Pleasantville Information

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 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. 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 becomes friends with Mr. Johnson (Daniels), owner of the cheeseburger joint/soda fountain, and introduces him 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, but they are arrested. 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.

Cast

• Tobey Maguire as David
• Reese Witherspoon as Jennifer
• Joan Allen as Betty Parker
• Jeff Daniels as Bill Johnson
• William H. Macy as George Parker
• J. T. Walsh as Big Bob
• Marley Shelton as Margaret Henderson
• Giuseppe Andrews as Howard
• Jenny Lewis and Marissa Ribisi as Christin and Kimmy
• Jane Kaczmarek as David and Jennifer's mother
• Don Knotts as a TV repairman
• Kevin Connors and Natalie Ramsey as Bud and Mary Sue Parker
• David Tom as Whitey
• Paul Walker as Skip Martin
• Dawn Cody, Maggie Lawson, and Andrea Taylor as Betty Jean, Lisa Anne, and Peggy Jane

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.

Cameraman Brent Hershman died when he fell asleep driving home after a 19-hour workday on the set of the film.

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."

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."

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."

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."

Reception

Box office

Despite the high received critical praise, Pleasantville only earned $8.9 million over its opening weekend, and went on to gross a mere $45 million by the end of its theatrical run, 15 million short of its $60 million budget.

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.

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

Janet Maslin wrote that its "ingenious fantasy" has "seriously belabored its once-gentle metaphor and light comic spirit." 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."

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."

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 mind."

Awards and nominations

The film won the following accolades:

• Saturn Awards (1998)
  • Best Performance by a Younger Actor/Actress"?Tobey Maguire
  • Best Supporting Actress"?Joan Allen
• Boston Society of Film Critics Award (1998)
  • Best Supporting Actor"?William H. Macy
  • Best Supporting Actress"?Joan Allen

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.

Soundtrack

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. The soundtrack also includes two songs by Fiona Apple.