American Beauty, Pleasantville And American Beauty

1080 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Resolving conflicts among individuals

Pleasantville and American Beauty Everyone wants to be happy. But ask Americans what they would need, realistically, to make them content and I'll bet a majority would say a house with a white picket fence, and dog and a couple of clean-cut kids. This Father-Knows-Best, Brady-Bunch, Ozzie-and-Harriet utopia is exactly what writer Gary Ross unfolds in "Pleasantville": just an agreeable little town that nobody leaves, one which is blissfully ignorant of what may lie outside or cares to find out. Who could blame the people? There are no graffiti, no drugs, and no crime. Everyone looks about the same and has similar cultural and political values. Life is safe, secure, and predictable with dinner on the table for all the husbands, wives perfectly content to avoid the hassles of work and to stay at home, kids cheering on a basketball team that never loses a game and never even fails to sink a shot. You might not expect such a movie to be much more than a reflection of the predictability and concomitant drabness of small-town America, but "Pleasantville" is in fact a wonderfully entertaining work full of easy-to-swallow social commentary. It is a testament to the power of the movies to maneuver the audience that this one proves today's complex world--filled with AIDS, crime, drug- addiction, global warming, terrorism, broken homes, and most of all uncertainty--is to be preferred. The movie American Beauty was modeled after so many other former movies that it just seems plain. I can't see how this movie was like any other movie at all. I mean I'm sure there is a slight resemblance if you look at the comparison of this movie and Pleasantville, but no normal person would have ever looked at it that way. I personally have never seen a situ... ... middle of paper ... ...hey show how each of the characters solve their problems. American Beauty and Pleasantville then take a postmodern look at the family. The postmodern perspective attempts to break the nuclear family mold and to define new family forms. These films do not celebrate the nuclear family model, as the characters tend to break off relationships from their families because they feel detached and alienated. They continue to resolve their problems, on their own and without the support of their families. The postmodern perspective of the family focuses on individual rights and individual actions. The postmodern perspective focuses on pluralism and multiple realities. It is an inclusive model that is not restrictive but open for new family forms. References Pleasantville (1998) Studio: New Line Studios American Beauty (1999) Studio: Universal Studios

Show More
Related

  • The Dystopian Changes In Gary Ross's Pleasantville

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pleasantville is a movie written and directed by Gary Ross that reveals the dystopian elements hidden within seemingly utopian worlds by portraying the contrast between modern society and the idyllic setting of suburban 1950s’ America. The film follows the adventure of twin teenagers David and Jennifer as they find themselves transported into the world of the 1950s’ television show “Pleasantville”, replacing the main characters Bud and Mary Sue. In various events throughout the movies, both characters spark a series of changes in the conservative Pleasantville society that result in the town gradually transforming from repressive black-and-white to liberating Technicolor. In Pleasantville, Ross shows that the Technicolor version of Pleasantville

    Read More

  • Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink

    1392 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink have more in common than Molly Ringwald. Stereotypes, different economic backgrounds, and feminism all have some part in these 80’s teen films. The themes are all the same, rich vs poor, popular or unpopular and changing yourself to fit into the ‘norm’.

    Read More

  • Liberalism In The Movie Pleasantville

    989 Words  | 2 Pages

    This movie is about David and Jennifer, who live in Southern America in the ‘90s which was said to be a liberal state, are sent from reality to a TV show ‘Pleasantville’ in 1950s. From reality looking through this TV show, Pleasantville looks like an ideal place for people to live in, but getting a closer look and being part of this world you actually realize that it is very different from what is shown on TV. After David and Jennifer arriving to Pleasantville, they become colorless, everything there is either black, white or gray. People then expose their conservative lifestyles with suppression of sexuality, discrimination and restrictive of personal liberty and imagination. In Pleasantville, people assume that there is no outside world other

    Read More

  • American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes and The Virgin Suicides, directed by Sofia Coppola

    2675 Words  | 6 Pages

    The first element that must be looked at is the imprisonment of the characters in both films. The main character of American Beauty, Lester Burnham, is the man whom feels the burden of imprisonment the most. He is in an ongoing marriage that should be coming up to the red light. He is also stuck in a job where he feels under appreciated and not well respected. He has been at this job for fourteen years. That is fourteen years of being in jail. It is quite evident that he is not happy. Who would be when you know that your wife and you daughter think that you are a “gigantic loser” (American Beauty)?

