Pleasantville

Every time I see that movie the same feeling comes over me. It’s the same feeling that’s stated in the clip we saw in class, “Where will I ever see colors like that?”

If you haven’t seen the movie, which you should, SPOILER ALERT, the movie is basically about the exit from the Garden of Eden. Not in a literal sense, I don’t think it was ever meant to be taken literally, but in a more abstract way. The question it asks of us is did we ever want Eden to begin with? If pushing away from the concept of paradise wasn’t what was meant all along.

So David and his Sister Jennifer are presented with paradise. David likes it but Jennifer can’t stand it so she begins changing things. At first this upsets David who thinks that things should stay the way they are, but he eventually finds that the beauty of what is created by their involvement is just too much to turn away from. (This is represented by the colors that begin breaking into the movie.) The general concept is that as the various characters experience something new, exciting, and pleasurable they get their colors.

There is one specific scene that speaks to me and sums up what I feel. It’s right after the scene that was shown in class. Everyone stays the night out by that colorful lake. When they wake up they find David sitting by the lake remorsefully looking down at his reflection. Everyone and everything is in color except for him. To this point he has been able to help so many other people find their colors, but he hasn’t been able to help himself. I relate to that. Not to say I haven’t lived my life and felt that kind of explosion of color and experience. I think if you revisited that universe you’d find that those colors are not permanent, that over time if you allowed yourself to fall back into an idealistic routine you’d fade back to gray.