...Pleasantville Essay The film Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross, focuses on a pair of teenage siblings who are magically drawn into a fictional, 1950s black-and-white television sitcom, called Pleasantville. David and Jennifer are forced to take on the lives of Bud and Mary-Sue Parker, and they slowly begin to realize their mere presence as well as their actions in Pleasantville have a huge and everlasting impact on the town. Through the use of various literary and film devices, director Gary Ross was able to project the many themes and ideas present in the movie, such as change, power and rebellion Change is a major theme prevalent in Pleasantville. One of the most obvious representations of change, is the town gradually becoming coloured...
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...of Jennifer and David, the environment, people, and qualities change in Pleasantville. Three positive improvements are; transition in color with emotions, the town folks become human, and their perspective changes. The feeling of love between David and Margaret brings the color pink to the roses in Lover’s Lane. People begin to feel emotions and bring changes in the environment. The changes in color symbolize freedom, opinion, and emotions. People in Pleasantville aren’t plain anymore, they feel new emotions, such as love, fear, anxiety. Citizens aren’t the perfect, plastic Barbie dolls anymore; they become a human being filled with emotions. As citizens are subjected to new ideas, it changes their point of view. They are curious and wants to know beyond what is known. Three negative aspects of changes are; instability of town, loss innocence, and discrimination against “colored” people. As the changes occur in Pleasantville, the town divides into two groups of people. There are people who accept...
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...Imagine a society where everything and everyone is perfect and uniform. All the houses look the same, all the lawns are immaculate, and crime is unheard of. In the movie Pleasantville this place exists in the form of a black-and-white 1950’s television show. The main characters, David and Jennifer, are siblings and high school students who get transported from their normal lives into Pleasantville. While there, David and Jennifer see first hand just how different this town is. The two of them start to expose the citizens of Pleasantville to things they’ve never experienced before. These changes disrupt the whole culture of the community and cause major effects. David is a shy teenager who spends most of his time watching the television show Pleasantville. Pleasantville features the ideal family of the Parkers. George Parker is the working dad, Betty Parker is the typical housewife, Mary Sue and Bud are the teenage children. David knows what has happened in all the episodes and wants to watch the Pleasantville marathon so he can enter into a trivia contest to win $1000. His sister Jennifer is the complete opposite of David. She’s outspoken and has a very active social life. One night when David wants to watch the marathon and Jennifer has a date, they fight over the remote and end up breaking it. Within seconds a repair man arrives to fix the remote. The repair man also has a great interest in the show and quizzes David on some episodes. The repair man is surprised to learn...
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...Pleasantville essay In the movie pleasantville david and his sister jennifer are seniors in high school in the 90’s when they are at home they both start to fight over the remote one day and it breaks, the tv repairman shows up at the door and gives david a remote to use, david and jennifer both fight over the remote and by accident press a button, they are sent into the show pleasantville. The show pleasantville is a show that takes place in the 50’s where everyone was “happy” and everything was “pleasant” Everyone stuck to their normal routine and nothing really changed but as soon as David and his sister Jennifer came to Pleasantville things started changing, at the end of the book almost everyone has changed color, there is only a...
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...American writer, Henry Rollins, once said, “Change is hard, but change is good”. This quote says that even though change can be scary or difficult, we all experience change, and end up on the better side. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is a story of a young boy Holden Caulfield, who experiences depression but overcomes change throughout the book. Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross, the story of a “perfect” T.V. show that all the characters wish to live in, and they all experience change by trying to achieve color. The Catcher in the Rye and Pleasantville both show that change can be hard, but is for the good. Although most people fear change for the worst, Change is for the better. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden, the main character,...
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...Film Pleasantville In the town Pleasantville, everything seems pleasant just as the name sound. It is a town where everyone is nice to each other, and everything goes on smooth and steady. It is a place where fathers know all and the mothers were only made to stay at home, cook dinner, and watch over the kids. Everything at Pleasantville is black and white, until a drastic change occurred when Jennifer and David entered the Pleasantville. The arrival of the new Bud and Mary Sue brought about a change in the color in the whole Pleasantville town. As shown in the movie, the residents of Pleasantville knew nothing about sex. When Jennifer starts to hang out with the captain of the basketball team, and they went to lovers lane, she introduced him to sex. On his way going home, he discovered colored red roses which symbolize the passion and love that he has never felt before in Pleasantville. When Jennifer introduced her mother to sex, she tried masturbating, and the next day, she turned colored. Sexuality also showed up when the town gathered to view a painting of a nude picture. It was obviously shown in their reaction that they had no idea of sex, they look confused and worried. Sex was never in existence in Pleasantville town, but when it was discovered, it caused a change in color in many of the Pleasantville residents, and the lover lane also change color. Many of the Pleasantville residents changed color when they discovered new things, and the create interest in it. For...
