Unpleasantness in Pleasantville

Unpleasantness in Pleasantville

Unpleasantness in Pleasantville By Brooke Autowski Eng 225: Introduction to Film Professor Lejla Tricic February 2, 2009 Unpleasantness in Pleasantville In the town of Pleasantville, a fictional 1950’s sitcom, every face is friendly, no one ever quarrels, and the biggest concerns are centered around who will use the family transistor radio that evening. As Joe Leydon states in his review, “[t]he temperature is always 72, bathrooms have no toilets, married couples sleep in twin beds, fireman exist only to retrieve cats from trees – and sex simply doesn’t exist” (1998, para 5). Many people would love to escape to such a calm and peaceful place and forget all their troubles. David (Toby Maguire), the main character in the film also titled Pleasantville (1998), is one of those people. David is a shy and passive teen in the 1990’s who often escapes to the fictional world of Pleasantville to remove himself from the reality of his own teen awkwardness, the reality of his broken home, and his promiscuous and rebellious twin sister Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon). When David and Jennifer are transported into the imaginary world of Pleasantville via a magic remote, David’s ideas of what constitutes a perfect world soon change. The movie Pleasantville is a beautiful commentary on the human condition, exemplifying the necessity in life for passion, individuality, and change. In the exposition of the film, twins Jennifer and David are as different as two people can be. David is intellectual, submissive and shy, while Jennifer is ditsy, promiscuous, and rebellious. The two are caught up in a world that is fast paced with questionable values and crumbling family structures. After breaking the TV remote while fighting over programming, a mysterious TV repairman (Don Knotts) appears at the door with a new remote that transports the unknowingteens in to the sitcom Pleasantville. Jennifer is appalled to be in black and white, horrified at the pristine atmosphere, and in...

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