Movie Analysis: Pleasantville TV Show

“Steel Magnolias” is a story about the close-knit relationships between six eccentric Southern women living in a small town in Louisiana. The film has a home spun, unpretentious feel to it. The plot alternates between humorous, everyday events with good-natured quips and the seriousness and heartaches to life’s unexpected crises. Through the laughs and tears, the six women learn to endure hard times and emerge from the struggles with grace and dignity. The film is set in the 1980’s with a tight knit homespun atmosphere. The Southern belles who are goofy on the outside but strong enough inside to survive any challenge that life deals them. Friendships help with a

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

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.

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

Pleasantville is a film about two teenagers from the 90’s who mysteriously find themselves in a black and white 1950s television show. They become residents of Pleasantville; a suburbia where sex doesn’t exist, the high school basketball team always wins, married couples sleep in twin beds, books have no words, and everything is pleasant. The citizens of Pleasantville don’t seem to question their “good life,” until Bud and Mary Sue come along and disturb the conformity. Suddenly parts of Pleasantville become colorful, repressed desires surface, the 50’s lifestyle is broken apart, and its citizens lives change in a strange, yet exciting way. Some people are opposed to the transformation, but in the end the entire town turns to color and the citizens are liberated.

The film Pleasantville shows the changes in American society over the past 50 years by placing two teenagers into the Pleasantville show, which was from the 50’s. The movie depicts how there is no longer the “American Dream” and no longer a perfect way of life and the changes the world has made. The world that the teenagers come from is filled with sex, drugs, money, and is very different from the way the world was in which the Pleasantville Show took place in. Morals and values have changed in the people and in society that the teenagers came from and shows it would be impossible to return back to the kind of life style the world had in the 50’s.

How are we made aware of the filmmaker's attitude towards change? Refer to three specific episodes from the film. (excl. concl. stages)In Pleasantville, the filmmaker, Gary Ross, conveys his attitude towards change through the characters of David and Jennifer who are transported into the 1950s sitcom "Pleasantville". He doesn't necessarily demonstrate change to bear a positive result; rather, he addresses that change is essential to the development of society and self and that it is important to understand and accept change. Ross contrasts the ignorance and mindlessness of the unchanged people of Pleasantville with the hunger for knowledge that the changed (or coloured) people possess, communicating to the viewer that change and knowledge

In truth, there is a lot of fabrication of the story; however, the producer applies some elements of the true story that occurred in Rosewood. Based on the movie, the main aim was to provide a movie that is emotionally moving which affects racial affiliation in terms black or white (Gannon, 61). Some of the scenes focus on the emotional reaction, and the depiction of the movie focus on the concept of outside looking in.

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

Color spreads throughout the town, threatening the Mayor to change Pleasantville back to what it once was. The two adolescents had roles in the Pleasantville town as well in the real world. David and Jennifer are

Exploration of sexuality causes things to change in Pleasantville. When Bud’s sister Mary Sue showed Paul walker how to have sex that slowly started to change everything in Pleasantville, from the basketball team losing every game after they had intercourse.

A lot can happen in sixty years, and America is no exception to that statement. It is arguable that one of the biggest differences regarding America in the 1950s to modern America is culture. The movie “Pleasantville” reflects much of these cultural differences from 1950s to today in a creative and thoughtful way. It also provides much useful insight into the cultural conflicts America faced throughout the 1950s. The many differences between 1950s culture and modern day culture, my own opinion which time period I would personally choose to live in and cultural conflicts of the 1950s will be discussed throughout this essay.

According to the University of Minnesota, “Since its inception as an integral part of American life in the 1950s, television has both reflected and nurtured cultural mores and values” (“The Relationship Between Television and Culture”). The Cosby Show, a situational comedy that aired from 1984-1992, and The Middle, which aired from 2009-present, are both perfect examples of how television mirrors the daily life one observes in America. The shift between The Cosby Show of the 1980s and modern sitcom The Middle contains surface differences, but ultimately reflects fluctuations in the economy and family life.