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...towards another group of individuals. Racism could perhaps be triggered by having a fear of people who are different, needing to fit in with others who are of a racist mindset, and/or being ignorant of other people’s cultures. In the 1998 movie Pleasantville, it is shown that racism and discrimination towards different people occurs because of sudden changes to an established system and society. In reality, racism is a result of generations of stereotypes and mistreatment of a certain group of people, and is not something that can be resolved as quickly as it is in the movie. The film Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross, is the story of how two teens from the 1990’s, David and Jennifer, end up in a 1950’s sitcom called Pleasantville. Everything is black-and-white in this world, and all the citizens believe it is perfect, or pleasant. As David and Jennifer (now called Bud and Mary-Sue) stay in Pleasantville, they quickly change the conventional norms of the society, bringing new and different ideas to the people. This change is shown when some of the citizens change from black-and-white to full color. As the changes to many citizens’ color and behaviors keep occurring, a group of black-and-white people who are resistant to the new changes rises up, led by the town mayor Big Bob. This group would have meetings discussing how to stop the alterations that were occurring in the townspeople, and set rules that limited what colored people could do. They also vandalize the local shop...
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...Pleasantville? The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination in schools, housing, hiring, and many other areas, began an increasing mandate for racial integration (Suburban Segregation 1998). Many middle-class whites during the post-World War II years fled to the suburbs to move away from crime, poverty, and away from the minority. With the rise of the suburbs, planned communities with high economic growth, low crime rates, and nice roads came about. Living in a planned community has many rules and regulations. The movie Pleasantville creates a dramatic view of the cookie-cutter, plastic, perfect life living in the suburbs is supposed to provide and how sometimes the so called “perfect life” is not always quite what it may seem. Some may think living in the suburbs, in planned communities, with many rules, is worth living in because it is safe and gives people the sense of unity they may crave. It can also be thought, rules of living in a planned community should not be taken to the point where people are not able to be true to themselves in order to live in the suburban area. The suburbs are a district lying immediately outside a city or town, and are usually a smaller residential community. The movie Pleasantville depicts a dramatized version of suburban living. In Pleasantville, all is black and white, everyone is perfect, and all houses are the same. The entire town of Pleasantville acts the same, dresses the same, and no one ever steers out of the...
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...“Don’t be afraid of change you may end up losing something good, but you will probably end up gaining something better.” (unknown) Change can be something you are afraid of, but in the end it usually is for the better. Similarly in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Pleasantville directed by Gary ross, the characters don’t understand what can happen when change occurs. In both Catcher in the Rye and Pleasantville change is represented as a beneficial thing, but it can also be frightening. In Catcher in the Rye change is beneficial and frightening. In the novel, Mr. Antonelli talks to Holden and gives Holden advice about what to do with his life. He tells Holden that he can change but he can only change if he wants to. “You’re going...
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...David is a senior student who enjoys watching a 50’s sitcom called “Pleasantville”. Pleasantville is a extremely pleasant place where all of its people is naive and simple, and life outside this ville is unbeknown to the citizens here. One evening, the life of David and his sister Jessica, who is more openly sexual than him, get trapped into the Pleasantville by a magical remote of an eccentric TV repairman. In the midst of the movie, after David is offered a fruit from Margaret, his girlfriend, the weather abruptly changes, and it seems like a signal for the next unfortunate event. The Pleasantville has gradually shifted from a mono-coloured world into techno-coloured, which means that the people are having a revolution in their mind and...
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...and theory – which is both disturbing and pleasurable.”. Colour in "Pleasantville" is used to uncover the different social changes that the society of 1950s America went through and how the changes were met by the elders who were used to conformity and the set society standards that came with it. When David and Jennifer, a brother and a sister, get magically sucked through their TV in 1950s America in a black and white town called Pleasantville where everyone knows their place in society, their duties and what is expected of them and no one even thinks of what may lay outside of outside of Pleasantville.(eg. Everyone is stunned when Jennifer asks what’s on the end of Main Street and outside of Pleasantville). No one does something out of their daily routine. In other words – everything is black and white – symbolically and visually. They take the place of Bud and Mary Sue Parker, children of George and Betty Parker, who are the definition of 1950s ideal family - the father is the paterfamilias(breadwinner) and the...
