Rating: 
Summary: Not Just Pleasant - Brilliant!
Review: »Pleasantville« is the best movie I've seen in a very very long time!The story is genius, combining time travel with meta with parody on the American society. And the effect of the black & white world becoming increasingly (techni)colored is really brilliant, and also brilliantly made. An absolute must-see!
Rating: 
Summary: Thinking about the feel good factor
Review: Originally I bought the DVD expecting a non existent story but interested in the special effects the film uses to mix colour with black and white. However you can view this film in two ways. It does have a simplistic far fetched storyline, two 90's teenagers are transported back in time to become stuck in Pleasantville, a 1950's show where it never rains, there is no crime and most emotions are never explored and disasters never happen. But scratch beneath the surface and you find a story of people scared of what they don't understand and breeding violence through ignorance and mass hysteria. Jeff Daniels plays his character with the same brilliant awkwardness as he did in "terms of endearment"and the film is well acted with some very humorous scenarios, and is film is worth watching over and over. As with many DVD's if you have a multi region machine then but a region 1 copy.
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Summary: open
Review: Different, unexpected story line, amust see twice movie.
Rating:
Summary: Adult behavior isn't always mature behavior
Review: I have always enjoyed film, some more than others. In teaching I will often use film and theater to illustrate aspects of how ones character interacts with the world's demands and how our ability to defer gratification matures with each stress and challenge we meet in daily life. As Nietze said, "That which does not kill you will make you stronger." The message in "Pleasantville" is not deep but also is not that obvious. "Pleasantville" is about morals, ethics and choice. It is about a community that is created devoid of all temptation. It is about an Eden where people behave as if there are no biological, animal-based drives. The drives that are ignored make up the Id and consist of the drives to "fight, flight, feed and fornicate." In Pleasantville the characters completely deny these drives. This "psychotic denial" is most evident when Mary Sue's mother denies any knowledge of "sex" but the reality is that she has had two children. The citizens of Pleasantville are predestined to live their lives by rigid scripts that can never change because there is no reality outside of those scripts. There are no morals, no ethics and no religion. There were only scripts (law). But the end (a pleasant life) does not justify the means. Moral and clean behavior without any choice or internal sense of right and wrong is not anything, it just is. Without temptation people can never be given the opportunity to develop standards of behavior based on an internal sense of right and wrong. "God" introduces to Pleasantville, through Bud and Mary Sue, an wareness of "Id" and Pleasantville is not prepared to handle it. The effects are initially not good. There is unrestrained seeking of immediate gratification of primitive biological drives. It should be noted that the characters do not change to color because they engage in immoral and dangerous behaviors. Bud and Mary Sue do not change to color until later in the film. Mary Sue actually questions why she has not changed to color even though she had been "10 times" more sexually active than anybody else. The change had nothing to do with sex or behaving badly. The color came as the individuals were able to develop the character (coping skills) and maturity needed to allow for proper restraint. (Personality is the constellation of coping skills an individual uses to deal with stress. Deferring immediate gratification causes stress. Our ability to defer gratification and make choices are what make up our character and personality and each of us our unique "color". ) Mary Sue did not change to color until she chose to turn down her usual "romp in the hay" in order to read and study. Mary Sue was as "Black and White" in the real world as she was in Pleasantville. Bud changed when he realized that there were some things worth fighting for and restraint "because that is the way it should be" was different than restraint by choice. I found that the best scenes involved "Lover's Lane". Once Id was introduced it was a location of pure hedonism and debauchery. But, most of the characters did not change to color while engaged in this behavior. Color came not with the scenes of "making out" but with the sublimated, mature intimacy found in sharing poetry, reading, spending time and sharing company. Mary Sue's date stayed "Black and White" until the end. His overt sexual behavior and acting out was not rewarded with color. Unrestrained Id is as "Black and White" as an Id that is psychotically denied. It was the development of coping to defer gratification of Id (character) that gave color. The town's people also had unrestrained Id (fight/flight) and their violence and prejudice kept them "Black and White". Bud's defense in court allowed them to understand and transcend their immediate need to fight something that they did not understand. As their irrational, concrete hate and irrationality gave way they too gained color and grew in character (tolerance). The film has its shortcomings and internal inconsistencies but was over all it is a good reflection of changes that are happening in today's American culture. I do not know if the writer and director intended their messages or if they came as a by-product of their observations. Regardless, the film is thought provoking and opens doors for discussion.
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Summary: Smart premise, great effects, and a touch of symbolism
Review: An American Soap-Opera (set in suburbia ca. 1950) about a carefree "black and white" town, slowly taken over by "intruding" colors. The stars are 2 teenagers who get a chance to "interactively" visit Pleasantville. Promised that they could return to reality anytime they wanted to, they are kept there until the towns people insist the intruders had to leave. -- An interisting premise. The visitors expose biggotry, double standards and corruption amongst the towns people. The film is packed with symbolism and visual effects. State of the art cinema technology has been used to make this a delight. -- At the end of the film we are reminded not to take our lives for granted, that not all places are as pleasant as the name may suggest.
Rating:
Summary: A mind stretched to a new idea never returns to it's ...
Review: original form. That is one of the many underlying premises of this fine film. The greatest accomplishment however is how this film so subtly addressed the paranoia, pettyness, ignorance, and limiting nature of Racism itself. Brilliantly done! The film promotes the value of free expression in it's many forms be they artistic, sexual, societal, intellectual... the list goes on and on. So philosophically and creatively I have to rate the film as one of the better films i've seen. But I can only give the film 4 stars because it is not the most entertaining of films. Despite credible performances from all the players the fabulous cinematography and imagery and of particular note the direction of the film is superb the film doesn't succeed in drawing you into the experience. With some movies you almost have the feeling like you are there, in the film, watching it as it happens. No such luck with this one. So it's definitely worth a look for enlightenment but not necessarily for entertainment.
