American Beauty, Pleasantville And American Beauty

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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

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