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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1990s
    Movies - 1990s Movies - P 2 Mins Read

    Pleasantville (1998)

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    This delightful comic fable begins in full colour in 1998, when an introverted, TV-watching teen, David (Tobey Maguire), and his sister Jennifer (Reece Witherspoon) are magically transported into reruns of a 1950s black-and-white sitcom called Pleasantville.

    Everything seems picture perfect in this cookie-cutter small town, where family values rule, nothing ruffles the primped surface, and the firemen are mainly employed scaling trees to rescue little kittens.

    Like time-travelling classic Back to the Future (1985), director Gary Ross’s film plays on nostalgia for the good old days of the 1950s but cleverly subverts this backward-looking impulse by showing how this world of conservatism and small-mindedness is transformed by its visitors from the future.

    As David and Jennifer’s modernising influence is felt in the community, Pleasantville gradually introduces splashes of colour into its monochrome palette, a wonderfully cinematic ploy to prove that – where some things are concerned – time is never best standing still.

    pleasantville1998

    David, ‘Bud Parker’
    Tobey Maguire
    Jennifer Wagner, ‘Mary Sue Parker’
    Reese Witherspoon
    Bill Johnson
    Jeff Daniels
    Betty Parker
    Joan Allen
    George Parker
    William H. Macy
    Big Bob
    J.T. Walsh
    TV repair man
    Don Knotts
    Margaret
    Marley Shelton
    Mary Sue
    Natalie Ramsey
    Bud
    Kevin Connors
    Howard
    Giuseppe Andrews
    Kimmy
    Marissa Ribisi
    Christin
    Jenny Lewis
    Mark
    Justin Nimmo
    Mr Simpson
    Harry Singleton
    Skip Martin
    Paul Walker
    Betty Jean
    Dawn Cody
    Lisa Anne
    Maggie Lawson
    Peggy Jane
    Andrea Taylor
    Miss Peters
    Lela Ivey
    Tommy
    Jim Patric
    Doctor Henderson
    Charles C. Stevenson Jr
    Marge Jenkins
    Nancy Lenehan
    Gus
    Weston Blakesley
    Roy
    Patrick O’Brien
    Ralph
    Jim Antonio
    Mary
    Kristin Rudrüd
    Will
    Erik Macarthur
    Whitey
    David Tom
    Pete
    Johnny Moran
    Police Chief Dan
    James Keane

    Director
    Gary Ross

    Video

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