Sam Mendes: A Comparison Between “American Beauty” and “Road To Perdition”

Paper by Katharina Martin. Viewed on DVD.

The past life experiences of Sam Medes have major influences on his two films American Beauty and Road to Perdition. Although he calls America home, Mendes is English-born whose background includes a divorced family and a Cambridge education. Because of his focus on theater and Broadway, Medes has gained a unique perspective unusual to conventional movie directors in terms of approach and style. Both American Beauty and Road to Perdition are unique in their own ways, one using color as a theme and the other using camerawork. In order to discern the proper meaning Mendes means to portray in his movies, one must first examine the past experiences that have formed his creativity that is seen today.

Born in 1965, Sam Mendes grew up in Reading, England surrounded by intelligence and creativity. With a lecturer as a father, and writers for a mother and grandfather, it was no surprise that Sam Mendes graduated Cambridge with an expressed interest in English and theater direction. On the subject of his childhood, Mendes states’ “I was always surrounded by books, so I’d say it was a combination of books and TV that fueled my interest, movies not so much then” (Simon). After a successful start to his directing career, Mendes became artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse in London in 1992. It was after his promotion that he began to be noticed internationally, which eventually prompted to him in 1999 to make his first movie American Beauty (GradeSaver). With seven years of notable theater experience, Mendes shaped his first motion piece through utilizing stage techniques unique to the industry. Because American Beauty was produced in America, Mendes was far from his origins, which brought a unique quality to his work. Mendes’ appreciation for America begins with his recognition of his foreign status. He states, “I am fascinated by America, no question about that… I don’t think it’s weird for an outsider to go and make movies that are quintessentially American. I think the 20th century shows that there is a tradition of people being drawn to America as the site of the great mythic landscape. You can tell big stories there that you might not be able to tell with such scale and grace elsewhere (IMDb)”. In 1999, Sam Mendes was led to America to create his masterpiece American Beauty.
A few years prior to his film career, Mendes put on a revival of the Broadway show Cabaret. This show, originally shown at the Kit Kat Klub, would eventually earn Mendez a Tony-nomination. The emerging talent of Sam Mendes caught director Stephen Spielberg’s attention, which eventually led to him to show Mendes a career-changing script. This was the script that within the next few years would become his film debut American Beauty.

Because of his history in theater, Mendes developed the amazing images seen in this movie through many rehearsals. Generally, it is expected that the actor deliver a satisfactory performance within a few takes. Mendes on the other hand, found it important to rehearse in order to make sure the subtle nuances of the performance were not lost in the rush to keep production moving.  Mendes quotes, “My process is slow and I enjoy it too much to rush. And I like to return to the theater between films. But after not doing any movies for a few years, perhaps I might do two in two years” (Sam Mendes).  Indeed, the first films Sam Mendes directed were within three years of each other and were both nominated for several awards. After his double success of American Beauty and Road to Perdition, Mendes disappeared from the film scene for about three years. In these three years, Mendes directed a couple Broadway shows and started Neal Street Productions, a film and theatre production company. Yet despite a couple attempts beginning in 2005, it wasn’t until about 2007 that Medes made a film that again caught the nomination spotlight. However, American Beauty and Road To Perdition are both memorable and unique films that can stand to be called works of art. They both deliver a moving story that digs deep into innate human interaction and feelings that can be compared to the realistic style of theater. This, in turn ends up being the special edge Mendes adds to his films.

American Beauty is a carefully constructed film in which a depressed man in a dysfunctional family discovers beauty. Lester is a character who begins as a pathetic, disheartened man who has basically given up on making his life worth living. When he is first introduced, the audience is informed via Lester’s narration of his impending death. Throughout the film, Lesters’ character changes dramatically as a result of the beauty he begins to see. The image of the rose is used to represent this beauty and is repeated often, usually appearing when Lester is thinking about daughter’s friend Angela. Mendes uses rose petals as oppose to the entire flower during Lester’s fantasy scenes about Angela. He does this in order to associate Angela with the soft innocence of a petal, rather than including the thorns. This innocence is ultimately what leads Angela to being Lester’s window to American Beauty.
Contrastingly, the full rose is used in association with Lester’s wife, Carolyn. Here is a character obsessed with projecting the American image of perfection. She is so distracted in her conquest for flawlessness, she doesn’t see anything else that is going on around her. Her husband is far from the up beat, wonderful person she would like him to be. Instead, he is a downward spiraling loser who buys pot from his teenage daughters’ boyfriend and has sex fantasies about her best friend. Her daughter resents both her parents, and is becoming familiar her boyfriends’ even more dysfunctional family next door. As Carolyn proceeds to have an affair with “The Real Estate King”, she is so caught up chasing the perfect image that she cannot see the beauty of the imperfect world around her. Although her family’s dysfunctions are apparent, the lie she has created contributes greatly to their problems. Mendes reveals Carolyn to be the “fake” American Beauty to which Lester has been tied. Through his ability to see past Carolyn’s meaningless world, Lester is able to absorb the subtle beauty that is present despite the disastrous state of the world around him.

