Customer Reviews

American Beauty: The Shooting Script (Newmarket Shooting Scripts)

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After seeing this brilliant film, I picked up a copy of the shooting script. I had hoped it would contain the original ending but it is instead a word for word copy of the lines from the film. Which is not a bad thing. After seeing this movie which won five Academy Awards including Best Screenplay, I could pick up the script and "watch" the movie over and over again in my mind and invision the talented actors appear on screen while I read. Even if you haven't seen the film, the script is an excellent tale of suburbian lifestyle that is delivered with a darkness and humor that is hard to dislike. It is a perfect literary work for anybody because there is at least one character that the reader can totally relate with. Discover the beauty of "American Beauty" which challenges us to "Look Closer."

A truly remarkable script for a movie that, to my mind, is one of the two or three best movies of the '90s and by far the most life-affirming. The best way to describe "American Beauty" is simply to say that it shows how life is too short to not go after what you want -- but how life is also too short to not appreciate what you already have. And as Kevin Spacey/Lester Burnham says at the end, if you don't understand what I mean by that, you will someday.

"American Beauty" touched me like no movie has done before. When I first saw it, I was so wanting to break out of my mundane little life. I was so bored. And like Jane and Ricky, I was craving love and affection. The message of the movie is something I have always believed but sometimes forget. Life is beautiful. Be greatful for every moment of it. Open your eyes and look aroung you. There is probably more beauty around than you realized. And if this incredible, spiritual message weren't enough, the movie is hilarious. I mean, who hasn't wanted to quit their job and blackmail their boss? The shooting script is great. It can satisfy me until the movie is available to purchase. Everyone needs to go see this movie. I hope they get it. The scene where Jane and Ricky watch the bag is one of the most sad and beautiful things I have ever seen. I love this movie. I also highly recommend the score.

I am only thirteen years of age, but I can tell a great movie when I see one. The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Thin Red Line, The English Patient, The Green Mile, Magnolia, and most of all, my personal favorite movie, American Beauty. It seems nowadays everybody (at least my age) thinks Deuce Bigalow is a great movie and movies like The Thin Red Line and American Beauty suck because they're "boring." Well I personally found this movie to be amazing. Everything from the acting to the writing to the directing to the cinematography to the editing to the music and on and on. It's a shame people can't appreciate movies like they used to, because movie goes far beyond many movies in the past decade. I really do think this will be the Citizen Kane of the '90s. A Must see!

This is more of a movie review than a script comment. "American Beauty" is an extraordinary film, and it works on so many levels. The performances (especially Kevin Spacey's) are superb, and it's visual sense is nothing short of cinematic poetry. But if there's one aspect that really stands out, it's the script, never have I read such a truthful and penetrating story of American suburbia. Every line rings true, and it perfectly shapes the character from whom it's coming from. It's alternately bitterly funny and profoundly moving, delving into the core of life and never shying away from it's realities. I was genuinely amazed with the way the story unfolded, it wasn't just like watching a movie, it was like peering into a couple of lives with a searing intensity. "American Beauty" is definitely a film you want to see, it's too good to miss.

Watching the film at the Razorback 6 Cinema in Fayetteville, Arkansas, I was completely, like the rest of the fifty or so people also watching the film, completely entranced! No, mesmerized is more like it. As a 36 year old aspiring screenwriter confronting my own mid-life crisis, I was literally blown away by the film's raw, emotional power. Kevin Spacey was an absolute marvel. Aside from the magnificent score, beautiful cinematography, and first-rate ensemble acting, this is the best screenplay I have ever read. The delicious irony present in all the characters is utterly remarkable. Of all the fine characters throughout the story, it is perhaps Chris Cooper's colonel which stood out the most. As an abusive, homophobic, ex-military man who is surely not as he seems, he delivers an inspiring performance that leaves audiences gasping with horror. Hats off also to first-time film director, Sam Mendes, and what most certainly will be the first of many Best Director awards. "American Beauty" is filmmaking at the highest level. I, nor anyone else, will ever be the same. Thanks very much for giving us a film we will cherish for generations to come!

