Yesterday in class, we watched the 1998 film, Pleasantville. Though not technically a dystopia, the film is more a rejection of a utopia, and in particular, the overly perfect and fake world of 1950's American TV sitcoms.
In simplest terms, a world of predictability and sameness is far from perfect; moreover, it's just not human.
The film's use of color and symbolism is also notable.
Blog Post Assignment
Directions: Select any of the following prompts and compose a thoughtful response. You may also choose to focus on a topic of your own creation. Make sure you have a main idea if you choose this option.
Support your analysis with specific references to the film, and, if possible, analyze the film's many illusions to the Bible, television, and other films.
Support your analysis with specific references to the film, and, if possible, analyze the film's many illusions to the Bible, television, and other films.
- Television – What role does television play in society? How can it be harmful? How do we construct our values from TV? What impact does it have in the film?
- Innocence – Does Pleasantville represent a place of innocence without evil, or is it hell? Explain.
- Technology – Technology will destroy or save us. Which statement is correct?
- Book Burning – Is there a time when censorship should be allowed? How does this conflict with creativity?
- Individuality – Is it better to be an individual or part of a group? Relate to film.
- High School Sports – Some say sports help people learn teamwork and responsibility. Others say sports enforce conformity and destroy independence. Which is correct?
- Acceptance Of Change – How does Pleasantville depict change over time? Good, Bad, indifferent? Is change the only permanent thing? Explain.
- Intolerance – Discuss examples of intolerance in American society. How does Pleasantville relate?
- Utopia/Dystopia – Is it possible for humans to create a utopia? Why or why not? Explain.
- Free Will – What does Pleasantville say about free will? Do the people have free choices, or are they determined?
- The "Apple"/Knowledge – Sex, information, art, love, loneliness—are these forces liberating or corrosive? Explain.
- Color – What does Pleasantville say about color? What do the "colored" people represent?
Your analysis must be at least 500 words in length.
Completed responses must be uploaded to Google Classroom by midnight this Friday (12/4).
Two topics selected:
ReplyDeleteTelevision – What role does television play in society? How can it be harmful? How do we construct our values from tv? What impact does it have in the film?
High School Sports – Some say sports help people learn teamwork and responsibility. Others say sports enforce conformity and destroy independence. Which is correct?
In the film, Pleasantville, a brother and sister go into a world that is basically perfect and they change that by doing such this that they would do in their world. Now television plays a big role in our society now with the new series coming out on HBO, FOX, etc. Television in our world puts a picture in our heads of what we want to grow up and be or it’s something that we can just leave the real world for just an hour or so and let us not have to deal with work, relationships, or just regular commotion. Basically television characters just have the perfect life some would say because in most series a character isn’t complaining about growing up or waking up the next morning wondering if they’re going to have a home to live in. This can be harmful because this could make people think that they can be that bad a** character and not play by the rules. Also, they could be that character that gets everything that they want and put themselves in debt. However, there is always something good to take from TV. To every show there’s a learning point. So if there’s anything you can take from the show it’s the learning point like not judging a book by its cover. Not a man buys a million dollar house just because he’s always wanted one. Lastly, the impact this has on the film is in the movie it took them two away from the real world so they had nothing to worry about because it was such a perfect world and that nothing goes wrong there.
In the beginning of the film, Pleasantville, Bud is practicing with the Pleasantville basketball team and nobody in the gym misses a shot because the town is perfect and they’ve never lost a game and it explains that television is a perfect world. Before the world started falling apart the town made high school sports look like it’s not a learning point because in the real world you learn from your losses and it develops teamwork so that the next game it’s a different outcome. In addition, in the real world athletes have responsibilities. Whether it’s getting the ball to the scorer, getting rebounds off of missed shots, or being the scorer the real world has responsibilities and in Pleasantville they could have one person blind folded on the court and still come out with the win. That saying, high school sports develop teamwork and responsibility.
Tyler Manno
•America in the 50’s –
ReplyDeleteIs America in the 50’s and Pleasantville similar? Yes because the big thing in the 50’s was racism of color and in Pleasantville towards the end of the film the people that changed from black and white to color have been treated differently. The black and white people took initiative and sabotaged the burger shop. Which if you invert that into the 50’s it would be white people destroying black people’s property. Then the mayor made some rules for the town. Which discriminated the colored people in Pleasantville and put the black and white people more in power. Which led to black and white people destroying Bill’s (the burger shop owner) restaurant and everything in it including his paintings; Bill had a strong passion for painting.
