Conformity In Pleasantville

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

The 1998 film, Pleasantville, written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross is a “swell” example of the three perspectives of sociology. Two 1990 teenagers get trapped in the blue-sky world of a 1950’s sitcom. While spending time with the people in the small town of Pleasantville, the teens begin to drastically change the the bland ways of the townspeople and alter their world completely. Throughout these events, viewers can find examples of the functionalist perspective, interactionist perspective, and conflict perspective.

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

Everyone has fears, whether they are as small as going swimming or as big as heights, everyone has them. In the movie Pleasantville, fear of change plays a big role in the citizens of Pleasantville. The citizens are so accustomed to the same thing over and over again that when Jennifer/Mary Sue decides to do something different the whole town is disturbed by this change. For David it’s the same thing, at first he is scared to do anything different and to alter anything but after everyone he loves starts to change and they start getting assimilated, he realizes he can’t be scared and has to be brave to alter Pleasantville for the better.

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.

The movie ‘‘Pleasantville’’, written, produced and directed by Gary Ross, approaches a period in America’s history which subsequent generations idealise as a better and more stable society. He portrays this time period of the 1950s as a time when people and life were less complicated; a time when everyone knew their place in society. However, as the film ironically shows, this was a time when people were more ignorant, racist and most certainly sexist. Ross demolishes this illusion of the great 1950s American society by showing how its defects are gradually changed from black and white to colour. Ross shows that ‘change is inevitable’ once a catalyst for change is added to the ordered life of “Pleasantville”. Once David and Mary-Sue begin

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.

Throughout the 1950’s, the United States belonged to the Leave It To Beaver era. Families were structured around a strong, hard working father and a wonderful homemaker mother. Children were brought up with solid ideologies on what society expects from them and were warned about living a different and dangerous life. Only one-year separates Tennessee William’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room from there publishing dates during this decade of unwavering beliefs. These texts were seen as extremely controversial during their time due to their themes of homosexuality. Sexual orientation was an awkward topic during such a “to the book” time period and these texts pushed the limits, making them remarkable and memorable works. Both Tennessee Williams and James Baldwin explore the panic men experience while trying to comprehend what sexual orientation they belong to and highlight the masculine gay man. These texts also examine the woman’s role in the mist of it all.

Pleasantville is about a David and his twin sister Jennifer two high school student from the 1990’s, who have a very different social life with each other. Jennifer is socialized, shallow and extroverted but on the other hand, David is introverted, shy and spends most of his time watching television. David is addicted to a classic 50's sitcom television show called "Pleasantville", in which everything, everybody is always black and white, wholesome and happy, temperature is the same every day, the sky is always clear, and weather is always good, and the citizens never see any rains and fires and do not know what it is. Sex is an unknown word and action and emotion is obsolete. Books are empty, the high school basketball team never misses any

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

Pleasantville is a film about two siblings, David and Jennifer Wagner, and how they get transported into a 1950’s TV show called Pleasantville with the help of an peculiar television repairman and a “magic remote.” Pleasantville is a seemingly perfect town with simple-minded, well mannered citizens who are unable to fathom the existence of anything that could disrupt their “pleasant” lives. When David and Jennifer arrive in Pleasantville, they have to quickly conform to their simplistic way of life but soon the two figure out that fitting into this one dimensional town is not so easy when there are obvious flaws in how their society is run. By bringing these issues to light, David and Jennifer are able to bring color to Pleasantville. Robert

In Pleasantville, the film displays the change of an extroverted and introverted pair of teenagers from the mid-20th century who take a life experiencing journey into a

Furthermore, the movie Pleasantville reflects some of the cultural conflicts of the 1950s. To begin, racial discrimination in the 1950s was extremely prominent in society. Whites discriminated against blacks because they were taught that anyone different than themselves was evil. Pleasantville portrays this when the citizens thereof begin changing color from black and white to color. These people represent an embrace of cultural change which goes against the normal, stable and secure status quo. The people of color are persecuted against by those of black and white color because they feel their existence is threatened by this symbol of change. For example, this persecution is seen in the scene when Betty Parker is persecuted by five black and white people while out in town. The five boys threaten her with verbal and physical attacks, as would blacks or “coloreds” would be by whites in the 1950s. Another cultural conflict exemplified by Pleasantville is changing teenage culture. Two ideas that challenged the cultural status quo in the ’50s were the idea that sex is ok, and Rock n Roll. Teenagers embraced these changes, and these changes are seen in Pleasantville. For example, a location called “lover’s lane” is where teens would go in this movie to participate in taboo, status quo-challenging sexual activity with the opposite sex. The idea of this in the 1950s was not even considered,

Every shot of this film has a balance and symmetry that is simply beautiful. Set in the sixties, there is nostalgia and visual appeal in every frame. There is also a color palette of soft green,

Nevertheless, the problem is that with the development of the plot, the original gleeful and the feeling that the play seems like covering the dirty secrets under a quilt, which turns out to be much more prosaic. Rather than making a society be faced with the comfortable truths of home. The truth is that it merely restates the common observation that people sleep with more than one person. The message they appear seems to be conveying is that people will sleep freely with