Pleasantville

[Rawhide]

Pleasantville (1998)

Director: Gary Ross
Genre: Fantasy / Comedy / Drama
TagLine: Pleasantville- It's Just Around the Corner
Runtime: 124 min
Language: English
Color: Black and White / Color (DeLuxe)
SoundMix: DTS / Dolby Digital / SDDS
Certification: Argentina:13 / Australia:M / Chile:14 / Finland:S / France:U / Germany:6 (bw) / Hong Kong:IIA / Italy:T / Norway:7 / Portugal:M/12 / Singapore:PG / South Korea:12 / Spain:T / Sweden:7 / Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) / Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) / UK:12 / USA:PG-13

Cast:

• Tobey Maguire ....... David
• Reese Witherspoon ....... Jennifer
• William H Macy ....... George Parker
• Joan Allen ....... Betty Parker
• Jeff Daniels ....... Mr Johnson
• JT Walsh ....... Big Bob
• Don Knotts ....... TV Repairman
• Marley Shelton ....... Margaret Henderson
• Jane Kaczmarek ....... David's Mom
• Giuseppe Andrews ....... Howard
• Jenny Lewis ....... Christin
• Marissa Ribisi ....... Kimmy
• Denise Dowse ....... Health Teacher
• McNally Sagal ....... Science Teacher
• Paul Morgan Stetler ....... College Counselor
  (more)

Tobey Maguire is David, a teenage boy who finds escape from his unhappy home life by immersing himself in repeats of an old 1950's television show titled Pleasantville. While Mom is away for the weekend, David and his promiscuous sister, Jennifer, get in an argument over control of the television remote control.

Jennifer wants to watch MTV with her hot date that is on his way over and David wants to watch the Pleasantville marathon. They break the remote control and as luck would have it, a tv repairman, played by Don Knotts, shows up with a replacement. It turns out to be a very special replacement.

As the two try to pull the remote away from each other, they are transported into the world of Pleasantville. David and Jennifer try to adjust to life in black and white while looking for a way to get back home. Inadvertantly they have a major impact on Pleasantville. Pleasantville's citizens find thier world turned topsy-turvy and with it, they find that they have a lust for life and new experiences inside them.

David and Jennifer both learn a great deal about themselves in the meantime. While they are freeing the people of Pleasantville from their drab, mundane lives, they in turn free something in themselves. Pleasantville is never the same again and neither are David and Jennifer.

Pleasantville was nominated for three Academy Awards (Oscars) for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, and Best Music - Original Dramatic Score.

Although some people view Pleasantville as being a simplistic movie, it contains some deeper meanings and metaphors for the American culture in the 1950's and 1960's. There is a clear parallel to the discrimination of the "people of color" in the movie and the same kind of discrimination that black people in America went through in the 50's and 60's. It really is a metaphor for the way American media in the 50's and 60's portrayed life in America as being pure and wholesome and all good when behind the scenes the truth was darker and more chaotic.

Pleasantville is a really good movie. I've seen it a few times, and will ocassionally re-watch it when I see it on cable tv.

5/6 for me

[elric]

I really enjoyed this movie, and it is nice now to look back at one of Reese's first projects!

Simple and enjoyable movie, nothing too complex

4/6 for me

[Black Widow]

well, not really one of her first projects, she had like 10 years of experience at that time.

4/6 for Pleasantville. I really enjoy it, because of the simple but moving story, because it's full of poetry, and mostly because of a cast you can only love (joan allen, reese witherspoon and tobey maguire really support the movie on their shoulders). Maguire wasn't famous at the time and I remember how I liked to see him always play the adorable geek.

[Bradaviel]

a bit simplistic for a movie that long, but very enjoyable anyway

4/6
( i can't stop , laughig when i see on the cover of some french journals : "Reese Witherspoon : the revelation" because of this year's oscars nominations  :lol: )

[elric]

I should have said one of the first roles anyone has actually seen

[Rawhide]

LOL  It is the first movie I recall seeing her in. I think Legally Blonde was the one that really made her a star and proved that she could carry a whole movie. Fear was a really good movie too, but it was built around Mark Wahlberg (sp?) and Pleasantville was really built around the story rather than a particular actor.

[Nau of Sands]

a really good movie, not that simplistic to me and that deserves its 5  :bounce:

[Bradaviel]

the first movie i saw miss Witherspoon in in theaters was Freeway, and it was already her 7th movie !

[Rawhide]

Yeah, I didn't think it was simplistic either. I mean, there's the clear parallel to the discrimination of the "people of color" in the movie and the same kind of discrimination that black people in America went through in the 50's and 60's. It really is a metaphor for the way American media in the 50's and 60's portrayed life in America as being pure and wholesome and all good when behind the scenes the truth was darker and more chaotic.

edit: That's some good stuff I just wrote there. I think I'll add it to my review.

[elric]

I would say it was simple in the sense that the metaphor wasnt too hard to dig up and the meaning of the film was right there in your face.  It was all right there in black and white