•Innocence –
Pleasantville is a very safe place. I feel it’s a boring old quota you follow. Which leads to no chaos but a life a person cannot enjoy. I believe that staying on the same schedule every second of your life cannot bring your success but also without failure. I feel success can make you a better human being but as does failure. So if you shut both of them out of your life you leave yourself wondering, “What am I living for?” That can only lead you to nothing. So do I think Pleasantville is hell? I strongly do. Pleasantville can’t be good or bad, just unhuman.
-Troy Manno
Individuality:
ReplyDeleteIn Pleasantville i believe it is better to be an individual than being apart of a group. The reason is because you need to find your inner-self by knowing yourself first. Instead of being a follower and trying to fit in a group. In groups there is more drama and in Pleasantville when there was a group of gray men they influenced each other to destroy the color peoples things. But the color people are different because they found themselves and learned what life is all about, and instead of following the group they learn to accept that they are different and how the world is suppose to be a colorful place and not perfect.
Acceptance of change:
ReplyDeleteIn pleasantville as they learn to accept the change it was easier for the people who changed color because they realized that there is more to life then being plain and on the same schedule. On the other hand it was harder for the gray people to accept the color people and their change. The reason being is the gray people didn't want the town to change the schedule and are scared to change the way they look. But in the end they realize that it is better to be different and have a change for once.
Individuality –
ReplyDeleteIn relation to the film, I thought it was much better to be part of a group. When everyone was suddenly rejecting the ideals that composed that specific Utopia, everyone was taken off guard. They were scared as well as curious. However, it wasn’t as if it was just one person having to go through such a change. Seeing as they were all “turning human” they all came to one another for comfort and for advice (from Mary Sue and Bud). Also, when half the town became aggressive towards the colored, the colored formed a group which ultimately strengthened them as a whole. Individually, I feel as if they would have been lost and probably harmed. In conclusion, I thought it was definitely safer and much more comforting to be part of a group rather than facing troublesome obstacles solo.
Utopia/Dystopia –
To be completely honest, I honestly have no faith in humans when it comes to creating a utopia. You want to create a utopia? Then you’ll have to literally brainwash EVERYONE’S minds and program them to think a certain way and make sure that they ONLY think that way. From what I’ve seen, it’s obvious that Utopia’s don’t work unless everyone is completely, 100%, in agreeance with each and every policy. But, you know us humans, we like to do our own thing. For a Utopia to be successful there cannot be any ounce of doubt of how the government is run. In the movie Divergent those who didn’t agree with the policies of the government were found and killed. However, they ultimately failed because those who thought differently overpowered the government. Something or someone is going to go against the government one way or another and it’ll be like a domino effect. Once one goes down, everything goes down with it. We’re a tricky species, and that’s what makes us human. We’re built to agree and disagree. We’re known for questioning authority even when they’re probably right. It’s just a fact. So, unless the government can find a way to completely brainwash us without us knowing and finding a way to rebel, we’ll never be able to create a Utopia.
Innocence
ReplyDeletePleasantville represents purity. Everybody living in the town is always happy. They had never heard of sex, drugs, or radical emotions such as anger or sadness. When Jennifer first entered the show, she corrupts Skip by exposing him to sexual actions. Things started to change. Everybody started doing it, listening to provocative music, and even become expressive through arts. Town was peaceful and pure before the chain reaction was set off.
Utopia/Dystopia
It is impossible to create a utopia of the human eye. Everybody's mind is different and what they see as perfection could be chaotic in another. No one would agree on how the utopia works and therefore will create conflict. Unless everybody has the same views or morals, a utopia will never exist.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteInnocence
ReplyDeleteThe movie Pleasantville represents a lot of different things. To me it a question in itself, “What is reality?” In this “world” they are all happy. They would never do an things such as drugs, sex, alcohol because they did not know of such things. Easily in this movie when Jennifer comes in to the Pleasantville with her brother she makes their reality spiral out of control. Their entire world beings to change with what they did, how they talked, and the main part was their change of color. Everything in this world was black and white and everybody was considered the same. When people began to gain color they were looked down upon until they realized they are all the same people. The reality of Jennifer and her brother was different from the people of this world yet brought them a sense of reality at the end of the movie.
