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American beauty essay how does Sam Mendez establish the relationship between the members of the burnham family in the opening sequence and the first dinner table sequence?

Opening sequence: the film starts with a helicopter shot looking over “white suburbia” a nice neighborhood and in a nice suburb. Then we move to a shot of Lester played by Kevin Spacey in the shower masturbating describing this as the most exciting part of his day. This then highlights Lester’s sexual frustration a married father who hasn’t had sex in a while with his wife Carolyn played by Annette Bening who appears to be more concerned about her house as well as her appearance of marital bliss. “In order to be successful one must project a image of Success” a statement to which we later we learn is the basis to Carolyn’s existence. Placing her value on status and could be best described as a “bloodless, money grubbing freak” who in her mission to achieve her so called success has shielded herself from intimacy.

Lester’s body language suggests that life has become a drag for him. Its almost as if it’s a mission for him to get up in the morning as he l...

Posted by: John Mayes

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