Pleasantville (1998)

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Directed by Gary Ross.

Starring Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, William H. Macy, J.T. Walsh, Tobey Maguire.

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Gary Ross, Oscar nominated for his Dave and Big screenplays, made his directorial debut with this comedy. The cheerful '50s TV sitcom "Pleasantville" is revived in the '90s for a loyal cable audience. One devoted fan is shy suburban teen David Wagner (Tobey Maguire), who has an almost obsessive interest in the series. Living with his divorced mother (Jane Kaczmarek), David sometimes has disputes with his ultra-hip twin sister Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon). She wants to watch MTV just when a Pleasantville marathon is about to begin. They struggle over the remote control, and it breaks. A strange TV repairman (Don Knotts) supplies their new remote, a potent high-tech device which zaps David and Jennifer inside Pleasantville, where their new sitcom parents are businessman George Parker (William H. Macy) and wife Betty (Joan Allen). As "Bud" and "Mary Sue," the teens take up residence in a black-and-white suburbia where sex does not exist and the temperature is always 72 degrees. Life is always pleasant, books have no words, bathrooms have no toilets, married couples sleep in twin beds, the high school basketball team always wins, and nobody ever questions "The Good Life." David revels in Pleasantville's Prozac-styled peacefulness. He fits right in, but Jennifer's 1990s attitude upsets the blandness balance, painting parts of Pleasantville in "living color." Repressed desires surface, cracks appear in the '50s lifestyles, and the Pleasantville populace finds their lives changing in strange, wonderful ways. It's liberating -- but there's also a darker side. This film breaks an all-time record with more than 1700 special effects shots. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

AFI's 10 Top 10: Fantasy
by ShaunHuston in ShaunHuston filmblog

hasn't rated it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"As with Moonstruck's appearance on the romantic comedy list, I found myself charmed by many of the selections on the fantasy list, even where I may not have made the choice myself. I was particularly happy to see Groundhog Day (1993) on this Top 10, but, like a number of other films here, the more I thought about the idea of “fantasy”, the more I began to wonder if some weren't misplaced or mis-categorized. Groundhog Day, alongside Harvey (1950), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), and It's a Wonderful Life (1946), may be fantasies, but they are more accurately described as “fables”, that is, as stories that are essentially about life lessons rather than the fantastic, though they may use fantasy elements to tell their stories. Where the three older films are concerned, there are questions that clearly can, and are, raised about what the protagonists have experienced or who they actually are. Is George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) actually visited by an angel, or has h ... " [More]

Re:Top 5 black and white movies ...
by mercurial in Top 5

loved it.

"Entirely in B&W: 1.) Angel-A 2.) Ed Wood 3.) Clerks 4.) Man Bites Dog 5.) Swoon Runner-Ups: Paper Moon, Pi Partially B&W: 1.) American History X 2.) Sin City 3.) Zentropa, or Europa (depending on your country) 4.) Pleasantville 5.) Memento Runner-Up: Renaissance, The Blair Witch Project " [More]

Overall, Pretentious and Ineffe ...
by jaysprout in Film & Video Are My Life

lost interest.

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"If I understood the movie correctly, you're Black & White until you have sex and then you start to get colorized. The more sex you have, the more colorful you become.Yes, of course, I realize what the movie was supposed to be trying to say but it was so over the top, hit you in the face with a hammer, and - ironically - just plain shallow ... I feel it fails to provoke thought or inspire in any way. There were a couple moments that were funny and you don't get much more clever than signs reading "no coloreds allowed" but those moments are overshadowed by juvenile writing. It could have been so much more than this. Of course, it could have been much, much worse ... it could have been the remake of The Stepford Wives. " [More]

The Great Movies: Pleasantville
by erico_77375 in erico_77375 Blog

loved it.

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"As the opening credits come up, we're watching blended colors on the screen as we hear the sounds of channel surfing going on. As we focus in on the colors and see we're watching the television as channels keep flipping by, we come to a channel called TV Time and are informed of an upcoming marathon of a show called Pleasantville. We are given some information up front. And we go into our tale with...Once Upon A Time...Gary Ross' fantasy is something of an original. It is a modern fairy tale as well as a social satire. His film says so much with humor and whimsy that only after watching it once do you pick up on a few details. With further watching do you really start to see more of what Ross intends to show you. And more you begin to appreciate this film for what it is really about; the value of change and the destructive force of maintaining status quo. The film's protagonists are modern kids David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Whitherspoon), though the film ... " [More]

Pleasantville is surely a movie ...
by BillShroyer in BillShroyer Blog

loved it.

