Cinema allows the union of people from different social classes in the same place, which helps the viewer to identify as a collective and to generate the release of memories of the events that have marked their history (Harwood & Roy, 2005). For example, in American Beauty, the film, beauty is presented as something subjective, something that should not be imposed nor should appearances drive our lives. These types of films help to build cultural identity, create memory and establish a social fabric.
In the psychological field, the belief that what matters in life is to have lived, to have the courage to do what we wanted to do and not what others expected us to do, has been analyzed. There is a very important element in the film, in that world of appearances, which is the great materialism shown in American Beauty (Mendes et al., 1999), as if making us see that what is important is the material and the image, that is, what we project to others, leaving aside being what we want. Certain more privileged residential spaces (North American suburbs) are accompanied by stories in which everyday experience approaches the banal or inconsequential.
Everything is created for a purpose. The cultural industries are carriers of culture, both popular and mass. Any of the cultural industries serves as a means of disseminating products. Therefore, the viewer must be trained to analyze what he consumes; to create a criterion based on what he sees, and thus not modify his/her behavior or way of thinking (Harwood & Roy, 2005).
The main objective of the culture industry is to sell products through the media, with a clear ideological function that tries to instill in the masses and fix their obedience to market goods. When American Beauty was released it was an unexpected commercial success, both critics and audiences hailed it as the best film of 1999, winning a total of 86 awards, six of them at the Oscars. It was a surprise as it deals with a sensitive subject in a very open way that normally the rigid American morality always avoided (Scott, 2004). The film managed to be a box office success and was critically acclaimed, both in the most avant-garde and cultural sectors.
This film is a cultural product because it is a representation of the world and its components. We could say that this film is a cultural product because its content has become symbolic content, an identifying sign for consumer markets, the whole of what it intends to convey. Analyzing American Beauty (Mendes et al., 1999) as a cultural product, is interesting of the way of representing the social through the characters. This is through the presentation of a stereotypical American family where little by little each character begins to break down, without being able to keep up appearances.
The existential analysis discovers in the unconscious a dimension of the religious. This gives an account of an unconscious state of relationship with God, rather a relationship of transcendence in man. For man, there is always an unconscious tendency to God, beyond the positions that man holds about religions (Madison, 2010). The one who demands appeals to the supposed unconditionality of the other. The latter has to give him what he asks for. Beyond the particularity of each demand, we find this unconditionality. A demand that is a demand for love and recognition.
The current hysterics and existential sufferings of today present themselves under another form, often diffuse, vague, and overlapped in other forms of existence. In a changing society such as the one described, many considered that the knowledge of people provided by psychoanalysis and behaviorism was incomplete and distorted, concluding that what was needed was a new vision of psychology that emphasized neither the importance of the mind nor that of the body, but the importance of the human spirit (Turner & Reynolds, 2003).
The humanistic-existential approach, then, represents an alternative to psychoanalysis and behaviorism, which assumes that people are free to choose their kind of existence; therefore, instead of attributing the causes of behavior to stimuli, genetics, or early experiences, psychologists who adopt this framework consider that the most important cause of the behavior is then the subjective reality (Iverach et al., 2014).
From an existentialist point of view, it is detailed that humans choose the nature of their existence. It is the capacity of choice or free will that makes us responsible for our own lives and even more, a source of guilt in the case of not exercising it. In other words, if we do not exercise our freedom we will experience guilt. Everyone could reduce guilt by trying to live an authentic life, that is, by recognizing and living being faithful to our ability to choose our existence, this faithfulness and ability will allow us to live authentically. For example, anxiety, in Heidegger’s view, is a necessary part of authentic living.
In this film, one can highlight, on the one hand, the fragility before the immense and anonymous power of the economic cosmos that surrounds itself, and on the other hand, the mechanical character, lacking spiritual sustenance and ineluctably subjected to the rationalization of existence. And in these aspects too, in which the irrational stands out, unlike other times of inflection, there is a greater component of the search for balance, of a tendency towards homeostasis (Li et al., 2020), but with the same liberating spirit, with the same engine that triggers it, which is emancipation, the search for freedom and the affective now as a guide for our actions.
A new ethic arises in the face of the imposed uniform order, be it laws, religious dogmas, or scientific theories incapable of adapting to the daily complexity and circumstantial heterogeneity. Individuals look at their reality and demystify everything that pretends to pigeonhole and organize their way of living based on norms that do not consider them.
American Beauty (Mendes et al., 1999) belongs to mass culture because it has been seen by millions of people in its beginnings and is still being reproduced today. It has had a commercial culture since its objective was to be a box-office success. It has been aimed at a consumer society, which has identified in many situations with the roles played by each character and with the lifestyle of the families. In the character of Jane, the protagonist’s daughter, we can see the typical teenager tormented by her complexes. On the other hand, Carolyn shows the role of the typical perfect and hard-working mother. Lester, on the other hand, shows to be content with the life he has even though it lacks emotion. Then we have Angela, Jane’s best friend, blonde, and cheerleader of the high school team. These portrayals are based on standardization and respond to fixed patterns of behavior that most American films normally display. However, as the narrative structure progresses, between comedy and melancholy, the rawness shows us the true personalities of the characters (Harwood & Roy, 2005). The feature film wants to highlight the characteristics of America, it aims to identify and recognize where the film is set. Being a critique of American culture, all the features are very clear and marked: a wealthy neighborhood, a large and perfectly furnished house, and the typical high school student who belongs to the cheerleading squad.
