of the trigger. Cue the voiceover narrative of Lester telling us everything is beautiful and then fade to black.
I thought that American Beauty was a better movie than most of the others that I have seen for class. Though, the movie was a little but more crude than expected, it was nice to actually feel like there was a solid plot line. In the movie Lester, the middle aged father, realizes that the life he is living is not the life he imagined for himself. Reeve described the possible self as being driven mostly in a social origin. The possible self that one imagines is a representation of one's future self, according to Reeve. The self that Lester imagined was a person that was happy in day to day life, drove a nice car, had an intimate relationship with his wife, and had a close relationship with his daughter. However, Lester's possible self did not connect with his consistent self. Reeve mentions that a consistent self is very difficult to change once established. Lester's problem was that his consistent self was opposite over everything his possible self was imagined to be. So Lester went out and quit his job, bought an expensive car, began smoking marijuana, and attempted to create a physical relationship with his wife so that he could attain the possible self imagines. He also began to work out, so that he could get his dream girl (his daughters best friend and classmate). In the end, attaining the possible self that Lester imagined helped to make him happier. Unfortunately, he was the only person that was happy with the changes.
I thought American Beauty was certainly an interesting, thought-provoking film. It seems to relate to a great variety of different of ideas about our modern society, and it seemed (at least to me) to have a greater level of complexity than most of our other films that we have watched.
In the beginning of the film we are introduced to a man named Lester who likely feels very little autonomy in his life. His wife is very controlling and harshly criticized both him and their daughter. While waiting by the SUV, she complains about what the daughter is wearing and scolds her husband for being clumsy. As Lester narrates to the audience, he says that he feels he has lost something, but he doesn’t know exactly what. At his workplace, Lester learns that an efficiency expert has been brought into to find ways to save money (as in by letting people go). Despite the fact that Lester has worked at the company a long time (at least 14 years) they still try to give off the impression that they do not even know exactly what he does – they want him to describes what he does to them and justify his stay at his workplace. They treat him like he is a nothing, a nobody. One of the common themes in his life is that he is treated this way by almost everyone in his life – his daughter, his wife, his workplace. One way that Lester tries to reassert control in his life is by acting/behaving more like a teenager, perhaps to feel young again and to return to a time in his life when he was happy.
While watching his daughter’s performance, his attention drifts from his daughter and focuses exclusively on his daughter’s friend. He acts as if he has a schoolboy crush. His wife and daughter do not understand his behavior, but Lester really doesn’t seem to care. While at a party, Lester decides to just say whatever he wants in front of people his wife is trying to impress, he goes to get a drink, and ends up smoking pot. Lester develops a complete change attitude. Rather than meekly going along with whatever others tell him, for once in his life Lester begins to stand up for himself. As his company continues to ask for a justification of what he does, he tells them exactly what he wants to, threatens them with blackmail, and ends up walking away with a year’s salary with benefits. He also learns that his wife is cheating on him, but seems to have developed such a high degree of apathy that he no longer cares. A problem arises when Lester continues to purchase pot. His dealer’s father gets the impression that his son is a homosexual and is involved with Lester. The distraught father eventually visits Lester, tries to understand why and how even his own son could be having a gay relationship (even though that was not true) and perhaps in an effort to understand this he tries to kiss Lester. Lester pulls away and tells him he has the wrong impression. The father leaves, but later returns and kills Lester, perhaps because he is so ashamed of himself for having tried to kiss him or because he is so angry with Lester for his suspected involvement with his son.
Near the end of the film, I believe Lester has gained a certain sense of peace. Despite all that has happened to him, he is happy. His daughter’s friend says that his daughter is happy. He looks at a picture and remembers the great time that he once had with his wife and daughter. As he is watching the trigger, he is shot from behind.
As the title implies, I think this film helps initiate a discussion on what true beauty really is. Is it the type of artificial/superficial beauty that Jane’s friend Angela possesses? Is it the inner beauty of a man who has never really tried to do much harm to anyone like Lester? (aside from the blackmail, but it may be argued that that was provoked). Is beauty found in nature, as the drug dealer believes?
As a character, Janie was very insecure, unhappy, and confused. At one point in the movie, she thought her life would somehow be better if her father were dead. She browsed websites to see how she could physically change herself. In all honesty, she really does not have that much to complain about in life, especially compared to other people. Her mother yells this to her in the heat of an argument. I think one reason why the film was called “American” Beauty is because it deals with the dominant theme of beauty in America – makeup, cosmetic procedures, excessive dieting, the portrayal of women in magazines and other media, and the influence that all of these have on conceptions of beauty in the rest of the world.
There are certain other things relevant to Motivation and Emotion that merit attention here, such as possible selves and the material from CH. 10, but here might be a good place to stop for now.
