The 1998 movie Pleasantville is a two hour long film written and directed by Gary Ross that tells the story of a sister and a brother from the 1990s that become characters of a 1950s TV show called Pleasantville. When the values of the 90s collide with the idealized values of the 50s, the results are tumultuous. The two teenagers unknowingly turn the perfect world of 1950s Pleasantville on its head while the townspeople learn about themselves and grow to accept social change.The main character of Pleasantville is David, a socially awkward teenage boy who finds comfort in the perfection of the characters in Pleasantville, a popular TV show set in the 50s. His sister Jennifer however, is vain and promiscuous. When the remote control breaks one evening before a marathon of Pleasantville, an old man in a van happens to stop by offering to replace it. Upon realizing that David is an avid Pleasantville fan and can answer any trivia question about the show, he decides to give the siblings a special remote. When David uses the remote the turn on the TV, he and his sister get sucked into the world of Pleasantville as the main characters of the show, Bud and Mary Sue. Mrs. Betty Parker and Mr. George Parker are Bud and Mary Sue's parents. Bill Johnson is a cook at the restaurant where Bud works. He later falls in love with Mrs. Parker. Big Bob is the mayor of Pleasantville and represents order and tradition within the town.
The citizens of the 1950s utopia Pleasantville follow very particular social guidelines that the teenagers David and Jennifer find difficult to meet. For instance, Jennifer brought her values of being sexually active to a town where sex is hardly even understood let alone practiced. When the teenagers of Pleasantville began experimenting with sex, they took a big step away from the traditional values of their society. A similar transformation happened to Mrs. Parker, who began to realize her needs and desires outside of her marriage.
Another example of social change that the teenagers brought to Pleasantville is art. Bill loved to paint, but was never able to because art was not something that the people of Pleasantville did or understood. When David brought him a book of paintings from his own world, Bill was so inspired that he began to paint expressive pieces in color. This of course, was considered highly inappropriate to the people of Pleasantville and it caused a riot in the town.
The books of the Pleasantville library had covers but were empty inside. When Jennifer explained the plot of the story The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to the teenagers of Pleasantville, the words began to fill in the pages The teenagers were fascinated by these new stories and began reading. Likewise, Jennifer learned to broaden her mind in ways she hadn't before by reading books.
A final social change occurred when David was speaking to Mr. Parker in front of the town. David was able to bring out the humanity in his father when he asked him to look at his wife for who she really was. Rather than viewing his wife as a robot that was there to fulfill his needs and routines, he realized that he really loved her. At that moment, most of the town had come to terms with the social changes with which they were initially so uncomfortable.
While most of this social change was greeted with suspicion and resistance at first, little by little, the town was “converted” to this new way of living that the two teenagers sparked. At the same time that Pleasantville changed, David and Jennifer also underwent changes of their own. For example, they began to appreciate the little things in their lives back at home like a rainstorm. David became more sympathetic and more open to thought and change, while Jennifer moved beyond her obsession with appearance and boys and started expanding her mind with books. Even though the social change that Pleasantville experienced was rocky, the people were happier to see their town blossom into color.
Pleasantville is a movie exploring the circumstances surrounding social change in a society. For Pleasantville, the change that occurred was an opening up of the society. Before David and Jennifer came to town, all of the means by which members of a society could be able to reach beyond their society and think bigger were missing in Pleasantville. But the teenagers arrived, they were able to fill in these gaps with their own values and knowledge of a freer society and thereby bring about social change. I loved this film. Not only was it funny and entertaining, but it also explored the issue of social change in a very accurate and sophisticated way.
