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Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780780623705
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 0780623703
Label: New Line Home Video
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: New Line Home Video
Release Date: August 31, 1999
Running Time: 124 minutes
Sales Rank: 18890
Studio: New Line Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: October 23, 1998
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Fantastical writer Gary Ross (Big, Dave) makes an auspicious directorial debut with this inspired and oddly touching comedy about two '90s kids (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) thrust into the black-and-white TV world of Pleasantville, a Leave It to Beaver-style sitcom complete with picket fences, corner malt shop, and warm chocolate chip cookies. When a somewhat unusual remote control (provided by repairman Don Knotts) transports them from the jaded real world to G-rated TV land, Maguire and Witherspoon are forced to play along as Bud and Mary Sue, the obedient children of George and Betty Parker (William H. Macy and Joan Allen). Maguire, an obsessive Pleasantville devotee, understands the need for not toppling the natural balance of things; Witherspoon, on the other hand, starts shaking the town up, most notably when she takes basketball stud Skip (Paul Walker) up to Lover's Lane for some modern-day fun and games. Soon enough, Pleasantville's teens are discovering sex along with--gasp!--rock & roll, free thinking, and soul-changing Technicolor. Filled with delightful and shrewd details about sitcom life (no toilets, no double beds, only two streets in the town), Pleasantville is a joy to watch, not only for its comedy but for the groundbreaking visual effects and astonishing production design as the town gradually transforms from crisp black and white to glorious color. Ross does tip his hand a bit about halfway through the film, obscuring the movie's basic message of the unpredictability of life with overloaded and obvious symbolism, as the black-and-white denizens of the town gang up on the 'coloreds' and impose rules of conduct to keep their strait-laced town laced up. Still, the characterizations from the phenomenal cast--especially repressed housewife Allen and soda-shop owner Jeff Daniels, doing some of their best work ever--will keep you emotionally invested in the film's outcome, and waiting to see Pleasantville in all its final Technicolor glory. --Mark Englehart
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - LOTS OF FUNNY GAGS THROUGHOUT THE FILM
If you like light comedy with a silly plot, this is one to buy. If, like me, you remember the 1950s, then you will laugh-out-loud through this movie. Just seeing the set brings back fond memories. The silly gags about the safer, innocent, quieter, sheltered, family value days of yesteryear are an absolute joy. You know, like Father Knows Best, Ozzie and Harriett, and Lucy.
Don Knotts, a TV repair man, is funny again, and brings back memories of his Mayberry run. The intentional switches ... Read More
Rating: - Loved it
I know it's kinda leftist and preachy, but I loved it and it touched something inside me. So I'm a bleeding-heart liberal...whatever. But the movie does make some great points about the stiff and unrealistic crap the 50's tried to paint everyone into. (80's kid here...but I've seen plenty of 50's TV and I know my history) I love the idea of this film and how...just as in the real world...as color TV came to be...so did a more open minded world. I've read some negative reviews and most just complain ... Read More
Rating: - Filmic Metaphor: Seeing Ourselves In Our Movies
Pleasantville is more than just a small-town piece of Americana trapped in a time warp that is fixated on the conservatively clean-cut 1950's, it is a small fictional town that finds itself struggling with social issues that are all too real and timeless for those who continue to struggle with their divisive influences. Racism, bigotry, artistic and intellectual censorship, conformity without question or debate, non-conformity with purpose and hope, and the struggle for individuality are all beautifully ... Read More
Rating: - Pleasantville
Greast film - a modern-day Morality Play (read Genesis first to fully appreciate it). Also beautiful cinematic techniques.
Rating:  - A splash of color.
Pleasantville starring Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon is a good comedy/drama but I was expecting so much more. The two leads are so talented and Joan Allen and Jeff Daniels bring realism to their roles. The problem I have with this film is the slow pace, it feels too long and dragged out and the black and white is kind of distracting when color is introduced halfway into the film. Interesting flick but poorly excuated.
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