CLASS PLAN

VIEW PLEASANTVILLE (New Line Platinum Series) (1998) Director: Gary Ross

DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING:

HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
• color-divided scenes (in the racist sense of the word 'color', referring to non-whites) (To Kill a Mockingbird) which examines the conformist racial divisions in a small Alabama town in the 1930s.
courtroom scene - colored people are forced into the top courtroom balcony, non-colored are permitted seating on the main floor echoes To Kill a Mockingbird.
• Mr. Johnson - turned artist (nude painting of mother) - at odds with the powers that be - Renaissance in Florence, Italy near the end of the 15th Century – awareness and new art styles - intellectual and ideological change
• Big Bob (town mayor) – town is threatened by Mr. Johnson + others with his views - downfall of proper social behavior. Majority follow Big Bob - to banish and destroy any non-conformist symbols

RESULT:
piles of books are burned - Nazi Germany in the 1930's (e.g. burning of "undesirable" books) - "Fahrenheit 451"
anyone who is “colored” is harassed in the streets

BIBLICAL REFERENCES
David and Jennifer represent Adam and Eve
Garden of Eden (Pleasantville)
Godlike character - the TV repairman
black and white David offered a red apple by his colorized girlfriend at Lover's Lane.
David's sacrifice of a perfect world so the townspeople can have more freedom
first image of the book "The World of Art" – Expelled from Eden, second image of Martin Luther - other images by artists whose work was shicking and new at the time.

• DISCUSS: other times of social change threatening the norm:
Christianity
American Revolution – 1700’s
Civil War – 1860’s
Women’s Suffrage movement – 1900 or so
Civil Rights Movement – 1950’s – 1960’s
“Sexual Revolution” – birth control pill 1960
Women’s Rights
Gay Rights
Evolution vs. Creationism vs. Intelligent Design

QUESTION:
1. Is each social change just an attempt to create a more utopian existence?
2. Is “utopia” a concept that changes over time?
3. Therefore, can a utopia be maintained?