FILMS OF THE MONTH
Director: Gary RossWriter: Gary RossCast
–
David
Tobey Maguire
Jennifer
Reese Witherspoon
George
William H. Macy
Betty
Joan Allen
Bill Johnson
Jeff Daniels
“Fire!...FIRE!...Cat?”
-David
David loves Pleasantville. He watches this 50’s TV show
religiously and knows everything about it. When the TV set shorts out,a TV repairman offers him and his sister, Jennifer, another control
with more ‘oomph’. As they fight over what to watch, they suddenly
get transported into Pleasantville. Colour becomes black and whiteand David and Jennifer become Bud and Mary-Sue, the leads in theshow. But they soon realise that Pleasantville really is a world apart.What could have been a very ordinary family film has beenincredibly well thought through and decides to tackle some issuesalong the way while not detracting from the story or characters. Thisfilm is every geeks dream. Being able to live your favourite TV show isa dream come true for David and so it is easy to relate to him.Interestingly, Mary-Sue is also a term used within fan-fiction when afemale writes herself into the story.
It’s entertaining to see the 50’s meet the 90’s and how things
are different and how disconnected Pleasantville really is. But the filmgets really interesting when the two begin to meld. David andJennife
r’s actions affect the town and it begins to turn colour. Soon
enough, whole people are becoming colour, whenever theyexperience a new emotion. Cleverly incorporated into this is theproblem of racial discrimination. Seeing as how race was still adominan
t issue in the 50’s it plays very realistically within the film to
great effect. The black and white people begin to turn against thecoloured people and they start to get outcast and sent into hiding.Rules are passed by the governing bodies to keep everyone in line,places get vandalised. Gary Ross has stated that To Kill a Mockingbirdwas an influence on this film and that can clearly be seen in one of thefinal s
cenes where the black and whites and coloured’s are separated
within the courthouse.The casting is great, all of them very strong performers withgreat history. They all manage to convey so much without reallysaying anything. The relationships between Betty, George and Bill is
very well played out because it’s never really focused on as beingscandalous, it’s just the way it is. The ending is interesting because it
is left open ended: is she still seeing Bill, is she having an affair? Itshows that this
new Pleasantville is full of questions, it’s not straight
forward
anymore.
It’s a wonderful film because it is funny, exciting,enlightening and important all at the same time. It doesn’t bog you
down with the racial idea, you could still enjoy it without even
thinking about it, it doesn’t get in the way of the overall story. Highly
recommended.
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