The term 'Capraesque' could easily be applied to Gary Ross' delightful 1998 feature Pleasantville. Starring Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, and Jeff Daniels, Pleasantville pitches modern day teenage twins into the world of the black and white 1950s titular television town where everything is 'swell' and sex and toilets don't exist. As a result of the actions of David (Tobey Maguire) and his sister Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon), the Pleasantville population and the environment literally transforms from black and white into colour.
Pleasantville is for me one of those great heartwarming, lump in the throat movies like Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life or Lost Horizon. Apart from the stunning cinematography and an excellent cast, Pleasantville has two threads of great music. The first is an Americana-styled score by Randy Newman while the second is a dream jukebox of early Rock'n'Roll and Jazz classics.You get some real crackers like Presley's Teddy Bear, Gene Vincent's Be-Bop-A-Lula, Miles Davis' So What, Brubeck's Take Five and Etta James' gorgeous At Last. Also included is Fiona Apple's sonambulistic rendition of the Beatles' Across the Universe and hearing la Apple's whistful vocals and Randy Newman's touching Real Rain fair brings a tear to the eye.
2 comments:
Is this or the other older 2007 posts still available ?
I do try to re-up the files when they get zapped. So some of the posts are still there but after a period of inactivity, Rapidshare deletes the files. I can re-up the files if there's a demand
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