Pleasantville: Now in Technicolor

So last Thursday Mr. Leeper decided to show the class a few scenes from one of my favorite movies, Pleasantville. If you haven't seen it...which unfortunately it is rather obscure and unknown...let me explain the plot because it will make more sense.


So the movie takes place in a 50s television show Pleasantville (get it?) which is basically a Happy Days type 50s sitcom. One day two siblings, David (played by Toby Maguire) and Jennifer (played by Reece Witherspoon) get's trapped into the show after fighting over a remote control given to them by a repair man (played by Don Knotts). The remote control is, of course, magical as they take the roles of two of the main characters (David as Bud and Jennifer as Mary Sue) and they have to find a way on getting out. However, after Jennifer get's a little pit...frisky...with Mary Sue's boyfriend, things start to change and their black-and-white world slowly becomes in color. The symbolism in this movie is rather obvious. The reason why the black-and-white world slowly becomes to color represents change. The town changes to become an actual town as it slowly accepts change. The main characters, as well, accept change.

Since he showed us Jennifer's change, or what soon will be her transition into color, I'll focus on her. She is basically the type of girl that is interested in boys and isn't focused on her. However, in the scene she blows off her boyfriend (or rather Mary Sue's) and instead focuses on reading, which she becomes more active and interested in and embraces it. Then she turns from black-and-white into color.

There's also the mother. In the movie, we see that she becomes less attracted in her husband and is instead interested in a certain activity that I dare will not mention (just watch the movie, you'll see what I mean), and she becomes in color. David helps hides her color in black-and-white make-up (har har), but her true colors (aw dang it!) is revealed when she noticed the painting by the owner of the local diner (played by Jeff Daniels), which is in color. She cries at one of the paintings and it shows her colorfulness to the owner, who embraces it. And if that isn't true love than I don't know what is! Well if you ignore the adultery that surrounds it...

Anyways, this shows that you don't have to hide yourself from people, because they might love it or like you because of that, as well as stepping out of your shell. I feel that this is rather important for us as artists to step out and into the unknown to  embrace what's out there, whether it's an art trend or a new idea. Sure it may be scary, but if we stay to what we know and conform, then what's the point? Embrace it! And embrace you than acting like someone you are not!