Being Colorful in the Pleasantville (1998)
There are so many films about the issue of racism in the United States but here is a different one: Pleasantville (1998), a Gary Ross comedy, fantasy and drama film that uses racism in a metaphorical way with the black and white display on the screen. Pleasantville (1998) uses this basic metaphor not only its screen visual design but also the idea that carries the whole story. The movie basically tells us a teenager “white and middle-class” boy David who is addicted to a 50’s sitcom television show called “Pleasantville” and how he changes his perspective (as a metaphorical meaning to the history of the United States’ racial issues) to the show with his sister Jennifer’s rebellious actions after they both accidentally sucked into the “Pleasantville”.
In the first place, we learn that “Pleasantville” is a simple place where the people and their lives are peaceful because there is no sex and violence or culture, books and desires but only calmness with the regular and boring lives of this non-colored person in there. Being colored and colorful things are not pertinent in this village. Also, we can say that being colored is represented as free and knowledgeable in the movie. We somehow understand the issue of racism after David and Jennifer’s arrival in the “Pleasantville” because they cannot assimilate themselves in there and things begin to change when Jennifer first makes love with one of the aboriginals of the place which is not an ordinary thing to make. This can be a message to a person who thinks that a white person should be with a white person as nonsense because the person who for the first time is a colored one now as a means of being a colored person is a nice but misunderstood thing for others in the place.
Moreover, it calls attention to the relationship between the different ethnic groups. Although he is reproved (because he did not follow the social construct of “Pleasantville”), others start to make the same thing like him as a metaphorical message (similar to the situations in the civil rights movement) and they become colored, too. So the representation of hidden desires and identities are marked as continuing in the movie.
After Jennifer’s rebellious action, we see another character Mr. Johnson who meets his desire with the help of David. Mr. Johnson loves to paint but there is no color for his desired paintings. When he finds out the way of colorful painting, he begins to paint the walls of the “Pleasantville” but he is also ashamed by other citizens because he did not comply with the rules of “Pleasantville”. He makes significant paintings to portray that freedom comes from knowledge and love. As he paints a nude after he makes love with his model and violence or changing to portray the colorful changing in his society, he is blamed like others who used their senses of freedom. The way he is opened new ideas reflects the idea of American melting pot as a reform.
Furthermore, there is a passing situation in the movie that, Betty, who makes love with Mr. Johnson is colored now but she hides her colored skin because she knows that people or society cannot except her because of her difference. We can understand this character demonstrates that being colored happens with opening eyes to new ideas and thoughts, or generally with the freedom to symbolize that freedom of slavery and the natives in the American history created a colorful ethnicity; American melting pot. However; on the other hand, our main woman character Jennifer does not change when she makes a turning point in the “Pleasantville”. We can say that it is because of her already cognizance about sexuality but she even finds her desire to become different or colored which is reading.
In conclusion, although we see that there is still only white characters as representatives of colored and free or the representation of sexuality by only women, we cannot deny the message’s clearness about the American history in this movie. So basically, Pleasantville (1998) demonstrates that accepting colored people as individuals was a hard thing to do because of the fear of newness. It reflects the idea that “Othering” is a social problem that needs to be eradicated by “colorful” or “free” people. The dream-like ending of the movie reminds us that the ethnicity of newness cannot totally be provided still, in the United States but the wholeness of the message is amazing with its different visual design.
