I think I have these zones in my abode, where certain books can be read and others cannot. So, my bathroom is home to books like Catcher in the Rye and 1984, because I can just pick them up and pout them down again. But tonight in the bathtub I read the entire screenplay to American Beauty. I liked the film, I must admit. Even though it was a white suburban nightmare, and it promoted very little in the way of good family relationships...I liked the way Lester took control of his life. This is what appealed to me in the entire movie...and how the beauty of everyday life is there...but are we taking the time to look at it, to appreciate it? It had a very personal and intimate theme in that way. It's interesting to find out that the idea for American Beauty started with Amy Fisher/Joey Buttafuoco. Alan ball was mezmerized by the fact that no one would really know the truth of the story, because the media circus had already begun. The media focused on only the most lurid events...but beneath it all were real human lives that had gone horribly wrong. The far more complicated and interesting story was one we would never hear. So with that and an encounter with a plastic bag outside thew world trade center...american beauty started to take shape. I read again the scene in the movie that irritated me so much. Which just so happened to be the bag in the wind scene...it's like a quiet introspective moment when all of the sudden we are mezmerized by something so simple as a bag in the wind. And we snap out of watching it and feel...strange. I just didn't like the fact that they captialized on that feeling. But I suppose it sold...and sold well. But I felt that something quiet and personal had been somehow raped once again by Hollywood. I may be off base here, but then again...that's just my opinion.