On p.264, Reeve wrote "These six statements represent facets of psychological well-being" : self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, personal growth. Lester has very low (for all the reasons previously mentioned). He only comes to a sense of self-acceptance at the end of the film. His "relations with others" status depends largely on which characters he is interacting with at a given time. He does not have positive relations with his wife, daughter, or superiors at work. He does seem to have positive interactions with most other people he interacts with - he is generally a friendly guy to people who have not stepped on him. I do not think Lester has a sense of environmental mastery for any part of the movie. For almost the whole story he struggles with competently living his life in a good way. Although he certainly shows promise of being able to achieve environmental mastery by the end of the film, he does not have the opportunity to fully explore his newfound peace. At the end of the film I think he does start to see a purpose for his life, in that in all honesty he was a good father for the most part, and like many others, he found a sense of accomplishment in having raised a good child. Lester also exhibited self-growth over the film, ending with a greater sense of understanding. I had never seen this film before and am glad to have watched it.
Kevin Spacey rocks the house on this one. This is one of my favorite movies of his, although he has been in a lot of good ones. The Life of David Gale, K-PAX, The Usual Suspects, Se7en, and A Time to Kill are just a few that come to mind, and are all “must-see” if you are a fan of Spacey. I first watched this movie a few years ago, and I liked it then, but revisiting it now makes me appreciate it even more. The first dinner table scene jumps out at me because it is so wonderfully, painfully awkward and you get the feeling that all of these people are just completely miserable. It reminds me of a SNL skit that actually aired before this movie http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/family-dinner/2565/
That isn’t the only scene in the movie where we see an awkward interaction involving Lester and Carolyn. For example, when Lester and Carolyn go are talking to “the king” at the real estate party or whatever it is, we see an awkward conversation. “The king” doesn’t remember meeting Lester and Lester says “It’s okay, I wouldn’t remember me either”
Carolyn, smiling: “Don’t be weird, honey”
Lester: “OK honey, I won't be weird. I'll be whatever what you want me to be”
Then he kisses her and leaves to get a drink, and Carolyn laughs and smiles saying “we have a healthy relationship.”
The fact that Carolyn smiles shows the social function of emotional expression. Her smile is not the result of her being really happy, rather it is likely the result of her being embarrassed in a social situation involving her idol and superior, “the king”. Since smiling helps smooth out and facilitate social interaction, smiling (rather than frowning) in this situation makes it more likely that “the king” will stay and talk to her rather than move on to a different conversation. As we see later in the movie, Carolyn and the King have a little more to smile about with one another.
I wish I could say that I like this film, it has all the creative direction and incredible acting performances that I appreciate in a movie, but I just never really understood this one and got around to getting it. As far as being relevant to Chapter 10 of the text, page 264 lists six statements that 'represent facets of psychological well-being". Several of the characters have issues with the concepts included in this list. For example; Lester lacks self-acceptance- positive evaluation of ones self, but his wife, Carolyn seems to have a more positive outlook on her capabilities, like when she tells herself that she will sell a house today. Again, Lester lacks positive interpersonal relations- close, warm relations with others and autonomy-self-determination. Examples of these are his relationship with his wife and his inferior status at his job and in his home. Environmental mastery- sense of effectance in mastering circumstances and challenges is something that none of the characters in this film had, for example, Carolyn and her job as a Real Estate salesman.
These are just a few of the relevancies that the film, American Beauty shares with Reeve's text, particularly chapter 10.
I also found this movie a little screwy and haven't ever enjoyed it much. This is unfortunate, as it won awards and many people love it.
I think that the huge underlying theme of this movie is the characters' problems with their identity. Lester, for example, plays the role of a husband and father. He tries to meet the expectations of society (Reeve, 2005, 275), but his wife and daughter are totally unresponsive to his attempts. During "family dinner," we see him try to talk to his wife. Instead of Carolyn playing her role as wife and responding to her husband, she basically ignores him or argues with him. She focuses more on her role as a career woman/realtor. Another scene is when she brings him to one of her work parties. She is so focused on looking good for the other realtors, that she seems embarrassed by Lester and puts him down. Also during the dinner, he tries to be a father by also trying to talk to Jane. She, like many teen girls, is totally unresponsive and blows him off. Although I think Jane had other issues, she is sort of meeting the expectations of her role as a teenage girl - don't talk to your parents, don't like your parents, etc. Because Lester appeared to have been putting up with the lack of communication and caring in his family, and when the movie begins we see him getting fed up with it, I think that he had displayed learned helplessness. Reeve (2005) describes this as a psychological state in which one believes that the outcomes in his/her life are uncontrollable (p. 238). He tries several times to show his family he cares about them, but every time he gets ignored or put down. So then, to meet his need for control, he tries again, but with others (i.e. Angela).
I think both Lester and Carolyn were not having their needs for intimacy met. They both do not talk to each other, but also they are not physically intimate. First, we see Lester masturbating in the shower, and then later in the bed next to Carolyn. Later on, she ends up cheating on Lester with another real estate agent, "The King." Although I feel that Lester was still physically attracted to his wife, I think that he also showed that he had unrealistic standards for the type of woman that he deserved (Reeve, 2005, p. 98). He wanted petite, skinny little Angela... he fantasized about her, made passes at her, etc. Not that she wasn't to blame, as she had some serious problems as well.
