American Beauty's Influence on Mad Men
The Mundane Darkness of American Suburbia
It is difficult to talk about American Beauty (1999) without acknowledging the shadow that looms over its legacy. As a teenager, it was one of my favorite movies precisely because it was unsubtle in portraying the mundane daily death of a man’s American dream. I rewatched it recently and found its fallen star Kevin Spacey is necessary in how we now interpret the film and that message.
American Beauty is about what your neighbor is hiding from you. When the accusations of Spacey’s sexual assaults began, he responded with his own “truth” and thought that we would love him for it.
No one is eager to name American Beauty as one of their favorites now because of this shadow but throughout the 00s, you can see it is one of the most influential films of that decade. In Season 1, Mad Men carries that unsubtle influence pioneered by the Oscar-winning film.
Before we dive into this analysis, there’s another interesting Mad Men connection to point out. The hand on the iconic American Beauty poster is actually Christina Hendricks from when she was a model. When Hendrick revealed this on Instagram, January Jones commented “This is important. How come I didn't know this?"
I just finished watching Season 1 of The Simpsons for the first time and was struck by how unique it feels compared to the rest of the show. Season 1 is about finding your footing and is also usually why most shows don’t hit their stride and start producing their greatest episodes until season 2 or 3. The show is still discovering itself. The greatest influence of season 1 of The Simpsons are the comedic family dramas of producer James L Brooks. This is the same for Mad Men where the greatest influence of Season 4 is Mad Men itself whereas Season 1 is trying to capture a feeling you’ve had before be it through Hitchcock films or symbolic dramas like American Beauty.
The visual storytelling and even music of Mad Men Season 1 differ greatly compared to the following seasons. We dwell on mystery more and when the show is delivering a plotline like Peggy’s pregnancy, it is not subtle.
American Beauty is not subtle and that’s why I’ve always liked it. Even people who disliked the film walked out of it knowing exactly what it was saying.
Let’s look at the similarities between the film and Mad Men.
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