American Beauty..Look Closer essays

American Beauty..Look Closer essays A lot of video imagery is used in the film American Beauty with mainly a Sony DV camera and the character Ricky as the voyeur. It brought reality to viewer through Rickys' way of looking at things which was often through the video image. Conrad Hall,( director of photography), for the film American beauty has won Academy Award for his work on the classic western "Butch Cassidy and he Sundance Kid". He has earned many Oscars nominations in movies such as "Tequila Sunrise", "The Professionals", "Searching for Bobby Fischer", and most recently, "Civil Action" Hall is renowned for his delicate use of shadow and precise lighting to enhance the mood of intimate drama. The very last shot in the film is "the Plastic Bag" scene. It's a plastic that just keeps whirling in the breeze. You're not sure what it means but the simple beauty has profound effect. The title is ironic in that of theme to movie. Which is that nothing is what it appears to be on the surface. That there is life behind things and its much more interesting and real than the veneer of reality that we all sort of tacitly agree to accept in life. ...