    Read More

  • American Beauty and Thirteen

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this essay, I have chose to talk about the movies, American Beauty and Thirteen from group #1. The two topics discussed in this essay from group #2 are identity and difference along with sexuality. The cinematic elements from group #3 that will be discussed are cinematography and costume use. In many ways, both these films portray similar content in terms of characters fighting battles with themselves and society in order to fit in. In American Beauty, Lester Burnham tries to free himself from his boring life and depression. On the other hand, Thirteen shows the struggles of Tracy Freeland, who tries to fit in at school. This results in her to go on a self-inflicting rampage with her supposedly best friend Evie. Identity and differences are displayed through sexuality with Lester and Evie in different types of way. Lester lusts over his daughters best friend Angela, while Tracy tries to experience sexuality in different types of ways following Evie’s footsteps.

    Read More

  • Postmodern Film

    2291 Words  | 5 Pages

    The postmodern cinema emerged in the 80s and 90s as a powerfully creative force in Hollywood film-making, helping to form the historic convergence of technology, media culture and consumerism. Departing from the modernist cultural tradition grounded in the faith in historical progress, the norms of industrial society and the Enlightenment, the postmodern film is defined by its disjointed narratives, images of chaos, random violence, a dark view of the human state, death of the hero and the emphasis on technique over content. The postmodernist film accomplishes that by acquiring forms and styles from the traditional methods and mixing them together or decorating them. Thus, the postmodern film challenges the “modern” and the modernist cinema along with its inclinations. It also attempts to transform the mainstream conventions of characterization, narrative and suppresses the audience suspension of disbelief. The postmodern cinema often rejects modernist conventions by manipulating and maneuvering with conventions such as space, time and story-telling. Furthermore, it rejects the traditional “grand-narratives” and totalizing forms such as war, history, love and utopian visions of reality. Instead, it is heavily aimed to create constructed fictions and subjective idealisms.

    Read More

  • Intertwined Works Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and American Beauty by Sam Mendez

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...t eras shows the reader or viewer that the American Dream may or may not have progressed. I would recommend The Death of a Salesman to a friend because I like how Miller shows the symbolism of working your whole life for something, and when you finally achieve it you are too old to enjoy it. I also like how he showed that physical appearance does not always promise you a successful life because the reader can find that out by comparing Biff and Bernard. I would also recommend the movie “American Beauty” because it has deep symbolism, especially when it comes to the plastic bag in the beginning of the film. Yes, the movie may have some overly sexual scenes, but there is a lot of symbolism behind it. The viewer may not get the movie the first time around, but after watching more closely and analyzing the actions of the characters one can say that it was good movie.

    Read More

  • Love in The Lady with the Dog and Hills like White Elephants

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anton Chekhov and Ernest Hemingway both convey their ideas of love in their respective stories The Lady with the Pet Dog and Hills like White Elephants in different ways. However, their ideas are quite varying, and may be interpreted differently by each individual reader. In their own, unique way, both Chekhov and Hemingway evince what is; and what is not love. Upon proper contemplation, one may observe that Hemingway, although not stating explicitly what love is; the genius found in his story is that he gives a very robust example of what may be mistaken as love, although not being true love. On the other hand, Chekhov exposes love as a frame of mind that may only be achieved upon making the acquaintance of the “right person,” and not as an ideal that one may palpate at one instance, and at the another instance one may cease to feel; upon simple and conscious command of the brain. I agree with Hemingway’s view on love because it goes straight to the point of revealing some misconceptions of love.

