Pleasantville

Pleasantville

With Gary Ross’s film Pleasantville, came some of the greatest breakthroughs in dual tone cinematography since The Wizard of Oz. However, this achievement often overshadows another accomplishment which is presented with the film. As the characters of Jennifer and David profoundly change the town of Pleasantville they simultaneously provide the reader with an in-depth look at America in the 1950’s.

In the town of Pleasantville, life is simply that; pleasant. Its inhabitants live a straightforward, conformist life much like Americans in the fifties. The men go to work during the day but not before eating a hearty breakfast provided by their wives. They then execute the same routine at work, following the same instructions to achieve the same outcome of whatever they do. They then return home promptly at five o’clock at which dinner has been prepared yet again by their wives. They eat with their families, watch a little television and proceed to go to bed at around nine o’clock. The next morning they wake up to follow the identical procedure.

In the film, the two characters of Jennifer and David enter, through no choice of their own, a television show called Pleasantville. Here they acquire the aliases of children named Bud and Mary Sue. The town, however, doesn’t stay pleasant for very long after their arrival as Jennifer can’t cope with the living the life of a Pleasantvillian.