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"The Truman Show" is founded on an enormous secret that all of the studio's advertising has been determined to reveal. I didn't know the secret when I saw the film, and was able to enjoy the little doubts and wonderings that the filmmakers so carefully planted. If by some good chance you do not know the secret, read no further.

Those fortunate audience members (I trust they have all left the room?) will be able to appreciate the meticulous way director Peter Weir and writer Andrew Niccol have constructed a jigsaw plot around their central character, who doesn't suspect that he's living his entire life on live television. Yes, he lives in an improbably ideal world, but I fell for that: I assumed the movie was taking a sitcom view of life, in which neighbors greet each other over white picket fences, and Ozzie and Harriet are real people.

Actually, it's Seaside, a planned community on the Gulf Coast near Tampa. Called Seahaven in the movie, it looks like a nice place to live. Certainly Truman Burbank ( Jim Carrey ) doesn't know anything else. You accept the world you're given, the filmmakers suggest; more thoughtful viewers will get the buried message, which is that we accept almost everything in our lives without examining it very closely. When was the last time you reflected on how really odd a tree looks? Truman works as a sales executive at an insurance company, is happily married to Meryl ( Laura Linney ), and doesn't find it suspicious that she describes household products in the language of TV commercials. He is happy, in a way, but an uneasiness gnaws away at him. Something is missing, and he thinks perhaps he might find it in Fiji, where Lauren ( Natascha McElhone ), the only woman he really loved, allegedly has moved with her family.

Why did she leave so quickly? Perhaps because she was not a safe bet for Truman's world: The actress who played her (named Sylvia) developed real feeling and pity for Truman, and felt he should know the truth about his existence. Meryl, on the other hand, is a reliable pro (which raises the question, unanswered, of their sex life).

Truman's world is controlled by a TV producer named Christof ( Ed Harris ), whose control room is high in the artificial dome that provides the sky and horizon of Seahaven. He discusses his programming on talk shows, and dismisses the protests of those (including Sylvia) who believe Truman is the victim of a cruel deception. Meanwhile, the whole world watches Truman's every move, and some viewers even leave the TV on all night, as he sleeps.

The trajectory of the screenplay is more or less inevitable: Truman must gradually realize the truth of his environment, and try to escape from it. It's clever the way he's kept on his island by implanted traumas about travel and water. As the story unfolds, however, we're not simply expected to follow it: We're invited to think about the implications. About a world in which modern communications make celebrity possible, and inhuman.

Until fairly recently, the only way you could become really famous was to be royalty, or a writer, actor, preacher or politician--and even then, most people had knowledge of you only through words or printed pictures.

Television, with its insatiable hunger for material, has made celebrities into "content," devouring their lives and secrets. If you think "The Truman Show" is an exaggeration, reflect that Princess Diana lived under similar conditions from the day she became engaged to Charles.

Carrey is a surprisingly good choice to play Truman. We catch glimpses of his manic comic persona, just to make us comfortable with his presence in the character, but this is a well-planned performance; Carrey is on the right note as a guy raised to be liked and likable, who decides his life requires more risk and hardship. Like the angels in " City of Angels ," he'd like to take his chances.

Ed Harris also finds the right notes as Christof, the TV svengali. He uses the technospeak by which we distance ourselves from the real meanings of our words. (If TV producers ever spoke frankly about what they were really doing, they'd come across like Bulworth.) For Harris, the demands of the show take precedence over any other values, and if you think that's an exaggeration, tell it to the TV news people who broadcast that Los Angeles suicide.

I enjoyed "The Truman Show" on its levels of comedy and drama; I liked Truman in the same way I liked Forrest Gump--because he was a good man, honest, and easy to sympathize with.

But the underlying ideas made the movie more than just entertainment. Like " Gattaca ," the previous film written by Niccol, it brings into focus the new values that technology is forcing on humanity.