    Read More

  • Pleasantville

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    Popular culture is the artistic and creative expression in entertainment and style that appeals to society as whole. It includes music, film, sports, painting, sculpture, and even photography. It can be diffused in many ways, but one of the most powerful and effective ways to address society is through film and television. Broadcasting, radio and television are the primary means by which information and entertainment are delivered to the public in virtually every nation around the world, and they have become a crucial instrument of modern social and political organization. Most of today’s television programming genres are derived from earlier media such as stage, cinema and radio. In the area of comedy, sitcoms have proven the most durable and popular of American broadcasting genres. The sitcom’s success depends on the audience’s familiarity with the habitual characters and the situations

    Read More

  • The Impossible American Dream in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...allowed to reach her American Dream without being frowned upon by others. Materialism, and the fears of judgment, are restrictions for these characters that keep them from reaching their true happiness and American Dreams.

    Read More

  • How the Movies of the 1970’s and 1980’s Reflected America’s Mood and Culture

    1565 Words  | 4 Pages

    Have you ever had one of those days that were so bad that you desperately needed a night at the ice cream or candy store? The 1970’s was that really bad day, while the night of self- indulgence was the 1980’s. Americans love to escape from our daily stress, and of all the products that allow us to do so, none is more popular than the movies. Movies are key cultural artifacts that offer a view of American culture and social history. They not only offer a snapshot of hair styles and fashions of the times but they also provide a host of insights into Americans’ ever-changing ideals. Like any cultural artifact, the movies can be approached in a number of ways. Cultural historians have treated movies as a document that records the look and mood of the time that promotes a particular political or moral value or highlights individual or social anxieties and tensions. These cultural documents present a particular image of gender, ethnicity, romance, and violence. Out of the political and economic unrest of the 1970’s that saw the mood and esteem of the country, as reflected in the artistry and messages in the movies, sink to a new low, came a new sense of pride in who we are, not seen since the post-World War II economic boom of the 1950’s. Of this need to change, Oscar Award winner Paul Newman stated,

    Read More

  • The Decade Of Realizations: American Youth During The 80s

    2969 Words  | 6 Pages

    The capitalist ideas so prominent in the Reagan / Thatcher era are as clearly instilled in the youth of the 1980s films as their, usually middle class, screen parents. Only “Pretty In Pink” (and indirectly, “The Breakfast Club”) actually confronts class differences; in the other films, the middle class way of life is accepted as default. Almost every John Hughes film is set in affluent suburbia with the repetition of certain imagery (the big house, gardens and tree-lined quiet streets, and often a wood-paneled station wagon) with a certain population (rich, white families), which is reflected in the body of the attended, well-equipped schools.

    Read More

  • Women’s Roles in Classical Hollywood Cinema

    2563 Words  | 6 Pages

    ...es, in the eyes of the modern moviegoers, this position is no longer reasonable due to the strides already made by women in quest for equality. It is a reflection of how the past American society treated its women and draws to the traditional inclination of the Americans to achieve financial independence as seen in this post war film.

    Read More

  • American Beauty

    1491 Words  | 3 Pages

    American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes in 1999, is one of the best and most unique films I have ever seen. One of the opening scenes of the movie starts with a view of Lester Burnham, his attractive, blonde wife Carolyn Burnham and their daughter Janie and what seems to be what seems to be the Burnhams picture perfect life and picture perfect marriage. The suburban house with the clean cut lawn and perfect garden, white picket fence, the oak trees lining the street, the two cars parked in the driveway, typical ordinary suburban neighborhood. But what Mendes emphasizes throughout the film is to look closer, and it will be clear that nothing is as it seems, there is always more to the story then what appears on the surface. No one is perfect, even a rose has its thorns.

    Read More

  • Cinderella, Pretty Woman and Feminism

    1396 Words  | 3 Pages

    Winn, J. Emmett. "Investigating the American Dream in Pretty Woman." Journal of American Studies of Turkey 19 (2004): 59-68. Web.

    Read More

More about American Beauty, Pleasantville And American Beauty

Open Document