The movie Pleasantville was an eye opening film. It made me realize how set in our ways most people are. We have to understand that it is okay to change; not only the way we act, but how we feel about certain things. Imagine how this world would be like if no one change their mind about slavery; I'll tell you this much, it would be a worse world than it already is.
Not only is this movie about change but it is also about coming to the realization that the we take everything for granted. We take, emotions, free will, even color all for granted. Not everything is better off in simpler terms. As Janet Maslin says in response to the teachers getting apples in the black and white world, "One thing we did know eventually: those apples had worms." She hit the nail right on the head...that world was WAY too good to be true. No one thought for themselves and therefore no one was really living.
In addition to the movie using color to identify the changes as an eye grabbing trick, they alluded to multiple historical events, like Maslin writes, "newly enlightened characters have been labeled 'coloreds' and have stirred up a conservative backlash". This connects back to the civil rights movement. There were also other allusions in the film to the holocaust and the book burnings that went on in that time.
this movie has so many connections to our life now and to our history. I think that this was a wonderful and educational film.
