"A 1998 American fantasy comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, J. T." -Wikipedia
As you can probably tell, this film isn’t exactly a current film, but this is the one I have watched in our Aesteta class last Tuesday. You know when you watch a movie and it’s about 10 or more years old and thinks “how did that pass me by?” . This is one of those movies for me and can join a very large pile of movies that I have watched and wished I had watched sooner.
The film follows the life of a so-called nerd guy teenager and his twin sister that was magically transferred into the black and white world of 1950s TV show which entitled Pleasantville. This is David’s favorite show so he tries to keep the peace and go through the motions of everyday life in the black and white world while playing the role of Bud, but his rebellious sister who is supposed to be playing the role of Mary Sue, acts up and suddenly their world inside the Pleasantville begins to get a bit more different. As the day goes by, they experience new, weird and exciting things. The time came when they realize that the things they have been doing affects the daily life of the people of the Pleasantville. Little by little, things and people were starting to change from black and white into different colors. This seems to be caused by people themselves discovering new things within themselves, gaining more knowledge, having a real feeling towards opposite sex, which makes them change.
Life is that same knack, but some people still hold and are in black and white, perhaps out of fear. And still others are in black and white because it has the opportunity, has the freedom to become "colored". That’s why not everyone in Pleasantville turned into different colors at the same time.
Each has its own way to become "colored": reading, dancing, playing ball, discovering their sexuality, doing anything with the person that feels right, surfing, viewing the facts in the face, finally, doing something. It's like Bob Marley said, "Nothing is wrong if it makes you happy." It is worth mentioning that it is the real happiness, not their "crutch," or his temporary comfort.
Sometimes all that your sadness when you say you're "normal", it's because you're still in black and white. In my opinion, every human being must be experiencing different things to find what makes you happy! And if it takes to find?! No problem. There are people that happiness is up there, to renew, to look for new things to do always. All attempts, all the experiments make us more experienced and serve for life in every way. In the end, it’s your happiness that will only matter to you.
In the part of the film where the society continue to develop, people who benefitted from the previous behavior or traditions always see themselves as victims of change. The world that used to fit them so much like a glove, no longer does. Even more, they find themselves in unknown circumstances that feel unreasonable or even dangerous. Their fears used to take center stage, but now they must fight with the previously unseen fears of others.
If you are one of the recently-noticeable others, this all sounds foolish compared to the troubles you face every day. It is luring to explode through such fortunate battle with anger and insult. Luring, but also, I think a wrong step. The fortunate are still lucky enough to stimulate a counter-revolution, if their aggravated sense of right hardens.
That’s why, in the end, they think of a way on how to preserve their simple and perfect life. They create new laws that will stop the people for having a freedom of speech and the will to do things that wanted. This law didn’t really work because as when they put David and Mr. Bill on a trial, David did a speech and moved everyone’s feelings including the mayor which finally, turned into colors.
As the people went out of the town hall, they saw a different and colorful Pleasantville and were astonished. The roads didn’t just go round in circles and continue again and again, but kept straight forward to a different place. That is the time when Jennifer decided to stay there and continue to pursue her studies and do something in life.
The movie has a lot of similar stories in the bible. It started in the Lover’s Lane (Garden of Eden) which is the place where David ate the apple that is being offered to him. The burning of the tree after Betty and a lot of teenagers knew a lot of things about sex and books. It can be connected to the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” A person being able to learn by the use of books is the ‘good thing’ and a person having unsafe sex is the ‘evil thing’.
Pleasantville which started off as a simple and perfect world turns upside down because of the two people who have awakened their peoples’ mind. But as the town turns into a colorful one, people start to realize the beauty of colors and how people can accept the fact that change is a great factor in life.
I don’t know how to tell you how much this movie lopped off the stress attached on my shoulders the day I watched this film. This will probably be one of my new favorite movies of all time. I loved the concept, the flow of the story, the growth of the characters, the comedy had some great moments, the message was just the thing to me, and it was just an outstanding beautiful movie for me. Though, the finale of the movie made me kind of sad. I love the entire story of it and I love its concept. But the ending... I wanted Jennifer to go back in their real home too. Isn’t David kind of miserable that he’s just the one that knows his sister’s trapped in a TV show for the rest of her life? I know she must have a great life there, but still I would be miserable if that were my sister. If she chooses to continue living there, I would’ve lived there too. But then we would’ve ended up as lost children so you know, we can’t have everything we like.
