The Truman Show - Too Real
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Jan. 20, 2021 • By Jason Elhilow
DescriptionA review that takes the 1998 classic and dissects it to see the hidden meanings within.
MessageWe recommend watching The Truman Show to form your own opinions about the movie.
Image
Paramount PicturesTruman is your average man in an average town with average friends and family. He lives on Seahaven Island, a beautiful island off the coast of… well, who cares! For him, life is perfect. He is a 30-year-old insurance employee, has a wife, a best friend, and always wakes up cheerful. Too good to be true, right? It sounds too heavenly. Well, this might explain why.
Everything said above, all of it, is a lie. Truman Burbank, born into fame, actually is one of the most popular people in the world. His friends and family are just actors, and Seahaven, that's just a stage (more like a dome in the middle of Hollywood). He lives in a TV show, or, more like, he is the TV show. As an infant, he and a few other children were being chosen as the next star of the century. One of them, being unwanted babies, would be picked to have their entire lives broadcasted on television 24/7.
The brainchild behind the in-universe show is Christof, a sincere and smart businessman, who had the idea to make the most realistic reality TV show possible, one that showed the unfiltered, unedited life of one person. This person was Truman.
The Truman Show is a 1998 film directed by Peter Weir. It studies the philosophical ideas of life and explores the question of free will. The movie makes you wonder about your life, and whether or not anything you do is truly real or just set up.
It was made on a $60 million budget ($20 million under budget), and when released, became an instant hit, grossing $264.1 million at the box office. This was probably due to its almost mind-boggling study of the modern world, where it’s heading, and as I said before, makes you question everything. Besides that, it was also likely successful to its great ensemble of actors, for, at the time, they were some of the most popular in Hollywood. This included Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, Ed Harris as Christof, Laura Linney as Truman’s wife Meryl, Noah Emmerich as Truman’s friend Marlon, and his secret love interest Sylvia, played by Natascha McElhone.
Here is a quick description of the movie: The Truman Show is about Truman Burbank, who at birth was chosen to be the star of the show. It follows his life day by day, hour by hour, through all the twists and turns of what seems to be a utopian life. He lost his “father” one day while they were sailing on a stormy day, which instilled a fear of the oceans and water. That is extremely convenient for Christof and his team, as it made it almost impossible for him to leave Seahaven, an island. Truman's life for the past 30 years has gone normally, believing that the more obvious signs of his life being manufactured are just normal parts of the world. These include the built-in advertisements/product placements weaved into his everyday life that help the show stay on 24/7 with no advertisement breaks.
All in all for Truman, everything was as usual. He lived in an American Dream town with the ideal life. But, when some strange occurrences finally catch his attention, things start to get interesting. The first one was when a light fixture literally fell out of the sky, right onto the street Truman was standing on. He, not knowing what it was or where it came from, was extremely confused. Then, another strange incident happened, as the classical radio station he listened to every day was picking up the crew’s behind-the-scenes signal, blasting Truman’s every move into his car. (Another weirder one was when Truman saw a homeless man that looked like his father, but that one is less crucial). But lastly, and this one really matters, when his long-time secret lover Sylvia takes him on a small date and tells him everything about his life and the show, before she is ushered away from the scene.
All of these signs put Truman’s view of his world upside down. Everything, his whole life, was a lie. The discovery sent him on a spiral, as he went on to have a multitude of rants and outbursts to different people to learn the truth. This leads him to his ultimate goal of escape, as he heads on a boat, facing his fear of water, and sails for as far as he can see. For a while, you question if he would even get there, as Christof commanded everyone to throw whatever they could at him to stop his escape.
Luckily, Truman makes it through all the torment, and at the end of his voyage, he is met with a wall, covered in a fake skyline and a mysterious door. It opens up into the deep void, forcing him to answer the toughest decision ever: should he escape paradise and confront the real world with free will and hardships, or forever stay in his cage where nothing could go ever wrong?
Whether or not he should escape is up to you. On the one hand, you could say it was right for Truman to escape, so he can decide what he wants to do with his life. But at the same time, Christof gave him a perfect life where nothing isn’t as utopian and wonderful as possible. It's a question of perfection over realism; either having a world where everything is tailored and made just for you, or a world where your life could be good, bad, or disastrous.