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Summary: I heard about this movie, but I didn't know that it would be
Review: I knew what this film would be about before I rented it, but I'm stunned that it would be THIS good. Nothing against "Saving Private Ryan" or "Shakespeare in Love", but this film should have won Best Picture in 1998 and it was a shame that it wasn't nominated. It's an even bigger injustice that it did not get a nomination for best screenplay or cinematography. In the hands of another writer, this movie could have been made as just a parody of 1950's sitcoms like "Leave It To Beaver" or "Ozzie and Harriet." But this film isn't about how clichéd those series look decades later. It's about the false nostalgia for a past that never existed. We survived the past and we know that everything turned out all right. Because of this, we selectively choose our memories and weed out the unpleasant ones. That's why the past is sometimes seen as "the good ol' days." "Pleasantville" does not represent how the 50's actually were but rather an idealization of what people THINK the 50's were---no one had sex, everyone got along swell, and life was fairly easy. Nothing could be further from the truth, and there are many films from that era which show how real people (even in suburbia) actually lived. This film argues that free will and choice is ESSENTIAL to life and that we should embrace freedom instead of fearing it. It isn't just about making out, but having the OPTION to make out. Another reviewer claimed that this film was an attack on the 50's, but David and Jennifer could very easily have been dumped in the world of "The Brady Bunch", "Gilligan's Island" , or "Batman." But setting "Pleasantville" in a 1950's sitcom allows for the brilliant metaphor of black and white versus color. Black and white photography is a stylized depiction of the universe, but unless you're color blind it's not the way you actually see the universe. When we first see Pleasantville's citizens, all of them are cardboard cut-outs of stereotypes. As they begin to open up and become real people, color seeps into their world. The catalyst seems to be the willingness to experience new sensations and become vulnerable. Jennifer has slept with lot of guys when she was in the normal world, so sex does not change HER into a color character. On the other hand, when she actually finishes a book (without pictures) for the first time in her life, THEN she becomes colorized. Similarly, David does not bloom into color until he breaks out of his aloofness and defends his "mother." Compare the way he ignores his real mother at the beginning of the film to how he consoles and comforts her at the end to see how much David has changed. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. There are a lot of films out there that are very entertaining and/or very moving--like "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or "Titanic." Movies like "Pleasantville" which challenge the audience and force them to think are very rare, and should be treasured by the discerning filmgoer.
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Summary: Changed My Mind.....
Review: Freakin' ages ago I did a review on 'Pleasantville' saying that I was disappointed. I saw it again ages ago, and I came to the conclusion it was a great film. Pleasantville rarely mixes the joy of black and white and colour, it's story is funny, dramatic and heartbreaking and the acting is terrific. I totally recommend you see Pleasantville, your missing out on alot!
Rating:
Summary: Swell!
Review: The first time I saw this, I hated it. But when I saw the trailer on Saturn, I decided to give it another go. I was very impressed the second time round. Pleasantville has a perfect cast, a great director and an awesome screenplay. One of the highlights of 1999! The clever movie has the amazing mix of colour and black and white. The writers, the director, the cast, the production designers all did a great job! David (Tobey Maguire) is a 17 year old boy who can't get enough of the old black and white TV Show 'Pleasantville'. This week, the Pleasantville marathon is on, and he is desperate to watch it. But that is a total problem for Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon), his rock-crazy sister who has a date and wants to use the couch and the YTV. All is SWELL - until they fight over the remote control and get sent into Pleasantville, will they ever get out? And is there life beyond black and white? Not telling - you'll just have to see it!
Rating:
Summary: A fine film, not to be missed
Review: Wow! I watched this video last night and realised I'd forgotten how great it was after seeing it at the cinema. 'Pleasantville' is based on an entertaining concept (modern disaffected youths are sucked into idyllic black-and-white 50's US TV-show world), the story is played out by great actors (Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Reese Witherspoon [pre-Election] and Tobey Maguire [pre-Cider-House]), and the movie as a whole puts across some altruistic messages without coming across as cheesy. It's tempting to compare 'Pleasantville' with 'The Truman Show' since both stories follow protagonists living their lives in a golden-age white-picket-fenced American smalltown utopia, and who are effectively playing out parts in a TV show. But the premises of the two films are wildly different. Truman Burbank is a real man living in a massive industry-constructed TV studio, all those around him played by actors. It's close to the real world, though set slightly forward in time. The brother-sister heroes of Pleasantville, by contrast, are real people supernaturally transplanted into the TV universe of a regular old show. The Truman Show examines the plight of the individual attempting to make a stand against an oppressive society and those who control it; Pleasantville's perspective is far more socially-based, showing a community blossoming into self-awareness. The effects (well, the one drawn-out effect of Pleasantville slowly transforming from monochrome to Technicolor as the town's inhabitants each experience their individual epiphanies of realness) serve the story wonderfully - the scenes when the black-and-white of Lover's Lane is interrupted by a red rose and a shower of pink petals are gorgeous - rivaling any of the images in 'American Beauty'. I could go on for a dozen paragraphs about my favourite parts of the film, but I'll restrain myself to encouraging you to watch this video, if you think you can stomach the movie's essentially moral message and its occasionally sledgehammer-sensitive symbolism (girl tempts monochrome boy with juicy red apple, etc). 'Pleasantville' gamely tackles a slew of issues - rejection of traditionally monotonous work routines, liberation of women from an age-old homemaker role, etc, but really falls down only when it alludes to racial prejudice (OK, having a 'No Coloreds' sign is a knowing reference to America's troubled civil rights history, but the arrival of a few non-white characters would have been a better way to examine racism in US society).
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