Pleasantville and American Beauty Everyone wants to be happy. But ask Americans what they would realistically need to make them content and I bet the majority would say a house with a white picket fence, a dog and a few tidy kids. This Father-Knows-Best, Brady-Bunch, Ozzie-and-Harriet utopia is exactly what writer Gary Ross reveals in "Pleasantville": just a pleasant little town that no one leaves, a town blissfully unaware of what may be outside or care. to find out. Who could blame the people? There is no graffiti, no drugs and no crime. Everyone looks the same and shares the same cultural and political values. Life is safe, secure and predictable with dinner on the table for all the husbands, wives perfectly happy to avoid the hassles of work and stay at home, kids cheering on a basketball team that never loses a match and never fails to sink. a gunshot. One might not expect such a film to be much more than a reflection of the predictability and concomitant bleakness of small-town America, but "Pleasantville" is actually a wonderfully entertaining work full of commentary easy-to-swallow social media. That it proves that today's complex world – filled with AIDS, crime, drug addiction, global warming, terrorism, broken homes and, above all, uncertainty – is a testament to the power of films to maneuver the public, to be preferred. The film American Beauty draws inspiration from so many other earlier films that it seems simple. I don't see how this movie was like any other movie at all. I mean, I'm sure there's a slight resemblance if you look at the comparison between this movie and Pleasantville, but no normal person would have ever seen it that way. Personally, I've never seen a situation... middle of paper ...... hey, show how each of the characters solves their problems. American Beauty and Pleasantville then take a postmodern look at the family. The postmodern perspective attempts to break the mold of the nuclear family and define new family forms. These films do not celebrate the nuclear family model, as the characters tend to break off relationships with their families because they feel detached and alienated. They continue to solve their problems, alone and without the support of their family. The postmodern perspective of the family focuses on individual rights and individual actions. The postmodern perspective focuses on pluralism and multiple realities. It is an inclusive model, not restrictive but open to new family forms. References Pleasantville (1998) Studio: New Line Studios American Beauty (1999) Studio: Universal Studios