Pleasentville

The film seems to have a fairly simple plot if one only looks at that aspect of the movie. However, it is the underlying themes that actually give it its dimension. It begins with David (Tobey Macguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) who are two “typical” American teens. David is obsessed with the black and white 1950’s sitcom, Pleasantville. In an unfortunate accident with an unusual TV repairman, the two teens are thrown into the actual Pleasantville. As the movie progresses, the impact of David and Jennifer, now known as Bud and Mary Sue, causes the teenagers in the town to lose their black and white skin and start to have actual color. As this begins to affect everyone in the town, the black and white people begin to shut out the colored people, keep

It is the quick change to another ideal that intensely affects the audience. It appears that all is well when every one is happy in their new life. Mary Sue goes off to a college in the Pleasantville time, but she still remains a female character of the time in her poodle skirt and agreeable attitude. Perhaps the audience could not have handled a new community where the two could live together instead of everyone having to crossover. Nevertheless all is well in Pleasantville leaving the audience content with the rise over racism and the end of conflict.

ing them from being the citizens they were before. However, the real reason people gain color comes to light and soon the town is transformed from a typical “Leave it to Beaver” setting to a place capable of change and growth.

It is however the technical aspect of the film that takes over in presenting this theme. There is such a strong distinction between the two groups visually that it is difficult not to acknowledge their differences. The audience can easily distinguish why each person begins to have color or has not yet changed. Also, the attitudes of the characters make the distinction even easier. The people left in black and white are stuck in their past view of their world. They do not wish to accept the people in color because they are, simply put, different. Once again the prejudice that invades our society today becomes an issue not easily removed from the viewers perception with the use of color against black and white. The ridiculous attitude of the characters left un-colored makes us take a look at our own actions against those that are viewed as different. The eye is drawn to the characters in color and they are now the majority to the viewer. It is easier to identify with the seemingly morally correct colored people as they are persecuted for doing things that continue to characterize them only by color.

Some topics in this essay:
Mary Sue, Nevertheless Pleasantville, William Macy, Garden Eden, Gary Ross, Joan Allen, JT Walsh, Reese Witherspoon, black white, Pleasantville Technicolor, Paul Walker, mary sue, color begins affect, begins affect, white colored, aspect movie, bud mary, start wrong, theme black, black white colored, color begins, theme black white, colored people,