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

Pleasantville Review.

In the story “Pleasantville” the two main characters are sucked from reality into a tv show called, you guessed it, Pleasantville. The main characters, David and Jennifer notice the world around them begins to change from the way people in the town behave to the world literally changing color. The world of Pleasantville is very different from the world we know today. For example it is not possible for anything to go wrong in Pleasantville. Nothing is unpleasant in Pleasantville, no crime, no art, no sex, nothing. Something you may not have noticed when watching the movie is that the film is based off of the old story of Adam and Eve. Even though they may sound very different if you dig a little deeper you can discover the truth behind this puzzling movie.

First we will sift though the plot to find similarities between both of the stories’ themes. One of the similar themes they both share is rebelion. In the Adam and Eve story Eve takes a bite out the forbidden fruit and disobeys God. Jennifur also does what she wasn’t supposed to by “hooking up” with another high school student. Both Eve and Jennifer change the world by rebeling. Another similar theme both stories share is balance. In the Adam’s and Eve’s story, Eve is more of a free spirited person while Adam is is more of a follower. Jennifer and David are the same way. Jennifer is a rebel while David is more like Adam, a follower. Both characters are very different so they maintain balance.

The two characters, Jennifer and David, personalities are very similar to their Adam and Eve counterparts. An example of this is when Jennifer or Eve rebels without shame and David or Adam scolds her even though they were doing the exact same thing. This is seen in the movie when David tells Jennifer to stop making love to her boyfriend but, he is showing up late to work and telling his boss at the burger shop to do part of his job when he wasn’t there. Adam blamed Eve for causing the calamity but he also decided to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree. Another character in the film that is similar to a character in the Adam and Eve story is the Tv Repairman. His character is based off of God. The TV repairman tells David that he must not do anything to change or “harm” the world. God does the same thing he tell Adam to never eat from the tree of knowledge.

The setting in both stories are similar because they are both worlds are perfectly bland. Pleasantville is a perfect, colorless world where nothing can go wrong. The Garden of Eden is the same way, even though The Garden of Eden has color the concept is close. Both environments change at the end. Pleasantville becomes more like reality and The Garden of Eden well, disappears.

In every film based off of a story or book there is some differences between the original and the new version. Pleasantville is no different, from theme to message let's next look for what makes Pleasantville an independent film. First of all theme, in pleasantville the ending is happy like change is a good thing. As you probably know the ending of Adam and Eve doesn't end so well. They are banished for their sins and know live in a life of misery and disorder. The director of Pleasantville, Gary Ross, makes it seem like change is a good thing and it should be encouraged. However Moses (the author of Genesis) wrote that change is what corrupted the world not what fixed it.

Overall I the movie Pleasantville is a accurate representation of the old Adam and Eve story. There where a few differences here and there but that is to be expected of an adaptation of a story that is centuries old.