ExtraCredit

 Pleasantville  In the movie Pleasantville two students named David and Jennifer are a family based in the 90s. David spends a lot of his free time watching a black and white TV show called Pleasantville, which is based in the 50s era. One night when the two siblings are home alone, their TV remote breaks from a brief tussle between the two. Shortly after it breaks a TV remote repairman arrives at their house, even though they never called for one, and he gives them a new remote. As soon as the repairman leaves, they soon start to fight over the new remote. Much to their dismay, they are transported into the TV show Pleasantville, where everything is pleasant and good natured all the time. They take on the form of two people in the TV show. They go on to change everything about this utopia. They start to make the people see things differently and act differently. Once the people lose their “innocence,” which changes depending on the person, they will start to become colorful, and objects in their town become colorful. In the end everything ends up to become colorful, and the town is not very pleasant anymore. Jennifer realizes that she could only go to school in Pleasantville, and not in the real life, and David leaves behind his new girlfriend and Pleasantville mother, to return to the real world. This movie shows the viewer what life was supposed to be like in the early 50s, how they were supposed to be such “happy days.” How those days were supposed to be so good, even though in that time period, the US is in the depth of the Cold War. It also includes a touch of Civil Rights Movement, which reaches its climax in the court scene, after David and his college in the town, both of them are in color; paint the side of the police station with “forbidden colors.” In the court house and even in the town, they have a “colored” section and a “black and white” section. The “colored” people in the town are not even declared citizens of the town anymore. There is also a touch of Women’s Rights in the movie, where just before the “black and white” citizens start a rampage, several of the big leaders of the town talk about how women are supposed to be at home, making dinner for their husbands, and not doing anything else. This movie captures everything that we have learned in the Unit, except for the Korean War. I liked how the movie had the effects of talking about all this history, be it from Civil Rights, to Women’s Rights, to even the “Happy Days” of the 50s. The movie talked about these things, even though none were exactly that evident. It sends subliminal messages to the viewer without the viewer really noticing it. The only bad thing was how David and Jennifer came from the 90s. I feel it would have been more important if they came from a time period closer to the 50s, for example the 80s or 70s. It would have helped send a little stronger message of the Cold War in the movie then it has in it, because in the 90s the Cold War is practically over. Overall the movie was well done and was through at describing that time period.