Homophobia in American Beauty

American Beauty, the 1999 Best Picture winner directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball.  This Suburban Melodrama focuses on two sets of neighbors The Burnham’s and The Fitts’, these two families come from completely opposite ways of life other than living “The American Dream” as you ‘look closer’ as the tagline from the movie says you find two broken families dealing with their own personal struggles.

Colonel Frank Fitts’ of the USMC (Chris Cooper), a disciplined homophobe that beats his son Ricky (Wes Bentley) and has closeted and mute wife (Allison Janney). From the first glimpse of homosexuality “sexual attraction to members of the same sex.” (Benshoff & Griffin) shown on the screen Frank Fitts displays a deep-seated hatred for his next door neighbors Jim and Jim two ‘out of the closet’ gay men that share a civil union and refer to each other as “partners”.   The Colonel again expresses his homophobia as he watches Jim and Jim run through the neighborhood, he is driving his son Ricky to school and says “How come these faggots always have to rub it in your face?” where Ricky falsely agrees with his father that being gay is something to be ashamed of.

An important detail that was taken out of the film was Colonel Frank Fitts homosocial relationship in his time as a Marine in the Vietnam War. “In these scenes, Colonel Fitts is seen “entwined in the anus of a man, who then dies at the hands of the Vietcong” (Hausmann 128). This causes Colonel Fitts to internalize the shame attached to his sexuality as if he were being punished (James Joseph Flaherty)”. I mentioned earlier that Colonel Fitts is abusive towards his teenage son Ricky, as he beats his son after supposedly giving oral sex to neighbor Lester Burnham but in reality Ricky was rolling a joint for Lester.  The mistaken occurrence leads to the Colonel screaming, “I’d rather you were dead than a fucking faggot!” (Ball) Ricky fights back attacking his father’s biggest weakness his homosexuality, Ricky leaves the room leaving his father behind crying holding his fists in the air, broken.

In his own closeted “metaphorical term for the state of secrecy many queer people were expected to maintain about their sexuality” vulnerability grasping to claim his masculinity he grabs one of his many guns and proceeds next door to murder Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) after his desperate homosexual panic leading to Colonel Fitts kissing Lester, figuring that Lester was also a homosexual.

Alan Ball, the screenwriter of American Beauty intertwines his own personal experience of being a homosexual living in a broken family very similar to the Fitts.  With a cast including countless famous movie stars for example Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey with the direction of a well-known play director, I’ve have came to the realization that American Beauty falls in the category of ‘Prestique Pictures’ being that “they have queer content, but are made by famous directors and feature well known movie stars (Benshoff and Griffin). American Beauty focuses on the sincerity of real people in their real lives, Colonel Frank Fitts struggled continuously with his own reality that he was in fact the thing that he hated the most, a homosexual. 
Works Cited:

http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgiarticle=4756&context=etd_theses

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/

Benshoff, Harry M. and Sean Griffin. America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies. 2nd edition. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

American Beauty 1999 Directed by Sam Mendes

The Dark side of The Golden Age of Hollywood:

After the financial uprising after World War 1 due to the lack of money Europe had to defend themselves during the war. They often burned old film reels to process it to use.  This gave Hollywood a chance to expand further and make more films.  At that time they doubled the amount of films they make today, which means they mass-produced to create mass consumption on the population even during a time of horrible financial depression.  The Hollywood Studio System created a shaky environment.

            Hollywood scandal was at a pivotal point after Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle a well-known character actor signed with Paramount held a three-day party from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  While they were in San Francisco, Virginia Rappe was found dead in Arbuckle’s room after a disputed fight between the two and an alleged rape.  Fatty Arbuckle was arrested and put on trial for the murder, there were three trials it eventually was innocent but he faced being blacklisted from Hollywood. He never acted again. 

In response to the scandal The Hays Code and the Hollywood Production Code of 1924 were created.  The three basic principles of the production code were no picture should be produced if it lowers the moral standards of those who see it; no sympathy for crime, evil or sin. Secondly, all films must show the correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment.  Lastly, law, natural or human shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.  Other principles of the code that weren’t okay to show were white slavery, actual childbirth, co-eds sleeping in the same bed, and surgical operations. Both codes only lasted a few decades. The Hays Code made Directors have to think more creatively to get around the rules if they still wanted to explore grittier and darker themes in their films.

In The Golden Age of Hollywood there were many other scandals.  Girl 27 a documentary film by David Stenn explores the cover up of the 1937 rape of MGM extra Patricia Douglas.  During an all night party where Douglas was dancing and performing, an MGM salesman raped her.  One day it was on the cover of the newspaper and the next it was like nothing ever happened and Patricia Douglas never existed.  Douglas disappeared and never returned to Hollywood.
These scandals had an historical relevance, at a time of depression, prohibition a social outcry of pity grew into being the norm. Films were being affected by the social nature this time.  Film Noir, a genre that showed the femme fatale a woman vixen ruthless which paralleled to history since woman were asked to work during war-time women had more choices to make and had to possibility to make a life for themselves.  While women were ruthless, the Private Eye the man lead who often tried to catch the fatale who was often paranoid and lonely.  

Works Cited:

http://movies.netflix.com/WiPlayer?movieid=70059385&trkid=496682

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912586/

http://history1900s.about.com/od/famouscrimesscandals/a/fattyarbuckle.htm

Benshoff, Harry M. and Sean Griffin. America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies. 2nd edition. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.