American Beauty [Blu-ray]

 

 

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American Beauty BD Sapphire Series
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Chris Cooper, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari
Director: Sam Mendes
Paramount Pictures | 1999 | 122m | Rated R |

Video
MPEG-4 AVC | 1080p | 2.35:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French, Portuguese, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles
English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish

Discs
Single 50GB Blu-ray disc, region free

American Beauty won Oscars for actor in a leading role (Kevin Spacey), cinematography (Conrad L. Hall), director (Sam Mendes), screenplay (Alan Ball) and best picture (Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks). It's a weird tale told in an unusual way.

We learn during the opening narration that our protagonist, Lester Burnham (Spacey), is going to die. The events leading up to his eventual death are funny, moving, sad and unpredictable. Burnham is a pathetic character entering a mid-life crisis and the film shows how his character changes, as well as the lives of the people around him. There is a significant amount of character development in this story.

It's not strictly a comedy, but it's full of dark humor that is hard to predict. In short, it's the funniest kind of humor. If you found Fargo and Inglourious Basterds amusing, you'll probably laugh at this too.

Burnham changes his life by becoming more assertive and ceasing to care what other people might think. This catalyst for this rebellion is a meeting with his new neighbor, Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) who gets high with him before quitting his job on the spot.

The film contains nudity, violence, bad language, drug use and smoking, so the R-rating is warranted.

One of the most important themes of the film is beauty, as you might guess from the title. What is beauty? How do different people define beauty? The contrast between how the characters view other people is startling in places. Some like what they are told to like and dress how they are told to dress. Others are true individuals and express themselves differently. It's interesting to see.

Another theme is the dysfunctional family. The two main families couldn't be more different. The one thing they do have in common is that they are living a lie and mostly playing the roles assigned to them. They gradually change throughout the movie and try to bring meaning to their lives.

I'm in the minority, but I consider this Spacey's best role. American Beauty just makes my Top 10 of all time and it's largely due to his performance. The supporting cast also does good work. Annette Bening deals with Burnham's change in her own way while Thora Birch ignores both parents and lives her own life. Chris Cooper has a small but important role.

Video Quality 3.5/5:

The Sapphire Series is off to an inconsistent start. While Braveheart was given an exceptional transfer, Gladiator was not so lucky. There was also an audio problem on Saving Private Ryan. The good news is that Paramount offered a free upgrade to fix the problems. Unfortunately, many people will be disappointed with American Beauty on Blu-ray.

There's no question that the picture quality is significantly better than that of the DVD. The problem is it's inconsistent. The majority of the film is plagued by frequent white speckles on the image and occasional print damage. Detail is vastly improved, but the images still look a bit drab and subdued due to the source material. Colours look good throughout and red is boosted in some scenes as Mendes intended.

The few scenes involving Ricky's camcorder look terrible. I know that it's due to the source material, but the contrast between those scenes and the main movie is huge.

Overall, I was pleased with the presentation, but the white speckles were too frequent to be overlooked and were a distraction. I'm not sure whether that could be fixed without a full restoration. If you're a fan of the film, buy the Blu-ray and enjoy the enhanced presentation, but temper expectations. There's no guarantee we'll ever see a better version.

Audio Quality 4.5/5:

The DTS-HD Master Audio track is a big improvement. Ambient sounds such as rain falling are easy to pick out. Thomas Newman's haunting score sounds impressive and adds to the overall mood of the film. Dialogue is always easy to understand and the louder scenes, such as Burnham rocking out while driving, have considerable punch. No complaints at all about the sound presentation.

Special Features 3/5:

Commentary by Sam Mendes and Alan Ball
American Beauty Look Closer (21:52)
Storyboard with Sam Mendes and Conrad L. Hall (1:01:20)
Theatrical Trailers (3:00 and 1:22)

If you're a fan of the film, I would recommend upgrading to this Blu-ray version.

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