It is not only an entertaining film comically and dramatically, but it is thought-provoking as well. Ross, who also wrote the screenplay, has achieved one of the best films of the year. The characters in this peculiar universe are doomed, like the Flying Dutchman, to repeat the changeless course of their daily lives over and over without ever getting anywhere. Their lives are controlled by a mindless conformity. Women are virtually chained to the kitchen.
Social strata are rigid.
There isn't a black, Chicano, Oriental or any other ethnic person to be found in Pleasantville. It is pure WASP country. It is the nightmare world of the 1950s. Bud is an expert on Pleasantville, having watched the show many times. He is convinced they have to maintain the plot lines of the show to get back to their own universe.