Mendes uses the color red to convey meaning throughout his film. He does this mainly with the roses, however he uses other items as well. Because American Beauty is supposed to be melodramatic, it is tricky to incorporate the beauty in Lester’s life as an undertone throughout the movie. As a solution, Mendes uses accents of red in places such as the front door, Carolyn’s wardrobe and, of course the roses. He first introduces this method when the main character, Lester, is observing his wife cutting roses. As the neighbor exclaims, “I just love your roses!” the audience’s attention is immediately drawn to the flower. Likewise, at the end of the film Carolyn is driving home dressed in red with a matching manicure, and rolls down her car window to frame her red front door. Both of these scenes have great significance to the film. Carolyn cutting roses as an introduction of both her persona and the theme, and Carolyn crying in the rain as her delusional world falls apart.

As a result of his use of roses and color, Mendes lightens the tone of the movie just enough to reveal the beauty in Lester’s world. Roses are placed strategically in scenes that have heavy content, because they are the metaphor of beauty that can be found in an ugly world. Mendes strives to maintain the dark tone of the film while he shows Lester’s pursuit of beauty. He structures it so as to divert attention from the bleakness of the overall situation and direct it towards looking for the splendor in the world. Mendes effectively distracts the audience from Lester’s impending doom, so much that his death still comes as a surprise. However, when the time does come, Mendes has already instilled in his audience the beauty that Lester has discovered in his world. Although the story does not end happily, the downfall of Lester comes with an almost calm acceptance because he had discovered beauty in a world full of unpleasant circumstances.  When Lester is shot, the audience can still see the beauty of the story as a whole.

Contrastingly, The Road to Perdition uses camerawork to convey emotions throughout the film. The story is centered on a hit man for the Irish mob, Michael Sullivan Sr, and his son Michael Sullivan, Jr. The period of the movie is set during the Depression in 1931, and tells the tale of the destruction of innocence and the reality of experience the Sullivans’ world. A major part of this film is betrayal and how it influences various relationships to become stronger and how it causes others disintegrate. There are several instances in which both long and close-up camera shots are used. An example of this can be seen in the sequences when the men first realize their driver has been shot. This focusing of the camera shots on the characters help the viewer understand that characters’ position in the movie, while long shots seem to bring the setting into the actual plot of the movie. After the camera focuses on the worried face of the mob boss, it pans a long distance shot of the street while the shooting begins. In contrast, there are various close-ups while the shooting is taking place. Right before he is killed, the camera cuts between the mob boss Paul Newman, and to the other mob men. As the close-up shots reveals the character to the viewer, the concern of the shooter and the mob boss is apparent. Right before he is killed, the camera switches between Sullivan’s face and the mob boss’s face. These techniques help Mendes to create meaning without having to use words. The close up shot on Sullivan provides that the viewer is able to see the hesitation in his eyes. The use of these various cinematic techniques allows the viewer to understand the film and the characters without the use of language. The close up shots make the character more personal and human to the audience.

Through the use of color and camera, Sam Mendes provides his viewers with a full palate of provocative images. Considering his heavy back round in theater, this can be understandable due to the significance of realism theater brings. Thorough this advantage, Mendes gives his audience a wholesome performance usually only experienced in a live performance. This is what makes Mendes such a unique director in that he can make emotions come alive on the screen, despite his lack of cinematic experience. American Beauty and Road To Perdition are both great examples of how Mendes can overcome this inexperience. The success of his films can be attributed to his mastery of bringing the elements of realism to cinema.

Works Cited

•    “Biography of Sam Mendes.” GradeSaver. Web. 03 Nov. 2010.
•    “Sam Mendes Biography.” The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 09 Nov. 2010.
•    “Sam Mendes.” Movie Reviews, Showtimes and Trailers – Movies The New York Times. 07 Nov. 2010. Web. 01 Dec. 2010.
•    Simon, Alex. “Sam Mendes–The Hollywood Interview.” The Moviefone Blog. 4 June 2009. Web. 03 Nov. 2010.