Overall, the characters in the movie displayed many problems with their identities and social, physiological, and psychological needs not being met.
I really enjoyed watching this movie. At the beginning of the movie Lester tells us how he is a 42 year old man, and in a year he will be dead, he then goes on to tell us that in a way he is dead already. You can tell that Lester is unhappy with his life, so he tries to change that. Lester tells us that his wife and daughter believe that he is a loser, and he also believes that he is a loser. At Lester’s job they are making all the employees fill out job descriptions. Lester fills his out and later we find out that he wrote “My job consists of masking my contempt for the assholes in charge, and at least once a day retiring to the men’s room so that I can jerk off while I fantasize about a life that doesn’t so closely resemble hell.” Lester obviously gets fired, but he blackmails his boss to get a full years salary. Lester also buys a new car, starts smoking marijuana, and starts to work out a lot. We can view Lester’s actions as trying to create for himself a world that he fantasizes about. Our book tells us that self-schemas generate motivation in two ways. The second of the two is what is motivating Lester, his self-schemas is generating motivation to move from his present self to a desired future self. If we look at Lester’s six dimensions of psychological well-being at the beginning of the movie I would say that Lester has a low score on everything. I think through the movie you can really see a change in Lester would have a higher score in self-acceptance, autonomy, environmental mastery. So Lester is really changing his life into something that he enjoys.
I really enjoyed this movie. It seemed to be one of those that sucks you in, but moves relatively slow. Lester's character was the most curious (besides the neighbor boy who watches sacks blow in the wind) because of the depth we knew about his character.
It seems that over time, Lester had adjusted his self-schema to fit one that a married man does not usually possess. According to Reeve (2009) on page 268, 'a self-schema is a cognitive generalization about the self that is domain specific and are learned from past experiences.' I believe Lester, over time, learned to be the husband he was; quiet, very permissive, pessimistic, etc (you get the point). He learned to be these things from past experiences in similar situations. His wife probably shot him down so many times for sex that he stopped trying, or she made him feel worthless so he stopped giving his opinion. This self schema was only represented in his family domain. When Lester made friends with the neighbor boy and bought pot from him, he seemed like a completely different person than if he were with his family.
Once he found this self schema related to his family domain, he had made sure to keep a consistent self throughout this self schema. On p 270 in reeve (2009) he discusses how one goes about maintaining a certain self schema that is set. Lester was acting in these permissive ways for who knows how long. He made sure to come home at night and not bring up any topics, let his wife do the talking and did things when he was told with little or no talking. For some reason, this was something that Lester did not mind doing for that period of time. Obviously Lester, throughout the movie decided to rebel against his self schema and break the consistent self pattern.
I felt kind of bad for the people in this movie. Lester and Carolyn have this wonderful marriage, but Lester's life is actually spiraling our of control. His wife is a B*****, his daughter is rebellious and does not like him, and he is going through a midlife crisis without a nurturing support system.
Carolyn is having an affair, Jane is in love with a drug dealer, and Lester is trying to get the attention of a girl who could be his daughter. Did I mention he's working at a fast food restaurant?
During this midlife crisis, Lester is trying to change his self-concept (how he mentally sees himself) by altering his self-schema (a domain specific generalization based on past experiences) (Reeve, 2009). Rather than be himself, he's making radical changes to his personal life in order become who he wants to be - or at the very least, just not himself. Self-schemas motivate you into action by making you want to move towards that future you. With the constant reminders of how much his life sucks, Lester would have been repeatedly reminded about how much he wants to be that future self rather than the current one, and the pull towards it would have been irresistible. Why should he have to stay the same, miserable person when he knows that he can be this better, happier one?
I enjoyed this movie because it kept my attention. I never knew what exactly was going to happen next. Lester, Caroline, and Janie tried to look and act like a "normal" family in public. In order to appear as a happy family Lester and Caroline, especially, Caroline, acted extremely bubbly and interested in their daughter's life. However, in actuality they had no respect and little concern for one another.
Throughout the movie, I kept remembering the six components that represent positive psychological well-being. These six components are self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, enviromental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth (Reeve, pg. 264, 2009). Lester specifically made me recall these components because at the beginning of the movie he says he feels like he lost something and constantly feels sedated. He also states both his wife and daughter think he is a loser and goes on to admit they are correct. Instead of continuing to develop and grow as a person, Lester feels no purpose in his life and does not appear to have any close relationship with another person. Overtime, I feel, Caroline and Janie made him feel so worthless and unimportant that he finally gave up trying to better himself. Lester developed a shell to help protect his feelings.
Lester finally feels alive when he sees Janie's friend, Angela. He develops a deep infatuation with her. He has constant dreams about Angela being naked or undressing herself. Lester's dreams about Angela also include rose petals flowing toward him. I found this ironic because his wife, Caroline, has a rose garden and roses are always present in their house. Lester begins working out to gain her approval and finally feels he has some purpose in life. However, as stated in the book, "inflated self-esteem actually has a dark side" (Reeve, pg. 267, 2009). Those with a blown up self-esteem are more prone to aggression and violence when their views are threatened. Lester portrays this aggression and violence during a family dinner. Caroline says something that threatens Lester and he throws a bowl against the wall.
