I watched the film ‘Pleasantville’ on Saturday night with some friends. I really enjoyed it. It was quite long, but it was necessary to be able to see each character grow and evolve throughout the story. From the brief bit of info about it on the back of the dvd cover I was half expecting something similar to the Stepford Wives, which i did enjoy, but I got a lot more out of Pleasantville.
One of the main aspects of the movie (which was oh so cleverly done by the makers) was the use of black and white as well as colour. All of the people in this town were in black and white- and it wasn’t until their eyes were opened to what sort of emotions and experiences might actually exist outside of their little ‘pleasant’ town and mindsets that they experienced this new/wonderful/challenging/terrible thing- colour. Some were fearful of the colours and did everything in their power to ’stop it spreading’, some were very ashamed of them and tried to hide their new found colours away while others embraced the changes and jumped at the opportunity to experience something different.
Through all this one thing stood out to me- they didn’t know any different before they were exposed to these colours. As well as this, those who developed these colours couldn’t then go back to black and white. There are numerous possible interpretations and constructions to be made from this, but to me it says something of God. We often have such a black and white existence. While everything may not always be ‘pleasant’ like it was in Pleasantville, our experiences are determined by what we can see and feel and what we think we know. Whereas God sees everything in all it’s beauty and colour in ways that we simply cannot comprehend, and the existance of God in our lives means that nothing will ever be the same again.
It’s important to note also that the people of Pleasantville didn’t only experience the transition from black and white to colour through happy and ‘pleasant’ experiences. It was also when they allowed themselves to experience anger, frustration, love, betrayal, desires for physical affection and the list goes on. These things also related to when the people challenged norms- gender norms, class norms, ageist norms, sexual norms. It was as people grew and were challenged in all areas of their lives that the colour moved in. God’s ‘colour’ doesn’t just reveal itself when we’re experiencing happiness and satisfaction. He infiltrates every human emotion possible. And when we see glimpes of it we realise just how black and white our existance really is.
