Customer Reviews

Pleasantville [VHS]

5 star:		(245)
4 star:		(78)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

Pleasantville may be one of the best, most underrated movies of all time. I admit, when it was first released, the premise seemed a bit goofy: two teenagers (played by then-unknown actors) are suddenly cast into a Leave It To Beaver-like classic TV town called Pleasantville by none other than Don Knotts (reminds you a little of the forgettable "Stay Tuned," doesn't it?). Upon their arrival, however, they discover that Pleasantville isn't everything it's cracked up to be and that being "pleasant" means missing out on some basic, vital parts of life (such as toilets, and of course, sex). What follows is an amazing transformation: of the main characters, the town, and even the movie itself, whose stunning cinematography slowly adds bursts of color to Pleasantville's black and white world while simultaneously providing a metaphor for the race conflicts of the 1950s and 60s. The two unknown actors turn out to be the now-famous Tobey Maguire and Reese Whitherspoon, both of whom shine like the stars they are in one of their first movies. Added to this are excellent supporting performances by some of the best in the business, including William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, and the late great character actor J.T. Walsh. An absolutely incredible, must-see film.

Pleasantville is a fantastic film experience, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. A true, striking, and original masterpiece; Pleasantville is a must for any movie fan. What makes the film such a joy is how it exists on so many levels; almost anyone can find something to like here. It's at times a simple fantasy, others a biting satire, and even others an account of our history and change as people. Pleasantville is purely original and very well-structured. It deals with mature themes and if you're someone who likes to analyze films, then this is a great choice. The DVD warrants a purchase, even if you already own the VHS version (as I do), one of the few DVD's that does. Do yourself a favor and listen to writer-director Gary Ross's commentary-it's dynamite, even if you generally do not like commentaries. It's incredibly enlightening and adds much to the film's depth. Ross cleary illustates all of the overlapping themes and symbolism, and adds a personal touch to the movie's meaning. (The unintended rip-offs of The Shawshank Redemption and Citizen Kane are particularly interesting). The film has a bright, crisp transfer and excellent sound. The only way to enjoy Pleasantville (other than the theater) is on DVD. Newman's music is magical, also. There's a neat (oh, I'm talking like a 50's person now) behind the scenes documentary on the film's jaw-dropping special effects. The included Fiona Apple music video is pretty neat and directed by P.T. Anderson. (Anderson fans take note: watch for Anderson regular John C. Reilly at the video's end.) Overall, a DVD to buy: one of '98's best films with tons of extras to boot. Swell.

Pleasantville is like a colorized movie version of Twilight Zone. A modern day boy (Toby McGuire) dreams of going back to the innocent days of the 1950s. When he gets his wish via a magical stranger played by Don Knotts, he and his sister Reese Witherspoon steps into a black and white world of Pleasantville, a town stucked in the 1950s. As the town's innocence is wiped away with the introduction of books and knowledge, color replaces the black and white starkness of the town and its people. Beautifully acted and filmed, this movie has heart and a brain.

O.K. I'll to try to help people get the most out of this movie.

First, I recommend you wait to see this movie until you're atleast 18 years old. And, no, I'm not saying that this movie should be rated 'R'. I just think you have to have a certain amount of education under your belt, and be contemplating life in general, to fully embrace this film.

Now, regarding what the movie is about...
It's about two siblings who have different views of what the perfect world should be--neither of which is totally correct. Despite the title, I don't think the movie is about the town of Pleasantville. Sure, almost everything we see happens there, and there are plenty of scenes that don't show either David or Jennifer (the two kids); but, I think that the town is there more as a learning device for the kids, and as a reminder to us, the audience, of our real-world history. You have to keep in mind that this movie is partly a comedy. If you get bogged down trying to figure out what everything is a metaphor for, you may miss a laugh, because most of the time there are only partial metaphors. Pleasantville doesn't represent 1950's America. (They actually did have toilets and "real rain" back then.) It's a fake world that David thought would be a great place to live in. Unfortunately, a world where nothing bad ever happens just doesn't exist (when real people are involved). David, himself, helped mess up his perfect world just by being late for work once. Jennifer, on the other hand, is upset that she's been unwillingly thrown into this world that is far from her ideal one; so, she does her best to try to change Pleasantville into what she wants.

The following are my comments on what other reviewers have said:
--Unlike what some reviewers have said, it seems like both liberal and conservative views are expressed here; and in the end, neither one is found to be always better than the other. Sometimes, change is forced on us even when nobody wants it (e.g., natural disasters). Either you find a way to deal with the change, possibly learn from it, and move forward; or, you can spend the rest of your life wishing for the olden days, feeling miserable, because you know they will never return.