Throughout the film, the roses in the house go completely unnoticed by Lester, Carolyn is the only one who takes care of the roses in the garden, but from the outside, the ones inside the house are only seen in the background of some shots. This can be related to the beauty that is hidden in the day-to-day that few people see. The roses are a way to reinforce what the film is trying to convey as well as the final scene of the bag. They are two contradictory elements but with a clear message (Mendes et al., 1999). On the one hand, we have the roses that have the purpose of transmitting that ideal of beauty as opposed to a simple paper bag dancing in the wind. We should not look for the perfection of beauty, but it can be found where we least expect it, as in this case: a simple paper bag. We should not look for beauty, but know how to see it.
The representations of others play with subjective material of two types: with a specific purpose or recreated images of characters (Arredondo & Caparrós, 2019). Relating the film to the representations of images of others created for a specific purpose, we can say that American Beauty is a film that aims to make the viewer reflect on appearances, with consumerism as the protagonist. On the other hand, in recreated images of characters, we see a percentage of American society, since a large majority is being portrayed.
The dissatisfied and bored father with the routine he has both at the family and work level leaves his job to start working in a hamburger restaurant. This type of franchise is typical of American society. We also find the stereotype of the authoritarian father who finds it difficult to relate to other people, with a marked patriotism, faithful to his country and the values that built it. The mother and wife take care of the family, who wants to maintain order and stability, and who also takes care of the garden so that everything is perfect and in order. It is the woman who always appears in this type of role. The stereotype of the American lifestyle is that almost all live in terraced houses, on long streets, with their mailbox in the front yard and their garage to park their cars. The cheerleader, the pretty and popular teenager that everyone admires in high school, that everyone wants to be, is a very marked stereotype of American movies, as seen in the character of Angela Hayes. The drug theme is also a very typical theme of American films, which can be seen in American Beauty, in the characters of the teenager Ricky who provides his neighbor Lester with marijuana. As for sex, it is a very recurrent theme in American films. It can be seen in several scenes such as the relationship between Ricky and Lester’s daughter, like Lester’s relationship with Angela. The film shows several features of American life as seen from several different points of view.
The film represents the postmodern culture in which all people are represented, with profiles such as independent women or homosexuality in characters such as Frank Fittis who breaks with the military stereotype. It also explicitly exposes sex and drugs, the consumerism of capitalist society, middle-class mediocrity, and personal triumph to make the viewer reflect critically on the failure of the American dream. American Beauty makes fun of the great importance given to single-family residences, as well as the obsession with social and material success. To do so, it uses Carolyn, whose personality has been absorbed by the importance she gives to the objects she surrounds herself with and behind which she hides her unhappiness (the perfect roses in the garden, the elevator music at dinner, the expensive sofa upholstered in Italian silk), inspired by the media models that shape her reality. The verbal inability or lack of communication between family members is exposed in the film through fixed shots that frame the neighboring families in silence, or heated discussions, in the dining room or front of the television. American Beauty criticizes the model of the ideal American family, from the outside. The perfect and impeccable house hides unhappiness. The roses and the objects are a metaphor for the materialism that replaces the problems.
On the other hand, American society cannot be defined as a unitary whole through the use of a few representations. Culture implies diversity; in the same society, there is a multitude of identities and expressions, which do not respond to a single profile (Li et al., 2020). Hence, the duality exists in the very conception of mass culture; as an instrument of domination, but at the same time as a means of organizing and transmitting experience.
One of the methodological variables that can best help to interpret filmic texts and their social impact today, more than criticism or theory generated by the cultural elite, is that of their audience. That is how the audience (as a non-professionalized entity) participates in cultural manifestations through its interaction (Dezutter et al., 2017). Therefore, this idea has considered as an irreducible part of its study methodology the audience’s preferences through their consumption of cinema, taking into account the context of their choice, as developed in the subsection on the artistic value of audience ratings.
A dialogue is possible, if we agree on two minimums and requirements, on the one hand, to respect the diversity and the truth that inhabits each of the positions; and on the other hand, for a dialogue to take place, the interested parties must be aware of their faults, their shortcomings and that each of them does not possess the whole truth. In that sense, it is somewhat difficult to be able to engage in a dialogue if the parties involved feel satisfied with themselves (Arredondo & Caparrós, 2019). Moreover, humanity has given several examples of intolerance and arrogance, which have led to fratricidal and sterile struggles.
