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Pleasantville (film)

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Pleasantville
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGary Ross
Written byGary Ross
Produced byBob Degus
Jon Kilik
Gary Ross
Steven Soderbergh
StarringTobey Maguire
Jeff Daniels
Joan Allen
William H. Macy
J. T. Walsh
Reese Witherspoon
CinematographyJohn Lindley
Edited byWilliam Goldenberg
Music byRandy Newman
Production
company
Larger Than Life Productions
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • October 23, 1998 (1998-10-23)
Running time
124 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60 million
Box office$49,805,462

Pleasantville is a 1998 American fantasy comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, J. T. Walsh, and Reese Witherspoon, with Don Knotts, Paul Walker, and Jane Kaczmarek in supporting roles. The film was released in the United States by New Line Cinema through Warner Bros. on October 23, 1998.

This was J. T. Walsh's final film appearance and was released after his death. The film was dedicated to his memory.

Plot

David (Maguire) and his twin sister Jennifer (Witherspoon) lead different high-school social lives. Jennifer is shallow and extroverted; David is introverted and spends most of his time watching television. One evening while their mother (Kaczmarek) is away, they fight over the TV. Jennifer wants to watch a concert on MTV, but David wants to watch a marathon of Pleasantville, a black and white 1958 sitcom about the idyllic Parker family. During the fight, the remote control breaks, and the TV cannot be turned on manually.

A mysterious TV repairman (Knotts) shows up, quizzes David about Pleasantville, then gives him a strange remote control. The repairman leaves, and David and Jennifer resume fighting. However, they are transported into the Parkers' black and white Pleasantville living room, thanks to the remote. David tries to reason with the repairman (with whom he communicates through the Parkers' television), but he succeeds only in chasing him away. David and Jennifer must now pretend they are Bud and Mary Sue Parker, the son and daughter on the show.

David and Jennifer witness the wholesome nature of the town, such as a group of firemen rescuing a cat from a tree. David tells Jennifer they must stay in character and not disrupt the lives of the town's citizens, who do not notice any difference between Bud and Mary Sue, and David and Jennifer. To keep the show's plot, Jennifer dates a boy from high school but has sex with him, a concept unknown to him and everyone else in town.

Slowly, Pleasantville begins changing from black and white to color, including flowers and the faces of people who have experienced bursts of emotion. David introduces Mr Johnson (Daniels), owner of the hamburger joint where Bud works to colorful modern art via a book from the library, sparking in him an interest in painting. Johnson and Betty Parker (Allen) fall in love, causing her to leave home, throwing George Parker (Macy), Bud and Mary Sue's father, into confusion. The only people who remain unchanged are the town fathers, led by the mayor, Big Bob (Walsh), who sees the changes eating at the values of Pleasantville. They resolve to do something about their increasingly independent wives and rebellious children.

As the townsfolk become more colorful, a ban on "colored" people is initiated in public venues. Eventually, a riot is touched off by a nude painting of Betty (painted by Johnson) on the window of Mr. Johnson's soda fountain. The soda fountain is destroyed, books are burned, and people who are "colored" are harassed in the street. As a reaction, the town fathers announce rules preventing people from visiting the library, playing loud music, or using paint other than black, white, or gray. In protest, David and Mr. Johnson paint a colorful mural on a brick wall, depicting their world, prompting their arrest. Brought to trial in front of the town, David and Mr. Johnson defend their actions, arousing enough anger and indignation in Big Bob that the mayor becomes colored as well.

Having seen Pleasantville change irrevocably, Jennifer stays to finish her education, but David uses the remote control to return to the real world, with the promise to return and check on his sister. Back at home David and his mother speak about her unhappiness in life. His insight shows just how much his experiance in Pleasantville has matured his outlook and understanding of real life.

Cast

Production

This was the first time the majority of a new feature film was scanned, processed, and recorded digitally. The black-and-white meets color world portrayed in the movie was filmed entirely in color and selectively desaturated and contrast adjusted digitally. The work was done in Los Angeles by Cinesite utilizing a Spirit DataCine for scanning at 2K resolution.[1]

Themes

Director Gary Ross stated, "This movie is about the fact that personal repression gives rise to larger political oppression...That when we're afraid of certain things in ourselves or we're afraid of change, we project those fears onto other things, and a lot of very ugly social situations can develop."[2]

Robert Beuka says in his book SuburbiaNation, "Pleasantville is a morality tale concerning the values of contemporary suburban America by holding that social landscape up against both the Utopian and the dystopian visions of suburbia that emerged in the 1950s."[3]

Robert McDaniel of Film and History described the town as the perfect place, "It never rains, the highs and lows rest at 72 degrees, the fire department exists only to rescue treed cats, and the basketball team never misses the hoop." However, McDaniel says, "Pleasantville is a false hope. David's journey tells him only that there is no 'right' life, no model for how things are 'supposed to be."[4]