Overall this movie, American Beauty, incorporated cognitive dissonance in a majority of the characters. Cognitive dissonance occurs when "beliefs about who the self is and what the seld does are inconsistent" (Reeve, pg. 275, 2009). For example, Lester wants to feel happy again and wants some autonomy in his job and personal life, and positive relations with others. However, he behaves in a completely different manner. Instead of working hard to prove he is not expendable to his company, he simply quits. He begins smoking dope daily, working out, and working at a fast food restaurant.
Throughout the movie, Lester (and other characters) were struggling with "crisis self-verification" (Reeve, pg. 271, 2009). Lester did not have a consistent self. He was uncertain about his self-schema and was not receiving much positive feedback.
I didn't know if I would enjoy this movie or not, based on comments above some people like it and others don't. I actually ended up really like the movie. It shows at the beginning Lester telling us who he is and who he will be later on…dead. He is definitely an unhappy man and attempts to change who he is. Lester definitely has some identity issues going on in this movie. When he gets fired from his job for what he writes about, and then blackmails them to get money, he starts doing the abnormal things that a married man would do.
Carolyn and Lester definitely have problems of their own that was portrayed in the movie. Lester who has identity issues that is obvious, he also has some needs that are not being met. As Reeves puts it in Chapter 4, a need is any condition within the person that is essential and necessary for life, growth, and well-being. It also says in the book that if the needs are not met then it will produce damage to the biological and psychological well-being of an individual. Sex is a definite need that is not met for both Lester and Carolyn. It shows the two not talking to each other or being intimate that it has drawn a married man to masturbate next to his wife in bed. That definitely would damage a man, and it is no wonder he is attracted to Angela.
Kevin Spacey, aka Lester, in American Beauty is an interesting guy, going through a midlife crisis. His crisis, well it turns out he is tired of being the guy his wife wants him to be. However, it is evident that all three of the main characters including his wife, Carolyn and his daughter Jane are going through a similar crisis, and trying to figure out their concept of self. Also, they all display a wide arrange of emotions, ranging from happiness to sadness to anger. Take Carolyn for example, she displays fake interest in her potential clients in her real estate business. She directs her attention to what the clients needs are, and is eager to manipulate or extract information from the clients. Carolyn's interest motivates her to explore other ways to be happier when it is obvious there is no chance for her and Lester. Her interest leads her directly into the arms of her competitor, Buddy, whom she has an affair with. Despite being married, and all the morals, Carolyn experiences more Joy with Buddy than she does at home with Lester.
In comparison, Lester is finding joy and interest by smoking illegal drugs, yet he realizes he is still very miserable and sad. Although from the outside his family and home life appear to be everything he could ever want, it is clear that Lester is not the least bit happy. He doesn't talk or converse with his daughter Jane, he doesn't even have an intimate relationship with his wife. Definitely not a happy life. As Lester slips further into a depression state, he realizes that his self-schema is not the way it has to be. With all the negative emotions and events surrounding him, Lester decides to take charge and change himself. Lester even has a role-model for a future "self" which is Jane's boyfriend, Ricky. Lester even tells Ricky that he envies him the first time he meets him because Ricky confidently tells his boss that he quits his job, something Lester has not been able to do. Throughout the rest of the movie Lester tries to change his self-schema, by quitting his job and working at a fast food restaurant (because he wants something that requires the least amount of effort), working out, smoking pot, and actually standing up and saying what he feels. Something which is important when feeling negative emotions as pointed out from Reeve (2009).
Overall this movie has many interesting concepts, a short reaction would not do it justice. I really enjoy this movie, and always seem to catch something different every time I watch it. The one thing I still haven't figured out is the ending, but I am getting there.
I enjoyed American Beauty, sure the characters are all fairly messed up, but isn't everyone. I liked that the movie was partially narrated by Lester after his death, it made the movie different and it didn't take anything away from the climax of the movie.
The scene that surprised me the most was when Frank Fitts kissed Lester. I figured that he would be the one to kill Lester, but Frank coming onto Lester definitely took me by surprise. In hindsight, this probably shouldn't have surprised me as much. Frank was high in a need for power. He felt the need to control everything around him, using force if necessary. He fit the leadership motive pattern, as defined by Reeve (2009) as being 1) high need for power, 2) low need for intimacy, 3) high inhibition. His high need for power came through in his aggressiveness - he hit Ricky more than once in the movie, and his influential occupation - as a Colonel he would have been in charge of soldiers, giving orders. His leadership was harder to see, but it may also be exlempified by his position as a colonel. His low need for intimacy was evident in his relationship with his wife. She was afraid of him, instead of being in love with him. When Ricky left he told his mom that he wished it could have been different for her, showing that she was most likely treated poorly. His high inhibitions was clear after he kissed Lester. He had controlled his sexualality for years, never letting on that he may be attracted to men. His life was built on self-discipline. Reeve (2009) even uses the Military commander as an example of someone who has high inhibitions.
