Pleasentville

Directed by Gary Ross, PLEASANTVILLE is the story of two siblings, David and Jennifer, who after fighting over a strange remote given to them by a strange TV repairman, get transformed into David's favorite TV sitcom PLEASANTVILLE. PLEASANTVILLE is a 1950's black and white soap opera where life is perfect. David becomes Bud Parker and Jennifer becomes Mary-Sue parker. After attempting to fit into their new environment, David and Jennifer's knowledge of "reality" begins to change the community and is represented with the town's introduction to color. The citizens of PLEASANTVILLE begin to attempt understanding whether their "black and white" world is more accurate than their new "colored" world. In the world of PLEASANTVILLE, fear of change dominates the society. This film cleverly reveals the prevalent fears of the time and the effect they have had on shaping modern society. The film eloquently portrays the effect of fear as it relates to an increasingly suburban world and mounting racial tensions.

Fear of change encouraged women to stay at home and preoccupy themselves with their supposed 'duties' as a wife. The movie reflects the overwhelming pressure for the suburban housewife to be perfect. As the movie goes through, everything changes. The idea of the change was the reason why everyone was changing. The teenagers would have intercourse and turn to color, they would read and turn to color, and even chew gum and turn to color. Through the film mechanisms such as composition, camera work, and color, a story is brought to life on screen. The fear society holds of empowerment is also reflected in the books in PLEASANTVILLE. Toward the beginning of the movie, Mary Sue commented that the books in the library had covers but the pages were black. Much like how when she went into the girls bathrooms there were stalls but no toilets. PLEASANTVILLE was just that, pretty on the surface but empty on the outside. That is what the reality of the 'perfect housewife' is. On the surface, the house is clean; the wife is fulfilled by caring for her many children, with her bread-winning husband. She is happy in her perfect suburban ranch with a sprawled out backyard and her social circle of neighbors. On the inside, the life in unfulfilling and