The following is a film review on the 1998 classic movie that was released before I was even born. It attempts to describe each and every thought and associated emotion I had felt as I watched the movie, from the very first scene to the pleasantly surprising ending credits. Read on to find out my take on this engrossing film. I hope you enjoy it, collegiettes!
After watching the American fantasy comedy-drama film, Pleasantville, produced by Hunger Games director, Gary Ross, the first reaction I felt was realization – the realization of the fact that the movie’s black screen was first lit up with the traditional cliché text, “Once Upon a Time” and the realization that the film contained no comedy whatsoever but instead contained all the drama any soap opera running for two hours and four minutes would. Nevertheless, the drama of the movie did a perfect job in explaining a repressed society, its not-so-pleasant problems, and its resolutions.
The film is about two teenagers, a brother, David (played by Tobey Maguire), and his twin sister, Jennifer (played Reese Witherspoon), “Jen”, who lead contrasting ordinary high school lives till one evening they fight over the television remote, are transported to a black and white TV show, called Pleasantville, and return as completely “changed” individuals, changing Pleasantville in the process. My impression of the show, judging by its commercial, was that it was antique, old-fashioned and almost ancient. Why have a show in only black and white? Are there other shows like this because of the time period of the movie, the late 1950s, or is Pleasantville just pleasant to David because of the very fact that it is colorless?
When the TV repairman shows up in perfect timing, another odd cliché and hands a special remote control to David, my reaction was surprised but still anticipating something to happen – there is always a twist in the plot. When they try to communicate him in order to return home, my reaction to the repairman’s refusal was shocked and intimidated. How could he let some strangers land into a ‘50s show? Does he feel any shame? Why does he need someone worthy like David and Jennifer to ‘experience’ Pleasantville?
As David and Jennifer witness the town life and Jen begins to fancy Skip Martin, my reaction to her new taste in the basketball player was simply another impression of her character: materialistic, selfish and desperate for attention. When Jen asks during class at school, “What’s outside [of] Pleasantville?” the answer, “the end of Main Street is just the beginning again.” , was confusing, intriguing and interesting, particularly concerning the logic of the Pleasantville location. During gym class, when David notices that, no matter what, the basketball will always land in the hoop, I was impressed and dubious. How and why? Did Pleasantville defy gravity? Was it inside a wormhole or was everything just idyllic? I did not understand the hoop or even the geographical ‘loop’ theory.
The other traits that Pleasantville possessed such as blank books with only covers and the nonexistence of fire were mystifying and, as a viewer did manage to increase my curiosity. Why does nothing burn? Why are library books blank? Why is fire something Pleasantville fails to accommodate? When Mr. Johnson, the owner of the soda shop where Bud works, wipes a stain constantly that won’t become clean, I asked myself the general question: why will the stain not become clean? Is it indelible or magical, like the rest of Pleasantville? Are all the characters interrelated or interdependent on each other? My theory was that every character depended on every other character but Bud and Mary’s arrival broke the ‘chain.’ When Mary discovers that Pleasantville is so pleasant that there are no bathrooms, I was very surprised. The ultimate question remained: how on earth did all characters go to the bathroom for their necessary ‘activity’?
When Johnson sees Betty Parker, Bud’s mother, and the two stare at each other affectionately, they have the clear “fall in love” look. Was it love at first sight? Or did they know each other beforehand? Moreover, when Mary has finally had passionate sex with Skip, I compared her chances at the accomplished opportunity. I thought that, due to the pleasant ‘50s atmosphere present in Pleasantville, Mary would not receive her chance to have sexual intercourse but it seems that she had a higher chance in the virtual world than she did in the “real world.”
The film then moves on to show how the next days were spent with many couples emulating Skip and Martin’s activities in Lover’s Lane as they continued making love. I was disappointed with Jennifer’s character and felt sorry for David who seemed to be the only sensible one in the whole scenario. However, why is color starting to appear in Pleasantville? Does sex cause it? Or human emotions in general? I had spotted no real specific trigger for color so far.
One scene of the movie shows the townspeople staring at a mattress from a furniture store, a scene I was unable to understand. Why is everyone staring, astonished and gossiping about the particular piece of furniture? Anyway, when Johnson describes his passion for art, I felt truly sorry for him and his situation – about how he cannot do what he likes, and even if he did have a chance to do what he likes, he won’t have any colors.
Nevertheless, when Betty’s cards change into color while in a card game with her friends, I was very surprised by the sight of women playing cards at home – I had always seen it as a “man’s game”. For me, it was quite uncommon and appeared queer. Nevertheless, when Mary explains to her ‘cast mother’ the process of sexual intercourse, my reaction was horrified because, it seems quite an odd atypical conservation between a mother and a daughter, although not real life characters, to talk about sex. Instead of the mother giving the daughter the “talk”, the roles are reversed. The fact that Mary’s father would never do something like that with Betty was interesting. How could her father have never engaged in sex? How else would have Mary been born? Is she their adoptive daughter or just part of the Pleasantville cast?
When Betty takes a hot bath, resulting in a colored bathroom and a fire in a nearby tree, I wondered, “How does a bath spark a fire in a tree?” How is the fire in color? If emotions bring color, how does a bath bring color or cause a fire? It was one of the most confusing scenes for me. By this point of the film, I was beginning to feel very tepid regarding the plot, despite the oddity of events.