Understanding is useful to face the challenges that daily life imposes, and stops in the face of vital, existential problems, typical of human beings. Understanding leads to a dead end in the face of problems such as life and death. The being resists any intellectual maneuver.
At the religious level, it has been stressed that the Christian faith can never be reduced to public opinion. However, even with all its limitations and shortcomings, there is no doubt that faith has given rise to an identity profoundly marked by the presence of different points of view (Hong, 2012). The adjective Christian applied to this culture seeks to reflect only the fact that this culture has as its foundation an anthropological model, in this case, the man in the light of revelation, which finds its fullness only in Christ. It is a culture built on a series of elements present in revelation, a sort of metaphysical constant of Christianity.
In the analysis of the context of the film, the climax of this type of film is reflected now that Lester wakes up from the situation when he observes Angela Hayes, with petals of roses, with a passage to laziness and enjoyment of life. As a cardinal sin laziness, with a highlight on lust.
As an analysis of the religious aspect and Christian faith, several aspects can be highlighted, principles that every Christian culture, regardless of the historical form it acquires, must possess as a foundation if it is to be worthy of the name. A culture of truth and love means recognizing the centrality of man who is capable of truth and goodness. It is an option for realism, that is, a commitment to the consistency of the material and spiritual world that postulates an attitude of acceptance. Faced with the permanent temptation of the modern world, which makes praxis the principle of the subject’s self-realization, a culture of truth shifts the center of gravity from praxis to listening and makes acceptance the fundamental attitude (Boggs & Pollard, 2003). This dynamism unfolds into a receptive and respectful attitude towards reality in all its dimensions, especially in the person of the other, as an eminent form of being and a privileged place for the manifestation of truth.
A culture of truth, which unveils the relativism and skepticism proper to the weak thinking of our time, affirms, yes, the existence of objective truths independent of the subject, but before which the subject must fold his intelligence, and thus excludes all kinds of violence.
It is not the occurrence of truth that leads to fundamentalism, but rather its ignorance and contempt. Moreover, if the great monotheistic religions have known episodes of violence throughout their millennia-long history, this is not a fatal consequence of revelation, as has been repeatedly repeated these days. Scientific and technological thinking slowly modifies our way of perceiving the world and creates new expectations (Booth, 2002). The Church cannot remain on the margins of this reality. Nevertheless, for this, it is important to invest generously in the formation of young scientists, passionate researchers, and sincere believers who will achieve in their lives the synthesis between science and faith without sacrificing one for the other.
With this analysis of the media, such as the cinema. The media not only transmit culture, as was once the case, but also, in a certain sense, create it. It is enough to think of the planetary influence that some television series or certain films can have. The social models they convey have an immeasurable potential for irradiation (Harwood & Roy, 2005). However, once again, it is not a matter of closing our eyes to reality and renouncing these media.
Another of the greatest achievements of faith in the contemporary world is that it has allowed itself to be phagocytized by globalization. Globalization is a concept restricted to its sense of transnational economic interdependence. It is one of the most ungraspable concepts because, in reality, it is a matter of focus (Iverach et al., 2014). Many read it as the disastrous cause of injustice, pauperization, and ecological damage. Others see it as the best opportunity for human rapprochement, the key to an era of peace brought about by the reduction of national economic antagonisms. It is, in fact, almost a mantra, an almost religious universal explanation.
Nor can we forget the role of religious violence as a brake on the development and the expected reach of true faith. Violence and the sacred have accompanied humanity since the dawn of creation. It is known that religious beliefs will generate in those who profess them a series of emotions and feelings that are part of the person’s own identity (Dezutter et al., 2017). Once it has been determined that both freedoms of expression and religious freedom are legal assets worthy of protection, the question is how the law protects one and the other, and in what cases when conflict arises, one should prevail over the other.
Certainly, freedom of expression is the basis of any pluralistic society, which implies and carries with it the criticism from which religion cannot escape. However, the problem lies not so much, or not only, in the words expressed, but also in the way they are expressed.
When criticism is objective and contributes to the social debate, freedom of expression is enriched and coexistence in pluralism is enriched; however, when what is expressed is done with the purpose of offending or mocking the followers of a particular religion, when conflict arises, and in this case, it will be necessary to take into account not only the subjective element but also the circumstances, the forms, the place and the context in which they are produced (Urgesi et al., 2011).
In the vertical direction, the mystical element, man properly experiences the divine as the foundation of being and the meaning of life, both personally and communally. In the horizontal direction, the active element, man experiences the divine as a transforming element, as a force that transforms what is apprehended by it, the religious sphere of ethics and responsibility, of the struggle for justice and personal fulfillment, for the transformation of the structures of individual and social evil.
Modern society, in its legitimate search for the transformation of the conditions of the world, for comfort, order, and functionality, has believed that it has reached the perfect formula of happiness by renouncing the transcendent dimension. Reflection on these concepts and the existential character of the religious fact allows us, finally, to interpret the essence of spiritual experience as a question about the meaning of life or openness to the dimension of the depth of life.
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