...Pleasantville Essay The film Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross, focuses on a pair of teenage siblings who are magically drawn into a fictional, 1950s black-and-white television sitcom, called Pleasantville. David and Jennifer are forced to take on the lives of Bud and Mary-Sue Parker, and they slowly begin to realize their mere presence as well as their actions in Pleasantville have a huge and everlasting impact on the town. Through the use of various literary and film devices, director Gary Ross was able to project the many themes and ideas present in the movie, such as change, power and rebellion Change is a major theme prevalent in Pleasantville. One of the most obvious representations of change, is the town gradually becoming coloured...
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...not, which negatively treats a person or a group of people based on their racial origins” (Randall). It is unclear what the exact cause is for people to be prejudiced towards another group of individuals. Racism could perhaps be triggered by having a fear of people who are different, needing to fit in with others who are of a racist mindset, and/or being ignorant of other people’s cultures. In the 1998 movie Pleasantville, it is shown that racism and discrimination towards different people occurs because of sudden changes to an established system and society. In reality, racism is a result of generations of stereotypes and mistreatment of a certain group of people, and is not something that can be resolved as quickly as it is in the movie. The film Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross, is the story of how two teens from the 1990’s, David and Jennifer, end up in a 1950’s sitcom called Pleasantville. Everything is black-and-white in this world, and all the citizens believe it is perfect, or pleasant. As David and Jennifer (now called Bud and Mary-Sue) stay in Pleasantville, they quickly change the conventional norms of the society, bringing new and different ideas to the people. This change is shown when some of the citizens change from black-and-white to full color. As the changes to many citizens’ color and behaviors keep occurring, a group of black-and-white people who are resistant to the new changes rises up, led by the town mayor Big Bob. This group would have meetings discussing...
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...Pleasantville? The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited racial discrimination in schools, housing, hiring, and many other areas, began an increasing mandate for racial integration (Suburban Segregation 1998). Many middle-class whites during the post-World War II years fled to the suburbs to move away from crime, poverty, and away from the minority. With the rise of the suburbs, planned communities with high economic growth, low crime rates, and nice roads came about. Living in a planned community has many rules and regulations. The movie Pleasantville creates a dramatic view of the cookie-cutter, plastic, perfect life living in the suburbs is supposed to provide and how sometimes the so called “perfect life” is not always quite what it may seem. Some may think living in the suburbs, in planned communities, with many rules, is worth living in because it is safe and gives people the sense of unity they may crave. It can also be thought, rules of living in a planned community should not be taken to the point where people are not able to be true to themselves in order to live in the suburban area. The suburbs are a district lying immediately outside a city or town, and are usually a smaller residential community. The movie Pleasantville depicts a dramatized version of suburban living. In Pleasantville, all is black and white, everyone is perfect, and all houses are the same. The entire town of Pleasantville acts the same, dresses the same, and no one ever steers out of the...
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...Film Pleasantville In the town Pleasantville, everything seems pleasant just as the name sound. It is a town where everyone is nice to each other, and everything goes on smooth and steady. It is a place where fathers know all and the mothers were only made to stay at home, cook dinner, and watch over the kids. Everything at Pleasantville is black and white, until a drastic change occurred when Jennifer and David entered the Pleasantville. The arrival of the new Bud and Mary Sue brought about a change in the color in the whole Pleasantville town. As shown in the movie, the residents of Pleasantville knew nothing about sex. When Jennifer starts to hang out with the captain of the basketball team, and they went to lovers lane, she introduced him to sex. On his way going home, he discovered colored red roses which symbolize the passion and love that he has never felt before in Pleasantville. When Jennifer introduced her mother to sex, she tried masturbating, and the next day, she turned colored. Sexuality also showed up when the town gathered to view a painting of a nude picture. It was obviously shown in their reaction that they had no idea of sex, they look confused and worried. Sex was never in existence in Pleasantville town, but when it was discovered, it caused a change in color in many of the Pleasantville residents, and the lover lane also change color. Many of the Pleasantville residents changed color when they discovered new things, and the create interest in it. For...