I also thought that Ricky was an interesting character. He seemed to be high in self efficacy. He was confident in himself and his actions. He said that he was never afraid, which may have been indicative of his belief that no matter what the situation he would be able to control it. He also did whatever he wanted, whether it was "cool" or not. While he was definitely eccentric, it was nice to see a character that was not ruled by the social norms of society.
Overall, I can see why American Beauty won as many awards as it did. The characters were believable, even if the storyline was not. I like that the movie ended with Lester saying "I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... " While it isn't exactly sunshine, it was still a good thing to end with.
Overall feelings about the movie: it was not the movie I was expecting, and I liked the story, though somewhat strange.
With the topic of emotions there are so many one could bring up and notice. According to Reeve (2009) we can have general emotions, either positive or negative affect. Then we have moods, which are more spontaneous and deal with day to day activity.
The main family in the movie might have started out as having a positive affect within the family (before the time of the start of movie), and we see this in all of the pictures and the dad’s recollection of their past. But throughout the movie, at the current state of their life and how things are going seems to be with a negative- affect. This is to say, according to Reeve (2009), that they are dissatisfied, nervous, and irritable. The negative-affect of the parents seems to rub off onto Jane who seems to be so weird-ed out and confused the whole movie. That is until she meets the dreamy, “curious” neighbor boy who has a generally positive-affect because he comes across as very calm, level headed, and generally happy (Reeve, 2009). He opens Jane’s eyes to the true beauty and reality of the world around her. Even though things are going crazy inside, outside just observing the world you can find joy, beauty, and happiness.
There are many emotions to talk about so I will save that for my paper. One I will talk about in this little comment is disgust in Jane. We clearly get to experience Jane’s emotion of disgust with her friend and her dad. For one, her dad is practically drooling and sexually fantasizing over his daughter’s friend, and her friend in return is ridiculously flirting with him, and talks about how he is sexy; (she’d do it with him). All around Jane doesn’t like how her friend talks about her dad so she avoids her and doesn’t bring her over especially because of her dad’s disgusting obsession with her girlfriends. Reeve (2009) explains how with disgust as an emotion an individual will try to get away or get rid of what is triggering disgust. In this case the thought of her friend and dad having sex. Other emotions explained in depth by Reeve (2009) that we experience in the movie include: anger, interest, threat and harm (fear), sadness. These are the basic emotions which mean they are innate, come from the same situation in everyone, expressed through facial expressions, and have a predictable physiological response (Reeve, 2009).
The Burnham family had a lot of issues, with each other. Neither of the parents seem to get along with their daughter, and they didn't seem to seem to understand each other for that matter. There are six statements for psychological well-being, and I think each character in this movie was dealing with one or the other, the six statements are, self-acceptance, positive interpersonal relations, autonomy, enviornmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth (Reeves, pg. 264).
This family is definately lacking in the posititve interpersonal relations with one another. They don't have a close, warm family bond. The father is lacking sel-acceptance with himself, in teh fact that he isn't happy with where he is in his life and autonomy, where he knows that he is being looked at to be fired, but he doesn't seem to care to improve his work ethic within the company. Reeve says "the best way to increase another person's motivation is to increase his or her self-esteem" (pg. 266). Lester has a huge lack of motivation and self-esteem which isn't good for his overall job security and getting his life together.
I think a lot of the people in this movie are looking to improve on all six of these things. I think they are all trying to find purpose in their lives, where Janie is at Angela to help her find her way, even though she might not be the best person to look towards.
The mother is more successful than her husband, and she expects a lot more out of him, than what he is, so he doesn't feel like he is ever going to gain a sense of mastery and live up to her expectations (environmental mastery).
I really enjoyed this movie, which I had never seen before. Lester is a middle-aged husband and father that tries to find happiness in life and his true self. In order to do this, he quits his office career for a fast food job, buys a car from the 70's, and starts smoking weed. He eventually become infatuated with his teenage daughter's, Jane, friend Angela. Lester fantasizes about Angela while rose petals appear as a common thread in this movie. Once Lester over hears Angela tell Jane that she would be attracted to him if he were in better physical condition, he hits the gym big time. He reevaluates his "self" and determines he needs to change his self-schema in order to achieve his need for intimacy (Reeve, 2009).
Lester isn't the only one in the film having troubles identifying their true "self". Jane and Angela both have very low self-esteem. Angela is sexual and eventually comes on to Lester even though she has never had sex before. She exclaims that she is a virgin while trying to seduce Lester as if she could not hold it in anymore. She was putting on an act to the outside world, but she is very insecure about her lack of experience.
Overall, almost all of the characters in this movie have a problem identifying their true "self". It's a battle that almost all of them deal with in the film (Lester, Mr. Fitts, Jane, and Angela).
