Pleasantville - DVD Review

MOVIE
VIDEO
AUDIO
EXTRAS
OVERALL

One Disc
Anamorphic 1.85:1 Widescreen
English Dolby Digital 5.1
English Dolby Digital 2.0
English Subtitles
Second Theatrical Trailer
Running Audio Commentary
Isolated Score with Commentary
Run Time
Featurette
Fiona Apple Music Video
Snap Type

MOVIE
Rated PG-13 for sexuality

I was mesmerized from the very first trailer for Pleasantville. The trailer was attached to the early videos of Wag The Dog and, at night, closing down the big B, we would pop that video in the overhead monitors and watch it, night after night, each time taking a pause to view the trailer for Pleasantville in its entirety. Then Ted got to go see it downtown at a test screening and got to meet Gary Ross and didn't bring James and me. How awful was that. Then he proceeded to tell us how wonderful Pleasantville was when it was still a month away. Another month before we could experience it for ourselves. That month passed, though (as months often do) and I did get to see it for myself. Again and again and again. Pleasantville was sneaky. It was like Big and Dave (Ross' previous works) where it sneaks up on you. You're sitting there, having fun, thinking "This is a delightful romp!" when POW! you realize that you're smack dab in the middle of a social satire with overt messages and tones and all that other stuff and you realize that you get it, the point they're making, and you agree, it is like that.
Pleasantville is about the acquisition of knowledge.
Okay, so that's not really my paragraph describing the movie. But that IS really what it's about. David (Tobey Maguire) is a huge fan of Pleasantville, an amalgamation between Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best and The Donna Reed Show. On the night of a Pleasantville marathon, and David's sister Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon)'s big date, the two fight, destroying their remote control. Luckily a TV Repairman (Don Knotts) shows up, uninvited and gives them a new remote after learning of David's affinity for Pleasantville. The two siblings fight over the new remote, accidentally pressing a button and are sucked into the TV, replacing Bud and Mary Sue Parker, the two teenagers on the Pleasantville sitcom. Something you've heard before maybe? Hey, you're talking to someone who's seen both Stay Tuned and Hi Honey, I'm Home. What sets Pleasantville apart is, inside this black and white series, a specific world is established. A world where every basketball thrown goes in without a hint of rim, where there are no fires so firemen only rescue cats, where teenagers are "even holding hands already, but there's plenty of time for that later." Like a paradox, seemingly their very presence in Pleasantville begins a change, but Jennifer's overt sexuality introduces color into this otherwise black and white world. And that's all I'll say. Except I have to mention Joan Allen's stellar performance as Betty Parker, a woman who's just waking up to the real ways of the world, just realizing her potential, something she never knew she had before. Also great are William H. Macy (big surprise there), Jeff Daniels (the moment he realizes he can close up the soda shop himself is heartbreaking because we see that he's never been able to do that before, he too is awakened to limitless potential), and J.T. Walsh in his final role, is like an animal backed into a corner, lashing out at anything and everything that frightens it.
I've had quite a few arguments about the trailer for this film, as with the trailer for The Truman Show. People question why, in the trailer, they needed to show the things turning colors. Well, I'd argue that without the color, this is just a big budget film version of the Nickelodeon sitcom Hi Honey, I'm Home. And no one, I repeat NO ONE would go to see that. So in trailers, they DO have to give the hook. What Pleasantville is at its best is an allegory. The black and white world is a sort of Eden with its inhabitants pleasantly oblivious to what's going on around them; going about their daily lives as, well, as a sitcom. When knowledge is introduced, first as sex via Jennifer, the fragile bubble surrounding this world (at the beginning there's nothing outside of Pleasantville) gets a puncture in it, a rose turns red, real red. The film makes an important argument, knowledge can bring pain and anger and violence and it does all these things, but it also is worth having. When violence is introduced into a world that never had violence before, it changes things drastically, but also brings a new understanding with it. Pleasantville and The Truman Show were released the same year, Truman in June, Pleasantville in October and oddly, they were looked at as two sides of the same coin, like the Armageddon/Deep Impact movies or Dante's Peak and Volcano. They couldn't be further apart. Both revolve around people in a TV show, but there's where the similarity stops. They are both brilliant satires, however, and thus are two of my favorite films of all time. Pleasantville jammed a wedge into my enthusiasm for the Academy Award presentations. The film had more F/X shots than any other movie that year, but was still left off the ballot for a best special effects nomination, one it clearly deserved. (Among the others it clearly deserved, but really...)

VIDEO QUALITY
Pleasantville was the first DVD I watched at home on my new player. What a perfect start off DVD. People often talk about the impressiveness of color on DVD, but what really impresses me is black and white. The blacks are full black, the color of the TV set off, which just can't be reproduced by VHS. Pleasantville with its wonderful black and whites that then go to vibrant color is my favorite reference quality DVD. This is the one I show to people to represent video quality on a DVD. At times the colors may seem over saturated, but I don't think they truly are, I think it comes from watching the black and white for a half hour so when color comes it looks even more vibrant. The film is presented in its original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 Anamorphic widescreen.

AUDIO QUALITY
The audio, specifically during the scenes with score, is quite moving, with the score enveloping the room in those beautiful sounds. The dialogue is perfectly centered, clear, and crisp. Surprising for the film though is the occasional and effective use of the surrounds such as the scenes in the gymnasium (close your eyes and tell me that the squeaks of the shoes and the bouncing of the basketballs doesn't put you right back in high school) also the sounds of the fire-truck and the angry mob in two scenes.

EXTRAS
Ahh New Line, thank God for ye. You've brought me some of my favorite DVDs (a special prayer of thanks for the Nightmare On Elm Street collection.) This New Line Platinum Edition is a little lighter on the features than some others I've seen, but the features they do put in are generally very good. First, and best, is the full-length commentary by Writer/Director Gary Ross. Ross has a passion for his work and that comes across tenfold as he talks about his inspiration, his process, experiences as a first time director, working with the cast and crew, accidentally ripping off Shawshank Redemption and about all the socio-political commentary he put in the film, most interestingly, the homages to Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda films. Insightful and engaging as many commentaries aren't.
Next up we have Randy Newman's beautiful score isolated on it's own audio track, interspersed with Newman's commentary about the scoring of the film and his process. I would've preferred to be able to turn his commentary off because, as with some of my other isolated score DVDs, I like to put it in and just listen to the music sometimes. The roughly half hour featurette The Art Of Pleasantville is engaging and interesting as they talk about the special effects processes to do the black and white to color scenes, especially Joan Allen's make-up, but as we get to the artist who did the mural paintings, and we watch him wander around his studio for a handful of minutes, looking for his comfortable chair, we wonder where the editor was. Also on hand is your basic DVD-ROM content, links to the website, trivia, cast and crew info, etc. A nice feature with stills from the film to allow you to adjust your television color accordingly is included at the beginning of the film. A storyboard gallery is included and the Fiona Apple music video of Across The Universe shot in the soda shop during a riot. (Interestingly, this music video is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson of Boogie Nights fame)

CLOSING THOUGHTS
Pleasantville is tremendous and, were it released today, it would likely get a two-disc release with many more features. Considering, however that it was an early release, its extras package goes quite nicely and a long way. This is something everyone should have in their collection if for no other reason than the reference quality image. But if that's the only reason you're buying, I think you need to sit down and take a harder look at the film itself. Pleasantville has moments that are truly mind-blowing.