Pleasantville Synopsis

The movie is about two teenagers who magically gets drawn into the 1950s fictional, black-and-white television sitcom, Pleasantville. The show portrays a very stereotypical image of the 1950s having similar elements to that of “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best.” In Pleasantville, both David and Jennifer are forced to take on the roles of Bud and Mary-Sue, respectively. But as they play along in the perfect and pure little town of Pleasantville, their presence soon influence drastic changes. As the citizens of Pleasantville discover sex, art, books, music and the concept of nonconformity, color erupts in their black-and-white world. Color spreads throughout the town, threatening the Mayor to rid of the sinful/tainted colors, and change Pleasantville back to what it once was.

The Double Standard

The film also covertly represented the double standard for men and women. In the time of the 1950’s, women were said to me stay at home. Women were supposed to stay in the house, with the kids, prepare food for the family, and have it ready for the husband when he walked in from work. Women of this time period were supposed to look beautiful at all times, never have a bad moment, and were not to worry about a thing, especially social problems, but were more like a “pet” for the husband to showcase.

In the clip below, titled, "It'll go away," the father tells Joan Allen, “…now listen to me, your coming to this meeting, your GOING to put on some makeup, your going to be home at 6 o’clock every night, and your GOING to have dinner ready, on THIS table."

It'll go away...




The Mayor of Pleasantville speaks to a few of the husbands of Pleasantville, saying, if George here doesn’t get his dinner, anyone of us could be next…” The men of the town act as though not getting their dinners at the same time, and made by their “women,” is unbelievable, and an emergency for immediate change.

Pleasantville, A Hollywood Biblical Film?

Through the usage of color, the movie was able to tackle major social issues and allude to the bible, which are deeply rooted concerns in American culture. The main element of change (to undergo a color change) as interpreted from the movie could very well be a symbolism of sin, as many of the non-colored feared.
Pleasantville can very well be the equivalence of the Garden of Eden, a place of innocence and perfection. However, when Jennifer and David (who aren’t so innocent) are placed in Pleasantville, things begins to change as Jennifer and her ’90s permissiveness contributes initially to the discovery of sex. Thus, such an act has broken the perfect harmony of Pleasantville and soon everyone who doesn’t conform to the norms of Pleasantville undergoes a vibrant color change. This color change is believed to be an act of sin and corruption for the most part of the movie; it was very shameful to be a "colored."
In the bible, Genesis introduces the story of the Garden of Eden where there is a "Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil." As many may know, Eve was tricked by the serpent to eat from the tree, and thus brought knowledge and evil to mankind. In Pleasantville, this was portrayed as the discovery of books (the good)and the partake and openness of engaging in sexual activities (the evil). All of a sudden, the youths of Pleasantville became very interested in the empty books in the library that suddenly became filled with words and stories (Huckfinn) and they also started flocking to Lover's Lane. As they, so to say, "sinned" they changed from the black and white to vibrant colors.

Betty Parker, the repressed housewife, is symbolically a representation of Eve. She’s so innocent that she doesn’t even know what sex is. When she “sinned” so to say, she wasn’t even aware that what she was doing was wrong. Particularly in this scene, Mary-Sue (Jennifer) plays the role of Satan as she spreads the knowledge of “evil"; she teaches her mother about sex and how to satisfy herself.

Does this scene remind anyone of anything? Particularly, this scene looks like an exact duplication of the “Garden of Eden” story in Genesis. The tree with the apple represents the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” And as the bible story goes, Margaret (Eve) picks the apple from the tree and she gives it to David (Adam) and he eats it. Following this scene, it rains and thunder in Pleasantville for the first time ever. It seems to represent God's angry judgment of the sinful activities going on in Pleasantville. Particularly, it is identical to the bible as God banned Adam and Eve from the garden and brought about punishment and hardships to mankind after Adam ate from the tree, which parallels how God sent rain to Pleasantville after David ate from the tree; it could be a sign of God's unsatisfcation towards his behavior.

Here’s a section of the mural painted by Mr. Johnson (Soda shop owner) and David. This is another, but less explicit bible allusion to the “Garden of Eden.” Through out the movie, there has been redundant portrayals of the Garden of Eden scene, where man first sinned.

(More random Biblical allusions from the movie.)
Caption: There are many Bible references in this movie. (1)There is a burning tree. (2)The Rainbow and the Promise, from Noah's Ark (God promises to never send floods to the world anymore. Shockingly, this rainbow also occurs after the first time it rains in Pleasantville. From the bible story Noah's Ark, God sends floods to the world because it became sinful and he dispproved of it. The rain scene followed by the rainbow was a show of God's disapproval of Pleasantville).

Check out this video to find out about more biblical analysis from the movie, Pleasantville.

