Relating The Pleasantville to the world today

Have you ever wondered what is it like living in a world where everything seems to be perfect? Dinner is on the table by 6'oclock in the evening, the temperature is always lukewarm, no rain, no snow, no sex, nobody gets sick, nobody gets hurt and nobody experience any problem. Well obviously who doesn't want? There's this film, "The Pleasantville" which has this story.

The main characters of the movie are the siblings David and Jenniffer in a 90's family living in a suburban home with divorced parents that seems to have no time for them. Toby is an introvert kid who spends most of his time alone, watching the black and white sitcom "The Pleasantville" every 6:30 in the evening. While his sister, Reese is an extrovert and really has a good social life and one of the cool kids in school.

One evening, they are fighting for the remote control and accidentally break it and the television can not turn on manually. Then a strange man knocked on their door who introduced himself as a TV repairman and quizzes Toby about the sitcom and eventually gave him a new high-tech remote control. When he leaves, the siblings continued fighting over the remote control and magically transported into the sitcom "The Pleasantville". A place where everything seems to be perfect and happy.

The black and white concept brought up the interest in me to watch the movie cause it's like I am going back in time and it was a really neat and fantastic idea. Maybe because I'm a type of person who has an interest with the old things such as film cameras, 80's-90's fashions and etc. I actually do not want to be in the trend. Going back, the great black and white concept makes the movie apart from the others. As the movie goes on, the colors start appearing gradually. I actually didn't get what's the reason for the colors to appear, but at some point and maybe, the color appears every time they get emotional.

The first appearance of color is a red rose seen by the captain of the basketball team after having/discovering sex with Jenniffer at the lover's lane. Eventually, the lover's lane has been filled with colors.

Jenniffer decides to introduce the teens of the town pre-marital sex, where it is shown when she is with the captain ball of the basketball team in the car at the lover's lane and we then see her shirt unbutton exposing a little bit of her 1950's bra. What's awkward and a bit funny about this movie is when Jenniffer explains to her mom what sex is and share information about masturbation and how she can find satisfaction for herself. The next scene shows her mom in the bathtub and she initiates this sinful act, and her facial expression tells us what she is doing. Lol. Nudity got also showed when Mr. Johnson, the diner owner painted a nude photo of Betty on the shop window.

There is a gap that is happening between the two sibling and their world just like what is happening today. The kids are moving faster especially in technology, as well as in daily life, than the parents. Children today, are capable using complicated gadgets and this phenomenon of higher knowledge children as compared to adults has never happened as much as now.

In short, Generation Gap is nothing but the stand of adults to adapt/change--They forget that the only constant thing in life is change. 

As David and Jennifer change the town, some residents of Pleasantville became threatened. "No colored allowed" posted in the windows and implemented new rules. Racism became the central issue in this part of the movie. People don't want to accept the fact that colors are gradually covering their black and white world. They already set in their minds that colors are ugly, dull and unpleasant. Just like when Betty became colored, she puts black and white make-ups to cover her colored body cause she thinks that people will stare and tease her. Well that's what actually people did. 

Some people cannot stop the changes that are going on in this world. We guys have to deal with it. Relating the movie to the world today, many strong typhoons, drought, and devastation happening out of time and all the blame should be with the people. We, as the most wonderful creation of God, have the task to take care of our Mother Nature and not to destroy and distort it. Even the smallest things like not throwing small pieces of trash can create a big impact in preserving its beauty. 

The climax of the movie happened in a courtroom wherein the mayor and the colorless constituents (including the father of David and Jennifer, who sits in a special chair) against the colored people who are segregated in the balcony. David and the Diner owner are the defendant. While the argument is happening between the two parties, everything turned into colored. Eventually, people in Pleasantville accept and learned to appreciate the beauty of color. 

Overall, the movie "The Pleasantville" is a kind of parable that encourages us to learn something from the past and take a look for tomorrow's fresh new start. Yes, we do get problems but problems are just problems and they all have solutions.