Review of Pleasantville (1998) by Hadoukensongoku — 26 Feb 2015

The film Pleasantville is a story of a conformist boy, and his rebellious sister, that live in a less than perfect world. One day, when the boy is about to watch a marathon of a show that he is literally obsessed with (supposedly to win prize money, but I’m sure it’s just an excuse to watch his favorite show, but that’s beside the point), he realizes that her sister has a date and was planning on using the living room television. When they were fighting over their remote control, they end up tugging it too hard and they break it in half, rendering the television useless (apparently there were no controls on the box itself). Then, when it breaks, a TV repair man, comes in to their home from nowhere, and he gives them a replacement remote that he says “has a little extra kick to it” in succession to eerie lightning on a dark night, when this mysterious man comes in from nowhere, with a Deus Ex Machina to just solve all there problems, I’m sure the character Toby Maguire was portraying just thought, “This doesn’t smell fishy at all.”, and he went on his merry way. When they used this totally safe remote though, they magically flashed out of existence in the real world, and they somehow ended up in the fictitious black and white, perfect world of Pleasantville. Eventually though, they end up noticing some odd changes within the world.

The story of Pleasantville, despite taking place in modern times (well, sort of), has a lot of similarities to the story of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Most of the similarities have to do with the similar themes on change, and the parallels between the original books, and Pleasantville’s plot. Such as the world going into color, in Eden Adam and Eve realized that they were naked, and in Pleasantville, people started to see color. There were also some similarities between the characters. The TV repair man was like this stories god, god put Adam and Eve in Eden, and the TV repair man put Bud and Mary sue in Pleasantville. Also there is Mary Sue; she plays the role of the snake, and of Eve. She causes change in the world of Pleasantville, and shechanges Bud, who takes on the role of Adam, and somewhat god as well, as he doesn’t want change. There is also similarities in the setting, Eden was a perfect place with no evil in it before the snake came in and changed everything, and Pleasantville was always… pleasant before Mary Sue came there and started causing change.

Despite this, there are also a lot of differences, as Pleasantville is neither really an adaption, nor an interpretation of the beginning of genesis. In the story of Eden, change is not viewed as a good thing at all, but in Pleasantville, it is viewed as a good thing (although both of these happened under different circumstances where in Eden nothing had to change, but in Pleasantville, change was for the better both for the characters and the plot). There are also the obvious differences in the setting, and the time. The Pleasantville takes place in the 50’s, and Eden takes place at the beginning of humanity (although they are both secluded from the rest of the world and both... somewhat take place a long time ago… I suppose). Also, the main difference, which is the plot, and the way it’s told. Pleasantville is a lot more drawn out then the bible story, and tells the entire thing of what happened after the change in more detail, although I suppose what happened after is the entire rest of the old and new testaments, as well as you know… life. Still though, as I said before Pleasantville is not adapting the old bible story, it is simply mirroring some of the events and consequences through its own story.

As you know if you’ve paid attention, the main plot consists of people getting sucked into a family sitcom; does that happen in the bible? Well, if you answered yes, then conglaturationYOU ARE AN OFFICIAL TROLL! So, no it does in no way emulate the story of the original. It does however, get the idea right, the story is well written, and follows the themes well. Also, it doesn’t only focus on mirroring Eden, it also deals with ideas such as discrimination in the great depression, and rebellion during the rock n roll era. There was even an allusion to the story “to kill a mocking bird” which I found interesting. Even early in the story, everyone was either a nerd, or a jock, later in the diner after color starts to appear, there is even a greaser, which were rebellious leather jacket wearers in the 50’s, that you’d probably meet in a gang (see grease or something, the main cast is a gang). Yeah so, even though it doesn’t follow Eden’s plot, it has its own story to follow.

Also, the film uses symbols as a way to get it’s point across. Such as the main, and most obvious one, it’s use of color. Color represents change, and rebellion. One of the main colors, and the first one they used, red is a symbol that often represents, things that are rebellious, evil, devious, or sly, and impure as used in things such as animation, and other things. There is also other more subtle symbols in the film as well, such as rock n roll which was a rebellious and revolutionary music form, that many people disliked, as well as supported when it first started. Rock n roll was even called demonic by some churches at the time, and that may also be an indirect reference to the bible.

So, to give my opinion on the film… I think it is great! Even if you ignore all the callbacks to other stories (which all had purpose by the way) it is still a great film, and stands on its own very well. It has great acting, such as Toby Maguire, who portrays Bud, he absolutely nails his roll and he is hilarious (he’s had practice I suppose, as he’s type cast as a nerd in almost every film he’s been in… which isn’t many for some odd reason). There is also the actor that plays the dad, I love how clueless he is all the time, such as when he yells “WHERE’S MY DINNER?!”. The story is very interesting as well, and even though the premise is a bit overdone, just people getting sucked into an alternate world has been used countless times (such as the page master), but Pleasantville does it in an interesting way, that is very humorous and interesting to watch. I think that despite all of its references to other works, and it’s inspiration it takes from other things, it is still a great story on its own without even knowing what it is referencing and is such an entertaining story. So, that is pretty much all I can say about Pleasantville without delving too far into a subject that might not even relate, because I do sometimes tend to ramble, such as this one time when I… never mind. Just enjoy this great film that I would probably recommend to several people.