How are we made aware of the filmmaker’s attitude towards alteration? Refer to three specific episodes from the movie. ( excl. concl. phases ) In Pleasantville. the film maker. Gary Ross. conveys his attitude towards change through the characters of David and Jennifer who are transported into the 1950s situation comedy “Pleasantville” . He doesn’t needfully demonstrate alteration to bear a positive consequence ; instead. he addresses that alteration is indispensable to the development of society and ego and that it is of import to understand and accept alteration. Ross contrasts the ignorance and inanity of the unchanged people of Pleasantville with the hungriness for cognition that the changed ( or coloured ) people possess. pass oning to the spectator that alteration and cognition go manus in manus.
Ross besides portrays and slightly satirises an unchanged society’s people to be ruled by their ain inanity. and in their epiphany. translates to the spectator that alteration can come from within or from outside one’s ego but is different for everyone. Dark overtones are used to parallel the Pleasantville to a society under fascist regulation. However. in the terminal. alteration will ever impact everyone and this new apprehension will assist to get the better of the alterations encountered in the hereafter that may seek to detriment the society. The three scenes which will be discussed in relation to the filmmaker’s attitude towards alteration are the breakfast scene. the schoolroom scene. and the rain scene.
The breakfast scene is the scene where Betty is stacking nutrient on other nutrient and exceeding it off with maple sirup for Mary-Sue’s breakfast. The audience is overwhelmed at the pathetic sum of nutrient that is being placed on her home base. which is shown by utmost close-up and cuts of the shootings of every clip another nutrient point is slapped onto the home base. and is accompanied by an cheerful music. The audience knows that the individual under the pretense of Mary-Sue is Jennifer. stereotypical of an American teenage miss. so she is of course concerned about her weight and watches the nutrient she eats. The scene is dry because such a large breakfast is the exact type of repast she would be seeking to avoid.
The scene is besides inflated as even in the 1950s. it would be considered pathetic to eat such a assortment of nutrients for merely one forenoon repast. The ‘jumpy’ non-diegetic music timed with the speedy shootings of nutrient being placed on the home base. and the jump-cuts demoing the reactions of a horror-stricken Jennifer when seeing all this nutrient. aid create situational temper. The ground that all these techniques have been used to make temper is to show a sitcom-style state of affairs. In making this. Gary Ross satirises the inanity of the unchanged people and this becomes of import as the plot line progresses.
The breakfast scene is besides a topographic point which symbolically informs the audience of the current fortunes of Pleasantville. Betty is stacking nutrient which would usually be considered tasteful by the audience one time in a piece and separately: battercakes. salami. bacon and eggs. This is what could be represented in the expression: “Too much of a good thing is ne’er good. ” The incongruous mix of nutrients is deliberately used by the film maker to do the audience feel uncomfortable. It is symbolically saying that there are excessively many good things in Pleasantville. There is besides a sense that this is the state of affairs everyday. significance there is no alteration.
This can be inferred from the easiness and comfort with which Betty is puting the nutrient on Mary-Sue’s home base. It is as if she has been making this her whole life. The concluding nutrient point is the sirup being easy poured onto all the other nutrients. which is shown for a longer sum of clip than the other nutrients and with the music going slower. about as if toxicant. This symbolises the ‘sickly sweet’ idiosyncrasy which has consumed the people of Pleasantville. Ross is efficaciously seeking to convey the resentment of a sallow sweet society who has ne’er seen anything other than the norm and has ne’er experienced any alteration.
This suggestion can be furthered in the treatment of the film’s “black-and-white technique” . The black-and-white technique is non merely of import in the distinguishing of changed people from unchanged people. It was conventionally used in Noir movies to stand for the dark overtones of the society. It is used as a motive in Pleasantville for the bulk of the beginning of Jennifer and David’s escapade ( until things start to alter. that is ) . This is particularly important with all the elusive deductions and allusions to a Nazi-style absolutism. For illustration. the combustion of books is evocative of that in 1936 when the German authorities burnt all books which would oppose its regulation. in fright that the society it governed would believe of arising.
Large Bob is the obvious swayer. as he is about ever seen with a low shooting. doing him look large and powerful to the audience. Bob’s state of affairs is similar. firing books to halt alterations happening. Books are seen as plants of art which are derived from the imaginativeness of believing people. Bob’s censoring patterns extend to the prohibition of Mr Johnson from utilizing colorss to paint ( that is. from utilizing the full extent of his imaginativeness ) in his Code of Conduct. In this manner. he is much like the German authorities in the 30s. However. he wants to go on his regulation without any violent resistance ; merely ‘pleasantness’ .
There is irony nevertheless. as there is hooliganism and break when the Milk Bar is broken into and sabotaged because of his encouragement. which is the exact antonym of ‘pleasant’ . The fact that people submitted to this manner of life ( where everything is sallow Sweet ) without resistance before ( before alterations were introduced ) shows that they were non ruled by Bob. but truly by the limitations they placed on themselves. Bob is merely used to incarnate the frights and limitations and ignorance that the Pleasantville society possesses. The film maker is seeking to convey through these state of affairss and allusions that those who resist alteration are irrational and are ruled by their ain ignorance.
The schoolroom scene when the pupils are larning about the geographics of Pleasantville encapsulates the nature of the whole Pleasantville society. The pupils are used to larning the same thing everyday ( since they already know the replies to the inquiries ) . The mise en scene of the students’ places is incongruous. They are high school pupils but have their dorsums straight and acting as if they are in kindergarten. They seem really comfy. though. but when Jennifer confronts the instructor with the inquiry “What’s outside of Pleasantville? ” they are shocked.