This book is the work of a truly inspired writer! It is carefully constructed and gives a real insight into the movie and it's characters. The movie "American Beauty" is undoubtedly one of the greatest cinema experiences to be discovered for quite a while. Set with a great and talented cast, this movie isn't for the over-sensitive people. Alan Ball has found a way to tear at the hearts of even the most insensitive among us. So, without going any further and ruining the experience for all you prospective cinema-goers, I would like to say that this is a great movie for people of all ages ranging from 16- well as old as you get! The only downfall to the script is that some people may find it rather....challenging to understand at first. I'm 17 years old but I have a great love for literature and I found it both inspiring and somewhat addictive.

And I hurried up to Amazon to see if they had the screenplay. This movie is, beyond a doubt, one of the greatest pieces of artwork ever created. Few films manage to make you fall completely in love with every single character. It is more profound than any movie I've ever seen. It moves from shallowest to deepest in a matter of seconds, then shifts back to surface, then dives deeper, deeper, much deeper still. And, if that isn't enough, it is incessantly immensely entertaining.

This movie cuts through materialistic delusions, pretenses of authority, masks of arrogance, and illusions of separation like a lightsaber through butter. It is intensely mystical, intensely profound, intensely real, and if this film does not make you laugh and cry--if it does not touch you in the deepest core of your being--then you are lost in a dream of arrogance and pretension, frighteningly detached from reality. But, as the film's narrator (God, voiced by Kevin Spacey) assures you at the end, you will certainly come around someday. And when you do, when you finally drop the masks and let your heart be torn wide open, then the Timeless Beauty within which all phenomena come and go "like raindrops" will be revealed as your own truest Self, and the unconditioned radiance of Love will be everywhere.

Have I lost you? Is this "mushy" or "strange"? Not materialistic enough, perhaps? Well, don't worry, my friend. One day you'll wake up from this dream, too. And when you do, when you completely die into what you truly are, into the unchanging, timeless center of your being--you will never worry again, and a mysteriously unbearable Beauty will be shining everywhere, as obvious as the morning sun, and as stunning as a bullet through your skull.

In the times we have today, movies can tend to drudge on, and go nowhere. Of the past twenty or so movies that I have seen, i've come out of the theatre saying, "eh..." but I left American Beauty with the feeling that something really phenominal had just past me by. Thus, I saw it again the next weekend, and a whole deeper level and understanding clicked.

The movie itself was a splendid mix of comedy and drama, unlike the movie 3 Kings, which I had seen the day earlier. 3 Kings was borderline between the two, and couldn't really decide what it was. American Beuaty wasn't like that at all. It had me on the brink of tears at times, and laughing my head off at other times. I came out of that movie with a sense of satisfaction. The screenplay gives me the same satisfaction.

American Beauty was a well-rounded work all the way through -- from the acting to the cinematography, from the production design to the score. No surprise, then, that the screenplay holds up just as well as any other component of the film, even as the film consciously (and laudably) went beyond the script's confines and explored much more on an emotional and aesthetic level.

The screenplay (unfortunately, a "shooting script", not an accurate representation of earlier drafts) leans towards comedy a little more without sacrificing the emotional potential of the scenes. The setups and payoffs are brilliant (the Ricky Fitts-Colonel-Lester Burnham dynamic is mind-boggling, and Angela's character arc is highly moving), the dialogue crisp and convincing, and the balance between conventional sitcom techniques and wildly novel scene construction a skillful one.

This published screenplay isn't as useful as a study guide to screenwriting -- the construct of American Beauty is too complex, its multiple-character approach too delicate for just any upstart screenwriter (like yours truly) to emulate. It remains extremely readable, a beautiful experience, and an entity that can exist comfortably both in the context of the film itself (the best film of the last 10 years, I would argue) and outside of it, simply as literature.