In the last two weeks I have watched two very different movies and two very different directors Pleasantville and Pulp Fiction.

Both movies have messages of human nature, love, ugliness, humor one is just more in your face with the ugliness than the other. Pleasantville 1998 was filmed on a $40 million-dollar budget but grossed world wide only $49 million dollars. Pulp Fiction on the other hand being an Indy film was filmed on a $8 million-dollar budget and grossed over $200 million worldwide. Pulp Fiction although humorous was violent and very vulgar, does this resonate more with our society currently?

“pleasant” doesn’t always equal “good,”

Last week I watched Pleasantville a mainstream story. This movie was written and directed in 1998 by Gary Ross. Gary Ross is an American writer, director and actor from Los Angeles. Pleasantville filmed in technicolor on a $40 million-dollar budget and features an estimated 1,700 effects to make Pleasantville and its characters come alive with color in comparison most blockbusters use from 300 to 400 digital visual effects.

The story is about a teenager named David played by Toby Maguire, who escapes reality in a rerun from the 1950’s called Pleasantville where everything is always pleasant. The story starts off in the 90’s with David and his over sexualized teen sister played by Reese Witherspoon and their mom who argues with her ex husband leaving David longing for a simpler life. The two break the tv and are soon transported to the black and white world of Pleasantville with help from a tv repair man played by Don Knotts. Pleasantville is soon changed from repetitive, rainless, fireless, safe, ordinary, happy, colorless world to a world with fire, feelings and color. The people of Pleasantville are challenged for the first time in their lives and just don’t know how to handle it.

This movie does tell a story of how our world accepts change. The characters Turing from black and white to color are not accepted right away and are rushed to the doctor to see if there is a cure.  Critics loved this movie calling it one of the year’s most original movies.

Garry Ross talks about the movie,

“You can drain the life and nuances and complexity out of things by homogenizing them to make everything harmoniously dull, flat, conflict-free, strife-free,” says Ross,

“The tougher thing is to give yourself that kick to be alive and to be fully engaged and stay alive,” Ross says. “I guess if the movie has a message, it’s that it’s worth that price, as difficult or strife-ridden as it may be.”

Pulp Fiction was written, directed and filmed in 1994 by Auteur Quinten Tarantino. This movie was an un-conventual Indy low budget film that that ended up grossing over $200 million dollars with the mainstream audience. This movie had violence, bad language, overdose and a sex slave in it with great actors and a dark humor. The story has many small plots to it but is about two hit man who work for a mob boss named Marcelles Wallace, his wife Mia and a boxer who kills his opponent in the ring. All these characters stories are linked to Wallace.

The story starts with Butch a prize fighter paid by Wallace to throw the fight instead he ends up killing his opponent and running for his life eventually ending up side by side to Wallace captured and intended to be used as sex slaves. Butch escapes and ends up killing their captors and saving Wallace. Another side plot is Vincent Vega (John Travolta) who works for Wallace as a hit man is told to take out Mia (Uma Thurman) and show her a nice night on the town. The two go out dancing and she ends up overdosing and Vincent in fear of his life of Wallace had to revive her with a shot in the heart. This movie received mixed reviews but was well cast and written.

Ebert loved it in his review from 1994 he say’s Quentin Tarantino is the Jerry Lee Lewis of cinema, a pounding performer who doesn’t care if he tears up the piano, as long as everybody is rocking. He also talks about the script If the situations are inventive and original, so is the dialogue. A lot of movies these days use flat, functional speech: The characters say only enough to advance the plot. But the people in “Pulp Fiction” are in love with words for their own sake. He gives this movie 4 stars.

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pulp-fiction-1994

The newstatesman.com and is done in 2014 about Pulp Fiction. Unlike the previous reviews he dislikes the film. He talks about how it’s about nothing and leaves you with nothing. He also says the biggest issue about Pulp Fiction is its racism and homophobia. He claims the racism and homophobia gets laughed off with a joke or pop culture reference. He also say’s Pulp Fiction is a victim of being a bad film.

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/10/twenty-years-it-s-time-admit-pulp-fiction-bad-film

http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9810/23/pleasantville.review/

https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1785&context=jrf