How do you do,
Starting July, the four part That 70s Review is underway, reflecting in the wave of nostalgia many in the Nineties got for the Seventies. Following in that sense, plus knowing there was a wave of nostalgia in the time frame by baby boomers for the Fifties, there came the film Pleasantville, starring Toby McGuire and Reese Witherspoon as two typical teenagers from the Nineties winding up in the Fifties centered sitcom, Pleasantville and wind up interacting with the characters. It's a plot element of breaking into the story that is used in 1993's The Last Action Hero, only instead of becoming extras to call out cliches, McGuire and Witherspoon become the teen characters in the show.
Pleasantville takes the nostalgia of the decade and puts it on its head, by slowly unwrapping the worst elements like one peels an onion. For one, McGuire plays Dave who watches Pleasantville to escape reality, because the show presents a Utopia where there is smile to find and everything is...well, pleasant. In this fictional show, the Rosy picture of the Fifties is shown: no one smokes in Pleasantville (as opposed to the real Fifties America where people smoked like chimneys), no one drinks, people live in a safe and structured life, the opposing team is a faceless entity, the outside world is non-existent, and since there's no fire to threaten homes the fire department exists to rescue cats stuck in a tree. Everyone looks nice there, as well as act.
In short, it's paradise.
Well, that's at the first glance, but as the movie progresses where color replaces the black and white world, Pleasantville reveals to have a dark side, something the real decade had, too. The happy mom, played by Joan Allen, is really an emotionally repressed woman, as shown, and she seeks out pleasure without her husband. There is an interesting inversion where Jennifer, now assuming the role of Mary Sue (more on that later), tells the mother about the birds and the bees, then teaches the art of self pleasure. Next thing you know, she does just that in the bath tub. This allows her to develop color, and falls for the fry cook that her son works for. All the while, the good father figures in the town are shown to be not be good as the colors begin to appear. First, they react with shock over such things as kids feeling things or women thinking (a man shows his shirt having a burn mark from when his wife got distracted). When Mr. Parker finds his wife and kids gone, he never asks, "is anyone home?" or frets about his family not being home (he doesn't even walk upstairs to find Jennifer studying). Instead, he says, "where's my dinner?"
In the last, I know most people didn't expect men to cook their own meals when married, but even with that one would have to go through a suspension of disbelief. There are times men will cook; such as in the military when assigned KP (that's Kitchen Patrol, for anyone who doesn't understand military terms), or when they cook for a living like Mr. Johnson at the malt shop, and if men are living on their own they are likely to cook something for themselves, too. Handling the BBQ grill is also cooking. The idea that they get married so they wouldn't have to cook anymore is something I can't think of having any basis. The only reason Mr. Parker wouldn't cook his own meal has something to do with the show hyping up the popular image of men working and women cooking, itself commercialized after World War II, added with most working jobs making the men worn out that he often doesn't have enough energy to cook (which is something having both parents be breadwinners brings in that both often don't have the time or the energy to make supper at the end of the day, explaining the constant fast food take outs or frozen dinners of today), as well as a fact, women just make foods more delicious than men can. I am positive Parker could cook his own dinner, but the television tropes prohibit it, and the movie wants us to see him as a selfish guy who needs to check his privileges.
Eventually, the town's fathers (get it?) decide to crack down on the loss of values that made the town great. First, they suggest the town do something about it. The result of that is the situation getting worse with the malt shop vandalized and books burned, signs saying "no coloreds" appear, while Betty gets sexually harassed by a couple of monochromatic youths. Betty is even given a sit down discussion by her husband, in a way that would come off as abuse outside of Pleasantville, while Betty now no longer feels shame at her colors that she refuses. Instead, she leaves him. The Mayor and the town's fathers (got it yet?) then decide to establish a set of rules to benefit everyone and make things pleasant again, but when they are read they seem to benefit the oppressors instead. So, David leads the rebellion of the youth and is brought to court over it, with the Mayor being both judge and jury, yet a passionate speech by David allows the whole town to become colorful, including its mayor.
In the last, I know most people didn't expect men to cook their own meals when married, but even with that one would have to go through a suspension of disbelief. There are times men will cook; such as in the military when assigned KP (that's Kitchen Patrol, for anyone who doesn't understand military terms), or when they cook for a living like Mr. Johnson at the malt shop, and if men are living on their own they are likely to cook something for themselves, too. Handling the BBQ grill is also cooking. The idea that they get married so they wouldn't have to cook anymore is something I can't think of having any basis. The only reason Mr. Parker wouldn't cook his own meal has something to do with the show hyping up the popular image of men working and women cooking, itself commercialized after World War II, added with most working jobs making the men worn out that he often doesn't have enough energy to cook (which is something having both parents be breadwinners brings in that both often don't have the time or the energy to make supper at the end of the day, explaining the constant fast food take outs or frozen dinners of today), as well as a fact, women just make foods more delicious than men can. I am positive Parker could cook his own dinner, but the television tropes prohibit it, and the movie wants us to see him as a selfish guy who needs to check his privileges.
