Pleasantville is
1998 movie starring Tobey Maguire (David/ Bud) and Reese Witherspoon (Jennifer/
Mary Sue). Pleasantville is 1950's black and white sitcom that centers around
the idyllic Parker family George, his wife Betty and their two children Bud and
Mary Sue.
David and Jennifer are
twins from the 1990's that studied in the same high school but had different
social lives. David is a single, lonely, and flees reality by watching
Pleasantville. His sister Jennifer is far more active than her brother
David.
David is an expert on
every episode of Pleasantville and wants to watch the marathon so he can win a
trivia contest. The same night as the Pleasantville marathon, Jennifer invited
her date over. A couple of minutes before the marathon starts Jennifer and
David was fighting over the remote control and accidentally broke it and
the TV cannot be turned on manually. A mysterious repair man suddenly showed
up at their doorstep. The repairman quizzes David on Pleasantville and
gave him a strange looking remote control. When the repairman left David and
Jennifer resumed fighting. Through some mechanism of the remote
control, David and Jennifer found themselves in Pleasantville, as Bud and Marry
Sue Parker. They were in black and white, wearing clothes a little different
and with new parents. They both wanted to get out of the situation and get back
into reality but they ended up upsetting the mysterious repair man. And
they had no choice but to blend in. It was easy for David to blend in because of
his knowledge. But for Jennifer who is now Marry Sue does whatever she wants to
do.
Pleasantville is a place
where they still have old fashioned values, had overwhelming amount of
innocence and naivete. David and Jennifer were trying to blend in. But
accidentally they were slowly exposing the town to issues such as personal
freedoms, styles of art, literature and sex. They were both slowly bringing
color to this black and white world. The more rules are broken, the more
colorful life gets. Pleasantville soon begins changing a rapid pace, and pure
black and white objects and people begin to develop full and vibrant colors.
The citizens of Pleasantville begin to explore hidden abilities and reveal
their new freedoms. Because of this rapid change the mayor was concerned to
what is happening to Pleasantville. The Mayor sees the changes negatively
because it was eating up the values of Pleasantville.
David introduced Mr.
Johnson to colorful modern art from a book he got from the library entitled
"The World of Art". The book was a collection of series of paintings
from the naturalistic to figurative work to subjective abstraction and finally
to non-representational art. The book sparkled Mr. Johnson to have an interest
in painting.
As the citizens of
Pleasantville become more colorful, a ban on "colored" people is
initiated in public venues. Racial segregation and subsequent rioting start to
occur incited by a nude painting of Betty Parker on the window of Mr. Johnson's
Shop. The unchanged citizens of Pleasantville started destroying things. First
they destroyed Mr. Johnson's soda shop, then they burned books from the
library, and people who are "colored" were harassed in the streets.
As a reaction, the town fathers announced rules preventing people from visiting
the library, Lovers Lane was closed , they were not allowed to play loud music
and they cannot use other colors except black, white and gray.
David and Mr. Johnson
protested and painted a colorful mural on a brick wall, depicting their world,
but because they violated the rules they were arrested. David and Mr. Johnson were
brought into trial in front of the town and they defended their actions,
arousing enough anger and indignation that the mayor becomes colored as well.
Everything in Pleasantville turned colored. The roads were not anymore going in
circles but now it leads to another place. Having seen Pleasantville change
irrevocably, Jenifer stayed and finished her education, but David uses the
remote control to return to the real world.
While watching the movie I focused more on the artistic side of it. So the scene in the Soda Shop in which David brings Mr. Johnson a book from the library was the highlight for me. The paintings that were showed were Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Masaccio, Self Portrait by Rembrandth, Venus of Urbino by Titan, Rain Steam and Speed by JMW Turner, Water Lilies by Monnet, The Starry Night by Van Gogh, Analytical Cubist by Picasso, White Zigzag by Kardinsky, Sleeping Woman by Picasso and Still Life with Apples and Oranges By Cezanne. Because of these paintings Mr. Johnson was able to know art and gave him inspiration to do something different other than doing his daily routines in the Soda Shop. Mr. Johnson expressed his artistic side through painting in his window. And the most striking was the nude painting of Betty Parker. There were lots of negative views about it.
In reality, the world of art will always have its critics. People may find your work beautiful and some will find it ugly. Everyone has different views and opinions in what they think is beautiful. And an artist can never please its audience always. Just like the works in the book that David showed Mr. Johnson. Those paintings were not immediately appreciated by the people during their time. I think they were even questioned on "What the were thinking?" and no one understood and looked beyond the image that they see. It took years for their works to be counted as beautiful for the world. Over those years people change and so as their opinions on their perspective of beauty.
When the Mayor launched the Pleasantville Book of Conduct David and Mr. Johnson used art as a way of protest or rebellion. They painted a mural showing what their world changed into. They used art to inform others about it. Again people did not appreciate what they were seeing. The message of their mural was about the actions that lead to the changes of their town. It all showed the change that is happening and the amount of people that do not want it to happen. Others think that change is bad but change can also be good.
Like in the book it gave series of paintings that moves from naturalistic to figurative work to subjective abstraction and finally to non representational art. It showed changes in the way of painting, which was good. So in terms of beauty it will always change. We can never stick to only one. Like in Pleasantville they should not isolate themselves in Pleasantville only. They should really take an adventure and try to experience other places. Just like how we find things beautiful. We should think outside the box and look beyond it.
The unchanged citizens in Pleasantville is an example of people who are afraid of change. They view it as negatively. They are the people who doesn't embrace well to something that can be better. Their reaction when the "colored" citizens was rapidly changing is a good example on how people view on beauty. Some people may accept an artists perception of beauty and others may not.
An admirable character in the movie was Mr. Johnson because even though people saw his works negatively and they did not accept and appreciated it. He did not stop and continued on. Artists should not be scared on what people may say. Art is an expression and no one can say that you expressed something that you felt is wrong.
As an Architect in the making. I should be like Mr. Johnson. A person who has strong determination, has passion in everything he do and a person who is not afraid of change and the negativity of critics.