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""Pleasantville" is in my opinion the most truly meaningful and relevant film ever made. I know to some, it seems more like a "fun" type of film, but there are so many implications and countless layers of meaning upon meaning woven throughout the story - I'm not entirely sure all of that was intentional, but I am sure it's there, and very effective. One take on the meaning of the movie is that it's telling us to try something new and different, and to not be ashamed to let our true selves show. And how quickly a society will fall into fascism out of sheer terror of the unknown. It addresses so much of what's wrong with the world, with humanity in general - not just today, but since our origins. " [More]

Re: Top 5 Tear Jerking Scenes
by GradysGhost in Top 5

liked it.

"In no particular order: 1) Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys - End of the movie (we may be on to something with the "end of film" stuff here) at Kieran Culkin's funeral mass, when Emile Hirsch reads from "The Tygre."2) Crash - You'll all laugh at me for this, but it's the scene where the middle eastern guy tries to shoot the lock repair man and his daughter jumps in front of the gun. It's not the music or the idea of the scene that gets me. It's the repairman's face as he screams.3) Requiem for a Dream - Jared Leto uses his phone call from jail to call Jennifer Conelly. She asks if he's alright and he says that he's coming home soon. Coming home real soon.4) Pleasantville - Almost the whole movie. When Jeff Daniels wipes the black and white makeup from Joan Allen's face. When Joan Allen discovers the orgasm and the tree bursts into flames outside. Never before (and it had been done before) had B&W/color been mixed to such a beautiful point ... " [More]

Re: Top 5 black and white movie ...
by Risselada in Top 5

hasn't rated it.

"Huh, I've never seen the movie Lenny. I'd heard of it but never even realized it was in black and white. Would you recommend really listening to some recordings of Lenny Bruce before actually seeing the movie to get prepared?You say this is never brought up, but I thought I actually heard Smith himself claim that was the effect in mind even when he was shooting it. I could be mistaken though. I've definitely heard that security camera type of angle discussed before though.The movie If.... also switchs between color and black and white, and although it was commended by critics as some kind of artistic choice, it turns out it was merely due to their budget forcing them to swtich to black and white stock at a certain point in the shoot. " [More]

Re: Top 5 black and white movie ...
by BigJeffLebowski in Top 5

loved it.

"Manhattan's my favorite film, so that's obviously going to have to be my number one. Beyond that, though, the question must be raised: how much can the mere aesthetics of the film affect our selections? There are some black and white films which are beautifully shot, but are not as good as a Jarmusch or Clerks. Trying to focus on the film itself, I'm going to have to say:1. Manhattan (and also Stardust Memories and Broadway Danny Rose by Allen)2.The Last Picture Show3. Raging Bull4. Pi5. LennyThese are all films which I think are superb upon their own merits, but the fact that they are in black and white adds a new dimension.No one really brings this up when they mention the film, but I think the monetary restraints on the original Clerks (black and white, stationary camera) give the film a certain security-camera feel that really helps the juxtaposition of the mundane and the outlandish, and is part of the reason Clerks is able to assimilate the two so well.I really ... " [More]

Re: Top 5 black and white movie ...
by Risselada in Top 5

hasn't rated it.

"Mand Bites Dog and Dark Days are ones I thought of as well. No, I wouldn't count Pleasantville because there is color in it. I'm actually surpised you guys mentioned that one. I've never sat down and watched it, but I put it in one time when I was working at a video store and caught a lot of it. It seemed pretty horrible to me. I also wouldn't count Sin City for the same reason. It has color in it. Even though I wished I could count it. I guess technically The Man Who Wasn't There was shot in color, but the final product is all in B&W, so I would count that. " [More]

Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

is neutral about it.

The directorial debut of notable screenwriter Gary Ross, this whimsical take on television, modernism, and traditional values often tells its tale with a heavy hand (especially in vignettes involving racism and infidelity), but its strikingly-realized mise en scene compensates for the script's meandering. Armed with some of the late-90s' most outstanding acting talent, Pleasantville resonates with noble intentions: one cannot fault the film for lack of ambition, even if it's never as satisfying as it should be dramatically. Ross utilizes truly innovative special effects, combining vibrant color with rich black-and-white, often in the same scene, mirroring the personalities of the characters and their feelings. The second of two high-profile films in 1998 (the other being The Truman Show to address television's relation to society, especially pertaining to spectatorship, Pleasantville also marked the final big-screen appearance of beloved character actor J.T. Walsh, who shines as an old-school values family man. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide

Tags: smalltown , sibling , friendship , nostalgia , townspeople
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