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...Pleasantville is a Hollywood biblical film because it depicts what happens when a perfect, black and white society from a 50’s sitcom without any outside influence gradually turns around and gains it color when two teenagers from the present day 90’s get sucked into their world and change the way things are ran. Their contributions are more than little, helping guide the town to change their ways, including the double standard between men and women , members of the community discovering sex, art , books , music, and the concept of nonconformity. The film gives us insight of how not only do influences create chaos, but can also help a society become better within itself. The functional ways that were demonstrated were more than little. Everybody in the town had a specific job to do, and only did that job. Nobody ever really tried to move up or even try another job. The man that ran the burger place had worked there forever, and also painted the pictures that his boss wanted him to paint on the restaurant windows. The man was an excellent artist, so once he got a whiff of the potential he had, he decided to paint different pictures than what his boss was telling him to. The people in the town hang out with the same people, at the same place, and at the same time every day and weekend and are all home by a certain time. This could be because if they were to go outside their normal schedule, this could give everyone a chance to change their friends and to have different ideas and...
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...David is a senior student who enjoys watching a 50’s sitcom called “Pleasantville”. Pleasantville is a extremely pleasant place where all of its people is naive and simple, and life outside this ville is unbeknown to the citizens here. One evening, the life of David and his sister Jessica, who is more openly sexual than him, get trapped into the Pleasantville by a magical remote of an eccentric TV repairman. In the midst of the movie, after David is offered a fruit from Margaret, his girlfriend, the weather abruptly changes, and it seems like a signal for the next unfortunate event. The Pleasantville has gradually shifted from a mono-coloured world into techno-coloured, which means that the people are having a revolution in their mind and...
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...aware of the insufficiency of language and theory – which is both disturbing and pleasurable.”. Colour in "Pleasantville" is used to uncover the different social changes that the society of 1950s America went through and how the changes were met by the elders who were used to conformity and the set society standards that came with it. When David and Jennifer, a brother and a sister, get magically sucked through their TV in 1950s America in a black and white town called Pleasantville where everyone knows their place in society, their duties and what is expected of them and no one even thinks of what may lay outside of outside of Pleasantville.(eg. Everyone is stunned when Jennifer asks what’s on the end of Main Street and outside of Pleasantville). No one does something out of their daily routine. In other words – everything is black and white – symbolically and visually. They take the place of Bud and Mary Sue Parker, children of George and Betty Parker, who are the definition of 1950s ideal family - the father is the paterfamilias(breadwinner) and the...
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...! Movie Analysis: Pleasantville Gary Ross uses a variety of cinematic techniques in the film Pleasantville to show that neither conservatives nor liberals are able to establish a perfect society by showing the positive and negative consequences of the two ideologies. However, the ending of the film seems to favour liberals over conservatives. This film is a miniature of the rivalry between the people holding conservative values and those holding liberal values in the US. The film was first released in 1998 and gained a lot of critical acclaim, becoming a classic of the 1990s. The film Pleasantville is about two teenagers in the 1990s who find themselves in a 1950s sitcom. Through their actions the people of Pleasantville begin to experience strong emotions and consequently events in the town begin to deviate from the equilibrium. ! Gary Ross uses color to promote liberalism. The majority of the film is set in black and white and only certains people and objects that have colors. During the courtroom scene towards the end of the film, the audience in the courtroom starts with people having colors being the minority. As the movie progress, black and white characters get colors one by one until the mayor is the only one who still remains black and white. David, the protagonist of the film, in the end however forces the Mayor to turn into color as well. The color represents the idea of liberalism because the characters change into color once they find what is missing in their...
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...arrival of Jennifer and David, the environment, people, and qualities change in Pleasantville. Three positive improvements are; transition in color with emotions, the town folks become human, and their perspective changes. The feeling of love between David and Margaret brings the color pink to the roses in Lover’s Lane. People begin to feel emotions and bring changes in the environment. The changes in color symbolize freedom, opinion, and emotions. People in Pleasantville aren’t plain anymore, they feel new emotions, such as love, fear, anxiety. Citizens aren’t the perfect, plastic Barbie dolls anymore; they become a human being filled with emotions. As citizens are subjected to new ideas, it changes their point of view. They are curious and wants to know beyond what is known. Three negative aspects of changes are; instability of town, loss innocence, and discrimination against “colored” people. As the changes occur in Pleasantville, the town divides into two groups of people. There are people who accept...
