Review of Pleasantville (1998) by Guitar11Adl — 26 Feb 2015

Pleasantville Movie Review.

By Alex Lopez.

Pleasantville is a movie based off of a story in the Bible, “Adam and Eve”. Pleasantville and the story of Adam and Eve have many similarities as well as differences. Pleasantville is a story aboutPleasantville Movie Review.

By Alex Lopez.

Pleasantville is a movie based off of a story in the Bible, “Adam and Eve”. Pleasantville and the story of Adam and Eve have many similarities as well as differences. Pleasantville is a story about a sister, Jennifer, and a brother, David. David is kind of a nerd type guy that always likes to follow the rules. Jennifer is someone who likes to rebel and break the rules. So they’re almost complete opposite. They are both high school students in their teenage years. When Jennifer goes to watch a movie with her boyfriend, her brother wants to watch Pleasantville, which is a TV show that he really likes, and doesn’t wanna miss it. But as they are fighting over the remote, it gets thrown across the room and breaks. In a few seconds (yes, seconds), a “TV Repair Man” comes into their house and gives them a new remote. When David presses the “On” button on the new remote to use the TV, both Jennifer and David get sucked into the TV show, Pleasantville! While they’re in Pleasantville, they are supposed to stick to the program, but things get a little different when Jennifer and David come along.

Similarities.

There are many similarities between the movie Pleasantville and the story of Adam and Eve. Firstly, it all started off as perfect. Pleasantville was a very happy place. It had no crime, no pain, nothing but happiness. Same thing with the story of Adam and Eve. When they were first there in the Garden of Eden, things were perfect. No shame, no pain, no crime. But then Adam and Eve were tempted to sin by the serpent. In the Bible, God told Adam and Eve that they could eat from any tree in the garden, except for one. Which was the tree of knowledge between good and evil. The serpent tempted Eve to eat a fruit from that tree. Then she gave some of it to Adam. When they ate the fruit, it brought sin and death to the entire human race. Which is similar to when Davids girlfriend fed him the apple, and it started raining, which represents lust. Another similarity was when the TV repair man told David to stop changing the show. In the Bible, God confronts Adam and Eve about what they have done. So in a way, the TV repair man can represent God.

Differences.

As well as there being many similarities between the Bible and Pleasantville, there is also a lot of differences between the two stories. In the Bible, when Adam and Eve sin it brings death. But in Pleasantville, they aren’t “sinning” but rather experiencing change. And when they do change, instead of bringing death, it brings color to the world of Pleasantville. Another difference is that Pleasantville was a story that occurred in the 50s, and the story of Adam and Eve was in the beginning of time. In the Bible, when Adam and Eve sinned they made clothes out of leaves to hide from God. In Pleasantville when they change, they are in color. It’s a very shameful thing to be in color in Pleasantville, so David and Jennifer’s “mom” covers herself in black and white makeup so that she can hide from being colored.

Critique.

I think the creators of Pleasantville did a very good job at comparing it to the Bible. Both stories represent change, but in different ways. In Pleasantville, change is a good thing. In the Bible, knowledge is a bad thing. I could definitely tell that the Bible and Pleasantville were similar stories. I could see that the author of Pleasantville wanted to relate to the Bible because of the ways he made the scenes of Pleasantville, but they were not in the same ways. They both had very similar messages, but they were expressed in different ways. This is where all of the differences come into play In Pleasantville, they experienced change. In the Bible, they experienced sin. In Pleasantville when they changed, they were in color. And they found it shameful to be in color. In the Bible, when they sinned they were also shameful, and they hid themselves from God. The author of Pleasantville did a great job at comparing it to the Bible, as it has many scenes and characters that are very similar. David’s girlfriend can be thought of as Eve, when she fed him the apple. The TV repair man could be thought of as God, who was instructing them and in a way, look after them. And how books can be considered a way of exploration to the originally forbidden. And in the Bible, the forbidden fruit played a similar one.

Conclusion.

Overall, the creators of Pleasantville did a great job at comparing both stories together. They added aspects of the Bible into the movie Pleasantville, but incorporated the characters, actions and scenes into more semi-modern times.