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...would have to eventually turn back into black and white because that reality would become the new conformity and thus start to lose all the colour from that world. This is what life really is for those that choose to live a full life. One of constant change. That's why it is so important to realize the futility of trying to hold onto anything too tightly. 2. David (toby McGuire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoom) how does Pleasantville change them? David begins to realize that the perceived happiness in Pleasantville is not nearly as fulfilling as he hoped it would be. As a result, he slowly evolves from dreamy outcast to leader of the changes that take place in Pleasantville. Jennifer, through her own personality, sparks the initial changes in the town. However, as the story continues, she begins to understand the limitations she has placed on herself in her own life. Her reading of a D. H. Lawrence novel signifies her effort to change herself, and thus, affect her own transformation. By the end of the film she decides to stay and attend college. 3. What is the message the film presents 4. Language-how do the words set moods? 5. Is the real world, real? No. In the town of Pleasantville, nothing changes. The temperature is always the same, the weather is always nice, and no one has ever seen rain. Sex is an unknown word, passion is obsolete, and the most...
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...! Movie Analysis: Pleasantville Gary Ross uses a variety of cinematic techniques in the film Pleasantville to show that neither conservatives nor liberals are able to establish a perfect society by showing the positive and negative consequences of the two ideologies. However, the ending of the film seems to favour liberals over conservatives. This film is a miniature of the rivalry between the people holding conservative values and those holding liberal values in the US. The film was first released in 1998 and gained a lot of critical acclaim, becoming a classic of the 1990s. The film Pleasantville is about two teenagers in the 1990s who find themselves in a 1950s sitcom. Through their actions the people of Pleasantville begin to experience strong emotions and consequently events in the town begin to deviate from the equilibrium. ! Gary Ross uses color to promote liberalism. The majority of the film is set in black and white and only certains people and objects that have colors. During the courtroom scene towards the end of the film, the audience in the courtroom starts with people having colors being the minority. As the movie progress, black and white characters get colors one by one until the mayor is the only one who still remains black and white. David, the protagonist of the film, in the end however forces the Mayor to turn into color as well. The color represents the idea of liberalism because the characters change into color once they find what is missing in their...
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...“Since 1977, 1,320 innocent people from the United States have been executed after having time in jail, with a 4.1 percent error or 1 in every 25” (National Geographic). This idea directly correlates with the themes shown in the novel Fahrenheit 451 and the film Pleasantville. Montag in Fahrenheit 451 is torn by his personal emotions toward what he believes in and the need maintain the current state of deception. Not telling the truth about the past history can make the people living there more oppressed. Similarly, David and Jennifer in the 1998 film Pleasantville expose new revolutionary ideas to a perfect “pleasant” world, which not only disrupts the order, it allows for people being true to themselves and show individuality. These are only some of the many examples where lying turns into a serious matter which can potentially destroy your life or someone else’s. Although telling lies can spare feelings for a designated amount of time, being brutally honest causes less harm and allows relationships with people to prosper in the...
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...Pleasantville is a Hollywood biblical film because it depicts what happens when a perfect, black and white society from a 50’s sitcom without any outside influence gradually turns around and gains it color when two teenagers from the present day 90’s get sucked into their world and change the way things are ran. Their contributions are more than little, helping guide the town to change their ways, including the double standard between men and women , members of the community discovering sex, art , books , music, and the concept of nonconformity. The film gives us insight of how not only do influences create chaos, but can also help a society become better within itself. The functional ways that were demonstrated were more than little. Everybody in the town had a specific job to do, and only did that job. Nobody ever really tried to move up or even try another job. The man that ran the burger place had worked there forever, and also painted the pictures that his boss wanted him to paint on the restaurant windows. The man was an excellent artist, so once he got a whiff of the potential he had, he decided to paint different pictures than what his boss was telling him to. The people in the town hang out with the same people, at the same place, and at the same time every day and weekend and are all home by a certain time. This could be because if they were to go outside their normal schedule, this could give everyone a chance to change their friends and to have different ideas and...
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