Pleasantville - A Colorful Experience

The last film we watched before leaving class on Thursday was the film Pleasantville.  This film caught my attention right away because it was shot in black and white and consisted of some major actors and actresses that I knew well in Jeff Daniels, Tobey Maguire, and Reese Witherspoon.  The film started out in black and white and I was wondering the reason for that considering the actors and actresses that were in it.  I quickly realized that the colors were an important part of the film.  I thought it was going to be more of a movie about art at first when David (Toby Maguire) showed Bill Johnson (Jeff Daniels) the book with all deep and colorful famous paintings.  It was not till deeper into the film when I realized and truly discovered the actual meaning of the film.  When the lady in the film started crying over the art and wiped away the tears to a colored face, I began to understand the true meaning.  Our society defines people as normal and shames you or looks down on you if you are different that the social norms.  This to me is what was represented in the film, Pleasantville, when the black and white village was the normal and a village that was colorful was a "special" or "different place."  We should all take a lesson from this film and realize that it is not morally right to look down on a person just because they are different from us.  Rather, we should look at them as a beautiful person because God creates us each in our own unique way.  Everyone has a different talent, skill, or personality that they show and covering that up because you are ashamed of not "fitting in" is the true crime.  This film was a great representation of what we should strive for everyday, living our lives in the way we are created to live them.