Pleasantville War on God Controversy:

Pleasantville "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Not only was the film Pleasantville a great depiction of American culture, but it also touched on social problems, of today’s age and of history. The use of colors was a great way to represent the issues of race in a satirical and covert manner. The American society is fearful of change and Pleasantville effortlessly symbolizes the past American society’s fear of racial integration. As the movie progresses, the citizens of Pleasantville begin to change and find more fulfillment in their lives. Once this happens, the people turn from dull black and white to vibrant Technicolor. As the people suddenly change into color, black and white citizens believed that whoever was changing into the colors was corrupt.

Scene: Courtroom scene: The mayor of Pleasantville tells his people, “if you love a place, you can’t just sit back and watch this kind of thing happen!” So after a majority of the town’s people had seemingly turned into color, the “true citizens of Pleasantville” (or, black and white people) decide to have a town hall meeting for change. During the town hall meeting in the courtroom, the people have a strong resemblance to the courtroom scene in the movie To Kill a Mockingbird. There, the people divide themselves, as the “coloreds” on the top of the courtroom, in the balcony, and the black and whites, on the bottom. Because as Bob, the Mayor of Pleasantville tells them, “…you must separate out things that are pleasant from the things that are unpleasant.” The mayor and the “true citizens of Pleasantville,” create the Pleasantville Code of Conduct, containing eight strict rules for the people of Pleasantville to abide by. Rule number seven, “The only permissible paint colors will be black, white, or gray…” proves that color was looked at to be an evil thing. Throughout America’s history, there has always been the problem of racism and especially towards “colored” people. The ending scenes in the court house were a perfect representation of America’s history with racism, and the stubbornness of the American people to change.


Your "colored" girlfriend...

Prejudice is amongst all American’s, and it’s not just about race. Prejudice is about being intolerant to differences. Pleasantville powerfully displayed the discrimination American’s can show towards each other. The “true citizens” of Pleasantville, or the black and white folks were prejudice against those who turned to multicolor. Each person who turned into multicolor was “changed” because they began to find their “own selves”. The multicolor was symbolic of change, finding one’s own personality, and breaking out of the “social norms.” Color became a sign of evil in the town of Pleasantville, the Mayor even made a law number 7 in the Code of Conduct at the town hall meeting, to read, “the only permissible paint colors will be, black, white, and gray…” Those citizens of Pleasantville in color, were looked down upon, and not even treated like real/true citizens.


Joan Allen, the mother in the film, put black and white make up on her face, even just to go out in public, to cover up the fact the she had turned into color.
“Nothing is as simple as Black and White.” –Pleasantville Theme

Pleasantville or Third Reich?

One of Pleasantville’s underlying themes is one of a 1940’s dictatorship similar to that of the Hitler regime. This is shown most clearly in the scene of the movie in which the mayor of the town orders books to be burned and then holds a town meeting for all “true” citizens of Pleasantville. These two scenes are entwined in each other as the camera goes back and forth between each. This book burning is a critical point in the movie because it really shows the change in attitude of the people and also the power of the mayor. The city has started with the most “perfect” place on earth and has now changed into a form of hell. He gains this power by turning all the “true” residents of Pleasantville against the colored people. This dichotomy is a mirror image to that of the Aryan race against the Jews during WWII.

Book Burning Scene...(2:20-7:00)


This incredibly moving scene actually shows the incredible change from the 1950’s back a decade to the days of Hitler. It’s interesting that the movie shows this book burning and dictatorship symbolism because these people would have just come out of a war fighting against that. The painting on the wall done by Bud and Mr. Johnson shown above shows a picture of a burning book and is representative of the 1940’s Germany. These books were burned in both situations as a result of a change in government to a dictatorship resulting in total control.
They don’t even realize it’s happening to them and they get caught up in this sick world. The symbolism of the colored people can not only be representative of blacks and whites, but also of the Jews in Nazi Germany. That oh so obvious symbol that they’re different can be compared to wearing the Star of David on their clothing. This Star was a humiliating piece of evidence that you were different and was meant to segregate and demean, just as separating and mistreating the colored people was.

Sources Cited

Citations

Hall, Lucia. “Pleasantville (Review)” The Humanist Jan. 1999: 45-. Academic OneFile. InfoTrac. Michigan Electronic Lib., Roseville, MI. 19 Apr. 2007.

Calhoun, John. “Black & White In Color: 'Pleasantville' Recreates 50s TV” TLC Nov. 1998: 48-. Academic OneFile. InfoTrac. Michigan Electronic Lib., Roseville, MI. 19 Apr. 2007.

Zuck, Jon. Pleasantville: The Garden of Eden Revisited. 9 Jan. 2004 .

Pleasantville movie critique review:
http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=pleasantville

Movie Review by Edward Johnson January 1, 2000
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/news/166920/

Pleasantville symbolism:
http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/RED_FEATHER/movielabs/006studypleasant.html

Pleasantville. The Movie
Directed by Gary Ross. Perf. Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, and Jeff Daniels. New Line Cinema, 1998.


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