https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120789/
I haven't seen this film in over 20 years. Upon watching it today I realized that the writer / director / producer Gary Ross unintentionally created one of the most fucked up horror films of the 90s.
The real irony is that this film pushes the 'racism' message so, so hard. It is the least subtle film I've ever seen in my life so I never went back to it for 20 years.
This was two years before 'Traffic' and Hollywood was just beginning its obsession with racism as a central theme to drama pieces. Gary Ross decided he wanted to make the least subtle allegory possible to make sure even the dumbest people can understand his point, and proceeds to hammer it home nonstop for 2 hours.
To be clear Gary Ross had no intention of creating a horror film. He left a ton unexplained in his world (probably because he's a hack) which upon deeper analysis reveals a horrifying chain of events by two woke dumbass teenagers incapable of realizing what their own actions are doing to the carefully curated environment.
Now I'm going to spoil the shit out of this film so take that into consideration.
A super fast breakdown of the plot: a pair of obnoxious siblings in modern day America (nerdy stereotype who loves a terrible leave it to beaver ripoff called Pleasantville) and his slutty popular sister (it is a running joke throughout the film that she bangs everyone and also a major plot device) get teleported into the show by a magic remote by the creator of this 'world' who was so impressed by the boys knowledge of it.
Anyways the first fucked up thing that gets COMPLETELY ignored is that they take the place of the 'son and daughter' on the show. They don't just show up in addition, the REPLACE them. From this point on both of the original characters cease to exist in both worlds, they don't swap places. The originals are ripped apart, lost forever.
Even later on when the show characters learn that the two of them have to 'go back' they don't even ASK if the original ones will come back. Not a single tear shed, not a single question from either parent. Those cold fuckers just said "well guess these total strangers took the place of our kids and now we don't have them anymore...but hey we're in color now!"
The only assumption we can make is that they have zero emotional connection to their children, however both the parents form an incredibly close bond with the 'new' children that are fakes and murdered the children they loved.
This raises a much larger question: what are these things? They don't age, they only see black and white, they are so completely programmed into their daily actions that even slight adjustments cause nearly full breakdowns.
No emotions for their offspring, no questions about why they live in a tiny environment that they literally can't escape from, are they robots? NPCs? Brainwashed?
And none of that even touches the question of why questioning their world creates colored pigments that enrich their skin or random objects around them...if they 'confront their inner demons'.
For now we'll go back to the plot, because near the end something extremely odd happens. After the sister bangs her way through half the school (by her own admittance mind you) she decides sleeping around isn't fun anymore and since she won't get back into college she REFUSES TO RETURN TO THE REAL WORLD.
What the fuck? At this point Pleasantville has now 'expanded' and isn't just a tiny town anymore but who would ever do this? If her brother takes the remote she is STUCK THERE.
This isn't modern day, she sent herself back like 30 years. When her Brother returns it turns out only an hour passed in real time so that means his sister will be in there fucking CENTURIES. TRAPPED. VOLUNTARILY. He has no way to track her or contact her even if he goes back since she left the town.
This entire film is basically a story about entitled children abandoning responsibilities because things are too hard and escaping into fantasy worlds that you don't understand which only damage them. How anti-woke is that? I fucking love it.
On top of that they both just bang everything that moves despite these people not even understanding sex and being totally committed and virtuous, they introduce sin in every form. Within days they have degraded a perfectly curated society with modern sin and have people beating each other up and committing crimes just to get them to stop.
It is such a perfect example of how modern day progressive only ruin things they touch instead of learning to adapt and thrive in them. Everything must be poisoned with racial division until in the end they get what they want.
Fucking A I now love this movie. Gary Ross is the new face of far right films.
I remember liking this movie quite a bit BITD.
I recall my main issue with the plot at the time was the Jeff Daniels, the soda fountain jockey, initiating an affair with ?Tobey Maguire's mother because she's bored with William H. Macy, her hardworking, trad but square husband.
Yeah the 'Dad' gets screwed. Years of a sexless marriage and suddenly not only is she banging the local soda fountain guy but she never even gives him a chance.
Her first thought isn't "hey now that I know about sex I should tell my husband" she just runs around looking for anyone else.
All he wanted was dinner on the table when he got home from work.
It's one of those movies which is so expertly made that you don't recognize it for what it is on first viewing.
I first saw that movie as a teen, and I could tell there was something "off" about it. It was one of those "you might not notice it, but your brain did."
It's basically a cognitive version of the Danger Model based on cultural patterns. Your brain recognised that a safe and secure culture had been subverted.