At work, it was discovered that books were not blank anymore – when the story was recited, the book filled itself. I was amazed by the newfound knowledge and satisfied with the new facts. When Betty became colored, what had caused her to become colored? Was it due to revived sentiments? Was it the bath? I was still deeply perplexed about what triggered color in people, especially in Betty Parker. Scholarly inquiry was my goal.
When Betty found herself at the soda shop, caught Johnson painting and started weeping, I thought it was sweet how he removed her makeup and appreciated her true appearance as ‘herself’. It was a happy moment. As Mary continued reading her book, using glasses in the process, the film showed a photo frame of her wearing spectacles. I was honestly puzzled as to why Jen required glasses to read and what the photo meant.
Back at Lover’s Lane, Bud, on his date, ate a red apple, a scene I realized quite later, mimicked the biblical scene when Adam ate the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. Additionally, when Skip arrived at Mary’s house to remind her about their due love routine when she refused, I was shocked and astonished at how Jen had come to value a book over physical passion and satisfaction.
However, the riot caused by the nude painting of Betty, painted by Johnson, on the window of his soda fountain shop was highly astonishing, both by the detail and texture of the painting. There was the question of whether there was a real model, Betty, to pose for it. Nonetheless, it made one thing clear: that Johnson was talented in his “passion” for art as well as in his love for Betty. Concurrently, when David communicated with the TV repairman who told him that he had wronged everything in Pleasantville, particularly by eating the red apple at Lover’s Lane, what I was unable to comprehend was how could consuming a red apple, symbolic of the biblical scene in the Genesis, have caused everything to go wrong?
When in jail, Bud was visited by George, their conversation together, provided for a particularly sweet and true scene, especially in terms of describing the real world. I agreed with Bud’s sentiments and was happy to see him become so wise in the process of becoming Bud. Additionally, when David and Mr. Johnson were brought to trial in front of the town, and when they aroused enough emotion in George and enough anger in Big Bob, the Mayor, causing them both to become colored, I thought that the fact that the mayor kept his feelings repressed was symbolic of how the society was repressed in black and white before things “changed.” At the climax, Jennifer stayed in Pleasantville, commenting that “the slut thing got kinda old.” I was most happy when I saw that Jen had finally changed and had become something acceptable in society. However, the ending of the movie was slightly disappointing because I generally do not like happy endings but it was much more different than from the ending I had anticipated.
In retrospect, the film constantly commented on the theme of change and how each character reacted towards it. Betty and Johnson embraced it, David learned that it is a good thing and helped to spread it among the townspeople, Jennifer first rolled the ball in the plot by having sex with Skip while for others the relationship meant holding hands, and acquired the knowledge that change in Pleasantville was needed in order for its true colors to shine. The movie highlighted change mostly through positive symbols such as in flowers, fruit, books, and individuals but also showed how it could render negative consequences. For instance, the once-perfect basketball team failed to win the game or get their ball through the hoop, no matter how hard they tried because of their experiences, the thunderous climate and rain after Bud ate the red apple, etc.
The film also pointed to Betty’s character and her liberation from her life. As soon as David and Jennifer replaced Bud and Mary Sue Parker, her role as a dutiful mother/wife changed as she abandoned her role as George’s wife to be with her love, Mr. Johnson. She left her responsibilities to be who she really is. I also believed that, following the movie, what ‘triggered’ color in people was real emotion and passion – when they experience their passion, they become colored. To illustrate the fact, Mary’s passion turned out to be reading instead of sexual intercourse and Johnson’s passion became art and painting. They became colored after they discovered the right passion. The film’s theme targeted how Pleasantville, like the rest of the world, changes by people recognizing their true essence and by remembering what makes them as who they are, resulting in a more self-reliant and singular society where people can independently perform their own roles without depending on others. This fact is also demonstrated by how, during the movie, Johnson learnt to take on different chores in his business and even managed to complete them without others’ assistance.
In conclusion, my final thoughts at the end of the movie, besides being awe-inspired by the fact that the entire movie was filmed in color and then formatted to achieve the black and white color, were that I felt quite satisfied with David’s new character. His central story, the one of a film protagonist, of his transition from David to Bud and back again, allowed him the opportunity to interact with people and become the true person he really is. He came home a different person; experienced, more confident, with more knowledge of a different world and with a higher level of self-esteem. I felt that, if there was any purpose of the expedition in Pleasantville, besides changing it into a better, more individualistic society, it was that it changed David to become who his character truly is. Jennifer, on the other hand, preferred to stay in her new character as Mary, having finally learnt to value more important things than physical enjoyment. The city changed into something more enlightened and more relative to the term “pleasant.” Pleasantville itself became “colored” with its citizens realizing who they are, coming closer to those with a similar essence to them, breaking free from the clutches of the grim gray ‘reality’ they lived in earlier.
P.S.
Tobey Maguire will always be the best Spiderman in my life. I can never think of him as any other character (other than, sometimes, the narrator in The Great Gatsby movie). No Spiderman reboot can top him. Maguire – you’re an essential part of my childhood. Thank you for being my Spidey.