Ooops. Sorry. This film is on rotation on FX, not HBO.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_re...@...> wrote:
>
> Since I'm currently staying in a hotel in <spit>
> Texas and the TV in my room is often preferable
> to the company at local bars and clubs and rest-
> aurants in the area, I've been clicking the dial
> a bit. One of the "finds" I've made while doing
> this is the opportunity to see Gary Ross' brilliant
> "Pleasantville" again on HBO.
>
> I loved this film when it first came out (1998),
> and love it now. I suspect some here (that is, those
> whose lives do *not* revolve around complacency and
> mistaking the view of the world they've settled for
> as the "definition" of the world) would enjoy it
> as well.
>
> "Pleasantville" is that rarest of films -- unique.
> It's a new idea, and a brilliant one. The basic plot
> is that a brother and sister (Tobey Maguire and Reese
> Witherspoon) enjoy watching an old black-and-white
> TV series about the idyllic, peaceful life of the
> early American 1960s. Nothing ever changes in the
> town of Pleasantville -- everything is black and
> white all the time; there is no color. There are
> no surprises and...essentially, when one gets past
> the seemingly idyllic nature of it...no surprises.
>
> Via some kind of movie magic, the brother and sis-
> ter get transported into the real world of Pleasant-
> ville and start to interact with its inhabitants.
> The latter know nothing *but* Pleasantville; its
> roads don't go anywhere else. And *as* they inter-
> act with the isolated Pleasantvillers, change begins
> to happen. A few things begin to show up in (gulp!)
> color. First a rose, then a person, a woman stuck
> in a marriage that is a classic male-chauvinist
> fantasy. Her first reaction? Run for the makeup kit
> and paint her face to look the same as all the
> other black-and-white people around her.
>
> And with good reason. As the color -- and the real-
> ization that life is more than they thought it was
> begins to spread -- more and more people become
> "colored." They're even *referred to* as "colored,"
> which is remarkably effective given that's how
> black people were once referred to in a complacent
> white world during that era.
>
> Others react to color entering their world with
> joy, as in the brilliant scenes of Jeff Daniels, a
> burger-flipper whose only joy has come from paint-
> ing the window decorations at Christmastime in
> blacks and whites and grays, and who is given a
> book of art masterpieces by Maguire's character
> that shows them in color. Daniels' life is trans-
> formed in a moment, as is Joan Allen's as the
> frustrated housewife watching him. Beautiful
> scene, beautiful interaction.
>
> Given a few years of watching the concerns of folks
> here who live in Fairfield or have paid their dues
> in the TM movement, I think a re-watching (or a
> first watching) of this film would be of interest
> to many here. I mean, one of the big topics lately
> has been how the black-and-white powers-that-be in
> that small, complacent Iowa town are going to react
> to the horror of a newcomer in town (Trivedi, or
> whatever his name is), one who brings a little
> flash into people's complacent lives. And whether
> some of the reaction to that will involve reprisals
> (as in the film) and persecution of the "colored."
> Many, many parallels to issues we have discussed
> here for years.
>
> Gary Ross, who wrote the script and directed, cap-
> tures the "down side" of complacency and fear of
> change brilliantly, and with humor and compassion.
> It's a great film, and one that never got quite
> the recognition it deserved. If you have HBO, it
> is well worth watching or recording; if you don't,
> it is well worth a rental.
>
