Pleasantville and the Ideology of Repression

Pleasantville (1998), Written, Produced and Directed by Gary Ross, Music by Randy Newman, Cinematography by John Lindley, Art Direction by Dianne Wager, Editing by William Goldberg. Starring Tobey Maguire, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Reese Witherspoon.

The film Pleasantville could be said to be a commentary on how some people use television programmes to escape the negative aspects of their reality. In this case, the character David, a teenage male, uses the highly idealised representation of 1950's white America of the 'Pleasantville' television show as escapism from his troubled domestic life and social failings. In a scene which features early in the film, the family which form the nucleus of 'Pleasantville's storylines are seen brightly lit on the television screen, whilst David's mother is seen, framed by a doorway in relative darkness, shouting to David's father on the telephone about his breaking of a custodial agreement.

As the film itself starts, it instantly sets up a contrast between the nostalgic representation of 1950's white America that is the tv show 'Pleasantville', and a representation of modern America. The atter is portrayed confrontationally; a dour, grungy soundtrack features beneath images of high school girls with short skirts, a close up of a girl playing with her tongue stud. There follows a transitional forward tracking shot through three locations; a lecture hall and two classrooms, where the lecturers are heard speaking of diminishing job prospects, increased chance of catching HIV, dying in an "automobile accident" and environmental worries. An ambivalence to global ills is shown by a low angle shot of a teacher cheerfully asking her class "Who can tell me what famine is?". These three opening scenes go some way to explaining why David prefers the nostalgic, problem free world of 'Pleasantville'; "Nobody's homeless in Pleasantville...'cause that's just not what it's like!"; to the real world, where his family is fractured, he is relatively unpopular at school and his own sister, Jennifer, is a self confessed slut.

The premise of the film is that David and Jennifer are transported, by means of a 'magic' remote control to the town of Pleasantville as featured in the show of the same name. They adopt the personae of Bud and Mary Sue, two of the main characters of the show. It is through the character of Jennifer, as Mary Sue, that the sexual awakening of Pleasantville begins. This awakening is seen as dangerous and threatening through the eyes of David, who fears the consequences of this loss of innocence, "you're messing with their whole goddamn universe!". The loss of sexual innocence is ultimately viewed in two ways, firstly after Jennifer seduces Chip, Mary Sue's prospective boyfriend in the show, he sees a red rose as he is driving home, red as opposed to a shade of grey. The red rose signifies the awakening of passion and romance but hints at the danger which David suggested. Secondly, as Betty, Mary Sue's mother, apparently masturbates in the bath, her bathroom begins to colourise and outside her house, a tree explodes into flames, signifying the dangers of a sexual awakening or the destructive potential of narcissistic love. The fact that these actions result in only small scale colouration of Pleasantville, along with David's comment to Jennifer that "maybe it's not just the sex", indicate that a sexual awakening is just the beginning of enlightenment, not the end.

The idea of obsessive fandom and dependence on television is treated relatively positively at the start of Pleasantville. David's sister Jennifer uses words such as geek, nerd and dork, derogatory terms, to describe her brother and the television programme he idolises, but her character is shown at first to be a predatory, dangerous threat to the status quo. David's obsession with 'Pleasantville' is shown to be a positive part of his life; he revels in displaying his knowledge of programme related trivia to people and it is seen as a tool that allows him to interact with others. By the time the film reaches its conclusion, this ideology of television being an effective substitute for things that David's life is lacking is turned on its head. Through the transformation of the characters in the town of Pleasantville, David's included, the idea of wallowing in a false idealism is shown to be undesirable when compared to the joy that can be attained by experience in 'reality'.

One of the key character transformations, that of Bill, proprietor of the town diner, is based on the ideology that creativity and high culture such as art and music, are positive and healthy aspects of humanity. Bill starts out by being dominated by routine; "I always wipe down the counter, you set out the napkins and glasses, then I make the French fries. But you didn't come so I just kept on wiping."; but as he is encouraged by David to be more independent, a concept also represented positively, he admits, albeit guiltily that he enjoyed the feeling it gave him; "I really liked it". Through this new found independence, his creative talents emerge, inspired by a book of modern art, which again is provided by David, Bill goes through a creative awakening. The idea that high culture is indicative of intellectual and creative advancement is shown by a scene, also in the diner, where previously blank books begin to fill themselves as David and Jennifer recount their knowledge of the contents. Counter to this is the fear in the more conservative contingent of Pleasantville, as represented by the town mayor and several other townspeople. One gentleman remarks "Going to the lake all the time is one thing, now they're going to the library? What's next!?", in another scene, this fear of progress is shown by a bonfire onto which books are being thrown, reminiscent of Nuremberg and the oppression of Nazi Germany. Such representation of the conservative element can be read as dominantly negative. The use of Jazz music also reinforces the idea of intellectual liberalism as positive as firstly the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Take Five, then Miles Davis' So What soundtrack the aforementioned scene of the discovery of literature and subsequently the increasing colourisation of Pleasantville.

If Pleasantville contains a dominant ideology, it is ultimately that individual or personal advancement is preferable than the repression of desires and needs for the sake of a wider social cause. The idea of repression and expression of the self in Pleasantville is similar to the play The Bacchae by Euripedes in which the greek god Dionysus, who is said to represent man's unconscious desires, arrives in the town of Thebes, only to face the oppressive Pentheus, who represents the ego, or conscious control. As a parable of this legend, Pleasantville warns that the repression of self expression and the thirst for experience and knowledge, is tantamount to the denial of humanity.