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Features: DVD, Dolby, Digital Audio, Dolby Digital (5.1), Dolby Surround Sound
Marking the feature film directorial debut of award-winning theater director Sam Mendes (The Blue Room, Cabaret), this funny, moving and shocking journey through life in suburban America follows the trials and tribulations of Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Carolyn (Annette Bening), an upper-middle class couple whose marriage--and lives--are slowly unraveling. Lester's wife hates him, his daughter Jane regards him with contempt, and his boss is positioning him for the ax. So Lester decides to make a few changes in his life; the freer he gets, the happier he gets, which is even more maddening to his wife and daughter. But Lester is about to learn that the ultimate freedom comes at the ultimate price.
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"Superb!" Jeffrey Lyons, WNBC
"...the best picture of the year!" Rod Dreher, New York Post
Editor's Note
AMERICAN BEAUTY tells the story of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), a suburban father who snaps when he becomes disgusted with his stale, repetitive existence. Burnham lets us know in voice-over from the film's opening that this is the day he dies (using the SUNSET BOULEVARD flashback approach), a technique that adds an inevitable tension to the proceedings and keeps the story moving forward at all times. On a whim, Lester quits his job and begins a regression into young adulthood, lifting weights, smoking pot, doing nothing, and discovering the overflowing sexuality of his 16-year-old daughter's best friend, Angela (Mena Suvari). His wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening), has her own midlife crisis of sorts. A real estate agent, she experiences a youthful awakening when super-agent Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher) seduces her repeatedly. Meanwhile, Jane (Thora Birch), the Burnhams' daughter, is pursued by Ricky (Wes Bentley), the mysterious boy next door who carries a video camera around with him at all times. When Ricky's militaristic father, Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper), discovers something potentially horrifying on one of his tapes, and when Carolyn's rage for Lester's actions boils over, the time bomb finally explodes.
Plot Summary
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a gainfully employed suburban husband and father. Fed up with his boring, stagnant existence, he quits his job and decides to reinvent himself as a pot-smoking, responsibility-shirking teenager. What follows is at once cynical, hysterical, and, eventually, tragically uplifting. A flawless cast (Spacey, Bening, Birch, Suvari, Bentley, and especially Cooper) combines to deliver one of the decade's strongest ensemble performances in this multiple-Oscar-winning film. Director Sam Mendes, already a wunderkind in the world of British theater, proves that his talent isn't limited to the stage in his feature-length debut.
| Features | "The Making Of American Beauty" Featurette | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, DTS, Stereo | | English 5.1 Surround Dolby Digital | | English DTS 5.1 Surround Sound | | English Dolby Digital Surround | | Parental Lock | | Scene Access | | Enhanced For 16X9 TV | | Theatrical Trailer | | Cast & Crew Bios | | Interactive Menus | | The Making Of American Beauty Featurette | | DVD-ROM Feature | | Production Notes | | Director Commentary With Sam Mendes | | Writer's Commentary With Alan Ball | | Storyboard Feature With Commentary By Sam Mendes and Cinematographer Conrad L. Hall |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Dreamworks (Universal) |
| Release Date: 1/17/2006 |
| Running Time: 122 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1999 | | Catalog ID: 85382 | | UPC: 00667068538229 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 2.35:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (2000) |  | Kevin Spacey, Winner, Best Actor | | Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks, Winner, Best Picture | | Alan Ball, Winner, Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly For Screen | |
Golden Globe (2000) | | Sam Mendes, Winner, Best Director | | | Kevin Spacey, Nominee, Best Actor | | | Annette Bening, Nominee, Best Actress |
| Memorable Quotes| "I rule!"----Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) |
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| | Professional Reviews | Variety
"...Consistently provocative and devilishly amusing....AMERICAN BEAUTY is a real American original..." 9/13-19/1999 p.40-50Rolling Stone
Ranked #1 in Rolling Stone's "Ten Best Movies of 1999" -- "...[A] justly celebrated look at what gets lost in life when we numb ourselves to feeling..." 1/20/2000 p.63-4 Premiere
"...Sees beauty in our most common mistakes and failures. This is a masterpiece..." -- 5 out of 5 stars 06/01/2000 p.99 Box Office
"...AMERICAN BEAUTY is that rare instance where all the elements of a movie -- story, setting, acting, shot construction -- come together to convey its message..." 11/01/1999 p.166 USA Today
"...Spacey gives sardonic snap to every line he delivers....The movie is a beaut. It's as feeling as it is funny, a quality recent movies seemed to have lost..." 09/15/1999 p.1D Los Angeles Times
"...Unsettling, unnerving, undefinable....BEAUTY is a blood-chilling dark comedy with unexpected moments of both fury and warmth, a strange, brooding and very accomplished film that sets us back on our heels from its opening frames..." 09/15/1999 p.C1 Chicago Sun-Times
"...Spacey, an actor who embodies intelligence in his eyes and voice, is the right choice for Lester Burnham..." 09/24/1999 p.29 The New York Times 9 of 10
...strikes an unusually successful balance between the mordant and bright...As these characters struggle viciously--and hilariously--to escape the middle-class doldrums, the film also evinces a real and ever more stirring compassion... the film takes on a gravity to match its evil zest. - Janet Maslin
San Francisco Chronicle 10 of 10
...a wonder of a film--a luminous, beautifully executed drama that gathers the best cast of the year and marks a sensational screen debut for Sam Mendes... an abundantly gifted man who works brilliantly and probingly with actors... American Beauty is the best American film of the year... - Edward Guthmann
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