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Movie Title: Pleasantville

In Pleasantville, it starts off in a typical 90's school environment. Two main characters, David and Jennifer (Toby Maguire, Reese Witherspoon), are struggling with both of their social problems. David is finding himself in the bottom pack of all th geeks, seeing it fruitless to even attempt to get a girl, while Jennifer is at her best effort to seem cool around her friends, and more importantly, the cool guys. It all changes when on a stormy night, both need the TV, and end up arguing over the remote. It collides with the wall, rendering it useless, and a mysterious TV repairman ends up arriving suspiciously at their house with a replacement almost minutes later. After a brief talk, the repairman discovers that David is virtually all knowing of the trivia of the famous TV show "Pleasantville." As we see later in the movie, the TV repairman notices a chance to send a knowledgable person into the actual world of Pleasantville. Instead of giving him the normal replacement for the remote, he gives them a strange metallic remote, capable of shooting them into the world of the TV. Once the TV man leaves, the past arguement came back around to the children's notice, and they immediately begin fighting again. In the process of fighting, one of them presses a red button on the remote, zapping them into Pleasantville. They discover their new identities of Bud Parker and Mary Sue. As they progress through the mythical world of the 50's, they happen upon the discovery that everything is pleasant. Everything is black and white, and all events and statuses are according to the stereotypical 50's family household, for example, the man of the household coming home and saying "Honey, I'm home!" an dthe woman greeting him and having dinner ready. As time progresses, the teenagers bring upon the perfect town futuristic ways of thinking and acting,s uch as having sex at Lover's Lane, or wondering what's outside of Pleasantville. Things begin to turn loose from pleasant to normal, as some of the greatest aspects of the Cold War are conspicuously brought upon the attention of the subconcscious of the viewer.

From being a dramatic movie, this film teaches many things about our American history in more or less of a conspicuous way. One of the biggest history hints in the movie is just from seeing the commercials for Pleasantville: everything is the perfect stereotypical life style of the 80's. It shows that, during the era that the shows created about the 50's, people viewed the 50's as Happy Days (what we as a class discussed recently). It more or less points out at how ridiculous it looks now and how inept the people of that era were about the knowledge of what was really going on in the 50's. Also, a big point about the Cold War (or at least about the era) that was pointed out at the beginning and then emphasized towards the end was the Civil Rights movement. People were beginning to turn to color from black and white. What that was showing was the people losing their innocence from living under the "utopia" and believing only what the society wanted them to believe to becoming curious and turning into normal people with normal qualities. But, with that came the oppertunity to take that and tie it into the plot of segragating "colords" from the rest of the society. There is also a brief moment of extreme women's rights reference and then a subtle vision of it throughout the rest of the movie. In the scene in the bowling alley, the men are saying that the women are supposed to stay home and do all the work and care for the house and the husband while the man gets all the liberties and goes to work and actually gets to relax for a short amount of time. One of the men says something to the effect of: "What if the women start working" and another man says something along the lines of "That's ridiculous, that's not their place, it's impossible." This goes to show how needed the women's right's movement was needed, otherwise we might live in a society where women are forced to take care of everything 24/7.

This movie was mind-blowing. I wouldn't say that it's in my top 5 movies, but it was definately worth watching. I had seen the movie before, but a lot of parst were new to me, seeing as I had seen it when I was 5. It was really interesting to watch it again with background information necessary and to tie the ropes together. Some of the ideas that came up in the movie (such as the reference to Civil Rgihts) I had seen coming since the beginning of the movie, but it still amazed me how they were able the com eup with an idea like that. It was almost done by a genius. Also, there could be some ropes and such tied between this and To Kill A Mockingbird. There was a lot about losing innocence, a.k.a. losing the mockingbird status. Many of the same ideas were being passed aorund between those. It was really interesting to see how much the future could influence such an innocent little society. In one of the scenes, Jennifer has to share with her "mother" what sex is, and it's very interesting because she has no clue what it is. It's an extremely ingenius way of wrapping up the thoughts, beliefs, and happenings about and of the 50's in a TV show format, and still showing what it would be like to be inside a TV show. Masterfully done, it was well worth it.

Movie: Forrest Gump

In the movie Forrest Gump, a mentally challenged man goes to explain his life to total strangers who accompany him at the bus stop. During these talk sessions, he tells them stories about his earlier years and how he did extraordinary things, such as meeting Elivs, getting a scholarship at a college for football, being drafted for Vietnam, playing ping-pong in China, meeting three presidents, speaking at the Lincoln Memorial, running across the entire nation, and even running a very successful shrimp business. Throughout all of this, his mind set is on reuniting with his one and only friend as a child, Jenny, who ends up popping up here and there, and then reunites with him at the end of the movie.

This movie generates many of the tensions that were running nationally and internationally in the time period that this took place. In the Black Panther scene, you see Forrest apologizing to the Black Panther members, and confusing them for showing them respect. You see much pro- and anti-war tension in the scene in front of the lincoln Memorial where Forrest gives his speech. You have tension with opposing countries as a result of the Cold War, such as China, seen when Forrest goes to China to play ping-pong, and is in fact one of the first baby steps to reuniting ties that were frayed from the wars. On a minor topic, we even see tension against those who are simple minded, seen when the boys are chasing Forrest around in the beginning scenes of the movie. All of this tension shows so much of what the time period was like, what it was like to live in it, and how it all began, proceeded, and kept going until its ultimate decline.

Wow. What can I say. A great a plot line is molded into the entangling roots of our history almost too masterfully. Lessons are being handed out while viewers sit on the edges of their chairs, waiting to see what's next. This movie is the perfect representaion of a dramatic teaching. The plot that got me the most was that Forrest, throughout the whole thing, was almost lucky to be simple minded. Even though it brought umbrage upon him, his vision was not clouded by political or social pressure or advertisements. He was able to live his life and see everything from the viewpoint of an innocent child. It's so mind blowing that if everyone was able to look past differences and discard social pressure how much greater this world would be. I would definately give this movie a good four and a half stars. Excellent work. Keep it going, Tom!!!!