- Gay couple, navy family.

2. Characterize the Burnam family.

    a. What is the social background of this family and what are their prevalent values?

            - The perfect family.

    b. What is the relationship between Lester and his wife like?

            - They hate each other, no sex life.

    c. Characterize the relationship to their teenage daughter.

            - They don’t speak to her and she doesn’t like them.

3. Characterize the Fitts family next door.

            - Army family, rules and suppression. Anti gay.

4. What is the point of the film? What is the story it tells us about the modern (American) family and suburban family life?

            - Just because it looks good on the outside does not mean that it is.

5. Analyze the filmic/visual effects in American Beauty.

    a. What characterizes the images portraying suburban life?

            - The perfect garden, perfect family, perfect life, perfect job.

    b. What function does Ricky’s gritty video recordings have?

            -He wants to capture all the beautiful things in life.

    c. What role do Lester’s surreal dreams of Angela play?

            - They make him realize that his life is crap and things needs to be chanced.

a.      What is the social background of this family and what are their prevalent values? 
-         They want to look like a happy family, but they are unhappy. 

-         They want to look like they have success, for their business. 

-         They have gone from the bottom of their social life and they didn’t have a lot of money.

-         Now they are in the middle class. 

b.      What is the relationship between Lester and his wife like? >
-         They don’t talk.

-         There is no love.

-         Their marriage is just for show.

-         They are fighting behind doors. 

c.      Characterize the relationship to their teenage daughter. >
-         No relationship to their daughter.

-         No interest in her life.

-         Care too much about them self. 

 3.     Characterize the Fitts family next door. 
-         Weird.

-         The father obsessed with power and the military. 

-         No family love. 
-         The mother has a mental disorder. 


4.     What is the point of the film? What is the story it tells us about the modern (American) family and suburban family life? 
- They show the sad suburban life.

- That you can be in a marriage and not be happy, because you want to look happy.


5. Analyze the filmic/visual effects in American Beauty.

    a. What characterizes the images portraying suburban life? 
-         Negative lifestyle. 

-         Look boring and sad. 

-         Look like dead people. 


    b. What function does Ricky’s gritty video recordings have? 
-         His videos show the suburban lifestyle and place in a beautiful way. 

-         Because he makes everything so simple.


c. What role do Lester’s surreal dreams of Angela play? 
-         He sees that, there is something in the suburban life, there is beautiful.

-         He wants this beautiful person in his life, because his life is boring and gray. 


hvad siger filmen om "the perfect life" og life in suburbia?
-         The perfect life doesn’t exist, the life in suburban isn’t  that perfect as it seems. 

    a. What is the social background of this family and what are their prevalent values?

 - They have gone from the lowest class, to the middleclass(moneywise) 

 - They used to be happy, but Lester and his wife have forgotten their love to one another, they stopped talking to each other, and is burst out, when Lester finds out he is not happy

    b. What is the relationship between Lester and his wife like?

 - They are not happy or in love, their marriage is just for show, they are fighting behind doors

    c. Characterize the relationship to their teenage daughter.

 - They do not have a real relationship to Jane, because they care to much about themselves

3.      Characterize the Fitts family next door.

 - The father is obsessed with power, used to be in the military 

 - The mother is playing a role in the family, trying to be happy, but is not. In the beginning at the film it seems like she is happy with her life, but in the ending, it seems like she has a personal meltdown. 

 - The son is curious and not afraid to show to the world what he likes, like filming. But he is afraid to show his real side, the filming and the drugs to his father, because he is afraid of him

4.      What is the point of the film? What is the story trying tells us about the modern (American) family and suburban family life?

 - The film is showing us how not to live. If you are unhappy like these people in this movie is, you should change your life, before it burst and you do something or become someone you regret

5.      Analyze the filmic/visual effects in American Beauty.

    a. What characterizes the images portraying suburban life?

 - The Suburbs are portrayed negative

 - They look bored and sad

 - People who lives here, are people who used to have a great life, in the beginning when they moved to the Suburbs. But their lives has changed, and now it only looks great on the outside  

    b. What function does Ricky’s gritty video recordings have?

 - They show what is really important in the film, what is starting all the changes that is coming

 - They are showing the truth about lives, both beauty and ugly(when his father hits him)

 - He somehow gets Janes attention, by filming her

    c. What role do Lester’s surreal dreams of Angela play?

 - She is the beauty he does not have in his life, but when he is about to get her, he realize that he does not need this beauty, he needs to change his life instead of starting a new life

 - It makes him see that he is not happy with his life

 - He wants something else, he wants to go back to the time he was young

6.      What does the film say about "The perfect life" and "Life in Suburbia"?

 - "The perfect life" does not exist, and "Life in Suburbia" are not as save and happy as it seems from the outside

 

2.      The Burnam family is a very American family dysfunctional, materialistic who’s values their reputation, over their family life. Lester and his wife’s relationship goes down the drain over the duration of the film because of Lester’s midlife crisis. Their relationship with their daughter is the cliché teenage girl who hates her parents

 

3.      The father of the Fitts family is in the marine corps so he is a very strict man, who weighs heavy upon discipline. The mother is nuts. And the son is a disobedient drug dealer (cocksucker)

 

4.      The movie tells us that the suburbs bring a lot of trouble because of the life style they have and the people who are their neighbors 

 

5.      They trying the suburbs look like the typical image of a city suburbs. Ricks videos are for so he can remember all the beauty in life. And the Lester’s day dreaming is an homage to the National Lampoon's Vacation (far fede ferie) movie