As the weeks have passed by and the number of movies we have viewed has increased, I have noticed the theme of "The American Dream" throughout a few of our viewings. In the two films, Public Enemy and Sunset Boulevard, you are able to see the drastic measures that characters take in order to achieve the American dream of fame and riches.
In Public Enemy you see the two young men, Tom and Matt, go from committing small petty crimes, to growing into two notorious gangsters. Tom's greed gets the best of him and the two find themselves in a gang war with a fellow gang. In the end both Tom and Matt lose their life and their desire for the American dream has cost them their lives.
In Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond not only pulls in and traps Joe in her fantasy world of returning to the big screen, but takes his life when he will no longer play along with her games. She is so consumed in her younger years of being the star, that she is unable to adjust to life off the screen. Throughout the film you can see Joe slowly give up on his dream of becoming a famous screen writer as he falls in love with Betty, who also has the dream of becoming a famous writer.
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