Essay | Pleasantville

The film Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross, explores several main ideas. Two American teenage siblings from the 1990's, David and Jennifer, are transported to a 1950's television series called Pleasantville. This allows Gary Ross to explore many ideas in a unique way. This essay seeks to examine the following three themes: People Have Depth; Racial Segregation and Discrimination; Change.

The first theme to explore is `People Have Depth'. In Pleasantville, before David and Jennifer arrived, the people are all stereotypical and in black and white, both physically and figuratively. They always act the same and are portrayed in exactly the same way. For example, whenever George, the father, arrives home from work the cinematographer always uses a medium shot and shows him hanging up his hat and then smiling and saying, "Honey, I'm home." Betty, the mother, always has dinner ready by that time. It is as if they are...
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