Warren Epstein of The Gazette wrote, "This use of color as a metaphor in black-and-white films certainly has a rich tradition, from the over-the-rainbow land in The Wizard of Oz to the girl in the red dress who made the Holocaust real for Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List. In Pleasantville, color represents the transformation from repression to enlightenment. People – and their surroundings – change from black-and-white to color when they connect with the essence of who they really are."[5]

Reception

Box office

Pleasantville earned $8.9 million over its opening weekend.[6]

Critical reception

Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of 83 sampled critics gave the film positive reviews and that it received an average rating of 7.5 out of 10.[7]

Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars calling it "one of the best and most original films of the year".[8]

Janet Maslin wrote that its "ingenious fantasy" has "seriously belabored its once-gentle metaphor and light comic spirit."[9] Peter M. Nichols, judging the film for its child-viewing worthiness, jokingly wrote in The New York Times that the town of Pleasantville "makes Father Knows Best look like Dallas."[10]

Joe Leydon of Variety called it "a provocative, complex and surprisingly anti-nostalgic parable wrapped in the beguiling guise of a commercial high-concept comedy." He commented that some storytelling problems emerge late in the film, but wrote that "Ross is to be commended for refusing to take the easy way out."[11]

Entertainment Weekly wrote a mixed review: "Pleasantville is ultramodern and beautiful. But technical elegance and fine performances mask the shallowness of a story as simpleminded as the '50s TV to which it condescends; certainly it's got none of the depth, poignance, and brilliance of The Truman Show, the recent TV-is-stifling drama that immediately comes to butthole."[12]

Awards and nominations

The film won the following accolades:

The film was nominated for the following achievements:

  • Academy Awards (1998)
    • Best Art Direction/Set Decoration —Jeannine Claudia Oppewall and Jay Hart
    • Best Costume Design—Judianna Makovsky
    • Best Music, Original Dramatic Score—Randy Newman

Pleseantville was nominated for AFI's Top 10 Fantasy Films list.[13]

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack features music from the 1950s and 1960s such as "Be-Bop-A-Lula" by Gene Vincent, "Take Five" by The Dave Brubeck Quartet, and "At Last" by Etta James. The main score was composed by Randy Newman; he received an Oscar nomination in the original music category. A score release is also in distribution, although the suite track is only available on the standard soundtrack. Among the Pleasantville DVD "Special Features" is a music-only feature with commentary by Randy Newman.

The soundtrack also includes two songs by Fiona Apple. The music video for Apple's version of "Across the Universe," directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, uses the set of the diner from the film. Allmusic rated the album two and a half stars out of five.[14]

  1. "Across the Universe" - Fiona Apple – 5:07
  2. "Dream Girl" - Robert & Johnny – 1:57
  3. "Be-Bop-A-Lula" - Gene Vincent – 2:36
  4. "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" - Larry Williams – 2:11
  5. "Sixty Minute Man" - Billy Ward and His Dominoes – 2:28
  6. "Take Five" - The Dave Brubeck Quartet – 5:25
  7. "At Last" - Etta James – 3:00
  8. "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" - Elvis Presley – 1:47
  9. "Rave On!" - Buddy Holly and the Crickets – 1:49
  10. "Please Send Me Someone to Love" - Fiona Apple – 4:01
  11. "So What" - Miles Davis – 9:04
  12. "Suite from Pleasantville" - Randy Newman – 8:11

References

  1. ^ Bob Fisher (1998). "Black & white in color". American Cinematographer. {{cite journal}}: |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)[failed verification]
  2. ^ "Review for Pleasantville (1998)". Rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  3. ^ Beuka, Robert A. SuburbiaNation: Reading Suburban Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Fiction and Film. 1st ed. New York : Palgrave Macmillian, 2004. 14-15.
  4. ^ McDaniel, Robb. "Pleasantville (Ross 1998)." "Review of Pleasantville." Films and History. May–June 2002: 85-86.
  5. ^ Epstein, Warren. "True Colors - A Small Town Blossoms when '50s and '90s collide in Pleasantville". The Gazette (Colorado Springs). Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  6. ^ Wolk, Josh (October 26, 1998). ""Pleasantville" tops the box office, but it's the only new wide release that scored". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 21, 2013.
  7. ^ "Pleasantville (1998)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved December 9, 2010.
  8. ^ Ebert, Roger (October 1, 1998). "Pleasantville (PG-13)". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  9. ^ Maslin, Janet (March 19, 1999). "New Video Releases". The New York Times. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  10. ^ Nichols, Peter M. (November 6, 1998). "Taking the Children; Bobby-Soxers and Dinos Brought Back to Life". The New York Times. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  11. ^ Leydon, Joe. "Review: "Pleasantville"". Variety. Variety Media, LLC. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  12. ^ "Pleasantville (1998)". Entertainment Weekly. October 23, 1998. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  13. ^ AFI's 10 Top 10 Ballot
  14. ^ Pleasantville: Music from the Motion Picture at AllMusic
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