Because we can engineer genetics, because we can telecast real lives--of course we must, right? But are these good things to do? The irony is, the people who will finally answer that question will be the very ones produced by the process.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

The Truman Show (1998)

Rated PG For Thematic Elements and Mild Language

104 minutes

Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank

Laura Linney as Meryl

Noah Emmerich as Marlon

Natascha McElhone as Lauren/Sylvia

Holland Taylor as Mother

Ed Harris as Christof

Directed by

Andrew Niccol

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EMPIRE ESSAY: The Truman Show Review

01 Jan 1998

EMPIRE ESSAY: The Truman Show

There are a number of powerful images in Peter Weir's end of the millennium masterpiece but one that really sticks in the mind, capturing as it does the central theme of The Truman Show, occurs only for a brief moment in the middle of a montage as "creator" Cristof describes Truman's development. We see a toddler in a playpen gazing upwards, apparently fascinated by a children's mobile. Fluffy shapes spin around to a tinkling nursery rhyme. But at the centre of the toy dangles the menacing shape of a camera lens and it's to this that the child's curious, slightly worried expression is directed. If one of the many themes of The Truman Show is betrayal then it is this shot that sums it up more eloquently than any other.

It's one of the ironies of science fiction movies that while they concern themselves with either the future or at least technology that doesn't yet exist, they generally have more to say about what's going on in the present than any of the other genres. By the end of the 90s, media saturation, anxiety over privacy, encroaching media power and, with virtual reality, the increasingly unreliable nature of the real world were the prevalent preoccupations. Peter Weir's film was not alone in broaching these themes. The Matrix took a different approach for a different audience. But it is Weir's film, which is certainly science fiction in that the technology required to create a whole artificial world for its protagonist is not (yet) possible, which caught the public's imagination, partly because of the sheer relevancy of the idea but also because of another element unusual in sci-fi, a performance of incredible warmth and vulnerability from Jim Carrey.

The conceit is pretty much summed up in a screaming voice-over at the beginning of the Tru Talk segment of the show itself. "One-point-seven-million were there for his birth... 220 countries tuned in for his first step... An entire human life recorded on an intricate network of hidden cameras broadcast live and unedited 24 hours a day, seven days a week to an audience around the world!" Truman himself is only aware that he lives in Seahaven, an impossibly sundrenched, pastel-dappled island town which, owing to a carefully implanted fear of water, Truman cannot leave. (In fact the screenplay originally had Truman in a Seven-style, grim rain-sodden city which Weir rejected, opting instead to shoot in a Florida retirement village.)

Starting quite literally with a falling star — a studio lamp marked Sirius 9 tumbles from the "sky" — Truman begins to suspect that he is at the centre of a conspiracy. His wife insists on shouting product endorsements at the most inopportune moments, an elevator has no back walls revealing what looks suspiciously like a caterings service table surrounded by bored extras. Finally making a run for reality Truman is nearly killed by show creator Cristof before opting for the real uncertainties of the world outside the TV studio instead of the his ersatz existence.

Newspaper headlines like "Who needs Europe?" rub shoulders with posters showing lightning striking planes ("It could happen to you!" reads the slogan) and hokey TV sitcoms which announce that "You don't have to leave home to discover what the world's all about" all conspiring to counteract Burbank's curiosity. There's also tremendous fun to be had reading interpretations onto the movie. There's the "Garden Of Eden in reverse" take in which Truman is Man fighting his way out of paradise, stopped by a terrified "creator". There's the anti-Capraesque angle, in which American smalltown life is not the very essence of perfection but stifling, repressive and false. There's even the fact that the whole premise is contained within its central character's moniker: the True Man's second name is Burbank, the LA suburb where the studios reside.

In Truman he creates a true hero for the times whose humanity shines even as he realises the extent to which he has been manipulated.

It's easy to poke holes in the film. The show itself would in reality be deadly dull. The audience is as complicit in Truman's plight as Cristof, yet they are presented sympathetically. And why does Cristof attempt to make Truman stay once he has rumbled the game? But then, The Truman Show is best seen as a modern day fable (and no-one nit-picks the Hare And The Tortoise). It's a cautionary tale about the invasive, corrupting nature of a society that believes it has the right to watch everything. And it's a point that gets more, not less, prescient as we edge into the second millennium. With real life shows like Castaway 2000 and Big Brother defining millennial TV and communications technology advancing with increasing rapidity, a real Truman Show becomes ever more likely. The events of Terry Gilliam's Brazil famously take place 20 minutes into the future. The Truman Show may be a lot closer than that.

