# American Beauty--Why pull back at the end? (Unboxed spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 25, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-beauty-why-pull-back-at-the-end-unboxed-spoilers/318630 "2005-08-25T21:40:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-beauty-why-pull-back-at-the-end-unboxed-spoilers/318630/21 "2005-08-26T14:21:59Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > All the baby-boober malaise … Hey now, that’s not a nice way to talk about Mena Suvari! Oh, wait… never mind. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-beauty-why-pull-back-at-the-end-unboxed-spoilers/318630/22 "2005-08-26T14:36:02Z")
I don’t think the main character just went to being irresponsible. I think he just realized that his life wasn’t his own. He realized that he hated his job so he left. He realized that he could have the car he wanted to have and not the car he was supposed to have. He realized that he could smoke a joint and he could work out and be in shape. Getting in shape is not irresponsible. He became responsible for his actions and made himself happy. He made sure he got a severance package at work so his family would be OK. IIRC there was a dropped plot of the kids, the daughter and the drug dealer, being blamed for the crime because of the video. Then again Annette Benning had fired a gun that day and had hidden that gun in the bedroom. (but ballistics should clear her) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-beauty-why-pull-back-at-the-end-unboxed-spoilers/318630/23 "2005-08-26T15:05:25Z")
Mena Suvari is **not** hot. I know that doesn’t exactly pertain to the discussion, but I just wanted to say that. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-beauty-why-pull-back-at-the-end-unboxed-spoilers/318630/24 "2005-08-26T16:04:37Z")
Lester was going thru a major transition thru the _whole_ movie. It was a _step by step process_. Old Lester: Miserable with his job, out of shape, lusting over a teenage girl, etc. **Important** : it is the Old, unhappy Lester that gets a crush on the girl. New Lester: Doing happy stuff, in shape, having a meaningful conversation with the teenage girl, etc. The pullback is a natural part of the transition from Old Lester to New Lester. As it also happens, it’s the final part of the transition. So, he’s finally happy. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-beauty-why-pull-back-at-the-end-unboxed-spoilers/318630/25 "2005-08-26T16:21:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Mena Suvari is not hot. Oh, that’s where you’re wrong. I sat through a really crappy season of Six Feet Under on the slim hope that we’d see her and Lauren Ambrose get into some girl-girl. > [@](#): > > But the Plastic Bag scene was good (it’s a shame Wes Bentley hasn’t done anything noteworthy since). He’s done some OK work in his other two personas, Tobey McGuire and Joaquin Phoenix. I am not convinced that these are three separate people. ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-beauty-why-pull-back-at-the-end-unboxed-spoilers/318630/26 "2005-08-27T16:33:44Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Gosh, I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thought the movie was badly overrated. I was beginning to feel I was alone in the universe. [God, a la Family Guy] It’s just some trash blowing in the wind! Do you have any idea how complex your circulatory system is?! [/God] I thought the movie was rather overrated, too. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-beauty-why-pull-back-at-the-end-unboxed-spoilers/318630/27 "2005-08-27T19:21:56Z")
> [@Monstre](#): > > [God, a la Family Guy] > It’s just some trash blowing in the wind! Do you have any idea how complex your circulatory system is?! > [/God] “The symbols of the divine show up in our world initially at the trash stratum.” – Philip K. Dick ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-beauty-why-pull-back-at-the-end-unboxed-spoilers/318630/28 "2005-08-27T21:36:07Z")
[anagram mode] Lester Burnham Humbert learns [/am] ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-beauty-why-pull-back-at-the-end-unboxed-spoilers/318630/29 "2005-08-27T22:10:42Z")
> [@The Gaspode](#): > > Humbert learns I lean more towards Joyce. Lester Burnham shares initials with Leopold Bloom – they both work in advertising – they are both transfixed by a glimpse of a young girls knickers – they are both in sexless marriages – they are both resigned to their wive’s affairs with tedious braggarts – they both strike up a friendship with young asthete that’s obsessed with the platonic significance of the mundane, in both instances typified by a grocery container – floral imagery is key, and on, and on, and on… Of course, Alan Ball hadn’t read _Ulysses_ when he wrote _American Beauty_, and intended no such parallels – just as Umberto Eco hadn’t read _Illuminatus!_ when he wrote _Foucault’s Pendulum_. “No new thing under the sun,” and all that. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-beauty-why-pull-back-at-the-end-unboxed-spoilers/318630.md?page=1)