Color In Pleasantville

In the movie “Pleasantville” two kids named David and Jennifer, living in the 1990’s get sucked into to a tv show called “Pleasantville” which takes place in the 1950’s where everything is “perfect”. Now living in a completely different era and being named Bud and Mary Sue, they must try to adjust to this new culture while attempting to find a way to get back to their present day. Through the whole movie they realize how much that the world has changed in 40 years. The town of Pleasantville is set in black and white, but as people start to change and feel more emotion they turn into color. While watching the movie it was interesting to watch the characters learn more about the past from different perspectives.

Pleasantville is a motion picture that was released in 1998 which is a fictional drama on

Because of offensive language and ideas that are represented in the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, it has been banned in many school libraries and lessons. One of the main reasons that it was banned in school is because of offensive words like the n-word and also because of the fact that the plot is centered around rape. One of the school board members, Kenny Holloway, said, “We can teach the same lessons with other books.” Many people agree with Holloway’s opinion, saying that the same ideas that are represented in To Kill A Mockingbird could be taught with a less controversial book. However, other people say that students are tough enough to handle the story. While many people don’t think that this book is appropriate for school, some people

Pleasantville, (before David and Jennifer) is a “dream world” if you will, everyone is always happy and there are never any conflicts with anyone. Once the two of them arrive however, everything changes. In Pleasantville everything is black and white, but after Jennifer has sex

In the 1998 film, Pleasantville, the idea of defying a supreme leader and exploring new taboo ideas is demonstrated by the rebellious mural painted by Bud/David and Mr Johnson. This mural painted in vibrant colours explores ideas that are nothing short of unthinkable to the bland citizens of Pleasantville. The elements painted on the mural include representations of sex, knowledge and music, which is against the core values of this idealistic town. While Pleasantville seems to have the all-american dream with white picket fences and nuclear families, it is evident that they are lacking many of the vivacious elements present in a normal flawed life.

David and Jennifer are zapped into the 50’s Pleasantville show and become the son and daughter.

The film Pleasantville directed by Gary Ross is about two modern teenagers, David and his sister Jennifer, somehow being transported into the television, ending up in Pleasantville, a 1950s black and white sitcom. The two are trapped as Bud and Mary Sue in a radically different dimension and make some huge changes to the bland lives of the citizens of Pleasantville, with the use of the director’s cinematic techniques. Ross cleverly uses cinematic techniques such as colour, mise-en-scene, camera shots, costumes, music and dialogue to effectively tell the story.

In Fahrenheit 451 the rebels consisted of Clarisse, Montag, Faber, and Granger, which challenged their current life and wanted an adjustment to happen. The change the rebels wanted in the book was to read books. These Characters were are all radiant, smart, and wanted to create down to earth ideas that nobody had ever thought of. One common theme the book and film had was wisdom and knowledge are acquired through experience and erudition. This theme applies as Pleasantville changed to color. The people in Pleasantville learned that adjustments engenders different perspectives like Skip finding the colored rose. In Fahrenheit 451 they learned that books show how to care and love for each other, for example when Montag read a poem to Mrs. Phelps and she started to cry because it made her feel sympathy for her dead husband she had never felt before. Both the film and novel take place in a very strict time period. In Fahrenheit 451 books are illegal, mental reflections are banned, and also reading books. In Pleasantville, color is prohibited and any other thoughts other than the script is prohibited as well as they go through the same routine everyday. Another common theme both the film and book have is

Fahrenheit 451 is not the only society with a government that uses censorship. The movie, Pleasantville, does the same. Mayor Bob gets very angry when the people in town start to change. After some turn colors, he expresses how he feels through a letter which was a set of rules instructing everyone on how they should act. It informs people of what music they should listen to, and even what paint colors they should use. Since Bob holds the position as mayor, he

It shows how the book is informative on how people treat slaves and whites as not equal, and also sees the daily/ extreme lengths people will go to seek

A TV repairman shows up out of nowhere on their doorstep offering to fix the remote. The repairman quizzes David on Pleasantville trivia and after he answers all of his questions correctly, he gives David a “special remote”. The brother and sister fight over the remote and get zapped into the television show “Pleasantville”. This sets up a majority of the clashes with a 1990’s brother and sister team going back in time to a perfect small town family of 1958. The time period chosen for the television show was intentional. The oldies telev

Eventually, the black and white population of Pleasantville in now full of vibrant colours, each with personality and individuality. On the contrary, pleasures in Pleasantville were soon considered taboo, which erupted chaos amongst the people of the community. Books that were full of knowledge and mystery were burnt; many colourful items were confiscated, banned by law of Pleasantville. Not so pleasant.

The film starts with two teenagers, David and Jennifer. David has an addiction to old reruns of a fifties sitcom also by the name of "Pleasantville". Jennifer is the complete opposite of her brother, leading a rather promiscuous lifestyle. During an argument, their TV remote

Music is an important signifier of setting and shows the idea of ‘The importance of change’ clearly throughout the film. When Jen and David first enter Pleasantville the recurring songs and motifs for example ‘Take 5’ by Dave Brubeck which is played at the beginning in the soda shop gives the town of pleasantville a very joyful and ‘pleasant’ atmosphere. This music perfectly matches the naivety of the teenagers as they engage in good,clean fun with their peers. As the idea of ‘The importance of change’ starts to appear in pleasantville,the music becomes more complex and darker to portray the new rebellious mood that has seized Pleasantville. An example of this is when the new code of conduct was issued and one of the rules were ‘In no event shall any music be tolerated that is not of temperate or ‘pleasant’ nature’.In a scene when the ‘coloureds’ were all gathered at the back

This creates an imagery that the reader in reality cannot relate to since with modern times, the existence of that library itself is unbelievable but can see and understand why the people reacted that way since a human mind tends to question everything so being able to find the answers to all those questions seems like a fantasy that every person wishes to live.