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‘The Truman Show’: In-Depth Analysis

By PoutyBoy in Unreserved Thoughts July 23, 2018

Back in 1998, ‘The Truman Show’ shocked the public with how funny, heartfelt, and thought-provoking it is. The audience loved it, critics loved it, and it today it remains an endless classic.

And that stands to reason. ‘The Truman Show’ is, by all accounts, a masterpiece. Built on a brilliant premise, with great direction, flawless editing and cinematography, and an amazing performance by Jim Carrey, ‘The Truman Show’ doesn’t really have many imperfections. It checks all boxes.

(If you haven’t, you can watch ‘The Truman Show’ here or buy the Blu-Ray here .)

In an ideal world, a good film must do three things with its story: it must be accessible, understandable and interesting to the generic viewer, it must have a strong and developed character to stand in the middle of it, and it must be layered. Most good films fit one of these requirements, some fit two, but it’s really rare that a movie’s storytelling is so good that it fits all three. ‘The Truman Show’ does.

And it’s that last point, the layering, that has people rewatching and talking about the movie to this day. ‘The Truman Show’ is filled with thought-provoking ideas, meanings, metaphors, Easter eggs, themes, and motifs. What follows is a guide to a better understanding of those things within ‘The Truman Show’. Keep in mind, this will be fairly compact and the points will overlap; there is so much to talk about this film and one could easily write a book about it; it’s impossible to fit everything in one article.

If you haven’t seen the film yet, you can stream/buy it here .

And obviously: massive spoilers.

God and Religion

Christianity and God are explored a lot throughout ‘The Truman Show’. Christof, the creator of the show, is, ultimately, the God of the world Truman lives in. He has created the world and manipulated it to serve his desires. He is also Truman’s personal God, standing as an all-mighty figure that (literally) watches from above. By the end of the film, Christof even talks from the sky to Truman, furthering the idea that he is both the God of the world and Truman’s personal deity.

Christof’s act of trying to drown the boat goes back hundreds of years and has been explored through many olden myths and legends. Christof is the all powerful being, the one that can literally control the weather, trying to challenge the ordinary man and prevent them from achieving their goals.

Image result for the truman show christof

The name is also significant here: Christof, an iteration of Christ, or even better, a play on words meaning Christ-Off. It can be argued that Christof is in fact a fake God (Christ-Off), doing things in the manner of a deity, but ultimately doing things no deity should ever do. He is everything a God can do to a world, everything a God will do, but nothing they should do.

There isn’t much support to this thesis, however. It’s evident throughout the film that, to some extent, Christof genuinely cares about Truman. The creator may be somewhat evil and wrong, but he is no hypocrite: he truly believes that what he is doing ‘gives hope and joy and inspiration to millions’ and that he is being kind to Truman by actually doing him a huge favor. Christof is, in many ways, not only a God to Truman, but also a father: the way he speaks to him in the final scene, the way he gently touches the screen when Truman is sleeping, and the fact that he has literally gotten rid of Truman’s ‘actual’ father. Christof says ‘I was watching when you were born. I was watching when you took your first step. I watched you on your first day of school.’ and in some strange, twisted way, Christof is the father figure Truman always wanted and never knew he had.

All this is ultimately a take on society and the way we perceive religion. The film is actually highly critical of Christianity. It states that IF there was a real God, then our reality is ultimately fake. Nothing is random, nothing is our choice, everything is controlled by something that we’re not even sure exists. Truman’s reality is completely controlled, as stated in the next point, and the film goes on about the fact that our reality may be the same. Every time we step outside, we are at God’s hands. Every time it rains, it’s not a coincidence. We are constantly being watched, listened, and, most importantly, controlled. ‘The Truman Show’ is expanding on the idea that God may be a puppeteer and we may simply be the puppets; we blindly trust the puppeteer, not even knowing he is there, and all reality is fake.