A panning shooting from the point of position of Jennifer shows the reaction of the category. and the silence adds to the tenseness. After the instructor assures the pupils that there is nil outside of Pleasantville. and that the roads begin where they end. a suspiration of alleviation ripplings uniformly throughout the category. This reaction illustrates how fearful the pupils are of alteration and oppugning the norm. since it is unknown and unfamiliar. The fact that the pupils have no appetency for cognition is related to their rawness of alteration. Thus. Ross is effectually showing that alteration and cognition go manus in manus.
Subsequently. in the Milk Bar. when everyone is oppugning David about the fire. the same pupils show a thirst for cognition. The manner they keep pressing David to state them about topographic points outside Pleasantville is contrasted to the schoolroom scene. Again. the technique of silence is employed. but this clip in a freer ambiance with wonder alternatively of fright and with non-diegetic music which depicts a ‘cheeky’ temper. It depicts the manner David is about to interrupt the regulations by leting people to cognize information that he thinks they shouldn’t because it will “throw their whole existence out of whack. ” In this manner. Ross illustrates to the audience that alteration is about development instead than the consequences produced ( whether positive or negative ) .
The schoolroom scene creates an interesting contrast to the schoolroom scene in ‘the existent world’ . At school. pupils are assured their hereafters are crystal clear: both predictable and fantastic. In the existent universe. David and Jennifer were being invariably reminded of the negative things in the hereafter by the instructors: “Employment will travel down thirty per centum in the following five years…Greenhouse emissions…” This gave a really black mentality of the hereafter. and the zooming and coincident film editing of shootings of different schoolrooms added to the feeling of impending day of reckoning.
In Pleasantville nevertheless. everyone’s hereafters are predictably fantastic. The characters. without holding developed an apprehension of alteration. are at a loss when they find themselves feeling emotions and believing for themselves. For case. when Mr Johnson’s graphicss are exposed. people become angered and scared and accordingly force occurs. This symbolises how these unchanged and undeveloped people don’t cognize what to make when fortunes change. Ross is seeking to demo the audience that it is of import to develop and understand alteration. because it will assist in the handling of future jobs.
The rain scene is the scene where. after the outgrowth of the storm. it all of a sudden starts raining and really of import events are taking topographic point. One of these events involve the clip when David and Margaret are snoging at Lover’s Lane. When rain all of a sudden starts pouring. David placates everyone’s frights by traveling out into the rain and holds his weaponries up to the sky. as if encompassing the conditions. The scene is a cinematic court to the movie Shawshank Redemption. picturing the portion after Andy Dufresne has escaped from the prison and is now a free adult male. It is decidedly a turning point in the movie Pleasantville and is seen as a disclosure. The allusion is symbolic because. merely like Andy Dufresne. the childs at Lover’s Lane have escaped the Grey walls that one time held their ideas and are now free to believe and experience emotions. The following forenoon they all wake up coloured ( except for David ) . Ross here is proposing that alteration sets people free. and opposition to alter is opposition to thought and passion.
This averment is further developed near the terminal of the film in the courtroom scene. Gary Ross assumes the voice of David to talk to the audience. Here. the technique of monologue/speech is smartly used: “It’s all inside you…And you can’t halt something that’s inside of you! ” Ross is stating that these people restricted themselves from believing and feeling emotions but they have ever had the possible to be different. experience passionately and believe independently. He straight states that alteration comes from within ; Jennifer and David were simply triping the alterations to go on.
Ross besides implies that alteration is different for everyone. The wake of the storm shows David is still in monochrome. The shooting of his contemplation in the lake up to him contrasts to the coloured environment. The contemplation is symbolic in that it shows David’s soundless despair while seeking deep within himself to happen a alteration. Jennifer experiences a similar job. The duologue between her and David is of import. “I’ve had like 10 times every bit much sex as these misss and I’m still [ in black and white ] . ” David’s answer is that possibly it is non about sex. The audience subsequently finds that Jennifer eventually changes coloring material when she starts reading books and puts on her spectacless. The symbolism of the spectacless is that her perceptual experience of the universe alterations and hence she changes.
A panning shooting around her room shows the new coloring material. and eventually a exposure of her alter self-importance. Mary-Sue. is in coloring material. significance she has changed. David’s physical and single transmutation is completed when he eventually starts standing up for what’s right and takes actions against what’s incorrect. When he punched Whitey. he took action to contend for Betty. and the audience witnessed the first bead of blood in the whole movie. demoing David’s ferocious passion. Soft music picturing a ‘revelation’ accompanies this shooting. showing that he has found what he was seeking: alteration in himself. The over-the-shoulder shooting of his dorsum and the mirror is evocative of the lake scene and symbolic: non merely has he found himself ; but he has left his other ego behind him. Ross here asserts that people change for different grounds and that alteration necessarily affects everyone so they can hold a better apprehension of themselves and the universe around them.
In decision. the film maker Gary Ross conveys his attitude towards change through David and Jennifer and the consequence of their presence on the town. He stresses that alteration is indispensable to understanding the universe. but most of all. apprehension and accepting ourselves. Ross uses assorted allusions to demo the control the citizens of Pleasantville were one time under. and so to demo that they have broken free. and that in the terminal. everyone is necessarily affected by alteration. He employs sarcasm to oblige the audience to hold a negative position of those who are immune to alter. and to take a liking to the characters who embrace alteration. Ross asserts that everyone must alter in order to populate their lives to the fullest extent.
“Pleasantville” ( 1998 ) directed by Gary Ross
