This film has two targets, conformity and the fifties. In the case of the fifties, it plays fast and loose with almost every facet of that decade. I was born in 1934, graduated from High Shcool in 1952 and from college in 1956. I did a two year hitch in the U.S. Army, serving in France. I was an apprentice at one of the best regional theaters in the country. I have now been married for forty-six years and raised three sons. None of this was forced on me by society, the culture, a church or some silly symbol like Big Bob. I haven't always walked the straight and narrow but within my moral code I have no room for some of the "freedoms" espoused by this film. Most of the folks I knew in the fifties welcomed and embraced change almost daily. We were all very much in favor of retaining what was good in the society in which we lived. As I see cultural development over the past forty years, much that is good about individual responsibility has given way to a kind of selfish indulgence and the results have been anything but good. Yes, the McCarthy era should have been controlled sooner and civil rights came slowly, but only the people most responsible for these wrongs and who profited from them opposed those changes. This film would have us embrace sexual irresponsibility, adultery, lies, cheating, etc. as acts for the common good. Nonsense! There are some polished performances, notably Macy, but they are truly wasted on this trash. In the final analysis this is a very poor piece of film making and I can't recommend it to anyone with a grain of sense.
Review of Pleasantville
