Representation- Mulvey Male Gaze

American Beauty Clip

In this clip you see a typical american family. The daughter is a cheerleader and her parents are going to watch her at the basketball game. Her dad doesn't seem to care about the games and he asks whether she actually wants them there in which the mother replies with of course she doesn't she doesn't want us to know that this is important to her. The dad also says that he is going to miss the re-runs of James Bond on the TV. There is a subtle connection here with James Bond and the father (Lester Burnham). Later on in the clip just before the cheerleaders start dancing the dad also asks if they can leave straight after, also showing that he doesn't care. 

The characters in this clip show typical teenage girls in high school being cheerleaders. The daughter (Jane) is represented as the "moody teenager" you can see this through the mis en scene. She has black, dull hair tied up in a pony tail and she's also wearing dark make-up. The way she feels about her parents also shows her as the "moody teenager" because she calls them 'assholes'.The mother (Carolyn Burnham) is represented as the supportive mother, she tries to bring her daughter (Jane) and her husband (Lester) closer together because she mentions that she senses the distance growing between them. The father is having a mid-life crisis and this is reflected in his attitude to going to watch his daughters performance. 

Tracking shots are used to capture and follow the cheerleaders whilst they're dancing. You see Jane's friend Amanda Haynes, dancing and touching herself for Lester's pleasure. This represents Amanda as a sexual object. Amanda dances in the middle which is when the sexual dancing starts. In this clip you see shots of close ups of Lester watching Amanda dancing. The lighting in this scene is a spot light highlighting Amanda and separating her from everyone else. A slow zoom used to show Lester staring at her, the beginning shot of him was a mid-shot of him sitting in the stands then the camera zooms into which is eventually a extreme close up of his eyes watching her. Also the camera reverses shot to show the girl dancing. A slow zoom is also used here to show her dancing. The diegetic music whilst the cheerleaders are dancing fades into non-diegetic music. The non-diegtic music is slower than the music than they dance to. The diegetic music fading into the non-diegtic music suggests that Lester is fantasising about her (its all in his head). The camera tilts across Amanda's body, you see this camera as a male camera caresses her body. This is a fragmentation of the female body. 

Lester gets scopophilia (pleasure in looking) at Amanda, he's gratified which is shown also through the use of the extreme close ups of his eyes. The fragmentation of the female body also gives voyeuristic pleasures to the audience. 

Technically you can see the male gaze, from the use of the extreme close up of his eyes. The way the audience sees the male looking at the girl shows the audience how they should be looking at her. The males think this is how they're supposed to view females and the females think that this is how they should look like and be viewed. The male in this sequence is viewed as active and the female passive.