Pleasantville

what a big bunch of controversy about a film that i thought was far from controversial.

i thought pleasantville was good. A simple theme; encouraging people to embrace change and look beyond the familiar, and well executed.

however it failed the most important test of all. The stay awake test. I am impatient, impetuous and have a short attention span. I like to think of these as features as opposed to flaws, since they allow me the ability to gauge the sucess of anything.

fall asleep = bad
stay awake = good

i fell asleep three quarters thru pleasantville.... thats bad.

j

No, no, no, no, no.

But, it's easy to see how one could arrive to such a conclusion.

Especially if you have only seen it once or twice. Kong thinks that Ross used Reese Witherspoon's characte to show that sex wasn't making the changes. She had tons of sex, but stayed black-and-white while the others changed. So, sex is not the answer. What caused the change in color was feeling. These people lived in a homoginized cookie cutter town where every emotion and feeling was dulled and dampened into oblivion, but they finally colorize when the first truly feel some major emotion deep inside their hearts. For many of the characters this occured with the act of sex, but not simply because of it.

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Kong's Reviews:
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Bad Santa

Resurrecting an old thread; I trust no one'll mind.

Well, people, mark this day on your calendars, because I'm going to admit I was wrong; at least partially.

Gummly was right: it wasn't just about sex. He's also right in stating that her character was explicitly used to make it clear that it wasn't just about sex. The film's message is much broader than that. However, I think one my later posts was closer to the mark:

I still think this particular observation is pretty accurate; while the film's message is not purely sexual, that's clearly part of the mix. It doesn't advocate rampant sex, but it definitively rejects old-fashioned sexual mores.

It's pretty dismissive about anything old, really, likening sexual discretion or past husband/wife roles to things like racism and bigotry. That's really the only thing I object to. The film recognizes (and rightly so) that not everything we do is good, and that having done something in the past is not necessarily reason enough to keep doing it. The problem is that Pleasantville goes to the other extreme: it efficiently lumps any sort of classic morality into the same pile as various forms of close-mindedness and intolerance, painting personality types with the same start contrast as their physical representations.

I'd have found the film quite powerful, I imagine, if it'd adopted a more sensible attitude towards the necessary blend of new ideas and respect for the time-tested old ones. There's a lot to be learned from the past. Most traditions got to be traditions because they have some sense to them. Pleasantville would have you believe that we must choose to blindly follow the traditions of the past, or else embrace across-the-board, impulsive liberation.

Forgive the pun, but real life isn't that black and white.

Dearest Green Machine,
I think that is a wonderful post. I like to see you have a really serious side to you as well as the cute funny one y ou usually show us. I think you are so right. There are good things about the old stuff and good things about the new stuff and its upto us to make our own choices about which is which.
And that makes us stop and think.
I can vote in this next election, and I bet a lot of the people who go to this forum can vote, too. & thats why I want everybody to read the letter that my sis-in-law (she's the Flick Chick, you know) has put up in the editorial part of that E-zine. I think it makes good sense, read it and see if you think so too.
Also she liked the poem I wrote for you guys and she put it in the Zine. See if you can find it. It has my name on it, too! Sort of. (tee-hee)
Here is the link to that editorial. If you like it, pass it on, if you don't just keep hands off and walk on by.
So byebye dear friends
Love & kisses & I will be back sooooooooooon!
(wink)
Jozie

http://www.freelookbookstore.com/E-Zine/political.html

PS if you send it on, better make all your bud's names bindcopies.
B/cause . . .
You know, you know,
you never know
where e-mails end
when you let go!
(tee-hee)

Also we are going to try to see that Mel Gibson movie this week. It sounds sort of scary, but I'm such a homebody that I only go with relatives and girlfriends. Wish I had somebody nice to go with me and hold my hand. (sigh) Maybe next year.
(wink)
xxx & ***
Jozie

Dear Yoda. I have been gone so long Inever sawyour quote stuff. I love it!

Jozie

Don't get the whole Elvis theory the OP is purporting, but I thought this film was just brilliant. Imaginative and beautifully filmed. Joan Allen was robbed of an Oscar nomination.