Metaphorical Beauty

Sam Mendes’s really was able to emphasize the color red when his Comedy-Drama dropped on September 17, 1999. American Beauty spoke a million words verbally and metaphorically, and one of the major ways it sent messages was with the color red flashing throughout the entire film. It was obvious that Sam Mendes planned it out to make everything red stand out in every scene so that the audience knew to pay attention to it. Mendes made sure to make it clear to the audience that the red was symbolic and just wasn’t any ordinary red like other movies. The color red, in general, has a lot of meaning to it, it holds its own weight. A few of the meanings of the color are fire and blood, very relatable to this movie in multiple ways, which will be explained later on in this essay. A few others is war, danger, strength, power, passion, desire and love. Red is a very intense color when it comes to emotions and actually raises the human blood pressure. For Mendes to really base the movie around this color, is pure cinematic genius. It just takes a very keen eye to pick up on the subtle clues throughout the film.

Right out the gate, Mendes starts out the film with Lester talking about how his life is going down the drain, and has been for the last X amount of years. As soon as Lester brings up his wife, Carolyn, the scene that is being shown on the screen is of her hand in a gardening glove, holding a red rose. It is the center of attention and really given the floor for a few seconds. Now we can really get a sense that there is battles taken place within the household by the use of red in this scene. The red is definitely used to symbolize war and intense feelings between the two. Also we can really make the connection of that by how Lester is talking about Carolyn. Not really positive talks and pretty sarcastic about a lot of the things he has to say. Next scene is where Jane is looking at herself in the mirror, that’s in her room. If you notice, she’s wearing a sweater and the sweater design has red roses on it. Coincidence? Not really, within the first 5 minutes, we already have two great examples of what is repeated throughout the duration of the film. This showed Jane’s desire to change the way that she looks and finally be satisfied with herself.

Another huge point that stood out so much, and could almost be called a routine, if you will, is Angela. Almost 50% of her parts in the film included Lester and red roses. Well, more specifically red rose peddles. It was screaming the symbolism of desire and lust, and Angela was covered in it. It showed how much he was obsessed with her, how much he wanted to have her. It almost told idea he had in his head of what he wanted their relationship to be. From the moment he saw h,r in the scene where Jane had her cheerleading performance, you could say he fell in love with her. It cuts to Angela having the spotlight by herself in the gym, nobody else is on the floor, and Lester is the only one in the bleachers. The lights cut down while Angela has her spotlight and she does her little routine. That’s when Angela starts to unzip her cheerleading outfit and right when she’s about to show her breasts, red rose peddles fly out of her jacket. His wants, his desires, his lust for her was completely explained in that scene without a single word being spoke. You cannot miss that one. Red, and more specifically red roses (peddles) is speaking so many different languages in this film.

The biggest connection you can make to Mendes’ red symbolism is how it all leads to Lester’s all around murder. The red and red rose roses (peddles) become more frequent within the film until we see Lester get shot in the head and who was the person that shot Lester in the head. As I said before, red is the color of blood, danger and war, and scenes really told what was going to happen without it actually being told to us. When Ricky comes home, after Colonel Fitts “sees” him getting with Lester, it causes the Colonel’s meltdown. He throws his son out because he “will not raise a faggot”, he breaks down in tears and sends the audience into a nice little twist with the next scene. Colonel Fitts finds himself in the rain, in the front of Lester’s garage, as he is working out. Lester finally notices and opens up his garage and the Colonel enters and starts to converse about where Lester’s wife is, how Lester doesn’t care that she’s most likely having an affair with the Realtor competitor, Buddy Kane. This is where the script gets very interesting because of the play on words. Lester is talking about one thing and the Colonel is completely getting different answers in his head, and it is all downhill from here. Colonel Fitts is surprised that Lester doesn’t care that his wife is having an affair and he feels like he was using her as a front. He started to feel comfortable, and that’s when Lester starts to say they need to get him out of his clothes. But what Colonel Fitts doesn’t know is, Lester only meant that he was soaked and he didn’t want him to get sick from being that wet for so long. The Colonel took it as he had the same exact feeling and thought that he did. Colonel Fitts begins to cry and starts walking into Lester, and they begin to hug. Colonel Fitts really grips Lester’s back, Lester notices and that’s when Colonel Fitts picks his head up and kisses Lester. Lester’s immediate reaction is to step back and tell Colonel Fitts that he had the wrong idea. The Colonel leaves and this is where the red floods in. After Lester and Angela have their moment, Lester gets shot in the head by a killer, we don’t know who yet. Lester starts to narrate and the scenes cut back and forth from his memories to the different characters at the time of when he was murdered. Each character is ordered from lest to most red, representing the chance of them being the murderer. First Angela, she was putting on red lipstick on when the gun shot went off, so it wasn’t her. Second was Ricky and Jane, they were in Jane’s room on red bed sheets, and we hear the gun shot go off, so we know it couldn’t have been them that killed Lester either. Third is Carolyn, she had on a red dress that day/night, and to further back up that the killer was being revealed soon is that Carolyn had a gun with her, chanting her empowerment phrase. And lastly, the scene cuts to Colonel Fitts entering his room, with a white t-shirt on that is just drenched in blood and his very own pistol. The way Sam Mendes tells his story through just the very clever placement of clues. The color red planned throughout the film, and more specifically red roses/rose peddles, at that. Puzzle pieces just waiting to be put together. In the final scene, when Lester is looking at the picture of his family, there is a bouquet of red roses sitting in a vase on the table in front of him. Could this have been Mendes’ way of saying this was the death that Lester told us was going to happen in the beginning of the film? Like, this is the end of Lester Burnham? The variety of ways that he is telling this story and stringing along the audience is clever, definitely not able to be achieved by anyone. It showed rather than told everyone how Colonel Fitts crumbled and found killing Lester as the only reasonable answer.

Throughout the movie the color red helps explain and really take every aspect of the film into more depth. The rose in the beginning was used in the meaning off war and tension between Lester and Carolyn. The roses on Jane’s sweater was used for desire, to find inner peace with herself and build up her overall self-esteem. The rose peddles and roses that tied in Angela definitely told the story of lust, passion, and desire could also be thrown into the mix always. The scene where Lester first sees Angela during the cheerleading routine was a huge moment that really backed up this evidence and really opened up the audience eyes to pay attention to, not just, the monologues and conversations that happen throughout the scenes, but the non-verbal clues placed throughout the film. And finally the escalation and downfall of Colonel Fitts at the end. The color red really played the gather role in those final scenes. It helped build up the anticipation until they finally revealed who pulled the trigger. It was like a story within a story that demanded people to split their attention to really be able to pick up everything that was going on. Until the killer was actually revealed, it was honestly a toss-up on to who actually was the one that shot Lester Burnham. Even the last moments, with the red roses that was placed on the table in front of him could tell its own story of the love he had for his family. It cut to the flashback scenes of him that were so simple, yet so memorable to him that he believed were irreplaceable and priceless to him. Just like this movie, Red is defined as a very emotionally intense color. It helped gravitate this movie to newer heights and bring so much meaning without even having to say a word or explain. Mendes delivered and American Beauty will always be that movie that always demands your attention.