'Tactical superiority ... look behind you, you idiots!!!' by Kara
Monday, June 4, 2007 at 6:42 AM

If you haven't noticed already, I'm trying to make more 'blog-like' use of at least my ConScrew rant space (I figure since I rag on the industry and fandom so much anyway, I ought to at least make good on it -- other comics, I feel okay to rant about me personally). I've got a few state-of-the-industry things I could blather about, but this weekend I saw something on television that has set me off a bit.

Pleasantville.

Okay. I remember the to-do when this came out -- people arguing about whether the 'message' was okay. 'They're telling our children that being promiscuous is a good thing!!!' 'Those stuffy backwards old people can't handle the truth!!!' 'Omigod, who's this Tobey Maguire kid???'

Honestly, that's not my problem. If we're going to talk about 'messages,' my only annoyance there is that it's vaguely masturbatory (and no, I'm not talking about the seen with Bud and Mary-Sue's mother in the bathtub). Like a lot of my more scholarly reads of late, some people get so caught up in their own 'revolutionary' ideas that they congratulate themselves on being so forward-thinking, and don't realise that they're really not that original. The concept of young people breaking out of the past through art, literature, music, sex, self-awareness, etc. is as old as the hills. This movie seemed to think that they were stating an amazing whispered truth, when really this message is the oldest rehash in the world.

That's not my problem, either.

My problem also has to deal with the self-congratulatory nature of the movie, being something I've seen in everything from Doctor Who, Torchwood, Death Note, and I'm sure I'll think of plenty of others once I'm done with the rant.

Too Much Freakin' Biblical Symbolism.

(Notice I don't include Evangelion, arguably the biggest offender -- that's because it's really just about that. That and Hideaki Anno's desire to screw his mom and kill his fans.)

Biblical symbolism is really an old classic. Doesn't matter who or what you are, it's just part of a great deal of the modern consciousness. Jungian and Freudian symbolism are a bit more ingrained and thus easier to pass through all societies, which to me means that something outta the Bible can easily stick out like a sore t. if you're not careful. If your Christ figure is too Christ-y, for example, it goes beyond symbolism and into just being silly.

My point of reference here is the 1996 Doctor Who TVM, in which the Doctor regenerates, kicks his way out of cold storage wrapped in a shroud, hits the initial part of his regeneration crisis with arms outstretched ... and then later in the movie is strung up, arms still out and now with a sort of mechanical 'crown of thorns' ... then he resurrects dead people etc. etc. etc. Another bit of the Who-niverse pulls this off arguably worse, but that's a spoiler.

Now, Pleasantville. It's kind of a crap movie, whatever, it's Saturday and I'm tired, I can handle that. Then sexual awareness comes to the main characters' home (not gonna tell you how -- it's kinda TMI), and a tree bursts into flames outside, and the main boy goes to tell everybody. Fine. Exodus, Moses, good for them.

Later he goes out with his newly-colourised girlfriend, who ... OFFERS HIM AN APPLE. COME ON.

Then it starts raining.

I don't care if you're not into film analysis. It's painful to see them trying so hard. I could even have handled them trying to mirror real events within Pleasantville ('no coloreds'? How proud of that idea were they?). But I got a headache. I finally gave up before they nailed Reese Witherspoon to a tree or something.

Wednesday, something actually relevant. If you have been, it's his fault.