(no subject)
Oct. 9th, 2003 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockI'm watching Pleasantville on TNT right now. Has anyone made any Pleasantville icons?
I really adored this film. It's a piece of art, and even better, a subversive piece of art. It's art that's about the beauty and joy of art itself-- more primarily, it uses art to show us directly and subtly the passions that inspire people to make art, whether your art is sex or sport or paint or literature or masturbation or anger or romantic love. It's critical of religious extremitism at the expense of life passions-- the character that represents God is a fumbling, well-intentioned and cheerful but easily frustrated old man who gets upset when he can't control events that he set in motion (he's also very adept at using a pen to chart exact moments of sinning caught on divine tv ::snicker::). Also critical of totalitarianism, stagnancy, communism, and basically any restrictions of free thought or freedom of experience.
What do I love about this film? (besides the above)
-the photgraphy and use of color design, both symbolically AND visually.
-the humor in the script
-way that the love triangle between the wife, the husband, and the owner of the diner ISN'T neatly resolved, and is treated with care
-the way that the 'negative' emotions like anger are presented as positive because they are life-changing too.
-the way that the two main "real" kids don't change for the same reasons as the rest of the town, because their lessons are different.
-bringing in the idea of race in an all-white town and film, through the term "colored," though it doesn't mean what it does in the real world sense.
-David/Bud changes out of anger, the same as the Mayor. Bud wanted the security of Pleasantville in the beginning, and the Mayor wanted to preserve that security in the end. Anger changed David/Bud into color, and he used that experience to get the Mayor to change for the same reason.
-the way that the women of the film drive the sexual freedom, and as a result the other freedoms as well. Starting from Jennifer/Mary Sue, and then moving onto her "mother" Betty, and then even to David/Bud's girlfriend, who literally offers him a bright shining red apple off the tree. Even later, the mother Betty acts as a truth-sayer of sorts, using her hand mirror to show Bud and then the mayor how they have changed.
-the apple thing is one of my favorite parts of the movie. Because this movie is all about the idea that looking beyond paradise, and searching for knowledge and experience is not a sin, in fact it's the best thing you can do, the thing that beings with free will should do. Change. Grow. Live. Here's a reversal of the religious allegory, where the woman is celebrated for giving wisdom to the men in the series, not cursed for it and blamed for "the original sin." In this, the original sin, eating from the tree of knowledge and then sharing that knowledge, is the presented not as a curse, but as enlightenment.
Obviously, a very Western-philosophy idea of freedom of thought and natural rights, and the celebration of diversity and progress. But hey, that's the kind of cultural philosophy I ascribe to.
Also, it had both Riley and Johnathon in small parts in the film! From BTVS, yo. And Jonathon (Danny something-or-other) had more lines than Riley (Marc Blucas, who didn't have any.)
I really adored this film. It's a piece of art, and even better, a subversive piece of art. It's art that's about the beauty and joy of art itself-- more primarily, it uses art to show us directly and subtly the passions that inspire people to make art, whether your art is sex or sport or paint or literature or masturbation or anger or romantic love. It's critical of religious extremitism at the expense of life passions-- the character that represents God is a fumbling, well-intentioned and cheerful but easily frustrated old man who gets upset when he can't control events that he set in motion (he's also very adept at using a pen to chart exact moments of sinning caught on divine tv ::snicker::). Also critical of totalitarianism, stagnancy, communism, and basically any restrictions of free thought or freedom of experience.
What do I love about this film? (besides the above)
-the photgraphy and use of color design, both symbolically AND visually.
-the humor in the script
-way that the love triangle between the wife, the husband, and the owner of the diner ISN'T neatly resolved, and is treated with care
-the way that the 'negative' emotions like anger are presented as positive because they are life-changing too.
-the way that the two main "real" kids don't change for the same reasons as the rest of the town, because their lessons are different.
-bringing in the idea of race in an all-white town and film, through the term "colored," though it doesn't mean what it does in the real world sense.
-David/Bud changes out of anger, the same as the Mayor. Bud wanted the security of Pleasantville in the beginning, and the Mayor wanted to preserve that security in the end. Anger changed David/Bud into color, and he used that experience to get the Mayor to change for the same reason.
-the way that the women of the film drive the sexual freedom, and as a result the other freedoms as well. Starting from Jennifer/Mary Sue, and then moving onto her "mother" Betty, and then even to David/Bud's girlfriend, who literally offers him a bright shining red apple off the tree. Even later, the mother Betty acts as a truth-sayer of sorts, using her hand mirror to show Bud and then the mayor how they have changed.
-the apple thing is one of my favorite parts of the movie. Because this movie is all about the idea that looking beyond paradise, and searching for knowledge and experience is not a sin, in fact it's the best thing you can do, the thing that beings with free will should do. Change. Grow. Live. Here's a reversal of the religious allegory, where the woman is celebrated for giving wisdom to the men in the series, not cursed for it and blamed for "the original sin." In this, the original sin, eating from the tree of knowledge and then sharing that knowledge, is the presented not as a curse, but as enlightenment.
Obviously, a very Western-philosophy idea of freedom of thought and natural rights, and the celebration of diversity and progress. But hey, that's the kind of cultural philosophy I ascribe to.
Also, it had both Riley and Johnathon in small parts in the film! From BTVS, yo. And Jonathon (Danny something-or-other) had more lines than Riley (Marc Blucas, who didn't have any.)
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no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 11:21 pm (UTC)thanks! that's swell.
Date: 2003-10-09 11:50 pm (UTC)ACK! That's mor than I expected to come up with.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 11:24 pm (UTC)I love the way you pointed out all my faves.
The colorization of this film was... so poignant.
The symbolism was amazing.
Sun
no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 11:51 pm (UTC)YAY
Date: 2003-10-09 11:27 pm (UTC)::jumps with joy::
I'm such a sap that I still cry at certain parts (I have it on DVD and have watched it a million times).
Mercy
Re: YAY
Date: 2003-10-09 11:46 pm (UTC)Re: YAY
Date: 2003-10-09 11:48 pm (UTC);)
no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 11:28 pm (UTC)Hmm... two mentions of Pleasantville in one night. It's time to own it.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-09 11:58 pm (UTC)If you find any screencaps or icons, send some over my way. I'd love to have to have some shots of the movie because it's just so damn beautiful.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-10 12:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-10 12:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-10 12:15 am (UTC)caia
no subject
Date: 2003-10-10 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-10 04:50 am (UTC)I don't remember all the details of it though, but I recall that towards the end, I was half expecting the racial subject to go even deeper/ more extreme... but that would've been bit risky, I suppose~ *scratches head* would've been more interesting for me however.
I found the colours there also ingenious.... I wouldn't mind seeing that movie again.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-10 10:39 am (UTC)It would have been interesting, and might work in a book version, where you could go even further with each of the particular ideas. I think race division was represented as just a symptom of the situation here though, with prejudice as one of the many prices that they present resulting from the new diversity. But they could make a whole nother movie out of just that (and many already have), so I understand why it was a small point in the movie, presented near the end and then carried through swiftly along with the whole resolution.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-10 06:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-10 10:33 am (UTC)I know. On the surface, the idea seems corny and cringe-worthy bad. But as my mom said while we were watching it, "It's really quite clever."