True Reality vs. Fake Reality

This nicely blends into another theme deeply explored within ‘The Truman Show’, which is the actual reality of things vs. the fake life that we all lead. The film smartly underlines and explores the idea that all of us desperately need something real. The film states that, most simply put, we all lead fake lives, all controlled and manipulated by the media, the people around us, and possibly a higher power. Nothing and nobody we see is the complete and utter truth.

Which explains why people watch ‘The Truman Show’. It also explains why the world Truman is living in is so similar to the actual outside world. Many ask why there even was a travel agency is Truman’s world; since he’s been there forever and since his entire idea of the universe is 100% manipulated by Christof, why even mention the existence of planes? Why not tell Truman that nothing even exists beyond Seaheaven? Wouldn’t that guarantee him staying within the show forever?

But that wouldn’t work, would it? Because the people, the viewers, need something real. That is why the world Truman is living in is ultimately the same world all of us are living in. The audience wants to see exactly that, just more authentic and with someone genuine living in it. That is also why ‘The Truman Show’ was such a success: because Truman is the only genuinely real thing in the entire world. His environment is controlled, his life is manipulated, but Truman is 100% himself throughout all this. That’s why people want to watch him; they need an escape from their own lie and into someone else’s life: someone who is real. Even his name is a play on words: Truman = true man.

Truman begins his quest as a lamp falls from outside his house. The lamp is named Sirius, representing the brightest star, the one travelers use for guidance, and symbolizes the beginning of Truman’s adventure within his own world. The film ends with Truman puncturing the walls of the world or, to put it in another way, quite literally puncturing through his own personal fourth wall. I find this entire quest, starting from the falling light and ending with the puncture of the wall, to be one of the best uses of irony in the history of cinema. Truman’s world is the only real thing to everyone on the entire planet, but Truman himself, the only real person, the only person to actually live in this world, eventually finds it to be fake. So ultimately, reality doesn’t exist. Everything is fake.

The Allegory of the Cave

After Truman finds the boundaries of his reality, he has a talk with Christof. What the creator tells the man is something that wonderfully summarizes another idea explored throughout ‘The Truman Show’: the allegory of the cave.

The allegory of the cave is an extremely well-thought-out experiment and smarter people have done a way better job explaining it than the author of this article can. This video is a good in-depth explanation of what exactly it is. But here is the shorter version: the allegory theories a group of people who are stuck in a cave their entire life, seeing only shadows of real life projected on the wall in front of them. If those people were to get out of the cave and see the real world, see the people behind the shadows, it would be too overwhelming and they would want to go back to what they are used to.

A great experiment trying to conclude that ‘ignorance is bliss’. ‘The Truman Show’ is ultimately the exact same experiment, just on a much larger scale. Seahaeven is the cave and the people in it are the shadows. There is much beyond that, there is a ‘real’ world, but Truman doesn’t know it.

When the man finally does find out, he speaks to Christof and the creator tells him that ‘There is no more truth out there than there is for the world I created for you. The same lies, the same deceit. But in my world, you have nothing to fear.’

Christof gives Truman a choice: stay in the world and stay ignorant or choose to face reality. The former is much simpler choice; this way, Truman would never have to face the reality he never knew existed. The latter, however, presents Truman with the opportunity to finally, for the first time in his life, see the truth; a truth he never even knew was out there.

Truman, of course, chooses the latter. He chooses to leave the cave. Truman, like everyone else in the world, wants to live and experience what’s real. Ironically, to everyone else, him and the world he lives in are the only real things. To him however, everyone else and the world they live in are the only ultimate reality. No one really prefers the cave, even though it’s the simpler option. Everyone wants reality, but ironically, one person’s reality is another person’s cave.