I really enjoyed this movie. It was unpredictable, and very well written and directed. From a psychological view, there are countless things to talk about as many of the characters were very unstable and disturbed. Although each character can be analyzed, I think Lester was the most interesting of them all. He had a good sense of humor about many things that would anger and enrage other people.
Lester says in the beginning of the movie that he already feels like he is dead. Lester had nobody in his life he could relate to, and nobody gave him the respect and loyalty humans desire. Lester and his wife obviously didn't have an ideal relationship, and his daughter seemed to hate him. Lester sought out relatedness in someone, and he found it in Angela because she gave him attention. Our textbook states that "because we need relatedness, we gravitate toward people who we trust to care for our well being, and we drift away from those who we do not trust to look out for our well being" (162). Lester no longer felt related to his wife which probably explains why he was so numb when he found out his wife was cheating on him. As for Angela, Lester had nobody else in his life to attempt to form attachments with, and becoming "obsessed" with Angela may have been him attempting to form new attachments.
Granted, Lester's obsession with Angela was extreme to say the least and it went against many societies values. Lester wanted to start over, he was sick of where he was in life and it was quite clear that the younger generation appealed to him. The only two people Lester seemed even somewhat happy around was Angela and Rickie.
Lester, is a man that has come to a mid life crisis. You can see that his psychological well being is not in the right frame of thinking. The first instance of entering this state in his life was when he was envisioning Angela and his interpretation of her dancing to only him. This infatuation with her begins and you can see it become a main focal point in his life. His interactions between his family and especially his wife you can tell that their marriage has become flaccid and she is a dominate character. This could probably be because he has let her take control for many years, but because he is stuck at a job that he is unappreciated at and a home where love is only for show. His personal growth has been shunted and has not gone anywhere is what I got from this point of the movie. He states to his daughter that they use to be close, and he doesn’t know when things got bad or stopped caring. He has been going with the flow and kind of disassociated from himself, like being on auto pilot. He is finally awakened and then is killed, by whom the movie leaves multiple people.
Reeves describes his later action with Angela as a cognitive dissonance, that his need for was not rightfully directed towards her and was to be directed towards his wife and family. He realizes that when she says she is a virgin that he has been acting out of place and he isn’t this immoral, married man. His personal growth throughout the movie will also confirm this action, with his intentions of impressing this young woman, overshadows the importance he places on his wife’s affair with a higher power male figure. To his lack of consideration of his own daughters needs and wants. Angela also gives him power, she gives him a purpose, which challenges him. This helps him out of his slump but creates a whole lot of mess for himself. He starts to smoke pot, and does things on the whim, which infuriates his wife. His wife, even though she looks like she has everything in control, can be seen later in the movie that this image is also a fake perception, with her self help tapes for selling houses and her affair.
Jane to me in the movie is the only sane person, for me she represented what happens when chaos is happening around you. She keep a pretty level head on her when she had a friend that was trying to seduce her father, a mother who has low self esteem issues and a father who has been there just going by in life. Her one outlet is her boyfriend, who listens and gives her meaning. Even though he had issues himself, they had pretty good expectations from life and what reality was really like.
To comment on the roses and how they represent American beauty forbidden hidden innocence. She portrays this woman of experience and then isn’t, which is what the American dream is, a false sense of suburbia.
In the beginning of the move Lester was not fulfilling his psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. He had a lack of autonomy in his life. Autonomy is when a person wants to make choices for themselves instead of feeling forced to do something. Lester had to leave for work when his wife left, not at his own pace. At work Lester is forced to write a certain article otherwise he might be fired. If he chooses not do to write the article like he wants to, he would loose his job. During dinner the wife chose the music to play because as she claimed, she made the dinner she should be able to choose the music and no one else had a say. Lester also had a lack of relatedness in his life. Relatedness is the need to have close emotional bonds and attachments with others. Lester’s relationship with his daughter is failing and they do not share the lives with each other. When Lester tries to involve his daughter more, she resists thereby their attachment was absent. He shows his lack of competence by not being able to exercise his skills in his everyday life. He is not able to challenge himself optimally because he is stuck in his life.
By not fulfilling his psychological needs Lester is leading a half life and that causes him to change. After meeting his daughter’s friend, Angela, Lester begins to fulfill these needs. Autonomy occurs when he makes the first phone call after looking for her number in his Jane’s address book. He is able to fulfill his need of relatedness by his relationship with Angela.
Although the movie was a bit strange, it was an interesting and entertaingin movie that discussed many topics that we have been learning about in our class discussions and through reader our text. Even though the movie suggests many topics such as depression, needs, and motivation, I think one of the main an most noticeable topic is the analysis of the self and the six dimensions of psychological well-being.
The book states that the six states of psychological well-being are: self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. When examining Lester's character, we can see that he scores low in many of these areas for most of the movie.
