Comparing Lester of American Beauty and Ricci of The Bicycle Thief
In American Beauty Kevin Spacey who plays Lester lives a typical middle class life
with his family. His wife is having an affair, his rebellious daughter doesn’t talk to him and his neighbors are psycho. In contrast The Bicycle Thief portrays a tight family. Riccis wife loves him, his behaved son talks to him and his neighbors are helpful when a crises occurs. In both of these films the main characters, Lester and Ricci, go through a responsibility stage. Both must make a life changing experience, either good or bad, that will have an effect on the people around them.
Lester decides to make a few changes in his rut of life, changes that are less
mid-life and more adolescence like. While he slowly goes through these changes on film
one can see that the more responsibility he gives up the more happy he becomes. What he
gives up to make him happy, though, only makes his family more hateful towards him. It
isn’t that he gave up his responsibilities to improve his relationship with his daughter or improve it with his wife but to be selfish and gratify himself from what he lost when he was young. He does reckless and foolish things in this movie, but he doesn’t deceive
himself, he knows he’s running wild--and chooses to. He let these feelings over power
him and he almost let this irresponsibility get the best of him when he found himself alone with his daughters best friend. It’s perfectly natural to have feelings like he has toward her but there came a time with him when he saw what he was going to do was not right. So he refrained and actually gained a friend. (After he has been losing people left and right) His ability to refrain from his action...
... middle of paper ...
...l up Ricci throughout his search encounters indifference to humanity
and incivility of others. Ricci fights within himself to be the better person but only ends up in internal conflict with himself. He loses his respect for himself and we are astonished by his indecency toward other people of Riccis same impoverished disposition. On the other hand American Beauty dabbles with the question how uncivil and inhuman can
someone lower themselves to over a short period of time. But Lester proves us wrong.
His obsession with Angela in the end turns into an act of humanism and civility towards
someone who is naive. Both of these main characters traits, at some point in everyone’s
life, have delivered or even taught a lesson about refraining from some sort of action that could end up in consequences that are defiant against ones own code of conduct or
someone else’s.
... report also explains that illegal downloading of movies and TV have nearly halved “with 65 million film and 55 million TV shows illegally downloaded in 2012, compared to 125 million and 135 million respectively in 2008.”
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle believed that happiness requires virtue; hence a person who wanted to be happy needed “virtuous amounts of character.” Socrates identifies happiness with pleasure and exp...
I also know that sometimes I need to give up my right of happiness for others. For example, there was a man on a boat along with other men. And there was a quarrel on the boat. As a result, everyone was given a place. So the man decided to dig a hole at his place, justifying that by saying that is his right and place. So if they allowed him, they all would be in danger. And if they prevented him, they would have denied his right .In this case, I personally think that man should give up his right for the sake of others. Of course, you may not agree or consider the right to dig a hole at that man’s place, but
Grahm, Paul. (2005) The Journal of Religion and Film: Revisiting Violence in The Godfather: The Ambiguous Space of the Victimage Model. http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/Vol9No2/grahamGodfather.htm accessed 10 December 2010
Society pressure themselves to be happy; they often ask questions like, “does that make you happy?” What they fail to understand is that sometimes doing the right thing, for the moment, might not seem to bring happiness in one’s life, but after trekking the ups and downs of life, happiness might be waiting on the other side. From time to time people also judge good and bad through happiness. “If something is good, we feel good. If something is
	Antonio's new job can bring his family new hopes and happiness, which are drastically destroyed when his bicycle is stolen. The banal circumstances are brought to life when it is realized that a modest bicycle is such an important element in determining the future survival of the Ricci family. Human optimism is there, beginning with Antonio's excitement when he gets his bike from the pawn shop, and the next morning when the family joyfully interacts before setting out for work. These scenes contain the promises that a modest job can bring and the dignity and pride of being able to once more function within Italian society. T...
the entire story. He was trying to redeem himself as a good father and a
The Bicycle Thief is a portrait of Italy's collective consciousness, haunted by its disturbing past and disillusioned towards its future. Works Cited for: "The ' URL:http://www.film.queensu.ca/Critical/Bonikowski.html.
The protagonists in both American Beauty and Chocolat challenge social constraint and the need to conform, in order to achieve individual freedom. Lester Burnham is a middle aged man who has encountered his mid-life crisis and has lost sight of beauty in the world, but after meeting his Daughter, Jane’s, ‘best-friend’ Angela, Lester falls for her, which challenges social constraint, but at first, Lester only fantasises about her. The director, Sam Mendes, shows that it is a fantasy through recurring techniques through the different fantasies, such as the background becoming black, a spot light on Lester and Angela, rose petals and close ups on both characters. After Lester met his new neighbour’s son Ricky Fitts, he began to see himself in Ricky and remembered a time when he lived without care and “had my[his] whole life ahead of me[him]”. Lester begins to relive his teenage years where he “flipped burgers … party and got laid”, but then defies social constraints to chase after the teenage girl, Angela to hopefully rekindle his youth. Lester’s actions through the movie demonstrates the social constraints on middle aged men showing that one that follows social expectation “sell[s] our[their] souls and work for Satan”. Vianne Rocher in Chocolat, is depicted as working for Satan in Father Reynaud’s eyes, but compared to American Beauty where “work[ing] for Satan” is following the status quo of society but in Chocolat is the opposite where it would be rebellious and one would be an outsider for doing so in the strictly Christian town of Lansquenet. Vianne, as soon as she moved into Lansquenet, was noticed as the outcast as her daughter, Anouk, was illegitimate and they were offering temptation to the town through chocolate during the ...
that he recieves from his sons, and the way he alienates himself. All of these
Even though things do not always go the way in which we would anticipate, personal responsibility will have a direct or ancillary effect on others because my character of integrity that is solely in my control and my part in taking personal responsibility. Therefore, I define myself by which decisions I choose to make, not blaming or pointing fingers in any direction, but acceptance of what is my own.
Epicurus argues that the greatest secret to happiness is to be as independent of external things as possible. Being content with the simple things in life ensures that you will never be disappointed. He goes to the extent of saying that a person following these ideals ‘will leave as a god among men.’
The one of the main themes in the epilogue, and in the entire novel is
...major sin, he also knows that he must avenge his father's death. He could not continue to live knowing that he was not able to put his father's soul to rest, "My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth."
when individual needs are met. The man of consciousness can be happy, even if his