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Pleasantville - New Line Platinum SeriesRating:
Release Date: 23 March, 1999 Retail Price: $14.98 OUR Price: $7.47 You SAVE: $7.51! Cast: Complete Cast (15 total) |
Pleasantville - New Line Platinum Series Reviews
great movie
i Love this movie, things seem so easy back then, i love tobey maguire and joan allen, i wish they would have made a second movie showing what happened after he went home and his sister stayed behind, it would have been nice to see what it was like when david went back to check on her.
Technicolor Revolution
I remember that the first time I saw this movie, I was about 12. I thought that the idea of two teenagers from the present living in a black and white TV show eventually turning things into color was a fun little premise. However, I could not even begin to grasp all the symbolism behind the events taking place in that "pleasant" little town. Upon further viewings, I realized how well-made and almost scary this movie is.
David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) may be twins, but they're polar opposites. David is a quiet introvert while Jennifer is a popular girl and (eventually) a self-proclaimed slut. They come from a bit of a broken home, and they each have their own way of escaping their chaotic lives. Jennifer has sex while David takes solice in Pleasantville, a 1950's show about a town where nothing bad ever happens. Ever. It never rains, the basketball team always wins, everyone rolls perfect games when bowling, and every family is completely functional. The father works hard to support his wife and kids, the wife stays home and cooks, cleans, and raises the kids, while the kids do well in school. There is no sex. No one knows what it is, and even husbands and wives sleep in separate beds. There is no literature. All the books are blank. No one does anything wrong. Pleasantville is very much in league with shows such as Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, and Leave it to Beaver, all of which taught the values that every American should have. When people refer to "the good ol' days", it seems as if they are actually referring to these shows, which portray a way of life that never did nor could actually exist.
One night, David plans on watching a Pleasantville marathon, but Jennifer wants to watch something else. A fight over their remote leads to its destrcution, but soon a mysterious TV repairman (Don Knotts) shows up and offers them a retro-looking control to use. Another fight breaks out, but this time, the pair somehow get sucked into the world of Pleasantville (the film never explains how the remote works, but, then again, no explanation is required; it has no place in the film). David, now impersonating Bud Parker, and Jennifer in the role of Bud's sister Mary-Sue, are now supposed to live out the lives of their characters. It's most likely that the repairman did this in order to get the two to get along better. David immediately tries to convince Jennifer to preserve the way of life that the other residents of Pleasantville adhere to, but Jennifer decides that she ought to inject a little bit of 90's culture into what she considers to be a dull existence. After all, wouldn't paradise get boring after a while? What is life without the unpredictability that keeps things interesting?
Soon Jennifer's meddling begins to create a ripple effect which causes small changes here and there. Suddenly, the basketball team loses their first game ever. The books in the libraries begin filling in with text, and random people and objects begin being colorized. At first, doctors and politicians attribute the coloration to a minor disease that is spreading, but isn't life-threatening. Thinking that it will "go away on its own", everyone initially writes off the changes as a minor hiccup in the overall pleasantness of the town. Then Jennifer drops a bombshell on the town. She introduces sex to the town. Teenagers and adults, who had all previously been chaste as children, discover the new activity and cannot get enough of it. Eventually, entire people change from bleak black and white to vibrant technicolor.
Though not everyone is happy with these "unpleasant" changes. The mayor of Pleasantville (J.T. Walsh) finds the changes upsetting, and he tries to convene the "true" citizens of Pleasantville to find a way to deal with the problem of the "colored" people. Eventually, in reacting to the unpleasantness of rock 'n' roll, books (including Huck Finn and Catcher in the Rye, two of the most frequently banned books in America), sex, and color, the remaining pleasant citizens cause riots, intolerance, and many other true forms of what can be called unpleasantness, if one were to put it lightly.
The film deals with numerous themes and parallels. The idea of the blandness of paradise starts things off, leading to dealing with personal change. Towards the end of the film, Nazism and American racism against blacks is displayed through the way the black and white citizens treat the colored citizens. While the film is mostly seen as a fun little sci-fi, if interpreted in certain ways, it can be seen as a horrific reminder/warning of what happens when intolerance takes over.
I find Pleasantville to be a highly underrated film. While the premise seems a little cheesy, it is well written and acted. The metaphors are all done very well, and the dialogue is wonderful through the use of ultra-saccarine 50's TV euphamisms (swell and such) juxtaposed with David and Jennifer's 90's lingo. Both leads do well with their roles, while the supporting cast, including William H. Macy, Joan Allen, and Jeff Daniels perform amazingly as well. This movie definitely is not for everyone, but I encourage everyone to check it out at some point, if only to view it as a study of society.
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