Pleasantville

Oh my, well where to begin.

I know that the whole movie seemed as if it should be a part of Marlings book, but I am trying to include the other readings as well. The movie was a wonderful media visualization after reading Marling though.

The first thing that jumped out at me was nostalgia of the whole beginning of the movie through Toby's characters eyes. This lead me to Jean Baudrillard's article and his discuss on simulation. The idea of Pleasantville being a simulation is similar to how he describes Disneyland as a simulation. Disneyland was the 'reality' that American's wanted. They wanted to believe a place like that existed. Toby's character, wanted to believe that a Pleasantville existed, he needed that escape from reality. When they first become a part of Pleasantville, he is so apt to conforming to their life because that is what he always thought he wanted, however, as the movie progresses he realizes that it was a simulation and reality must change the way Pleasantville looks. Poster's article on virtual realities also seemed to fit in wonderfully here at this moment when Bud, wanted this idea of Pleasantville to be a true reality.

In the movie, Betty Sue, makes reference to the amount of undergarment she is wearing, which brought me straight to Leslie Shannon Miller's article on the corset. The confinement of women through undergarments is seen in the amount of them worn by the character to preserve her wholesomeness.

Werbel's essay on the Foley Food Mill, also got me thinking about the mother's role in the movie at the beginning. The scene that stood out to me the most about the mother as the nurturer, was their first morning in Pleasantville and the amount of food that was on the breakfast table. Even though her children were almost grown and their were only four of them in the house, the mother made enough food to serve an all you can eat buffet and still have left overs. This connected nicely with the idea of Werbel's essay as women as the central nurturer for the family.

Towards the end of the movie, roads lead to places outside Pleasantville. This made me think of our last big week of readings and globalization. They are globalizing in their own way, including parts of the world that were not originally a part of the town. Appaduri's work, seemed to relate to this. With his example of the Fillipino's living our past as their present. Pleasantville seemed to be living our past as their present once they joined the road toward globalization.