Pleasantville (1998) * * *

Directed by:  Gary Ross

Starring:  Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Paul Walker, Don Knotts, J.T. Walsh, Jeff Daniels

Pleasantville is a story of present-day teenagers swooped up into a black and white 1950's TV sitcom via a magic remote control.     That is just the setup.    The payoff is something you wouldn't expect.    In a sense, Pleasantville becomes a microcosm of the changes that swept our nation in the 1950's and 1960's.     The film can even represent the idea that progress isn't necessarily a bad thing, even if people fear it or can't understand it.    If there was ever a place aching for change, it's Pleasantville.

The film opens in the present day, where David (Maguire) spends his time, when not in school, glued to reruns of a 1950's sitcom named Pleasantville.     His sister, Jenny (Witherspoon), is more concerned with dating and being popular.     One evening, the two fight over the remote (a Pleasantville marathon is on!) and the remote breaks, causing an elderly, folksy TV repairman (Knotts) to drop in and replace it.    One click of the new remote causes the two teens to be transported into Pleasantville itself, with parents George (Macy) and Betty (Allen)

David and Jenny understand their dilemma, even if everyone around them believes they are Bud and Mary Sue, the teens from the family around which Pleasantville is based.     David is able to help Jenny familiarize herself with the terrain, which includes white picket fences, doting housewives, and dinner on the table sharply at 6:00.     Teens go to Lover's Lane to hold hands.     The high school basketball team isn't just undefeated, but nobody ever misses a shot.    Geography classes consist of discussing Main Street and Elm Ave. because their world ends there.    

Once "Bud" and "Mary Sue" arrive on the scene, things begin to change.    Colors emerge, first in the flowers and then in the people.     Someone misses a shot in basketball practice and the players are warned not to touch the ball.     Then, the basketball team is defeated for the first time ever.   Mary Sue takes her boyfriend to Lover's Lane to do more than hold hands.     Even Betty discovers masturbation, causing a bush outside to burst into flames.     All of the changes frighten mostly the men of Pleasantville, who led by the town mayor (Walsh), fight back to keep their original way of life.     After all, what is the world coming to if dinner isn't waiting on the table right at 6:00?

Pleasantville of the 1950's begins to resemble America of the 1960's, with protesters fighting for change on one side and quasi-fascists on the other attempting to suppress it.    Those people who have by now become "colored" are quarantined from the rest of the town.    I don't think it's accidental that these issues in the film mirror history so closely.      When I first saw Pleasantville, I expected a spoof of 1950's sitcom which reflected a too-perfect world.     What transpires is more moving and powerful.     Each person has a different trigger which causes them to turn from black and white into color.     For some it is sex, for some it's expression of long repressed desires, and for others it's discovery of their true natures.   

Nothing lasts forever.   The TV shows which reflected an idyllic world where the biggest issues could be solved by Dad are long gone.    Some refer to the 1950's as the "good old days", but this was an era of McCarthyism, civil rights inequality, and a fear of nuclear annihilation from the Soviets.    It is remembered through rose-colored hindsight.    In a sense, movies like Pleasantville push toward the future with rose-colored foresight.