Lester does not have high self-acceptance. He is not satisfied with what his life has become, has depression issues, and always think back to what hi life used to be like, and to him, how horrible his life is now. Lester also does not have positive relations with others. He does not have good relationships with others, unless you consider Ricky to be someone he was close with. He does open up with his family members and talk about things that are important to him unless something bad happened during his day. Jane makes a point of this when they are sitting at the dinner table and Lester tries complaining to her about his day at work and she confronts him and says she doesn't care and that he never wants to talk any other time so why should she care about what his day was like. At the beginning of the movie I thought that Lester had low autonomy. He never stood up for himself and just went along with the flow of things. He wasn't happy with his wife, but would just stay quiet to try and make their family seem normal and not falling apart. Later on in the movie I thought he had high autononmy because he began to stand up to people at work and to his wife at home. When he did this, he gained more confidence in himself and became more satisfied with himself and life. This is similar to what I thought about his environmental mastery. At first, he acted and seemed as though he had little or no control over his life. He acted almost like a robot that just went through the motions, but later on he starts gaining confidence, doesn't seem as depressed, and starts making decision about his life. I think that Lester finds himself having little purpose in life. He doesn't think he's that important or makes a difference. After he quits his job, though, I think he believes that he does serve a purpose and tries to regain what he used to have in the past. Finally, I think that Lester shows little personal growth. He always seems bored with life, unless he's thinking of Angela. He has the same depressed attitude throughout the movie, as well.
Overall, I think the movie did a great job of showing the 6 dimensions of psychological well-being through Lester's character.
“It’s hard to stay mad when there is so much beauty in the world” Kevin Spacey’s character Lester’s epiphany at the end of the movie states, this quote is one of the most repeated and known of our generation. American Beauty is a film that movie lovers will talk about for years to come and it is the first film we have watched that I have thoroughly enjoyed throughout its entirety. The movie portrays the Burnham’s a middle class family in which each member is struggling with a number of factors ranging from finding themselves, notions of beauty, love, sexuality and liberation. Each character was full of depth and the magnificent cinematography contributed to a very enjoyable cinematic experience.
The main focus of the story was on the father of the family Lester. He is a middle-aged man with a typical 9-5 job which he despises. He gets walked on by just about everyone he knows and throughout the movie many scenes alluded to the fact that he felt imprisoned; for example when he was at work his reflection in his computer screen combined with the content he had displayed made it literally look like he was behind bars. I believe he was suffering from lack of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. His self-efficacy was extremely low; he had no goals and was generally unhappy. His wife Barbra was a very motivated real estate saleswoman, who while it appeared she had it all together on the outside, was definitely introverted and did not express any of the emotions or needs she had going on internally. She was overly concerned with outward appearances her notions of beauty were completely external. Barbra eventually began having an affair with a rival real estate salesman Buddy Kane, the King of real-estate.
The other two main characters in the story were the Burnham’s daughter Jane, a typical low self-esteem confused sixteen year old girl who can’t stand her parents and the way things have become in her daily life. She is constantly struggling with acceptance of her physical self. It seemed as though she had a large need for relatedness that was not being met by anyone. She did have friends and family, yet her relationships were empty, lacking the sharing of interest and emotional support required of them to meet the level of involvement required to fill this need. So when the Burnham’s got new neighbors she met Ricky, a teenage boy who often used a video camera to document everything. While she found it rather disturbing at first, after expressing his interest in her, and sharing his views on beauty and life, they become involved while watching Ricky’s most beautiful filmed imagery.
A string of events sets off one of the most wild, unexpected rides of any of the movies I have ever seen. The movie is full of emotions covering the entire spectrum from the highest mania highs, to anguish and torment. The actors did a great job of portraying the different emotions that were displayed and the four-part character they consist of. Overall I enjoyed it very much.
I thought that this movie was very interesting. Many of the emotional aspects within the movie are confusing at times becuase they are all present at once. It seems as though even when one of the characters appears to be happy, they are still miserable. Chapter 11 discusses the nature of emotions, as well as the many different perspectives associated with emotions and how emotions come about. The book discusses what emotions are, how they are caused, how many there are, the differences between good and bad emotions, as well as the differences between emotions and moods.
The best way to describe this movie is a sentence from the bok about emotions. "Emotions are more complex than first meets the eye. ...Emotions are multidemtional" (Reeve, 299). The basis of one of the models in the texts describes that a significant life event is the beginning of the triggered emotion. Emotions provoke a sense of purpose, social-expressive events (such as social communication, facial and vocal expressions), bodily arousal, and feelings. This model is represented well in the film when Lester overhears Jane and Angela talking in Jane's room. The minute that Lester hears Angela saying that she would have sex with him if he would work out, he goes to the garage and starts to work out. Also around this time he meets the new neighbor. When they are smoking pot out back, Lester learns that there are other ways to live life. After these significant events, he gains a whole new outlook on life. He stands up to his wife and tells her how he really feels about her. He also starts running. You can see immidately that this new outlook on life has changed his expressions and feelings, he instantly looks happier and more satisfied with his life. He also seems to have a change in his cognitions, because he is now doing what he wants to whereas before he went through life mindlessly. Once he quits his job and blackmails his boss, he appears to have gained a sense of purpose in life. Most people have goals that include advancing in their careers, whereas Lester just wants to quit his job and take a job with far less responsibility. His emotions are still motivating him to succeed, but his version of success is now different than most people's version. He veiws success as being happy and changing his life, even if that means taking a few steps back in terms of his career and family life.
