Daily Dialogue — December 29, 2016

“My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood; this is my street; this is my life. I am 42 years old; in less than a year I will be dead. Of course I don’t know that yet, and in a way, I am dead already.”

— American Beauty (1999), written by Alan Ball

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Failure, suggested by Melinda Mahaffey and Will King.

Trivia: Executive producer Steven Spielberg read the script on a Saturday night. When he arrived at the DreamWorks offices on the following Monday morning, he said, “Let’s make this movie and let’s not change a word.”

Dialogue On Dialogue: The opening monologue for American Beauty is a good example of how voice-over narration can be an effective narrative tool. In three minutes, we are introduced the entire Burnham family, the neighbors (the two Jims), and how everyone — including Lester — think he’s a loser and failure. We also learn this: He will be dead within a year which sets into motion the story’s central mystery.