Color
The people in Pleasantville that gain color reverse representation of “colored” people in the 50’s in the US because they were looked down upon. They were forced to abide by the rules of what they were all used to which could be consider their towns norm. They were stripped from their “freedom” to be who they wanted to be until they were all identified as the same at the end of the movie. When you look at it from a different perspective it is like the 50’s because of the same issue. The lack of freedom of expression, and having to abide by the “Norm” held people back from being who they were because of the persecution and consequences they would have received. Pleasantville causes you to think about your morals and how easily people can be persuaded to follow the “Norm” as well.
Acceptance of Change: In the town of Pleasantville every citizen had a routine and knew very little about making decisions for themselves. All aspects of their lives are taken care of and they have nothing to worry about. The Mayor doesn't want any change around town but once the main characters find their way into the show change becomes inevitable. Some of the people are afraid and panic over the changes while others are open to the new way of life.
ReplyDeleteColor: Once some of the characters become colored, the colorless people are terrified and they basically begin to exclude the coloreds from their society. I like how the writers of the movie mocked racism because there was nothing different about the coloreds but people still shunned them because they were different.
• Innocence
ReplyDeletePleasantville represents a safe spot. The town is always positive, bright, happy, and nothing is wrong with it. Pleasantville doesn’t have negative things there, in fact they haven’t heard of them before. When they entered the town, everything started to change. Jennifer had exposed sexual actions to skip and people really started to open their eyes to the real world. Pleasantville was pure, safe, and then one thing happened, which set off a continuous “problem”.
• Acceptance of change
The town had to learn to accept the change. When people started to change into color, they realized that there was more to life than being like everyone else. At first, people didn’t understand why people were changing or what was happening. People were first afraid of change but sometimes, for instance, the grass was greener on the other side.
-Tiffany Valiante
Tyler Sarfert
ReplyDeleteIndividuality- It is better to be part of a group when working on a film. Although, if you lose your individuality then you might as well not be in the group. It is better to work with people other than yourself because other people bring different things to the table. If I filmed, acted, and scored a movie all by myself, it would be painful. Once more people get thrown into the mix, more ideas will come out, and a awful movie could turn into a decent movie just by the addition of a group.
Television- Television is the news and entertainment of todays society. The problem with that is, it can say whatever it wants and it is up to the view to decide what is worth listening to, and what is not. We construct our values by the norm of television. If something becomes regular and common on TV then those are acceptable values to society at that moment. In Pleasantville, the perfection of the 1950 TV show, shows Toby Maguire the beauty of living in a utopia. Once he gets put in that utopia he loved, he realizes that the world he lives in is better. Individuality and the ability to make your own choices is what makes the world a great place to live.
Technology will destroy or save us. Which is correct?
ReplyDelete“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards” (Aldous Huxley). Technology is something that has evolved over the years, and will continue to evolve over and over again. However when does technology become too much ? When does it spell doom for us ? I believe technology will destroy us to the point where we revert back to primitive forms. Technology seems like the savior in this world, but it is not. It makes us lazy, unintelligent and useless. It takes over our very being to the point where if it all just vanished, chaos would ensue and there would be nothing left. Technology will never save us, it will always be the one to destroy us in the end, it seems like a never-ending battle, but technology will forever reign supreme.
Is it possible for humans to create a utopia ?
“If you actually succeed in creating a utopia, you’ve created a world without conflict, in which everything is perfect. And if there’s no conflict, there are no stories worth telling- or reading” (Veronica Roth). The definition of utopia - an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect. Right of the bat, I will say that it is not possible for humans to create a utopia, they can create a massive amount of other things, but a utopia is not one of them. Humans create mischief, hatred, greed, and much more. How would anyone believe that we could create a utopia in our world ? We are selfish creatures that want everything and a utopia is just another thing we have our eyes on. A utopia would basically be a free for all, everyone thinking that they are equal to each other, but actually they are violating the rules of an exact utopia. No perfect place can exist, we are forced to live like this for all eternity, and it is humans who made it this way.