Eventually, the town's fathers (get it?) decide to crack down on the loss of values that made the town great. First, they suggest the town do something about it. The result of that is the situation getting worse with the malt shop vandalized and books burned, signs saying "no coloreds" appear, while Betty gets sexually harassed by a couple of monochromatic youths. Betty is even given a sit down discussion by her husband, in a way that would come off as abuse outside of Pleasantville, while Betty now no longer feels shame at her colors that she refuses. Instead, she leaves him. The Mayor and the town's fathers (got it yet?) then decide to establish a set of rules to benefit everyone and make things pleasant again, but when they are read they seem to benefit the oppressors instead. So, David leads the rebellion of the youth and is brought to court over it, with the Mayor being both judge and jury, yet a passionate speech by David allows the whole town to become colorful, including its mayor.
As a Catholic, I am aware of an underline motive of color coming into the black and white world of Pleasantville over the course of the movie, with characters suddenly becoming more human like in the process, which is easily interpreted as the celebration of the Fall. There is even a scene where Dave's date picks an apple from the tree and hands it to him to eat (not too subtle there). On the next day, Dave is called up by the TV Repairman, played by the late Don Knox, who is set up as though he were God (a gag on that comes where Jennifer moans "Oh God", and the Repairman comments on the way they are showing gratitude in an offended tone). He calls him out on how he and Jennifer have messed up the paradise and now they are coming home (basically, he intends to nip this one in the bud, wink wink), but Dave refuses. The irony was earlier he wanted play out his character role in the beginning while Jennifer refuses to be a "Mary Sue".
Mary Sue is a character archetype introduced in Star Trek as someone, usually a woman, who has no flaws and is able to do things with perfect ease. It's become very common lately. So, to see that the daughter is named Mary Sue sort of makes it a joke.
I am positive feminists will note Jennifer's story arc, where she starts out by refusing to be Mary Sue, often rebelling against the norms of the sitcom, yet only in embracing her role as Mary Sue does she actually become empowered. I have noted how in her date with Skip, we get a shy, nice guy, who is good looking in her eye, who only gets upset at the thought of noting dating her, while paying her compliments that are not about her body (David even tells Jennifer that no boy notices her breasts in Pleasantville), though it came come off as placing her on a pedestal. Yet, Jennifer takes control of the date by suggesting they leave the malt shop early, and head up to lovers' lane. Skip admits this is sudden, as most couples don't go up there unless they had been pinned awhile, and Jennifer decides to not wait and seduces him. The devirginized Skip later goes on tells his pals about the date night, introducing the concept of sex to the teens and suddenly we see the 1950s hook-up culture. By then, Jennifer is in Skip's arm constantly, until the book reading fad catches on and she becomes interested in D.H. Lawrence. In her embracing of Mary Sue, she puts on a sweater and her glasses, both of which are almost never sexualized. Then she turns down Skip's date to study. Skip eventually is seen among the conservatives and tries to burn her book, basically turning him into Gaston in the process. So, Jennifer dumps him and kicks him in the groin, and is never seen getting her hooks on a man after. And she finally gets her colors by rejecting sex for the book. Finally, she decides to go to college in the show instead of going home, thus showing she has become Mary Sue.
Dave, on the other hand, has the arc of going into Pleasantville to escape reality, only to become the rebel leader. He one by one gets people to change, ending with his television father, and the mayor. In fact, Dave was changing the town earlier, though without any intention to it; first by almost not letting Skip date Jennifer, then telling Johnson he can make adjustments on his activities. He puts out a fire and becomes a hero, which gets the eye of Margaret, who bakes him cookies. He does refuse them twice, but eats them in the end, and asks her out on a date, all of which are against the plot. It's by this point, we can see that Dave is no longer doing right, and is thinking with his other head (wink wink), until he gets the shouting at from the TV repairman, and goes back to doing right by continuing to change the place.
