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Drive drives the subject beyond his own boundaries. As long as it is merely a matter of desire, life is a bed of roses, there is laughter and tears and, above all, talk.
The poster ad for the controversial 1999 film American Beauty, by director Sam Mendes, shows a partial view of the naked torso of a young woman holding a red rose against her belly. Her nails are perfectly manicured. The soft, pale color of her skin is in striking contrast to her red lipstick and red rose. The beautifully designed poster is composed of part-objects, and lacks social features or any reference to subjectivity. The bystander may mistake the poster for a Madison Avenue cosmetic ad. This is American Beauty, skin-deep part-object for sale in the supermarket of desire.
The film displays a cynical and hypercritical view of a culture fascinated with images and their correlates—materialism and consumerism. Staged in the late 20th century, when shopping in the temple-mall has achieved the status of a quasireligious experience, the narrative mirrors a fable for mature audiences. Regret and ultimately redemption follow sin, and transgressors of established boundaries do not go unpunished.
American Beauty belongs to a breed of contemporary films that challenge traditional images of masculinity. Critics and movie analysts have referred to this challenge as a “recreation of masculinity” (Pollack, 1993). Male heroes in films have become softer if not weak, unable or unwilling to make important decisions in their lives, at times trapped in an objectification once applied to women. Moreover, men are increasingly portrayed as objects, pinups, and shirtless well-built pieces of meat. Shoemer (1993), the New York Times film critic, commented that in Bad