Television plays a huge role in our society most people spend lots of time in front of the tv it teaches baby's to talk and influence some decisions that we will make which is why there's tv ratings. It can be very harmful because it can influence us to make the wrong decisions. We construct our values from what we see on tv but what is acceptable in the movie isn't always in the real world. And the impact it has on the film is that there's few channels that are all considered completely innocent so everyone in pleasantville is innocent where as towards the end when there are more shows available people are more daring to try new things.
ReplyDeleteTechnology in the end will end up saving us because every civilization progresses and as we progress we will become smarter and learn more about the world and people will be able to live more easily and will learned to not be as influenced from there outside surroundings
Individuality –
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the movie, my thought was that it seemed a lot better if you were part of a group. It is much easier to go through a change as dramatic as “turning human” with other people who understood what they were going through rather than to go through it alone. Much like, when everyone else in the town was angry with the colored, the colored joined forces. All in all, it was definitely much easier to be part of a group then to be alone.
Color-
After certain character become colored, people that are not are scared and intimidated. Due to this they start excluding those of color from the rest of society and treat them as if they were beneath. It was a very clear imitation of racism in the 1950’s, they were not treated differently until people saw them as colored instead of who they were inside.
Individuality:
ReplyDeleteDuring the 1950s, social conforming was a necessity rather than a suggestion. In post-WWII America, collectivism was slowly becoming the natural way of life. The clean, pristine style of the '50s became a visual representation of the idealistic morals of the society florishing around it. The film Pleasantville, focuses on the reckless youth of today and even showcases the humble and moral ways of yesteryear as a healthy alternative. Eventually the movie unveils this utopia as the Hell-ish world it truly is when Tobey Maguire's character and his sister begin asking questions. From the the questions of the 'Outside World' beyond Main Street to the rejection of blank textbooks, the pursuit of knowledge, art and a form of expression is natural instinct, innate to all of mankind. This rejection of perfection is what it means to be human.
Colored People:
Pleasantville, much like the time period in which it parodize, is film in the classic black and white format. During the 1950s, the issue of color and race started many altercations and these problems were often subtely hinted at in television itself. Since its invention, television has been an important part of American civilization. It is a readily available seductive and entertaining theater in the home. Those who adore it are often addicted to its mesmerizing offerings. Whatever a critic's perspective, TV is on in America, and America is on TV. So if America is being prejudice, you can probably see it in our television programs as well, (sometimes as satire and sometimes as subtle racism).
Trevor Little
ReplyDelete• Innocence – How does Pleasantville represent a place of innocence or without evil? Or is it hell? You can relate to parts of the film.
Pleasantville is a very specific world with little imperfection nothing goes wrong ever and everyone is in an unnoticeable rut. What I mean is that they do the same thing every day but never realize it and when something goes out of the order they become clustered and confused. Like when bud came to work late and bill just kept rubbing the counters he didn’t know what do to because bud usually opens the cash register and bill does the fries after whipping the counter bur bud came in too late. This world called Pleasantville is a perfect society with no fire or people breaking laws, the basketball team literally can’t miss a shot. So I would say the world is all innocence like the people there don’t even know what sex is, if that’s no innocents then I don’t know what is. But Pleasantville is hell for the real world people like David and Jennifer who live in an imperfection world. There not use to such a simple style of living where everyone is so feeble minded.
High School Sports – Some say sports help people learn teamwork and responsibility. Others say sports enforce conformity and destroy independence. Which is correct?
As a 3 high school sport athlete I can first hand tell you that sports are a great thing to have and teach many valuable life lessons. Yes it makes it harder to do school work and keep your grades up in class, but it also teaches you responsibility. Like if you can do three sports and have good grades I feel like you’re the real MVP. Practice form 2:30–6pm every day from the first day of school until the last day of school plus Saturday practices. It’s very stressful and can make you overwhelmed easily. But to be able to do all that and have time for school shows independence, responsibility, and self-control. I think sports are a great thing to have because you can learn so much from one year of a sport then you can stuck in a little class with 20 other kids who don’t want to be there. Sports teams you not obligated to do it, to be able to play is a privilege and avery good one at that.