Essay Comparing Sunset Blvd. (1950) and American Beauty (1999) for Film Appreciation Course at NCC with Professor Deirdre O’Connor
This essay received a 50/50 and under the Works Cited, my professor wrote “Excellent”!
(This essay has been updated with better grammar from the originally graded version. Significant changes are noted with strikethroughs and/or asterisks. Professor’s notes are in larger, capitalized Font. Updated and additional notes are further below.)
It is obvious that American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)
was heavily influenced by Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder, 1950). The key
elements of plot structure, narrative, theme, and characters are very similar.
It seems that American Beauty could have been a modern remake with a
twist in setting and character placement. Instead of focusing on the
May/December relationship between a fading Old Hollywood star and broke
screenplay writer, American Beauty is based on *upon an
unraveling suburban family.
Both Sunset Blvd. and American Beauty feature
a “man detailing the circumstances of his own death” (Carr, 279) to provide the
narration. Their opening scenes differ in its immediacy. William Holden
as Joe Gillis starts at the end and ends where it began. The movie’s scenes are that
of a cycle *cyclical and makes no reference to his body floating dead in a
pool where the audience first sees him. American Beauty opens with a
girl and her boyfriend discussing her father on a video camera followed by an
aerial shot of an anonymous suburban neighborhood. Kevin Spacey as (for obvious reasons, let's focus on the character not the actor here) Lester
Burnham announces that this is his street and begins the flashbacks leading to
his death, but every so often bringing the audience back to the aerial shot.
Both narrations are empty of passion for revenge and hate. Instead, they are
filled with calm and acceptance as if their deaths were insignificant (which is
a contradiction since they feel some reason to tell them. (When I studied these films for my grad thesis on
afterlife cinema, I (re)considered their reason as classifying them as part of
their “life review” as one of the types of judgement determining their final
destination).
(GOOD:) There are many similarities between Norma Desmond and Carolyn Burnham. They made more money than Joe and Lester, controlled their men, were obsessed with their appearance, and acted for their supposed audiences. Norman bought Joe expensive clothing. Carolyn was persistent in making Lester feel belittled and inferior. Norma was obsessed with her stardom and superiority as an actress; reassuring people and herself who she was. She exuded a personality that she believed was expected of her. The same could be said for Carolyn and Angela. Carolyn, an aging materialistic real estate agent, was obsessed with being successful and appearing successful. (NICE USE OF OUTSIDE SOURCES:) “One must project an image of success at all times.” It became her mantra when she felt things weren’t going her way. The image of suburbia itself is perfection. “The perfect family. The perfect neighborhood. The perfect life. Or is it?” (Movietome.com/AmericanBeauty) She designed her house to look out of a magazine: the dining table had lit candlesticks and a vase of red flowers, elevator music plays while eating a nutritious dinner, has a $4,000 couch that dares not to be stained by a spontaneous action, and purposely matches her gardening clogs to her cutting sheers. Angela’s worst fear is that she’s ordinary and so to appear more than she is, she tells stories of fake sexual experiences. She will perform in front of anyone and anything to secure herself the way she wants to be seen.
In both Sunset Blvd. and American Beauty, (VERY
GOOD and OBSERVANT:) photographs were the reminder of the better times of the
past and the beauty of the past. Norma Desmond surrounded herself with
photographs of herself as a young famous silent film actress. In her mind she
was still the same beautiful star with a countless amount *number of
fans. To her, the past was the present and therefore it was not something she
had to search for but instead recapture in an upcoming ‘return’. Photographs in
the Burnham household show them younger and unaware of how hard it will be to remain
close and happy. The last thing Lester sees before shot in the head was this
kind of photograph. The short ‘artistic’ films of Ricky Fitts present what he
believes are the most beautiful images in the world, but that seems to be with
anything captured on film. All the photographs of Norma are her in makeup, hair
styled, and posing or in mid-pose. Ricky chose to film the ordinary because
that is what is beautiful to him. Thora Birch’s character, Jane, was like an
angry plain-Jane. There didn’t seem to be anything special about her, but Ricky
thought there was. He filmed a plastic bag dancing in the wind, and most
wouldn’t think of something like that as special. This goes to show that not
only are we all preoccupied with beauty but there are different kinds of
beauty. All of the characters changed themselves to exude beauty.
At the end of the movies, many of the characters have come
to realize what importance their lives hold and can make them better by
shedding their preoccupations with their images. Joe decided to give up his
expensive clothing and easy lifestyle with Norma and Lester remembers the
beauty of his family when they were happy and wanting to return to that.
However, before either can change their lives, they are shot. Joe died in a
pool, while Lester died in a pool of his *own blood. Their killers (Norma and
Colonel Fitts, *respectively) have realized something about themselves and had
been rejected. Norma was made aware of her lack of celebrity and Joe was going
to leave her. Through all of American Beauty, Colonel Fitts insulted
gays and *but when admits he is one *gay (by kissing Lester) and
is dismissed because he was wrong, he kills him *Lester in regret of
exposing himself that personally. When faced with actually having sex with
Lester, Angela reveals she’s been lying about herself and is a virgin.
