Dream Doors

Figure security, Lester was presented in "American Beauty", a bit like a loser. Unless you are a trustworthy person, Lester is subdued at work and behind the door, he fares no better. Once inside the door of his own dream, he is bullied by his wife. The inside and outside his door, he felt the loser is insufficient, he thinks he is. Repeated visual references are made to the door outside the Burnham. It is bright red, is supposed to be a dream! I interpret this as a visual representation of a portal between our outer self and inner. Lester feels like the depths of his being a victim, the transition between the world outside his front door and the world more internally within does not change that fact. The contrast between the beauty of the door of a bright red and the sadness of the spirit of true ownership is striking. It is a voluntary scheme pictorial disconcert the viewer and make us uncomfortable. How can we live in such a beautiful character home environment, the American dream, be emotionally vulnerable as a human being?

The red rose is also a very powerful visual image. Red roses chosen to represent the love and sexual desire are the same red color as the gateway properties. This color is repeated on the retina via printed reference to the views of the door Burnham.

Throughout the drama bitter sweet inside, the story is told from the point of view of fathers. His wife is unaware of the slippery slope, they are all like a family place. It is the point of women colleagues' view, quite a character understandable. His domestic work and work-oriented behavior, are inimitable self absorbed and ultimately contribute directly to the peak flow internally. Jane, daughter, shares a similar internal landscape than his unhappy father. Instead give them an opening for self-understanding each other, we have the opposite effect. Jane hates his father for his needy poor lack of security and makes it crystal clear his dislike. Again, the Burnham live in the house with the door dream, but they are emotionally closed to each other.

As the doors closed repeatedly Lester, his inner landscape is constantly dark and lonely. Then everything changes, the queue of red roses and a midlife crisis. Suddenly, the red door dream becomes a visual reference to sexual awakening. Lester becomes madly in love with a young woman half his age. A young woman who is also an egocentric unfavorable (friend) of his daughter. The door receives yet another dream character in its destructive domination.

The contrasts do not stop coming at you, between the outer door of dreams, the beauty of youth and discordant internal landscapes cover these facades. All is not completely hopeless, however. Lester is a very strong man to be finally living in a difficult environment. The craze is just that, but he did kick start in a positive action. Literally affirmative action, he started running, lifting weights, watching his diet, habit. Taking some extra care for his physical body has the knock on effect to make him see his own value.