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...The Giver vs. Pleasantville Comparative Essay In both works, The Giver and Pleasantville, leaders symbolize control and elsewhere represent new beginnings. Leaders symbolize control. The first example I have for Pleasantville is the time when the Mayor does not allow Bud to speak and defend himself at his trial. wAfter art wreaked havoc and chaos across Pleasantville, Bud and Mr. Johnson decided to paint another painting across the jail walls. At their trial, the judge was the mayor. During the trial, the mayor himselfs asks Bud if there was anything that he wanted to say to defend himself. Bud said "yes," and began speaking. The mayor immediately cut him off because the mayor wasn't hearing what he wanted to. This shows that the Mayor is a...
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...The text is trying to bolster that Pleasantville School Board should take measures to increase the engagement of volunteers in community service. The suggestion is insituting a program of 40 hours of community service for all students prior to graduation, in order to supply the necessity of organizations and assuming that students will learn the value of community service after this measure. Firstly, the argument relies upon the assumption that the students of this school are not volunteering already. Considering that there are other schools, it is important to verify the origin of people that are still working for charity. If it will have proven that most of Pleasantiville School Board high schoolers participate in this kind of program, the...
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...change throughout the book. Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross, the story of a “perfect” T.V. show that all the characters wish to live in, and they all experience change by trying to achieve color. The Catcher in the Rye and Pleasantville both show that change can be hard, but is for the good. Although most people fear change for the worst, Change is for the better. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden, the main character,...
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...“Since 1977, 1,320 innocent people from the United States have been executed after having time in jail, with a 4.1 percent error or 1 in every 25” (National Geographic). This idea directly correlates with the themes shown in the novel Fahrenheit 451 and the film Pleasantville. Montag in Fahrenheit 451 is torn by his personal emotions toward what he believes in and the need maintain the current state of deception. Not telling the truth about the past history can make the people living there more oppressed. Similarly, David and Jennifer in the 1998 film Pleasantville expose new revolutionary ideas to a perfect “pleasant” world, which not only disrupts the order, it allows for people being true to themselves and show individuality. These are only some of the many examples where lying turns into a serious matter which can potentially destroy your life or someone else’s. Although telling lies can spare feelings for a designated amount of time, being brutally honest causes less harm and allows relationships with people to prosper in the...
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...“Don’t be afraid of change you may end up losing something good, but you will probably end up gaining something better.” (unknown) Change can be something you are afraid of, but in the end it usually is for the better. Similarly in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Pleasantville directed by Gary ross, the characters don’t understand what can happen when change occurs. In both Catcher in the Rye and Pleasantville change is represented as a beneficial thing, but it can also be frightening. In Catcher in the Rye change is beneficial and frightening. In the novel, Mr. Antonelli talks to Holden and gives Holden advice about what to do with his life. He tells Holden that he can change but he can only change if he wants to. “You’re going...
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...Transit Authority New Bus Terminal and Garage The city of Pleasant Ville has seen an increment of population of a 12% in urban and suburban areas in the past two years. There is an immediate need to further extend the public transportation flow in this areas to cover the demand of the population growth. The Transit Authority of pleasant Ville (TAPV) will have to open a new terminal that will service new routes to the areas where this population has concentrated, as well as a garage, to service the bus fleet that will offer the new services. With growth in population there are several benefits that a city experiences, Pleasant Ville has seen a major change in its job market as a product of new development of recreational areas in the communities, new housing development and, thriving new businesses, all to supply the demand of the increasing city’s population. The TAPV has several options to place the new terminal and garage, however as it was expected the communities surrounding the land for possible placement have presented opposing points each one of the communities claiming possible quality of life challenges. There are three option to place the garage and terminal, two being located in mostly residential areas and one located in the inner city. The TAPV must open a terminal and garage keeping the integrity of the community so that each community center remains natural to its origins; cost of land purchasing must remain low for TAPV can invest in a reliable fleet that...
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