I reviewed Pleasantville in 1998 for The Connecticut College Voice, but upon revisiting the film recently, decided that a new review was in order.
It’s so nice to return to a sixteen year old movie that
you thought at that time was very good and find that it remains just as
interesting and just as powerful now as it was then. I put Pleasantville in my top ten for 1998 and am happy to discover that
it will remain there. I think the salience of the messaging of Pleasantville has only increased with
time. Sure, the TV landscape has changed considerably since then. The Prime
Time schedule hardly dominates anymore. Every basic cable station and even
streaming providers have gotten into original content production. But TV’s
roots still stretch back to the 1950s and a schedule full of wholesome plots
directing family values toward the American public.
