The Truth About American Splendor

Essay by manfunnyUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, November 2004

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The name American Splendor, brings Irony to the underground comic book series as author Harvey Pekar is portrayed in his movie, a cult legend and hero, in Americana. Naturally this story immediately captivated it unusual character driven background. The de-saturated colors and depressing set and costume design, was an added character in it self. The movie authenticated the works of Pekar's life style. The story is about a lonely depressed man who battles with the every day life, dealing with his dead end job as a file clerk, his failing manage, and his unusual, yet mentally diverse friends. Similar to the documentary, Crumb, Robert crumb, the creator of similar controversial underground comic books, had an important role to the making of American Splendor comic books. Crumb's contributed his illustration to the comic, and aided Harvey Pekar in creating American Splendor as how we view it today.

Sometimes even the best stories on screen may not work if the character doses not exhibit a rich and diverse interaction with other character.

As the story, American Splendor unfolds; every character contributed a new element to the movie. For example, There is scene involving Giamatti and Friedlander as Pekar and Radloff talking non-picturesquely at work, which then cuts to the real life Pekar and Radloff, now in their sixties, having a similarly ridiculous conversation off set about differently colored jelly beans (American Splendor). Immediately, these characters came off as fascinating, irritating, and odd. The Art of Movie Making says, scenes that are "mood setters, [are] visually poetic and used to establish characters in the context of their relationship with other characters or the environment they inhabit" (Peacock 66). This scene in the story had established a good character foundation for story development. But, beyond the script and character development the look...