The Entertainment Industry

Another idea vastly explored throughout ‘The Truman Show’ is toxic entertainment. Stepping away from the fact that this film literally foreshadowed the upcoming epidemic of reality TV (Big Brother is just a fake version of ‘The Truman Show’) and stepping away from Truman himself for a bit, there is much to understand about toxic entertainment from the way the show functions and the fanbase around it.

The final line of the movie is ‘Let’s see what else is on’ by a generic viewer of ‘The Truman Show’. This digs into the idea that the show is just one of many; ultimately, it made no difference. It’s toxic, it’s just another method of escapism, it’s jealously, anger, lies, and truth all in one. Even after what was presumably the biggest television event ever (Truman’s escape), the world changes in no way. People change in no way. Entertainment continues and leaves no dent in society whatsoever.

The way the show itself functions is another brilliant critique at the entertainment industry. The best example of this would be the actress, Hannah Gill, playing the character of Meryl Burbank, Truman’s wife. She has voluntarily put herself in a position very similar to that of Truman. Hannah Gill is in the spotlight of ‘The Truman Show’ every single day and living a fake life every single day, all for the sake of money and fame. This is a critique of Hollywood: different creators giving their lives away for fame and money. To take this to an extremity, Hannah Gill can be considered a literal prostitute as she has sex with Truman on camera. There is even a clause in her contract stating that any time she engages in intimate activities with Truman, she gets a huge bonus. Hannah Gill has given up everything: her body, her mind, her personality, her whole life just to achieve her ‘dreams’. She is not different than Truman, expect that she is living the fake life voluntarily and getting something in return. And morally speaking, that is even worse.

Media Control

Finally, ‘The Truman Show’ is also a commentary on the control that media puts on individuals and the society. This wonderfully foreshadows the world’s current political state, but that’s a completely different subject.

To begin with, the individual. We’ve concluded that Truman’s life and being is monitored and controlled, but what about his personality? Christof himself says that they needed to figure out a way to keep Truman on the island. They decided to alter his fears and dedications by killing off his father from the show by drowning in the ocean. This gives Truman a lifetime fear of water and an inability to leave Seaheaven. Even Truman’s beliefs and fears are controlled by a deity; this is a beautiful allegory on our world. Many of our ideals, fears, dedications, even our entire drive can sometimes be controlled and altered by the media. The things we see and experience can control our lives and change them forever. It’s surely not a drastic as with Truman, but the idea is the same: something seemingly random happens to us and we change because of it. That may, however, not be random, it may be controlled by the media, just as it wasn’t with Truman, and the whole point of it may be to change our views.

Just remember the Facebook scandal from less than a year ago and you will get this point.

(Some other great foreshadowing is the fact that Truman has no privacy whatsoever: his entire life is monitored and recorded without his knowing.)

Image result for the truman show advertising

But going into the society, media control is once again presented as a big problem throughout ‘The Truman Show’, starting with advertisement. As mentioned explicitly throughout the film, ‘The Truman Show’ actually runs 24/7 with no commercial break. They mention that the only way to make profit is through product placement. Some of the best moments in the movies are actually the ‘unnoticeable’ ads within Truman’s life: the cocoa powder, the shredder, the lawn mower. This is once again a clever commentary on our society: profit made by product placement leading to the constant control of what we buy through the media.

Furthermore, one of the most brilliant (and overlooked) scenes in ‘The Truman Show’ is actually the first time we observe the control center. In Seaheaven, this is the moment when Truman meets his ‘father’. In this moment we see Christof directing the show: picking the cameras and the angles, choosing when to cut, cuing the music, etc. The scene in itself is actually amazing and, once again, foreshadows the future of reality TV. This moment illustrates how through smart camera placement, editing, music, etc., show-runners can make any real-life moment appear not the way it actually is, but the way they want it to appear; there is no raw truth in entertainment. The way Truman’s meeting with his ‘father’ was shown on TV was actually much more melodramatic than the actual encounter. Christof manipulates the audience’ feelings, gaining the emotional reaction he needs from them and getting higher ratings. Again, something all reality TV does nowadays.

