“Pleasantville” a film that goes deep into the reality of change, directed by Gary Ross. When I chose this movie I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It seemed like an interesting film that reminded me of the Twilight Zone. However “Pleasantville” is a bit different, it captured my attention and opened my eyes. Change in this modern era is normal, back then change seemed to be like a plague and everyone wanted to run from it. Robert Porter wrote a scholarly abstract discussing “cinema as political critique.”, Porter goes on to discuss the political messages portrayed through film. Porter mentions how Pleasantville “…ethically implies a certain conception of freedom.”, I couldn’t agree more. A certain freedom to feel and be ourselves. A freedom to feel and see who we are individually. A freedom to look at a painting and see what we want to see.  

In the film change was so unheard of and feared it required a doctors visit to, the doctors visit is just the start of the fears of the people of Pleasantville. Paul Walker a beloved actor playing Skip Martin was the first to witness the change and he was excited. The film is also artistically experimental because it is something new, the theme and the filming technology were unheard of at the time of its release. The film cost 40 million USD to make and brought in 8.9 million its opening weekend. This amazing film integrates many political issues whilst still remaining entertaining to all of its viewers. I believe the filmmakers were so real and right about the messages being portrayed that everyone loved it no matter what. Watching this film ignites an old flame that people tend to forget they had. The use of selective color enhances the message beyond words. The film is showing the change in more ways then one. A writer wrote a review on the film discussing how she believed the film was referring to colored people and she sounded offended. I will argue this offense considering the movie was completely for change not against it. The film shows everything we have gone through and survived to make this mixed culture. Roger Ebert saw this and he embraced it, he was excited by it. As you read his review you could see the excited smile on his face and hear his tone of voice as he was amazed.

A movie can be pure entertainment, a strong message or both and Pleasantville is both. I am absolutely astonished by the way Gary Ross conveys this message, not only did he see what he made he did it in a way that the world would see as well. The passion in this movie is so real it made my heart race and eyes water in a way I could relate.

What is said in this movie is how I feel, “maybe I can’t even describe it.” This movie shows that we are all human and so far a description of emotions is some we label with happy or sad or angry yet even these words don’t express to someone what we really mean. Gary Ross shows it. Before the court scene love and hate, happy and sad were undesirable emotions, non existent capabilities. They lived in a monotone world, hence the black and white, as more emotions arose more colors emerged. The film for a little while was unpredictable until you caught on to how the colors appeared and then all of sudden things made sense. What I couldn’t predict was the message, and still now I feel there are so many messages being portrayed its hard to talk about one. If I had to choose it would be our comfort zone. As soon as a character stepped outside of their comfort zone colors appeared either in front of them or on them.

Pleasantville is a change for the better however James Cameron’s Avatar is a movie that shows how negative change can be. Both movies trigger emotions people rarely show or feel. They hit us deep down to the core, they awaken us to reality. Although these films are created with beautiful colors and mythical characters they both relate to problems of today. Pleasantville is a film that shows a perfect world where people never get mad or use the restroom turn around to a real world and Avatar is a film that shows what humans do to make money. As a young kid watching Avatar I just though it was a cool movie portraying beautiful characters and colors. Re-watching it now opened my eyes to the real message that relates to today, the amazon was burning down and rumored to have been started by large corporations so they could desecrate the land and use it to make money. In Avatar the people from earth invade Pandora, a planet that has resources we need because humans destroyed their own home, the Na’vi are the natives on Pandora and the cherish their planet.

They pray for their kills and do it humanely as possible, they speak with the trees and roam with horses. On the other hand their are humans, invaders and destroyers. The Na’vi connect with their animals. Humans do the same except there are no tentacles involved.

Trees that held memories of ancestors were destroyed in an instant without understanding without a tear shed from any of the people behind the screens, others then for their cameras being destroyed.

This film is again conventional and unconventional. A normal plot setting however a completely original story, new characters, plants, animals, even a completely new language created for this film. Along with one of the most advanced CGI pictures seen at the time of its release. The movie was made for 237 million US dollars. Quite an increase compared to Pleasantville’s 40 mil. Avatar however brought in 2.78 billion dollars of profit. Yes Billion. Justin Fritz wrote a scholarly review as to the theme of Avatar. Justin Fritz gives a paragraph review that says everything it needs to considering the invasion of indigenous territories.