This paper is an examination of the film, American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes, looking at one of the Oedipal structures in the film and considering why this particular relationship holds such fascination. The relationship studied is that of the Fitts family. The father, a career Marine, rules the family with a strict hand, but he is unable to control the fact that his discipline has turned his wife into a nearly catatonic figure and his son into an extremely successful drug dealer and voyeur. By the film's end, the son has rebelled against the father and managed to destroy him, in a remarkable completion of the Oedipus myth, as reinterpreted by Freud. The story is compelling and involving, in part because of some exquisite performances that help to illuminate the complex psychology of the participants and in part because the story, even though extreme, is so universal at its dramatic heart.
Colonel Frank Fitts, United States Marine Corps (Chris Cooper), is a tightly wound man. He collects guns, insists on a perfectly kept house, and keeps a watchful eye on his only son, Ricky (Wes Bentley). His most prized possession is a single piece of china, a plate that was once part of the official china service of the Nazi party.
His wife, Barbara (Allison Janney), spends most of her days sitting almost motionless, staring at the cold, well-appointed home. At night, she sits next to her husband on the couch in the living room, watching black and white army comedies from the 1940s, barely registering either the movie or her husband's uproarious laughter at the antics of the comic soldiers on the screen.
Colonel Fitts has good reason to watch his son. The 18 year-old has spent the last few years in a mental institution, trying to correct his strange behavior. Fitts continues to insist on periodic urine tests to make sure that Ricky is clean.
However Ricky is smarter than his father. He has been quietly earning thousan...