American Beauty and Three Kings: Looking at the Underbelly of America
by Yechiel Hoffman
October yielded two films hot with the critics and warming with the public. Both American Beauty and Three Kings swept in from nowhere to take over the scene and bring back the faith that Hollywood can produce great films again.
Dreamworks and Warner Brothers, well known for their dumbed down action and romance flicks, took great risks on these indie-feel, genre-bending pics. What they got were masterpieces. American Beauty's strong word of mouth created a phenomenon that has already has raked in 31 million dollars for the studio. With these films, a new age dawns on the studios, as they start to take more risks by releasing fewer mainstream-style flicks for the public. Good things started with the inspiring and chilling The Sixth Sense and as the fall got going it only got better. With studio flicks like Fight Club, The Ninth Gate, Being John Malkovitch, Bringing Out the Dead, and quite a few others being released in the near future, the studios are giving the independents a run for their money. But what is it about these flicks, specifically American Beauty and Three Kings that just brings the audiences running and keeps the filmmakers inspired enough to get through the crap called executives to get these movies made?
Three Kings and American Beauty both share the distinction of questioning the American way of life: the former on the war front and the latter on the home front. Trying to explain these two films in just a few sentences is an injustice to the films, the filmmakers and your reception of these movies, but I will do my best. Three Kings portrays four American Persian Gulf soldiers' quest to find Kuwaiti gold bullion stolen by Iraq. The movie might be marketed as a run of the mill action-adventure-war flick with a heavy MTV soundtrack and a distinct MTV style, but don't let the trailer or poster fool you. Three Kings does what most films of late have been afraid to do. It attacks head on many serious issues, such as: American foreign policy, American consumerism, military angst, compassion in war, and other compounding issues that face the film's heroes.
While tackling these weighty issues, the director, Charles O. Russell (of Flirting with Disaster and Spanking the Monkey fame) doesn't sell himself short. Working with a story from John Ridley, he infuses a delicate array of humor and sophistication that allows the audience to embrace the film and root for the heroes. Patriotic fervor, however, is left at the backdoor. The director evokes the necessary ambivalence to American policy in its political dealings with its soldiers, the media and the Iraqi people. As the heroes start to waver from their original goal of becoming rich (the supposed American Dream), they assist a band of Iraqi rebels in escaping from Saddam's grasp by sneaking them to the Iranian border. Although the Iraqis present an obstacle for the heroes, it is ultimately the American troops who prove the biggest road block in relaying these people to freedom. The rebels are affluent, middle class businessmen, and their biggest crime is wanting to live the American Dream in their own country. The movie claims that America cares nothing for the capitalists that fall outside its border. Russell, in his first big Hollywood film, brings an independent sensibility and style to an of late unoriginal genre and twists it on its head with his distinct brand of humor, camera style and penchant to analyze American way of life from the outside and in.
American Beauty also tackles issues of American life, but from the inner depths of suburban hell. Sam Mendes' (the fabulous theatre director of The Blue Room and Cabaret) film debut, scripted by Alan Ball, startles us with his poignant and dark view of suburban disaster and tragedy. From its opening narrative, delivered from the grave by the film's protagonist, played to perfection by Kevin Spacey, we know that this film will break all normal Hollywood conventions. In this twisted tale of a family's descent.
Mendes depicts the downfall of a man obsessed with youth and power, a woman's consumerist tendency, and a child's need for understanding and respect. While the film centers on the focal family, the side characters contrast their feuding and supply some of the most spectacular points of interest. Specifically lauded should be Wes Bentley's portrayal of the compulsive video-maker / drug dealer / next door neighbor and Thora Birch as the daughter, lost in her world of dreariness. The film attacks American selfishness and superficiality and urges us to look through the style and guise. This film, although highly stylized with various film techniques, motifs and symbols, is much more than a stylistic piece of work. The director makes the brave move in allowing his distinct style to comment on the substance that at once frightens and awakens the viewer to the urgent tragedy lurking in American Suburbia.
Both of these films brazenly take on the American "need to be rich" mentality. Three Kings, set in a specific time and place, and American Beauty, set in a nameless suburbia in a nameless time, both resonate as current and timeless pieces. Even more so now the inherent danger portrayed in American Beauty in the after math of Littleton and Three Kings after the war in Eastern Europe makes the viewer much more aware and critical of the surrounding world. The energy and excitement that these films bring to their viewing experience allow our subconscious to embrace the questions they pose. They both rock as entertaining pieces, but also as urgent conversation pieces and philosophical ponderances. In no more of a way could I more strongly recommend these two masterworks. At this point I look forward to future rewarding pieces from the once dormant Hollywood executive minds.
Look forward to: Fight Club, another take on American male aggression in reaction to high Yuppie consumer conformity; from the camera of David Fincher, of Seven, Alien3 and The Game fame, starring the brilliant performers Ed Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter. Plus my take on the ass kissing, self-congratulating Academy Awards. And remember: forget the force, there's no way I'm dishing out ten bucks to see a ten-year-old's wet dream.