This movie has so many different levels in it that make it very complex. Analyzing it for class has proven to be difficult because of the movie's many layers. There are numerous examples of how this movie illustrates ideas about the self and self-concept through the different characters.
Colonel Frank Fitts is one of the more interesting characters to me, despite not being one of the most central characters in the movie. He seems to lack in having positive relations with others, which is one dimension of psychological well-being. His lack of positive relationships is very evident in the behaviors of his wife and son. His wife spaces out frequently, and doesn't act in a way that indicates love and affection from her husband. In the scene where Ricky introduces Jane to his mother, she has a vacant expression and doesn't respond right away, indicating that she isn't truly involved with her surroundings. Ricky is also a testament to his father's lack of relationships because he keeps his life private and only does or says things that will keep him out of trouble with his dad. He behaves on the surface in a way his dad expects of him. This was most evident to me during the scene where Frank and Ricky were in the car on the way to school, and Frank makes a comment about disliking homosexuals. Ricky first responds with how he really feels, but then knows what his dad expects him to say, and says it very emphatically afterward.
This is just one aspect of one character that related to what we've been learning, which shows just how detailed this movie gets. Other characters display even more complexities and issues with the self, but I'll share those in my analysis. :)
Overall I enjoyed the movie American Beauty. IT started out a little different for me. I was a little confused on the plot and where the movie was going. Jane seemed to be the lost girl who doesn't really know where she fits in, Her mother and father tend to have a rocky relationship and insecure. This movie shows the struggle with Beauty that everyone in high school is presented with. Angela, Jane's friend, appears to have it all together. She presents herself with pride and confidences but deep down she struggled the most with herself. Ricky is the guy that moved in next door and is caught video taping Jane. Ricky grew up with a very strict dad due to his military background. Although, throughout the entire movie I think Ricky had it all together. He seems to see past the outside of Jane and captured her true beauty going beyond the surface. Rickys video taping in the movie served as a way to see what beauty really ways. Overall the movie was good and demonstrated a lot of our societies struggles with beauty and emotion.
I thought this movie was a little different, but it was good. While watching the movie American Beauty, I noticed many of the key concepts we have discussed throughout the semester about motivation. Kevin Spacey’s character, Lester, a middle-age depressed father and husband, portrays certain characters show certain motivation characteristics throughout the movie. Lester portrays certain social needs such as achievement, affiliation, and power (Reeve, 2009). We see him struggle for personal autonomy throughout the movie and see how his motivation changes.
Lester does many things throughout the movie to show good examples of social motivation. He showed achievement social needs when he decided to up and quit his high paying job to work in fast food, he had a desire to do well. At the beginning of the movie Lester had a high-need achievement desire and as the movie continued we saw this achievement desire turn into a low-need achiever as he changed his effort and persistence and willingness to take personal responsibility for his success and failure in his career. He wanted to show personal competence that he could do this well. He seeked social affiliation by trying to get the attention of Jane’s friend, Angela. He did this by beginning to work out every day in order to make his body look nicer to impress her and gain her approval. He also seeked social affiliation through the friendship of Ricky. Lester began to follow Ricky’s attitude toward life. He develops a new way of viewing life and decides to live like he was in his 20’s, by quitting his job, smoking weed, and buying a new sports car. He also seeked power by finally standing up to his wife and telling her how he felt about certain things and spoke his mind, which he had never done before. I also recognized sexual motivation in Lester in the way that he fantasizes about Angela throughout the entire movie. He eventually acts on this motivation by choosing to spend his time working out and trying to make his body look really nice and tone in order to get her attention and impress her.
I also recognized certain social needs in Angela’s character. On the outside she is skinny, beautiful, blond and they American dream, but on the inside she is very insecure and has a very low self-esteem. We see certain motivation needs in Angela by the way she goes out of her way to flirt with Jane’s dad and how she brags to everybody about all her sexual encounters and brags about all the things she has done sexually just to get attention, this shows social affiliation motivation. Her behavior is motivated by the attention she gets in return. I think this movie did a really good job at portraying different internal social motivation desires and how certain motivation can drive one’s behavior and cause them to do things that they may not normally do. We saw this in two of the main characters, Lester and Angela.
I've seen this movie several times, and I still don't really get it. In the end, I recognize that it's a good movie, but I don't like it. This movie hits a nerve with me due to my own family history, and sadly that makes it difficult to enjoy this film. The concept from the book that I found most in this film is that of affiliation and intimacy. Affiliation is seen primarily in the relationship between Jane and Ricky. Intimacy is seen most with Angela, particularly in the scene where she asks Lester to tell her she is beautiful. She is so insecure that she fears that Lester will reject her.