--Whoever brought up Nazis in relation to this movie must have been watching something quite different from what I was. Religious freedom and sexual orientation are two subjects that this movie never even tried to touch on. And, the most physical harm that I can remember seeing in this film, was one guy with a bloody lip. Or, if you're referring to the book burning, it's not like the Nazis are the only ones who have tried to remove certain literature from society.

--Anyone who said this movie promotes sexual promiscuity wasn't watching closely enough. In fact, they must have completely ignored everything that went on with Jennifer in the second half of the movie. David and Jennifer even talked about how becoming colored couldn't just be about sex. However, I do wish that sex hadn't been used as frequently as it was, and probably shouldn't have been, if they really wanted this to be a family-friendly film.

--This story was also NOT an allegory for the Garden of Eden. The garden was made reference to a couple of times, but it certainly is not what the movie is all about. Especially with the Don Knotts part, I can't understand why anyone would seriously think that the TV repairman was supposed to represent God in anything but the loosest sense. That character was there almost solely for humor. The citizens of Pleasantville never make any mention of any religion at all. So, how anyone can say that this movie is an attack on their religion is mind-boggling to me.

If Gary Ross is guilty of anything, it might be too much ambition. But this story worked for me on all levels. I enjoyed the serious parts and the silly parts. And I hope I can continue to live in color.
<<fade to black playing Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors">>

Its amazing how badly some people have misconstrued this movie. I'll TRY to explain it.

The 'black and white people' are not Christian, or right wing, or moral, or any of those things - they are automata - living and reliving the same 'pleasant'events over and over without considering that there could be an alternative.

Whenever one of them breaks the cycle, and becomes something other than their preordained Pleasantville self, they 'go colour'. In some case this is sex, or masturbation, or art or - in the case of the Father, realising he loves his wife and she isn't just a cook - anything that wakes them up and makes them human.

The most important thing, though, that totally undermines the moral outrage felt by some of this world's own 'black and white people' (as seen below) is the transformation of Reese Witherspoon's character.

SHE becomes colorised when she stops being an airhead 'slut' (her own word) and starts to read and use her mind. She turns down a date to study. The point is that she has changed from her own tired repetitive behaviour - has used her mind and decided what it is she really wants to be.

THAT is the point of this film.

As for the lack of racial minorities - its hard to see how they could have handled the introduction of them into the all-white sitcom world of the 50s, especially without accusations of tokenism. Is suspect, however, that the bus link to 'Springfield' that comes into being at the end will being diversity to Pleasantville.

A beautiful film, make no mistake. But what is "Pleasantville" really about? The "moral/repressed" 1950's against the "decadent/free-spirited" 1990's? I would venture not -- rather, the town of Pleasantville represents a fantasy of what the 1950's were like, a peek at what many imagine was a golden age of "family values" and sexual innocence. The fact that the 1950's were not actually like this is passed over by many of the film's critics, who see the sexual elements in the film as an attack on morality typical of an equally imaginary "immoral" modern world.

But "Pleasantville" is about fantasy and reality, not the 1950's and the 1990's. The characters take on color not because they are discovering sexuality but because they are becoming whole human beings rather than imaginary characters in an unchanging idyllic world. This is no less true of David/Bud and Jennifer/Mary Sue than it is of the citizens of the town. The symbolism of the fruit, paralleling the Biblical story of emerging human awareness and its divinity, is powerful. Contrary to those who see the knowledge of good and evil as an affront to God, "Pleasantville" reminds us that it is this knowledge that makes us like God, possessing of a divine nature that other animals lack. As to the charges that the film glorifies irresponsible sexuality, I point out that Jennifer/Mary Sue only achieves color when she stops having sex and discovers that there is more to life than the shallow pleasure-only morality she had previously embraced. One must be sexual to be whole, but one cannot be whole if one is only sexual.

So see "Pleasantville", but be warned: it will challenge you in ways that few stories do.

The story at first seems to be a satire on the TV sanitation of the 1950's but this film is much richer and runs much deeper than that. In a comedic and satirical manner it addresses such issues as love, marriage, personal identity and the importance of knowledge. It also tackles serious subjects as well such as racism, book burnings, and even Fascism.

Our two characters: David (Toby Macguire), an intelligent geek with no self-confidence and his sister Jennifer (Reese Whitherspoon), an unintelligent and sexually active teenager get zapped by Don Knotts, of all people, into this 1950's sitcom called "Pleasantville".

Everything in the town of Pleasantville is perfect. It's a beautiful suburb set in the 1950's with the perfectly straight picket fences, with the perfectly dressed men wearing suit and ties, with the perfectly dressed women wearing flowered dresses while making meatloaf.

