Fascinating. I did a quick Boolean search on that page to double, and triple check, each title I posted about and that never returned a hit; with or without a comma. Not that it matters, like you say, it's listed 43rd on the list. Which is just ludicrous when you consider where Pleasantville ranked (unless they redacted the list and removed that entry in a desperete bid to hide their blatant stupidity).
Yup it's silly ain't it!
I'm sorry but, for me, your argument that any society can be perceived as a Dystopia is specious. Every culture throughout existence has viewed the culture of the "Other", the "Outsider", as being the polar opposite of their own. By this logic every society is a Dystopia because it could be conceived from some POV as being such. Which, I suppose, is why we've had so many wars through the course of human history. One man's Utopia is another's Dystopia; but in this case you have to look at the movie in the context of it's presentation.
Pleasantville is a retelling of the biblical 'Fall of Man'. The town is akin to the Garden of Eden, it exists in a perfect state, that the citizens of the Utopia aren't aware of their 'faults' is because they exist in that perfect Utopian state. Enter Eve and the apple, which in this case is sex. Once Adam takes a bite of the apple his eyes are open, thus he realizes that his idealistic state of existence really isn't all that ideal, thus Utopia is shattered. Which is precisely what happens in Pleasantville. Their eyes are opened and they receive a rude awakening, thus their Utopian existence is forever shattered. There is no going back.
Oh I totally agree, and like I already said, I think it's idiotic that it should be on the list, but what I was talking is why I think they would have included it. Kind of justifying the wrongness ya dig? I certainly wasn't saying that any society can be dystopian [or at least didn't mean to come off like that]
I guess you could compare it, to a fashion, to Equilibrium: where in that movie people had no emotions, in Pleasantville people are trapped by the rules of their existence [the stereotypical 50s attitudes].
It wasn't so much a social choice, but something that formed a central and pivotal part of their existence, and therefore totally out of their control, until, with an outside source as influence, they fight free of it... I mean, take away the plot of the movie itself and judge a society on that type of idea, and I can certainly draw many comparisons with many of the easily classified as 'Dystopian' films on that list.
Why I'm defending the list, Pleasantville and the people who compiled that list I don't know, but I hope you understand that I don't think it should be on a list of '50 great dystopian films' but merely that I can see it's dystopian elements!
That's way too many dystopia typings for me for one night...
