11.3.98
(Election Day)
Last night, in a grand and great demonstrace, (That's a reeeeel old word out of my 4000 page dictionary Therefore, sic.) RR and I went off to see Pleasantville. I'm adding it to a list of really important films that every good American should see.
Why? Not because the photography is unbelievable. Not cuz it is historically accurate, but because of the subtext, and the important message it puts across. Mostly, the true meaning will be lost on many, but it sure rang true to me. I think if you've seen "Brazil," and it made sense, you'll understand "Pleasantville."
Briefly, the plot is thus -- a typical slutty late 1990's sister and her nerdy brother are brought to life and developed VERY quickly (like 15 minutes.) They are then transported to a 1957 sitcom a la Leave it to Beaver by Barney Fife. The film then reverts to what must be a very expensive conversion to B&W. Slowly, these two goofy, dysfunctional kids set on a zany antic of making everyone come to Technicolor (DeLuxe, actually.) Sexual repression is shattered, and all of the classic 1950 mores and morals are updated to what has become the 1998 standard.
BUT that part in the subtext that will be missed by a great many people were the signs in the shop windows. "NO COLORED" That is an important reminder that in 1957, those signs were in many shop windows in this great and liberal USofA. We forget that when the "old guard" of Pleasantville struck out against the "new regime (colored,) restrictions on movement and expression were made, much as the class and race struggle in the southern US in the late 50's and 60's. For a while, I thought the film was going to take a decidedly "Montgomery Alabama" turn, but it didn't.
That's why I liked it. The one thing I can't tolerate is intolerance.
"Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it."
Go vote, damn ya!
Last night, in a grand and great demonstrace, (That's a reeeeel old word out of my 4000 page dictionary Therefore, sic.) RR and I went off to see Pleasantville. I'm adding it to a list of really important films that every good American should see.
Why? Not because the photography is unbelievable. Not cuz it is historically accurate, but because of the subtext, and the important message it puts across. Mostly, the true meaning will be lost on many, but it sure rang true to me. I think if you've seen "Brazil," and it made sense, you'll understand "Pleasantville."
Briefly, the plot is thus -- a typical slutty late 1990's sister and her nerdy brother are brought to life and developed VERY quickly (like 15 minutes.) They are then transported to a 1957 sitcom a la Leave it to Beaver by Barney Fife. The film then reverts to what must be a very expensive conversion to B&W. Slowly, these two goofy, dysfunctional kids set on a zany antic of making everyone come to Technicolor (DeLuxe, actually.) Sexual repression is shattered, and all of the classic 1950 mores and morals are updated to what has become the 1998 standard.
BUT that part in the subtext that will be missed by a great many people were the signs in the shop windows. "NO COLORED" That is an important reminder that in 1957, those signs were in many shop windows in this great and liberal USofA. We forget that when the "old guard" of Pleasantville struck out against the "new regime (colored,) restrictions on movement and expression were made, much as the class and race struggle in the southern US in the late 50's and 60's. For a while, I thought the film was going to take a decidedly "Montgomery Alabama" turn, but it didn't.
That's why I liked it. The one thing I can't tolerate is intolerance.
"Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it."
Go vote, damn ya!
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