The movie was about a brother and sister from the 90's who get zapped into the 50's television show Pleasantville where everything is perfect and nothing ever goes wrong. Throughout the movie their ideas contaminate the people and things are no longer so pleasant. What we see in the end though is that even the things that seem terrible actually serve a function in the way that things work.
One of the most obvious symbols in the movie is that when people do something that they normally would not have they become "colored" while everything else is black and white. When people start becoming colored, the others start to discriminate against them. In same cases, through their anger for the colored people, these people did things they would not have normally done, causing them to become colored. Therefore the function in making these people colored was to eventually cause everyone to be colored and equal. It also caused a bond between the people who were originally colored, and being outcasts already they were more willing to try new things.
Before the two teenagers arrived, the people of Pleasantville had never heard of sex. How they reproduced was never really explained (the stork maybe?). But anyway, these people would live their whole lives and according to Mary Sue (the girl from the 90's) never experience the real pleasure in life. Well, she took care of that and before you knew it sex and masturbation was taking Pleasantville by storm. By having sex was how some people got their colors, and other just got their kicks.
Another big functionalist point in the movie was when a diner owner secretly admitted that he had always wanted to paint. After getting his colors he figured what the hell and it turned out he had a lot of talent. Painting things, in color no less outraged the town and before you knew it his home was being vandalized. This anger brought out the colors in some of the people.
Pleasantville was sexist, like the real 50's because the power structure of Pleasantville was male and women were confined to the traditional realm of the home. ... Pleasantville was sexually repressive also. ... There was no freedom of thought in Pleasantville. ... School did not serve a purpose for the teenagers of Pleasantville. ... Pleasantville was racist. ...
11-5-02 Pleasantville: Gender Roles and Humanism Projected in a black and white 50's sitcom, Pleasantville portrays the parable of a totalitarian society inflicted by racial discrimination. ... Soon every young couple in Pleasantville is making out in the backseat at Lover's Lane. ... Pleasantville enraptures a similar movement for society as a whole. ... Reflecting a tendency in Hollywood productions and literary fiction to continue to circle the framework of "the Fall," Pleasantville examines critically our current state of "corruption." ... Using women's historical e...
"Pleasantville" is the film directed by Gary Ross, outlines the lives of two teenagers, David and Jennifer. For David, an ideal world of Pleasantville, a 1950s TV soapie, is an escape from the harsh reality of his less-than perfect life, where he is nobody. ... Previously, Pleasantville is the most "pleasant" town, where everyone is friendly, everything is perfect and nothing could ever go wrong, but, an accident with the television remote control makes David and Jennifer travel back in time into the town of Pleasantville, where David is Bud and Jennifer is Mary Sue, the children of George and...
The symbolism and messages in "Pleasantville" aren't subtle which is what Ross intended. ... Violence is as new as anything else in Pleasantville and it seems to freeze the moment. ... Like all movies Pleasantville is not just made to entertain. ... This is what the director of Pleasantville wants us to see. ... We can be like the people of Pleasantville without even knowing. ...
In the TV land of Pleasantville, everything is what it seems. ... Never was there a situation that the people of Pleasantville hadn't encountered, much less weren't able to deal with. ... Pleasantville was full of constraints. ... To the people of Pleasantville, there was no world outside its borders. ... They realized that there may be more out there than what Pleasantville had to offer. ...
In Pleasantville Bud and Mary Sue changed the Pleasantville world forever as well. ... Even hate crimes were committed on the colored people of Pleasantville. ... This is exactly what happened to Pleasantville. ... In a way, Pleasantville resembled our world and lives. ... Pleasantville. ...
Dispite the difficulties the characters in Pleasantville are better off for experiencing change in their lives. ... David's social dismay has evidently lead to his search for comfort, predictability and security -- Pleasantville. ... After being cast into Pleasantville David discovers, the citizens of Pleasantville are characters -- automatons going through their roles at the dictates of the show. ... Dispite, Jennifer's initial rejection and dismissal of Pleasantville Jennifer really grows into a meaningful character. ... Once into Pleasantville Jennifer experiences difficulty accep...
In Pleasantville, writer and director Gary Ross introduces us to his outspoken point-of-view about the direction in which North American culture is heading. ... Pleasantville is a journey of overcoming fear. "Let the real you out," said David, the main character, to the mayor of Pleasantville. ... In Pleasantville, the world literally ends at the city limits. Space twists back upon itself in Pleasantville, and "the end of Main Street is just the beginning again." ...
The very mention of sex in Pleasantville brought about a look of puzzlement, because the people of Pleasantville had never been exposed to sins of sexual promiscuity. ... This of course appalled the adults of Pleasantville. ... Well that is a question that you should be asking yourself because the people of Pleasantville sure thought so. The language of Pleasantville was so innocent that it made me sick. ... Turning Pleasantville into a backlash of animosity. ...