That’s the question of The Truman Show, whether or not life should be perfect. Who is correct? Is paradise truly perfect, or are the difficulties of life what make it so interesting? What The Truman Show gives you is a stripped-down, hard truth, realistic view of how human life could be spent. And that’s just scratching the surface of the real and deep meaning behind the movie's brilliance.
Everything said above, all of it, is a lie. Truman Burbank, born into fame, actually is one of the most popular people in the world. His friends and family are just actors, and Seahaven, that's just a stage (more like a dome in the middle of Hollywood). He lives in a TV show, or, more like, he is the TV show. As an infant, he and a few other children were being chosen as the next star of the century. One of them, being unwanted babies, would be picked to have their entire lives broadcasted on television 24/7.
The brainchild behind the in-universe show is Christof, a sincere and smart businessman, who had the idea to make the most realistic reality TV show possible, one that showed the unfiltered, unedited life of one person. This person was Truman.
The Truman Show is a 1998 film directed by Peter Weir. It studies the philosophical ideas of life and explores the question of free will. The movie makes you wonder about your life, and whether or not anything you do is truly real or just set up.
It was made on a $60 million budget ($20 million under budget), and when released, became an instant hit, grossing $264.1 million at the box office. This was probably due to its almost mind-boggling study of the modern world, where it’s heading, and as I said before, makes you question everything. Besides that, it was also likely successful to its great ensemble of actors, for, at the time, they were some of the most popular in Hollywood. This included Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, Ed Harris as Christof, Laura Linney as Truman’s wife Meryl, Noah Emmerich as Truman’s friend Marlon, and his secret love interest Sylvia, played by Natascha McElhone.
Here is a quick description of the movie: The Truman Show is about Truman Burbank, who at birth was chosen to be the star of the show. It follows his life day by day, hour by hour, through all the twists and turns of what seems to be a utopian life. He lost his “father” one day while they were sailing on a stormy day, which instilled a fear of the oceans and water. That is extremely convenient for Christof and his team, as it made it almost impossible for him to leave Seahaven, an island. Truman's life for the past 30 years has gone normally, believing that the more obvious signs of his life being manufactured are just normal parts of the world. These include the built-in advertisements/product placements weaved into his everyday life that help the show stay on 24/7 with no advertisement breaks.
All in all for Truman, everything was as usual. He lived in an American Dream town with the ideal life. But, when some strange occurrences finally catch his attention, things start to get interesting. The first one was when a light fixture literally fell out of the sky, right onto the street Truman was standing on. He, not knowing what it was or where it came from, was extremely confused. Then, another strange incident happened, as the classical radio station he listened to every day was picking up the crew’s behind-the-scenes signal, blasting Truman’s every move into his car. (Another weirder one was when Truman saw a homeless man that looked like his father, but that one is less crucial). But lastly, and this one really matters, when his long-time secret lover Sylvia takes him on a small date and tells him everything about his life and the show, before she is ushered away from the scene.
All of these signs put Truman’s view of his world upside down. Everything, his whole life, was a lie. The discovery sent him on a spiral, as he went on to have a multitude of rants and outbursts to different people to learn the truth. This leads him to his ultimate goal of escape, as he heads on a boat, facing his fear of water, and sails for as far as he can see. For a while, you question if he would even get there, as Christof commanded everyone to throw whatever they could at him to stop his escape.
Luckily, Truman makes it through all the torment, and at the end of his voyage, he is met with a wall, covered in a fake skyline and a mysterious door. It opens up into the deep void, forcing him to answer the toughest decision ever: should he escape paradise and confront the real world with free will and hardships, or forever stay in his cage where nothing could go ever wrong?
Whether or not he should escape is up to you. On the one hand, you could say it was right for Truman to escape, so he can decide what he wants to do with his life. But at the same time, Christof gave him a perfect life where nothing isn’t as utopian and wonderful as possible. It's a question of perfection over realism; either having a world where everything is tailored and made just for you, or a world where your life could be good, bad, or disastrous.
That’s the question of The Truman Show, whether or not life should be perfect. Who is correct? Is paradise truly perfect, or are the difficulties of life what make it so interesting? What The Truman Show gives you is a stripped-down, hard truth, realistic view of how human life could be spent. And that’s just scratching the surface of the real and deep meaning behind the movie's brilliance.
Sources
“The Truman Show.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truman_Show. Accessed 20 April 2022.
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