The worlds of American Beauty and Sunset Blvd.
were based *upon artificial preoccupations. The characters were unhappy, trying
to escape themselves, and lying to protect an image because the truth was too
harsh to accept. Norma believed she was still famous. Lester didn’t like who he
became and spent months getting back to his ‘old-self’. Angela hid behind a
self-inflicted *projected sexual reputation. Jane rushed into her first
relationship. Carolyn wanted everything to be perfect and stable. The butler
made a career of being Norma’s number one supporter though he was treated
second to Joe. And Joe lived with a woman who could support him. All were
trapped in their perceptions and once their truths were revealed it was either
too late to make things better or were rejected.
Works Cited:
American Beauty. 1999. Sam Mendes.
Carr, Jay. The A List. The National Society of Film Critics’ 100 Essential Films. Cambridge, MA. Da Cappo Press. 2002. Page 279.
www.movietome.com/americanbeauty (*I don't know if this link still works.)
Sunset Blvd. 1950. Billy Wilder.
UPDATES from 2021:
At Nassau Community College, in the Summer of 2005, I took the communications course, Understanding Mass Media. It made me realize I might absorb, learn, and write better in this field than for history courses (despite how much I loved history). In the Fall of 2005, I took the course Film Appreciation, taught by Professor Deirdre O’Connor. It was just supposed to be a fun elective. (I technically signed up for it before summer school.) But it made a lasting pivotal impression! For those 4 months I studied film seriously. In one textbook, a critic said that All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) was a “perfect” film. So, I needed to know why and if I agreed. I watched it. And agreed. Even to this day it still considered my favorite!
This Assignment #2 of comparing Sunset Blvd. and American Beauty was my first real film studies paper. I watched each film, kept notes of things I noticed. Then my mind just somehow made the connections between them. But I found myself more easily writing about those connections and expressing my thoughts about them than for any previous course. The assignment’s guidelines asked to focus on the films’ story structures, characters, and other elements. But I felt like I’d uncovered some details that most others in my class would have overlooked. Like the photographs.
Writing this paper, taking this course, learning the history of film and how to watch a film from Professor O’Connor – along with a few other reasons – not only gave me the courage to write movie reviews for The Vignette’s 2006 semester but to also continue making this my academic pursuit of earning a Bachelor’s degree at my transfer four-year school. And I did, with Stony Brook University’s Cinema and Cultural Studies program. Then I went on to earn my Master of Arts degree at the University of Miami, writing about afterlife cinema – which includes further developing the ideas I initially considered from this paper. It’s no coincidence that I discuss Sunset Blvd. and then American Beauty from pages 61 thru 63 as examples of the Disembodied Voice.
Anyways, jump-cut to 2019, while at SAG-AFTRA I was assigned a project called One Moment that had Deirdre O’Connor and Jodi Wiener as the production contacts. I emailed them to ask if Deirdre was a professor at Nassau and re-introduced myself. This was going to be her first feature film, she was hiring union members, and I would be able to professionally pay her inspiration forward as the signatory rep! And it was going to star Danny Aiello – who sadly passed away soon after principal photography completed!
And again, jump-cut to last month when the film festival I used to work for announced One Moment as this year’s opening film! Again, I reconnected with Professor O’Connor. And we met in person after 15 years at her screening last night! The theatre was sold out (but still had some seats available per social distancing)!
One Moment is about the “sandwich generation”. Meaning the grown-adult children who are responsible for taking care of their aging parents, are also still parenting their high school/college-age children – and balancing their careers, personal lives, etc. Perhaps from the title you’d expect it to mean, that they or rather the main character, just needs ‘one moment’ to themselves, or ‘one moment’ they aren’t spread thin between responsibilities. But no. The ‘one moment’ refers to having the opportunity of one moment for returning to when they were fully enjoying life but didn’t realize then just how much it should have been more appreciated.
The script was so heartfelt! The characters were drawn with recognizably familiar yet complex qualities that don’t ever land in trope territory. Even when you can feel the cliché coming, it does so with warmth, care, and then has a little twist to keep it fresh and unique. And such a wonderful cast of performers! Of course Danny Aiello is effortlessly good playing Joe McGuinness but there’s also Adria Tenor playing his history professor daughter Caroline whose house he’s living in. Frankie Ingrassia is the youngest sister and professional photographer Fran with a few secrets kept from her dad. Sal Rendino as their older brother Rick who thinks his money and credit cards can be more help to caring for Joe than himself. And Natalie Seus plays Caroline’s daughter as the typical teenager yet has an essential character arc within the family dynamic, especially with her Grandpa Joe. It should also be noted that some of the film’s best humor is not just in the old-people jokes, but the well-timed but seemingly random pop-up jokes between the professional actors and the largely non-professional cast. Shout-out to the tattooed motorcycle-jacket wearing patron at the barber shop who stands up clapping for Joe at the talent show! And an extra round of applause to Sioux Madden (I think) who played Rick’s wife for her perfectly delivered sister-in-law role performance, especially a very specific facial expression watching Joe trying to pick between organic peanut butter brands at the grocery store. I literally laughed out loud!
Congrats Professor! 50/50, Excellent Movie!
And thank you for inspiring me all those years ago! I am eternally
grateful!
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