One of the best trivia facts about ‘The Truman Show’ is that the creators of the movie wanted to install a hidden camera in every theater the film was showing. During one of the moments in the film where we watch the world watching the show, the theater would stop the film and suddenly start transmitting the hidden camera; this way, the viewers would see themselves within the movie. Shortly after, they would cut the fee and continue playing the actual film.

‘The Truman Show’ isn’t a commentary on some fake society within the story. The film is about us. About how God controls our lives. How we don’t have any free will. How we all seek a reality because our lives are, ultimately, fake. We all watch meaningless entertainment to feel something real, but it ultimately leaves absolutely no impact on us. All of us want to leave the cave, we want to find some reality, but we are not even aware that we are in the cave. We are constantly being watched, listened, controlled, and manipulated. We sell ourselves to an industry that makes no difference. We make no difference. Free will and reality are illusions.

‘The Truman Show’ is actually much more pessimistic and critical than people realize. The film has so much to it, so much to take from, so much to learn. We should cherish, save, study, and love ‘The Truman Show’. It’s worth it.

Watch ‘The Truman Show’ here or buy the Blu-Ray here . Or grab a poster here .

movies text blue Jim Carrey The Truman Show Truman Burbank ART shape line screenshot font 2268x1134 px

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‘the truman show’: thr’s 1998 review.

On June 5, 1998, Paramount unveiled the Jim Carrey high-concept dramedy 'The Truman Show' in theaters.

By Michael Rechtshaffen

Michael Rechtshaffen

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On June 5, 1998, Paramount unveiled the Jim Carrey high-concept dramedy The Truman Show in theaters. The film went on to nab three nominations at the 71st Academy Awards, including for Ed Harris in the supporting actor category, Peter Weir for director and Andrew Niccol for screenplay. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:

A satire of Orwellian proportions, Peter Weir’s The Truman Show is a cleverly conceived (by Andrew Niccol), masterfully executed cautionary tale that would have tickled late media guru Marshall McLuhan.

In many ways a logical extension of MTV’s Real World — not to mention the groundbreaking ’70s saga of the Loud Family — the show in question concerns one Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey in the breakout role he’s been waiting for), the unwitting star of a 30-years-and-counting, 24-hour-a-day broadcast of his entire existence.

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‘The Truman Show’ at 25 – Review

The Truman Show (1998) Director: Peter Weir Screenwriter: Andrew Niccol Starring: Jim Carey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, Brian Delate, Paul Giamatti, Harry Shearer, Philip Baker Hall

A year before the original Dutch ‘Big Brother’ series kickstarted the reality television craze and the Wachowskis’ The Matrix made us question reality in the form of a spectacular blockbuster, screenwriter Andrew Niccol and director Peter Weir created The Truman Show . A quarter of a century on, how does this scarily prescient skewering of the late-90s entertainment industry play to an always-online world?

Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) lives a content if unremarkable existence in an idyllic suburb until strange occurrences make him think that nothing is as it seems. In reality, Truman was adopted as a baby by a television corporation and raised in a simulated environment, his every moment documented for 30 years for the entertainment of the viewing public all without his knowledge. Just how far will his TV captors go to keep him from finding the truth and to keep ‘The Truman Show’ on the air?

The film opens with maverick visual artist Christof (Ed Harris) talking to camera and setting out the premise of his most ambitious project to date, the project we’re about to watch:

“We’ve become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions. We’re tired of pyrotechnics and special effects. While the world he inhabits is in some respects counterfeit, there’s nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts, no cue cards; it isn’t always Shakespeare but it’s genuine. It’s a life.”

We then get introduced to our protagonist Truman’s unchanging daily routine – getting dressed, saying good morning to the nice couple across the street, being scared by the neighbour’s dog, buying a paper and a fashion magazine “for the wife”, working a boring job in insurance, shooting the breeze with his bestie over cold beers.

