“Colour helps to express light, not the physical phenomenon, but the only light that really exists, that in the artist’s brain”. Color is always very symbolic of expression and passion. In “Pleasentville” the director portrays: the allegory of the cave, Multiple biblical illusions and the search for inner-self throughout the movie.
- Allegory of the cave
- Don Knotts “puppetmaster” banishing from “sub-reality”
- Black and white world symbolic of living in the shadows
- Bud becomes “unchained” and brings truth through the shadows
- From alternate view TV can be shadow and “Pleasentville” in itself would be the false view of reality that the prisoners are watching. When set free (put into Pleasantville) they realize it is not at all as represented by the tv (shadows).
- Color is truth. Color leads to discrimination such as in the allegory of the cave when the prisoner returns with facts he is also discriminated against.
- Biblical illusions to the Christian faith
- Don Knotts “god” banishing from “sub-reality”
- female offering the “forbidden fruit”
- First rain is symbolic of major change
- The tree that burns much as with Moses
- Finding inner self
- Changing color
- Mr. Johnson painting beautiful art work in color
- Marry Sue begins to read in lou of “other activites”
- Bud also finds his color (innerself) by standing up for himself.
- Buds dad finds color by feeling love for his wife
- The judge finds his color through feeling rage for the first time.
4 comments:
"Color is truth"-- well said.
I agree. There is a psychological undertone of coming clean-- of being honest with oneself-- whenever a character begins to take on color in the film. For example, when Bud defends his mom you get the feeling that his aggression was a primal gut reaction to the situation. His action has integrity because of the clarity of purpose behind it. There are no second thoughts, no doubts. Idea-->force in motion-->mission accomplished.
But back to the issue of color. What did you all (and I mean everyone, not just John and Mike) think of the fact that the mother changes into color gradually? If I remember correctly, she becomes colored in stages (starting with the face). However, it seems that all the other characters who change into color do so immediately and completely. Do you think that difference was incorporated intentionally?
btw the above comment was from me.
-Camila
To answer your question, maybe it's because the mother has the most friction between her ture self and her responsibilities. The kids are kids, they are bound to be more suscepitble to change because they have no true responibilities to anyone. Same with the guy who owns the store - he's sort of in poverty, has artistic tendencies to begin with, and is surrounded by youth all day long. These people are more likely to change quickly, and thus do. The mother initially starts changing because of intrigue, maybe due to some initial feelings of isolation in concerns to her little community. I'm assuming the mother has issues changing quickly because it's a total conflict for her - a conflict so much that she is the only character to hide her color changing. If she changes color, she becomes an embarrasment to her friends and her more important family. When she has sex with the guy who owns the store, she becomes comfortable with her color changing. In that scene, she throws caution to the wind and engages her passion entirely, an activity quite unlike her previous behavior.
-Johnny
I agree with you guys on a lot of your points. And i agree with what johnny said about the friction between responsibility and true self. I also like the "color is truth" statement. I also like the idea that self-realization is the catalyst for color change.
--Mark
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