In class we watched the opening scene of American Beauty and where asked what our impressions of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) where. From the opening scene i could tell that Lester was a very depressed man, even in his opening dialog he says "i am 42 years old; in less than a year I will be dead. Of course I don't know that yet, and in a way, I am dead already" The way he says "i am dead already" shows that he hates his life, and he has no ambitions anymore.
He leads a very sad life and is hated by his wife, I can see he is hated by his wife because during the opening scene Lester is walking to his wifes car and she gives him a look of utter hatred. His wife is a very uptight charector and is portrayed as a business woman who is head of the family.
We can see that Lester has no ambition in his life by the way he talks, this could mean that he has already achieved all his goals, for example he has a very nice car, a big house- he looks like a very sucessfull businesman, but this does not stop him from being depressed. Another sign of the boredom and depressing life Lester leaves is what he narrates whilst he is in the shower, he says "Look at me, jerking off in the shower — this will be the high point of my day. It's all downhill from here" This, to me, says a lot about Lester, it shows he has a defeatest attitude and he can be very pessimistic.
Also during the opening scene we where told to look out for the colour scheme of the film, i noticed that the colours used where red, white, and blue- which are the colour of the American flag which could be a sign of patriotism and they link in with the title of the film.
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