I found the shooting script of Pleasantville online, and in it one finds that the TV Repairman was originally to be Dick Van Dyke in repairman clothes. Why they didn't get him to play the role? I have no idea. Maybe some problems with the payment negotiations, I guess. I don't really know. Not only that, the Repairman had more scenes, and not just be someone who shows up once and then is only spoken to on the television. He actually visits Dave / Bud in the jailhouse, demanding the remote, and Dave refuses to hand it over. Of course, they cut the part out, along with the cast change, and basically redid the scene where George Parker visits his "son" in the cell and they have a talk. Personally, I like this better, as it gives Dave the closest thing to a father-son moment (he has only his real mom at home). The original scene, on the other hand, confirms the whole Fall from Grace undertone that Joseph Schimmel in his Hollywood's War On God brings up (he doesn't start talking about it until about one hour and nineteen minutes in). In the end, the authority figures are either converted to the good side or ousted, like the Mayor chooses to flee instead of facing reality (making him, in a sense, Dave's foil, as the latter watched the show to escape instead of facing reality). The residents of Pleasantville gather outside the courtroom and enjoy a brave new (and beautiful) world with its rich colors. While Jennifer goes to college, Dave goes home and closes his arc by switching the television off. Nothing is done elsewhere. The TV Repairman even smiles and drives away in the end, as if he intended this to happen the whole time. At the same time, we are left wondering where the town will go from here. The final shot where Betty and George speak of that and not knowing anything about it, then revealing Johnson in Parker's place saying he doesn't know either, raises a lot of questions that need answering. Far too many to list, however.
Another thing is how it desensitizes the sin glorification by using familiar images. Besides color, we see a shot of books being burned a la Nazi book burnings (they even use footage and manage to hide the swastikas), the destruction of the malt shop to be akin to vigilante groups going after people with AIDS as well as the Night of the Broken Glass in Nazi Germany, signs saying "No Coloreds" (an ironic play on the meaning, since there aren't any people of color in Pleasantville, while the colorizing of people in a black and white world makes them the literal definition) to remind the viewer of the segregation that was common in the time, and the courtroom scene having it set up like the courtroom scenes in To Kill a Mockingbird, while Dave goes into a speech not too different from Brady's speech in Inherit the Wind. While stories as allegories can present something controversial, but disguise it as something else so it wouldn't be attacked, is common, the way Pleasantville does it has a sinister component to it. It implies that sin is good and knowledge making, and those who oppose sin are no better than all the evil people in history. Thus, it uses this Fall from Grace motif to attack the nostalgia of the fifties.
Mary Sue is a character archetype introduced in Star Trek as someone, usually a woman, who has no flaws and is able to do things with perfect ease. It's become very common lately. So, to see that the daughter is named Mary Sue sort of makes it a joke.
I am positive feminists will note Jennifer's story arc, where she starts out by refusing to be Mary Sue, often rebelling against the norms of the sitcom, yet only in embracing her role as Mary Sue does she actually become empowered. I have noted how in her date with Skip, we get a shy, nice guy, who is good looking in her eye, who only gets upset at the thought of noting dating her, while paying her compliments that are not about her body (David even tells Jennifer that no boy notices her breasts in Pleasantville), though it came come off as placing her on a pedestal. Yet, Jennifer takes control of the date by suggesting they leave the malt shop early, and head up to lovers' lane. Skip admits this is sudden, as most couples don't go up there unless they had been pinned awhile, and Jennifer decides to not wait and seduces him. The devirginized Skip later goes on tells his pals about the date night, introducing the concept of sex to the teens and suddenly we see the 1950s hook-up culture. By then, Jennifer is in Skip's arm constantly, until the book reading fad catches on and she becomes interested in D.H. Lawrence. In her embracing of Mary Sue, she puts on a sweater and her glasses, both of which are almost never sexualized. Then she turns down Skip's date to study. Skip eventually is seen among the conservatives and tries to burn her book, basically turning him into Gaston in the process. So, Jennifer dumps him and kicks him in the groin, and is never seen getting her hooks on a man after. And she finally gets her colors by rejecting sex for the book. Finally, she decides to go to college in the show instead of going home, thus showing she has become Mary Sue.
Dave, on the other hand, has the arc of going into Pleasantville to escape reality, only to become the rebel leader. He one by one gets people to change, ending with his television father, and the mayor. In fact, Dave was changing the town earlier, though without any intention to it; first by almost not letting Skip date Jennifer, then telling Johnson he can make adjustments on his activities. He puts out a fire and becomes a hero, which gets the eye of Margaret, who bakes him cookies. He does refuse them twice, but eats them in the end, and asks her out on a date, all of which are against the plot. It's by this point, we can see that Dave is no longer doing right, and is thinking with his other head (wink wink), until he gets the shouting at from the TV repairman, and goes back to doing right by continuing to change the place.