This soap opera world has even given Truman catchphrases without him realising it (“Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening and good night!”) and nothing is truly his own. Before long, cracks in Truman’s reality begin to show. A studio light falls in front of him seemingly from outer space, his car radio momentarily tunes into a channel that sounds an awful lot like it is surveilling his every movement, and he starts to notice that his wife Meryl (Laura Linney) is advertising the products in their home out loud to an unseen audience.

The cast making up the TV ensemble may be the film’s secret weapon; all performing their well-rehearsed parts dutifully to maintain Truman’s illusion, but many of them, particularly his friend Marlon (Noah Emmerich), seemingly on the verge of telling him what is really going on as they see just how much pain and torment he is being put through.

The film throws up some fascinating points of debate around consent. Clearly Truman has never consented to his one and only life becoming entertainment for others, and the cast surrounding him are expected to go above and beyond any normal acting job – if they’re not living in this fake neighbourhood full-time then they must be available to re-enter it at a moment’s notice so as to not break the spell (in Marlon’s case, always with a pack of beer in hand). We have to ask whether Meryl’s fake relationship with Truman, that apparently involves a normal amount of marital sex (“you never see anything” one viewer comments), could be considered prostitution, just another thing she’s paid to do as part of her contract. The actual mechanics of all this is possibly one of the film’s only slight drawbacks – it doesn’t hold to in-depth scrutiny of its logic and mechanics.

Christof may be one of the coldest and cruellest film antagonists out there, trapping a real man in a fake world for the sake of his must-see TV show, but he may argue with twisted logic that his robbing of Truman of his free will is protecting him from the unpredictability and danger of the real world. Truman may not be getting the full life experience but he is relatively safe in his little bubble.

The original film concept for Truman’s world was a more science fiction take on a large city like New York and was therefore prohibitively expensive, but it’s for the film’s betterment that they went for a Norman Rockwell 1950s perfect suburbia. Since the work of David Lynch and his usual aesthetic has become so recognisable, many of us automatically associate the white picket fences, immaculate green lawns, and smiling, well turned-out couples with something sinister lying just below the surface.

The film’s influence is almost incalculable. Not just direct references to it in movies in the years since, but even on psychology; “Truman Syndrome”, where someone has the unshakeable delusion that their life is a fiction manipulated by others, is now a real and diagnosable thing. Christof states that “We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented”. Many sci-fi writers – Philip K Dick, Ira Levin, Michael Crichton – have based their popular stories around the concept of simulating entire worlds, and the media we consume has taught us to be aware of fakery and perhaps pay too much attention to elaborate conspiracy theories.

On balance, this is probably Jim Carrey’s finest performance. He gets to goof off as a stereotypical quirky sitcom protagonist and then become increasingly unhinged as Truman starts to lose a grip on his reality, but there’s an innate tragedy to his character who has never really been allowed to live. His inevitably painful journey to the truth results in Carrey’s strongest dramatic turn alongside Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind . We love Truman just as his in-world audience does, and we want him to be happy and for him to succeed even if it means saying goodbye as he joins the throng of the real world.

24/7 entertainment that was only just becoming available when The Truman Show debuted in 1998 is now commonplace and expected by audiences, with reality television and semi-scripted “simulated reality” TV obsessively being watched around the world. Who knows whether it would have taken off to such an extent without the one-two-punch of ‘Big Brother’ and Peter Weir’s film. Even divorced from its titanic cultural influence, The Truman Show remains a meticulously crafted, stylistically subversive and powerful tragicomedy about what it means to live.

Score: 22/24

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You know what? I’ll agree with the score here. Certainly better than Sam’s usual six.

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The Truman Show Movie Analytical Essay

To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
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Directed by Peter Weir, ‘The Truman Show Movie’ is a captivating film produced in 1998. It is set in the city of New York. The film explores the life of a man who is not aware that the world is getting his every action through a television broadcast, whether eating or sleeping, since his childhood.

Employing the elements of literature, Weir uses characters like Truman Burbank, the major character, Silvia, Truman first love, Christof, the creator, among others. Truman has been enclosed for 30 years in a dome with a set ‘sea haven’ that captures everything that happens.