David is euphoric about his insertion into "Pleasantville" for he gets to interact with his favorite TV show. Jennifer, on the other hand, feels trapped in a black-and-white prison and decides to shake things up.

There lies the comedy and the subsequent contrast. Guess what happens when you place a sexually active teenager from the late 1990's into a culture where the parents sleep in twin beds? Though her brother does his best to interact with the locals and keep his sister out of trouble, he too begins to contaminate this world with knowledge and his newly found self-confidence.

With the strategic use of color entering into this world, allegorical concepts are introduced with amazing clarity. I don't want to spoil anything; you just have to see it happen.

The production design was amazing. The digital effects were graphically stunning. The range of all of the actors here was also top notch: William Macy crying at the apex of a sentence during an emotional revelation, the body language of Jeff Daniels, The emotional tones of Joan Allen's voice, and you all ready know about how good mega-stars Toby Macguire and Resse Whitherspoon have become.

Best movie of the 1990's

When Blu first started one of the main films that came to my mind for hopeful clarity test and color contrast was this one. Tons of chances for a fail - but in the end another fun movie with a solid preservation. Skipping a content review of the already known film, this is just a BD quip.

The colors and black & white sequences look great. Tested the disc on both LCD and plasma displays with side-by-side comparisons of the DVD release. There was a significant and noticeable clarity increase with the pixelations removed/being cleared up from the old version. The line definition looked solid and only showed the falterings from original filming regarding color vs. no color sequences. Pause checked both rose scenes and several town window scenes to observe the fine detail (text, labels) and reflection improvements (so much so that myself and customers alike noticed a few flies buzzing around on actors that did not readily appear in the DVD version). Make-up lines and eye reflections are clearer and the only other noticeable failings are with some out-of-focus scenes and one or two quick movement sequences (umbrella twirling, etc.).

The DTS is center channel heavy but the music is mixed to the outer realms nicely, with only a few surprising surrounds during the bowling alley scenes and one other shot. The special features are brought over from the Pleasantville (New Line Platinum Series) release sans the computer features. Worth the upgrade for the price listed. Hope you enjoy.

Pleasantville is about the bursting forth of the human spirit. It is not about morals or particular ethical systems that you may or may not approve of, and it has absolutely no political agenda. People who criticize this movie because the boys who attacked Joan Allen's character didn't turn color but Bud did when he defended his mother entirely missed the point. The boys didn't turn color because their actions reinforced their utterly static lives and stagnant spirit. Bud turned color because he suddenly let go and allowed his human spirit to burst forth. I've seen thousands of films, and few have moved me as deeply as this one has (Shawshank Redemption is one of them). I have watched it five times now, and it is so beautiful that it reduces me to a quivering pulp every time I see it. The ending, with the three of them on the park bench was perfect. They didn't know what was going to happen next, for the first time in their lives, and they were ecstatic because of it! That is what life is all about: the unlimited possibilities, and opening oneself up to them. The most profoundly moving spot in the movie for me occurs when the camera pans over to Mary Sue as she sleeps the next morning after rebuffing her boy friend, so she could continue reading her classic, and she is in color. It isn't anything in particular that causes the color change in this movie. It isn't sex in her case, as she discovers (she already has plenty of that), but simply the opening up of herself to the possibilities of her being. The central message of this movie makes all criticisms of it because it is "unrealistic," or "it could never happen," ridiculous, and demonstrates that the message in this movie sailed right over the reviewer's head. This is an allegory, and the "impossible" aspects of this movie are used only to serve its allegorical intentions.

Prior to his impressive work with 2003's Seabiscuit, writer Gary Ross (Big, Dave) made his directorial debut with this slyly comic gem of a movie. Ross has described himself as a "fabulist," telling his stories in big, bold colors-in Pleasantville's case, literally as well as figuratively.

Surrounded by doom-spouting teachers and the drone of American suburbia, ignored by their divorced parents, high school twins David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer Wagner (Reese Witherspoon) have developed very different strategies for coping with teenage alienation. Shy, geeky David looses himself in the perfect world of a B&W 1950s sitcom called Pleasantville, while sexually precocious Jennifer pursues guys and popularity. When their mother (Jane Kaczmarek) goes out of town, a fight between the siblings over possession of the television results in a broken remote control. An unlikely good fairy arrives in the form of an elderly repair man (Don Knotts), who offers the twins a remote that will "put [them] right in the show." Much to their horror, the new toy does exactly that, and the siblings find themselves trapped in Pleasantville, in the identities of Bud and Mary Sue Parker, the children of doting parents George (William H. Macy) and Betty Parker (Joan Allen).