I found the shooting script of Pleasantville online, and in it one finds that the TV Repairman was originally to be Dick Van Dyke in repairman clothes. Why they didn't get him to play the role? I have no idea. Maybe some problems with the payment negotiations, I guess. I don't really know. Not only that, the Repairman had more scenes, and not just be someone who shows up once and then is only spoken to on the television. He actually visits Dave / Bud in the jailhouse, demanding the remote, and Dave refuses to hand it over. Of course, they cut the part out, along with the cast change, and basically redid the scene where George Parker visits his "son" in the cell and they have a talk. Personally, I like this better, as it gives Dave the closest thing to a father-son moment (he has only his real mom at home). The original scene, on the other hand, confirms the whole Fall from Grace undertone that Joseph Schimmel in his Hollywood's War On God brings up (he doesn't start talking about it until about one hour and nineteen minutes in). In the end, the authority figures are either converted to the good side or ousted, like the Mayor chooses to flee instead of facing reality (making him, in a sense, Dave's foil, as the latter watched the show to escape instead of facing reality). The residents of Pleasantville gather outside the courtroom and enjoy a brave new (and beautiful) world with its rich colors. While Jennifer goes to college, Dave goes home and closes his arc by switching the television off. Nothing is done elsewhere. The TV Repairman even smiles and drives away in the end, as if he intended this to happen the whole time. At the same time, we are left wondering where the town will go from here. The final shot where Betty and George speak of that and not knowing anything about it, then revealing Johnson in Parker's place saying he doesn't know either, raises a lot of questions that need answering. Far too many to list, however.
Another thing is how it desensitizes the sin glorification by using familiar images. Besides color, we see a shot of books being burned a la Nazi book burnings (they even use footage and manage to hide the swastikas), the destruction of the malt shop to be akin to vigilante groups going after people with AIDS as well as the Night of the Broken Glass in Nazi Germany, signs saying "No Coloreds" (an ironic play on the meaning, since there aren't any people of color in Pleasantville, while the colorizing of people in a black and white world makes them the literal definition) to remind the viewer of the segregation that was common in the time, and the courtroom scene having it set up like the courtroom scenes in To Kill a Mockingbird, while Dave goes into a speech not too different from Brady's speech in Inherit the Wind. While stories as allegories can present something controversial, but disguise it as something else so it wouldn't be attacked, is common, the way Pleasantville does it has a sinister component to it. It implies that sin is good and knowledge making, and those who oppose sin are no better than all the evil people in history. Thus, it uses this Fall from Grace motif to attack the nostalgia of the fifties.
Pleasantville bombed when it came out, only gained a cult following since it was aired frequently on television. If there is a legacy, it's the fact it marked a turning point to the nostalgic look back to the 1950s, which had been lasting since the Seventies. For people seeing all the horrors of that decade, there were people who longed for a simpler time that came with the Fifties, something that many in the Fifties had also thought of for the pre-World War II era (1900s, 1910s, 1920s). This was what made American Graffiti such a success in 1974, and Grease in 1978, as well as the show Happy Days being such a hit. The song "American Pie" cites the plane crash that killed three Rock stars in 1959 as the death of the innocence of Rock n Roll, the music forever associated with the decade, thus saying another type of innocence died as well. Through the Seventies and Eighties, finally the Nineties, this nostalgia lasted with the Fifties treated as source for fantasies (mostly to white Americans, since there is rarely anything to cater African Americans or other minorities in these scenarios). Pleasantville arrived as Hollywood was making a turning away from that rosy picture and began to show less pleasant sides of the Fifties. October Sky came out a year later to feature a pair of teenage boys learning rocketry while in the largely backwoods West Virginia with the father of one embodying the tyrannical father figure of the decade. The show Boy Meets World had an episode of Cory seeing the Fifties and being accused of being a spy for Russia. Those are just a few examples, but it continued on in the Millennium where the Fifties was now shown as something of a worse time in comparison to the present, as almost everything connected to it would feature racism, sexism, paranoia, and suppression of individualism.
Today, the Seventies are in the nostalgia lens, though it's taking a while for it change, as with the Eighties, and already are some of the nostalgia of the Nineties are being challenged in a few places. One day, we will see that with this current decade (imagine the embarrassment of future generations to hear of a time when people always got emotional over problems instead of rationally solving them, while coming up with all sorts of ramblings of the evils of the world; someone might one day find the man bun and the pixie cut as down right weird one day and ask, "what were those people thinking then?"). Now, maybe they'll have a better way of addressing it in the future.
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