His life is under a strict control of his creator, Christof who ensures that he never suspects anything related to the show which only targets him. This overview tackles the writer’s purpose, the life of Truman in relation to that of Jesus Christ as well as that of Christof in relation to that of God.

Weir’s purpose in this film was to develop some crucial themes evident in the current world. He has clarified the theme of ‘the big picture’ referred to as a world in a world. “Since Truman lives in a television studio and doesn’t know the outside world exists, he is not able to see the big picture” (MacGaffin, 2007).

This relates to the people who believe in life after death, implying their imagination of another world different from their current one. Weir is showing the big picture people do not see. The theme of fear stands out clear in the film.

Truman is in deep fear of water and to arrest this situation he needs to seize it. The writer emphasizes on the various barriers that people encounter in life and that if they are in want of a better life, they ought to develop the courage of finding out this life by fighting all the hindering obstacles.

The theme of determination has also been developed. Truman has realized that he ought to cross the sea, though immeasurable, in order to get in touch with this other life he imagines of as being better than his current one. This is meant to induce the willpower of those who yearn for success showing them how it is possible for them to achieve their imaginings.

The film makes it clear that there exist similarities and differences between Truman and Jesus Christ. For instance, Truman is known everywhere just like Jesus Christ.

Basing on the birth and childhood life of Jesus Christ, it is evident that neither His ‘being conceived’ nor his ‘being born’ is liked by people of His time. This follows from the fact that His poor mother cannot get any, to offer her a place conducive for child bearing. He is born in a manger.

Truman on the other hand is an adopted kid selected from five redundant pregnancies showing how his birth is not welcomed. Also Jesus has lived on Earth where everything is not as He wishes it be. All is weird but he manages to conquer all temptations that can deprive Him is divine powers. So is Truman.

He realizes that his present environment is not what it ought to be for him and therefore manages to overcome any barrier that prevents him from attaining the one that suits him.

Contrary to Jesus, Truman is unaware of what is happening around him. Jesus knows everything even before it happens. Jesus is in love with the church as one body while Truman has two, Sylvia and Meryl, and behaves in some unpredictable manners unlike Jesus Christ.

Christof is likened to God, though there appears to be some striking differences between them. For instance, Christof being the author of Truman’s world relates to God who is the chief designer of humankind.

In addition, God is depicted as being in control of everything just like Christof is in control of Truman’s life. He prevents him from getting in touch with his real self. God is depicted as one who will speak from heaven, in a loud voice to the people, telling them the nature of His son and the day and hour of His coming to save people.

It also stands out that following Truman’s escape, Christof gets the opportunity to speak of Truman’s nature using loudspeakers. A major contrast between them is that God is omnipotent and able to overcome all powers but Christof powers are seen to be overcome by Truman when he manages to escape from the dome.

In conclusion, Weir has managed to clearly show how people are barred from reaching the top of their dreams. He has given a clear illustration of how barriers can be overcome and the kind of life expected as a result. His story is quite relevant even today for people who have been forced by circumstances to live a life dominated by stress and hardships. Weir has offered a working solution and that, determination knows no barrier.

Reference List

McGaffin, T. (2007). The Truman Show: A Metaphorical Analysis. Web.

Film History as Cultural Myth-Making
The Analysis of “That’s It for the Other One”
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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Its Production by Means of Detailed Planning, Storyboarding, and Collaboration
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IvyPanda. (2018, May 15). The Truman Show Movie. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-truman-show-movie/

"The Truman Show Movie." IvyPanda , 15 May 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/the-truman-show-movie/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'The Truman Show Movie'. 15 May.

IvyPanda . 2018. "The Truman Show Movie." May 15, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-truman-show-movie/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Truman Show Movie." May 15, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-truman-show-movie/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Truman Show Movie." May 15, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-truman-show-movie/.

Home / Essay Samples / Entertainment / The Truman Show / “The Truman Show” Review: A Dystopian Parable for the Digital Age

"The Truman Show" Review: A Dystopian Parable for the Digital Age

Category: Entertainment
Topic: Movie Review , The Truman Show

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