Pleasantville is a film from 1988 written, produced and directed by Gary Ross.

censorship
closed-mindedness of many in the 1950s and how they see everything in black and white, and nothing
straying from that idea. As soon as they welcome open-mindedness and consider new things, things become
technicolour.
social satire
music - sympathetic to audience - no other choice
dreaming better society - how the perfect society cannot exist
precision of language is vital

Pleasantville presents a lot of social satire.

Double Standards and male-female stereotypes in the 1950s
Pleasantville uses satire to mock the married stereotype in the 1950s. Wives in that time period were expected
to stay at home and raise the children, cook, clean, and live a care-free life. They were essentially a pet of
sorts for the husband to showcase. Pleasantville uses hyberbole/burlesque to exaggerate how dependent the
men were on the women in the 50s to do the simplest of things, like cooking. For example, when George
comes home and Betty hasnt cooked dinner for him, he goes to the bowling alley, looking disheveled,
stumbling around from shock, so misplaced and misguided without his wife to take care of everything. His male
friends are equally as shocked to hear about the news. His friend, Roy, then goes on to share how dismayed
he is that his wife has also been acting differently, leaving an iron stain on his shirt because she was,
astonishingly, thinking.

Racial Discrimination
Pleasantville is a very routine place before Jennifer and David arrive, fearful of change; never expecting one so
drastic as to having coloured people. Satire is used here to raise awareness of the past American societal
fears of racial integration. As the citizens of Pleasantville begin to change and take advantage of life, they
become coloured. The black and white citizens think that people who are coloured are corrupt, because they
are different to the social norms. If you love a place, you cant just sit back and watch this kind of thing
happen.
True citizens of Pleasantville have a town meeting for change.
You must separate out things that are pleasant from the things that are unpleasant.
The only permissable colours will be black, white or grey... - colour is evil. History of racism, stubbornness to
change. Prejudice.

Hitler
Mayor orders all the books to be burnt then holds a meeting for true citizens. Criticl point as it shos power of
mayor and changge in attitude of people. Power gained by turning true citizens against coloured. Third Reich.
Books burned, in bothe situations, as a result of a change n government to a dictatorship - total control.
Symbolism of coloured people not only black and white by Jews. Being coloured can be compared to wearing
the Star of David.