Pleasantville

This week we have been asked to look into ourselves and be truthful about how we feel regarding race and change and social stigmas. This blog is an ode to my memory of the movie Pleasantville; I feel as though I should write this blog based on my recollection of the movie rather than summarizing this feature based on a website or recent viewing. Lessons that stick with you are the ones that certainly count and are able to truly influence your future.
Pleasantville is a movie that begins with two young adults who are thrown into their favorite television show. The producer of the show is 'Hitler-like' in nature. He created a town that has one main street with a beginning and an end but goes no farther. Also, the sports teams, inhabitants, and relationships are ideal to the man's liking. A basketball team that does not miss a shot, individuals that fulfill their roles to perfection with no other obligations, and wives who have dinner hot and ready on the table when their husbands come home are the major components his show. However, when the two teenagers arrive in the show, things begin to twist.
One of the most notable changes is the introduction of color to the show. When the movie begins, the show is in black and white only. Imagine a town of people in the middle of nowhere that have lived one way for as long as anyone can remember, and then two teenagers move in to town and introduce hundreds of new situations and experiences that no one had ever seen or heard of before. As I recall, hand holding was seen as the extent of affection in Pleasantville until the new girl in our story begins kissing the boys. This is the beginning of the color introduction. We see red. Red is passionate and reminds us of love and anger and intensity.
As the story continues, you are actually able to see this town grow and become inspired by the new-age teenagers. The boy writes books like Tom Sawyer from memory while the girl gives advice on love and happiness to her 'mother' in the show. Soon, the basketball team becomes normal in that not every shot they take is actually made. A tree catches fire in a town where there has never been a fire before and the fire department is forced to attempt to do something they never had before, put a real fire out (previous to this, they're most difficult job was to save cats). The aforementioned 'mother' finds herself falling in love with the man who runs the town hangout; who, in turn, finds himself becoming more and more inspired to draw and create beautiful scenes in his restaurant windows. By the end of the movie, the entire town has changed and become beautiful and colorful and exciting which not only allows us, as the viewers, to see how things are capable of changing but also gives us an opportunity to see how progressive the world has become.
This movie, to me, is definitely worth watching and forces you to fully appreciate what you have. I have included a few clips below:
Make-up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50IAOnaA3Ro
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAiyrees0uM
Lover's Lane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMAqmYE53wE&NR=1