Pleasantville both spoofs and pays homage to 1950s TV shows--a tough balancing act that Ross performs with uncommon skill. Betty serves her family a gourmet breakfast; the firemen only rescue cats; the basketball players never miss the hoop; there are only two streets in town, no double beds, and no toilets. The weather is always 72 degrees and sunny; people exclaim things like "gee whiz!"; everyone is attractive and good-natured; and of course, nobody has sex.

The twins react to their virtual imprisonment in predictable ways. David uses his extensive knowledge of the series to negotiate its pre-fab world, secretly pleased to dwell in his fantasy refuge. Jennifer is bored out of her mind, and against David's insistence that they not alter the show's continuity, she takes basketball captain Skip (Paul Walker) out for a wild night at Lover's Lane. Suddenly a crimson rose is blooming in Pleasantville's B&W Eden.

As the town's teens discover the pleasures of sex, color begins to spring up everywhere--at first in little splashes, but then in great swaths. With the show's carefully scripted existence thrown to the winds, the characters break out of their two-dimensional roles and develop real personalities, the profusions of color mirroring these transformations. Even David, who initially fights the changes, begins to see their value: in this environment, he has opportunities for love, heroism, and leadership that he never had in his previous life.

Of course, some denizens of Pleasantville don't react well to this colorful metamorphosis. Led by the town's mayor, Big Bob (the late J.T. Walsh), the remaining B&W characters fight to keep the status quo intact; things turn ugly when a group of young ruffians begin to bully and harass the "colored" folks. Here, Ross takes an unfortunate stumble: after a night of riots, book burning, and physical assaults, Big Bob restores order simply by issuing a new Code of Conduct. It's a jarring change; one senses Ross struggling between a lighter and a darker approach, settling awkwardly between the two. He also doesn't know quite how to end the story; apart from a nice scene between David and his mother, the movie drifts to a vague close. This may have been done intentionally; however, it robs the ending of real impact.

The use of color as a civil rights metaphor is clumsy at best. For one thing, it's unnecessary: the emergence of color works beautifully as a metaphor for personal transformation, with the characters discovering untapped aspects of their personalities, be it through romance, art, intellect, or new emotional experiences. The attempt at a Big Statement about racism saps the first, stronger metaphor of its impact, and given the movie's all-white cast, also smacks of hypocrisy.

Despite these problems, Pleasantvile has many strong points. The script is deft and sharp, crackling with wit and funny one-liners. Ross pays homage to the idealized world of the 1950s even as he lampoons that fantasy and exposes its dark underbelly. The characters all grow in ways that make sense and feel organic. The visuals are wonderful: the town looks appropriately two-dimensional and fake; the costumes are vintage 1950s; the humor-filled Randy Newman score is punctuated with classic tunes of the era; and the gradual transformation from B&W into color is visually stunning.

The cast is so excellent that in places it's easy to overlook the film's weaknesses. Tobey Maguire, in his first leading role, carries the story from start to finish, easily holding his own against veteran actors twice his age. Displaying the grace, understatement, and versatility that have become his trademarks, he handles the character's emotional gamut effortlessly. It's a familiar role for him--the awkward boy who grows into a confident young adult--but the approach he brings is so fresh, natural, and appealing that it's easy to see why he excels playing this type of character.

Unfortunately, Witherspoon doesn't deserve any accolades. She's far from terrible--she has a number of good scenes, and some of her expressions are hilarious--but mostly she just comes across as shrill and annoying. Playing opposite Maguire is a two-edged sword. On one hand, Maguire can make almost any co-star look good, and working with him probably spurred Witherspoon to try her best; on the other hand, spending so much time on-screen with him makes it too obvious that she's not in his league.

The rest of the cast is spot-on perfect. Joan Allen is particularly good as a repressed housewife who blossoms into a passionate, emotionally expressive woman (her scene in the bathtub is an absolute classic). Macy is similarly wonderful as a well-meaning guy completely befuddled by changes he can barely begin to process. He has his best scene stomping around in the rain, repeating "where's my dinner?" as if he expects the meal to materialize out of the sidewalk. In one of his final performances, Walsh is great as the town's benevolent-dictator mayor. Rounding out the main cast is Jeff Daniels as Bill, owner of the town soda shop, who discovers the joys of love and art simultaneously; he plays off both Allen and Maguire beautifully.

The supporting players are also strong. Knotts is perfectly cast as the TV repairman; Kaczmarek is very effective in her small role as a divorced suburban mom; Paul Walker shines as doofy heartthrob Skip; and Marley Shelton is warmly appealing as David's love interest, Margaret