Pleasantville

Very interesting science fiction theme which could have come from a pulp magazine of the 30s. I wonder why we think this needs doing now?

Jennifer is the catalyst once the brother and sister enter the black and white world of Pleasantville. Her randy behaviour sparks the spread of colour. And of course at the end her weedy unsocial brother learns about living and 'finds himself' and she redeems herself for her role in the 'fall' (or is that redemption?) of the town/world.

The problem I have with this film is that I could see loads of tangents at which the film could turn:
1) Parable of the Fall - but is it a Fall? I'm led to believe colour is better than black and white. In a typical postmodernist way, I am told 'everything goes', but then told 'what I say goes'. So did Jenny do the right thing or not? The ending says 'yes'. However
2) Industrial Man meets Stone Age Man. The penetration of modern man into the Amazonian tribesman way of life is an anthropological conundrum. If we watch from afar we see and judge them too prinitive, or black and white and lacking colour. If we show them the error of their ways we give them our Imperialistic vision or our consumerist world-view. Should our friends have changed the world that was well ordered by its own criteria?
3) Colour / Black and white is this not a film about racial problems. Even those slow witted audiences that Hollywood aims at must have seen - even in this single frame - an allusion to the North-South divide! And what about the 'No Coloureds' signs in shop windows - referring here to those who are no longer black and white. Themes accompanying this one are fascist behaviour, apartheid etc.


4) Feminism vs Male control: The poor Dad expects his slippers and pipe to be ready for him and his tea ready on a gingham tablecloth and his woman complies! Hold on though, she falls for another bloke and becomes aware of feelings she hasn't had before (where did their children come from? And don't say a scriptwriter!) I felt it was a pity he didn't 'turn' as well. Then the two of them could have explored those feelings together and retained the good life together. But maybe that's me projecting onto the film my disappointment with modern life and couples changing their partners like....socks, or rather McDonalds Happy Meals! And why shouldn't I as it appears everything is up for grabs according to this film!
5) Teens and sexual promiscuity are the key that unlocks the door to 'rightness' is just one more nail in the coffin for youth-bound society towards the elderly!

There is some beautiful use of colour in this film -think of the blossom's first appearance in colour - perhaps an inspiration for American Beauty's rose petals. However the scene shown above I found disturbing. The message was destroyed in the moment the son covers his mother in grayscale make-up. However Jeff Daniels' character's paintings are fantastic against the black and white world!

Interesting thought-provoking film but goes out with a whimper in my opinion. [Reviewed by Nuthatch]

I had seen this film before but almost entirely forgotten it. As it is I don't think I'll remember it for too much longer this time either. The actual premise is quite fun and interesting but it really needed a much quirkier director (Tim Burton comes to mind) to blend some of the more jarring aspects of the story. The film starts as much as possible in the real world and then suddenly, inexplicably, a strange TV repair man shows up (surely our characters, being very much of-the-world would think this odd?) and the fantastic happens. The characters seem to largely accept what has happened (that they have magically been sucked into a TV show), albeit with bluster and indignation that it has, and carry on largely as normal. The actual body of the film is pretty sound, but again the ending is peculiar as so much of the film has dealt with more 'real to life' issues such as sex, relationship breakdown, gender roles etc and then suddenly the characters don't behave like real people. Reese Witherspoon's character decides to stay in Pleasantville and her brother doesn't try to stop her or worry about whether she will ever return, and nor does their mother ask where she is! A very strange film which either needed to become more realistic or make a move towards being stranger still, rather than staying in the very unsatisfactory and slightly bewildering middle ground it chooses. [Reviewed by Stonechat]

I was prepared not to like this film but ended up finding it quite thought-provoking and endearing. Brother and sister (David and Jennifer) find themselves transported into the TV world of Pleasantville and are challenged and changed by their experiences there. David, who at the start of the story seems enamoured with the simplicity and predictability of Pleasantville compared with life at home, emerges at the end of the film with a subtler and more mature appreciation of the complexities of real life and a greater empathy with his mother and the choices she has made. His sister Jennifer is the character who initiates the blossoming (or breakdown, depending on your point of view) of life in Pleasantville. She introduces the wayward pleasure-seeking element into ordered Pleasantville life and, by awakening in the characters an awareness of their power to deviate from their scripts and seek out personal fulfilment , she sparks the change from black-and-white to colour. Despite being a catalyst for the transformation of others, she herself remains unfulfilled until she begins to look beyond herself. I liked the way the film showed the painfulness and riskiness of change and also its divisiveness in that the empowerment of some characters (the mother) went hand in hand with the threat of loss for those around them (the father). [Reviewed by Nightjar]