pull a car up to a place
Please drive up to the window. Thank you.American Beauty · 1999 — 第 10 / 14 章 · 3'01" · B1
Lester Applies at Mr. Smiley's, Explained：drive someone nuts
Lester applies for a fast-food job and means it: "I'm looking for the least possible amount of responsibility." The job hunt plays as deadpan comedy — a man with nothing left to protect asking for nothing to carry. A second conversation drifts from stress and guns to a dead homeless woman, and finds beauty there.
あらすじ
After quitting, Lester pulls up to a fast-food drive-through, orders a burger and fries, then asks if he can fill out an application — for the counter, not for a manager. He says he wants the least possible responsibility. He is told he probably wouldn't fit in. Later, two younger characters talk about guns, a new house, a funeral, and a homeless woman someone filmed after she froze to death.
注目の表現
fit instressed outpop off a few roundsdrive someone nuts
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このシーンの表現
drive someone nuts
make someone crazy
Jane tells Ricky how the neighbours' stray cats drove her mother crazy.
My neighbour's dog drives me nuts every morning.
このシーンの他の表現
- fit in
be accepted, belong
- stressed out
very tense and anxious
- pop off a few rounds
fire a few shots
- the royal treatment
mock luxury, said ironically
- on videotape
captured on video
このシーンのメモ一覧
41 行のセリフに 25 件のメモ
Link drive up to smoothly; up to blends into a single sound.
Please drive up to the window. Thank you.complete a form
Actually, I'd like to fill out an application.the smallest amount of something
I'm looking for the least possible amount of responsibility.try to find
I'm looking for the least possible amount of responsibility.be accepted, belong
The young manager tells Lester he would not belong at Mr. Smiley's.
I don't think you'd fit in here.a kind of
I'm sure there have been amazing technological advances in the industry, but surely you must have some sort of training program.existential perfect: It grants that progress has existed up to now, right before Lester makes his real complaint.
I'm sure there have been amazing technological advances in the industry, but surely you must have some sort of training program.can, be capable of
It seems unfair to presume I won't be able to learn.dummy subject: The dummy it lets Lester name the unfairness first, then the act he objects to.
It seems unfair to presume I won't be able to learn.very tense and anxious
After sex, Carolyn admits to Buddy how tense she had been.
I was so stressed out.The final -ed in stressed barely sounds; stressed out almost fuses into one word.
I was so stressed out.feel that way
- Know what I do when I feel like that? - What?fire a few shots
Buddy brags to Carolyn that he unwinds by firing a few shots at a downtown range.
Yeah, I go to this little firing range downtown and I just pop off a few rounds.Pop off a runs together fast; listen for the joined p-off-a sound.
Yeah, I go to this little firing range downtown and I just pop off a few rounds.you have to
Well, you've got to try it.make someone crazy
Jane tells Ricky how the neighbours' stray cats drove her mother crazy.
The people who used to live there fed stray cats, so they were always around, and it drove my mother nuts.did regularly in the past
The people who used to live there fed stray cats, so they were always around, and it drove my mother nuts.relative clause: The who-clause pins down exactly which people Jane means, not people in general.
The people who used to live there fed stray cats, so they were always around, and it drove my mother nuts.crazy, going mad — Fine among friends for someone losing patience; avoid it in formal or polite talk.
The people who used to live there fed stray cats, so they were always around, and it drove my mother nuts.fell, chop down
And then she cut down their tree.die of cold
But I did see this homeless woman who froze to death once.captured on video
Ricky says he caught the dead woman on videotape, and Jane asks why he would film it.
I got that homeless woman on videotape.only for a moment
Ricky says the awe lasted just for a second, and that second was enough.
When you see something like that it's like God is looking right at you, just for a second.that kind of thing
When you see something like that it's like God is looking right at you, just for a second.「Lester Applies at Mr. Smiley's」を読み解く
What's really going on
The surface is a comedy of a grown man asking for a minimum-wage job, and Lester plays it straight: "I'm looking for the least possible amount of responsibility." That line is the whole scene. He has already decided the rewards of ambition are a lie, so the job is not a fall but a test of freedom — how little can he commit to and still live. When he argues it is unfair to presume he can't learn, the joke is that he could do the job easily; the point is that he doesn't want anything above it. The later conversation turns the same instinct serious. Someone admits they fire a gun when stressed, because "nothing makes you feel more powerful," and the talk slides toward a woman who froze to death, filmed because it was amazing. Beauty, here, is not comfort — it is attention paid to something the world has stopped seeing.
Theme
PhilosophyA man tests how little he must commit to by taking the smallest job, then finds meaning in a stranger's death.
IdentityLester defines himself by refusing the role others expect, choosing a responsibility-free job over ambition.
このチャプターで学べること
- The scene pairs polite ordering with a flat refusal.
- Lester asks for less and gets less respect.
- Ricky's beauty is found in a death nobody else filmed.
発音のポイント
- drive up to — Link drive up to smoothly; up to blends into a single sound.
- stressed out — The final -ed in stressed barely sounds; stressed out almost fuses into one word.
- pop off a — Pop off a runs together fast; listen for the joined p-off-a sound.
I'm looking for the least possible amount of responsibility.Lester's real answer about what he wants from work: not a career, but the smallest possible commitment. He says it plainly, as if it were a reasonable career goal.
It seems unfair to presume I won't be able to learn.His calm reply to being turned down. He treats the rejection as an unfair assumption and asks to be judged on training, not age.
When you see something like that it's like God is looking right at you, just for a second.Said about the dead homeless woman he filmed: a rare moment when something ordinary feels like it is looking straight back at you.
And if you're careful, you can look right back.The instruction that follows: if you pay close attention, the exchange goes both ways. It leads to his one-word answer, "Beauty."
このシーンについての質問
Why does Lester apply for a fast-food job?
He is done with ambition. After quitting, he wants the smallest possible responsibility, and a counter job fits that better than any promotion.
Does Lester really want the job?
He wants what the job leaves out: no decisions, no one to manage, nothing to protect. He asks to be trained, but the appeal is the absence of responsibility.
Why does Ricky film the dead homeless woman?
He says it was amazing, a moment when it felt like God was looking right at him. For him, beauty shows up where other people see only sadness.
What does "pop off a few rounds" mean?
It means to fire a few shots, casually. One character says he goes to a firing range downtown and pops off a few rounds when he feels stressed.
アメリカン・ビューティー · 全 14 章
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次のチャプター · 第 11 章whatever happened toLester and Carolyn's Couch Fight
第 1 章cut cornersBrad Warns Lester to Save His Job
第 2 章come right out and sayThe Burnhams' Cold Dinner
第 3 章cut to the chaseJim and Jim Welcome the Fitts
第 4 章take something out on someoneJane Meets Ricky at School
第 5 章sell an imageCarolyn Demands Lester Attend the Party
第 6 章pick your brainLester Quits His Job
第 7 章make your head spinCarolyn Confronts Lester
第 8 章cut a dealLester Meets the Neighbors
第 9 章nothing to loseLester Blackmails His Bosses
再生中 · 第 10 章drive someone nutsLester Applies at Mr. Smiley's
第 11 章whatever happened toLester and Carolyn's Couch Fight
第 12 章put him out of his miseryRicky and Jane Share Their Secrets
第 13 章so bustedLester Catches Carolyn at the Drive-Thru
第 14 章sit back and watchColonel Fitts Confronts Ricky第 10 / 14 章 · 残り約 12 分