Truman has to live in a world of lies; he is being controlled by Christof, who is acting like God, as he does control everything, like the actors, what they say and cameras etc. At the end of the film, he is even controlling the weather. Truman is escaping, and Christof is trying to stop him. As Christof is staring at Truman on the monitor, he says:
‘He was born in front of a live audience, don’t worry, he’s not willing to risk his life. His doubts will turn him back’
I believe it was wrong that Truman was controlled by Christof. He didn’t get a chance to have a proper life. Christof is denying Truman of his human rights.
As Truman has to live a controlled life with no true family or friends, he is living a life that is, and has been untrue from the very beginning. Truman was brought up by people he never knew as his own parents, but were really actors. He made friends with Marlon, who also wasn’t real. He was just an actor. There is a scene in the film where Christof is seen talking to Marlon in an ear piece, while Truman thinks Marlon is actually saying this, but instead Christof is telling him what to say through the earpiece. This shows Truman is a victim. He believes his friend, but in fact he is being controlled by Christof.
Not only Truman had to spend part of his life in Seahaven, the other actors did too. Even though the other people in the reality show, including Marlon, are all actors. They are employed to act on a show for the majority of their life. Everyone is fully aware of what they signed up for because there all willing to help and go forward with the idea to help and keep Truman under control.
At the end of the film, there is a scene where Christof is talking to Truman, because Truman has reached a door, at then end of the dome, and he has the chance to leave, but Christof tries to persuade Truman to stay. He says a quote:
‘There is no more truth out there, than there is in this world I created for you. The same lies, the same deceit. In my world, you have nothing to fear.’
I believe that this quote is trying to say that if Truman left his controlled, “perfect” life, he will be going into a world which he would believe is all wrong, because everything Truman did in Seahaven, it was controlled, yet in the real world, it’s not.
Thinking about the film, and seeing how it is controlled, you can think to yourself, ‘is that what our world is like?’ TV shows have been brought out, for example, Big Brother, where people know they are being watched by viewers all around the UK. At the beginning of the film, the opening scene is of Christof, talking to the camera, and he says this
‘We’ve become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions’
In Big Brother, some of the contestants fake their personality, hiding there true inner-selves because they want to be the winner of the reality show and win the prize money, when really, in true life, they’re nothing like the fake person they were in the show.
Going back to the film, Christof does mention this quote about Truman
‘There’s nothing fake about Truman himself’
Hence why he is called Truman, because he is the only true man in the TV show, he is the only one who thinks he is living a true life, but instead, it is full of actors and he has a controlled life.
The opening scenes of the film start of with Christof, then changes to Truman’s wife, and then Marlon being interviewed about the show they act on and he says
‘It’s all true, it’s all real, nothing here is fake, nothing you see on this show is fake, it’s merely controlled’
That quote is saying itself that Truman’s life is controlled and everything that happens to him is all watched under the watchful eye of Christof.
Like the Truman Show, cameras are all around the huge set of Seahaven, and if you imagined the fake world of Seahaven, and replaced it with the real life of London, you would see no difference. There is to be rumoured around 50,000 CCTV cameras around London.
Yes of course Truman will not act up to the camera because he doesn’t know he is being filmed and watched by millions of viewers. And even though near the end of the film he started to find out that he was being watched by people, and yet he still didn’t act up to the cameras.
Seeing that the world is like the Truman show, people may start to think, after they have watched the film, that our world is, or turning out to be like the Truman show. I think that if we keep going the way we are, with installing more cameras everywhere, and not just London, we will end up, being like the Truman show. Not to the effect where one person is in a fake world, just the aspect of all the cameras watching everyone, and not just Truman.
After watching the film several times, you begin to think of all the different layers there are to the film. That adds a good affect to the film because it makes you think about it. Overall I would say there would be about 7 layers. Firstly you have the director of the film, Peter Weir. Then you have all the camera crew, and all the people involved in to helping make the film. Thirdly you have all the actors of the film, Jim Carrey, Ed Harris. Then, you have the people in the show; first you have the director, Christof. And again you have the camera crew, but they are all actors. Second to last, you have Truman’s friends and family, Meryl, Marlon. And lastly, you have Truman himself. And all of this makes you think that the film is really complex, but you just have to brake it down, and take it in piece by piece.
Apart from the film being rather confusing, it also makes you think that it would never happen in real life. If some people wanted it to happen, there would be uproar in media world and in people in general. Having to build a man-made structure which can be seen from earth, would result in destroying a vast amount of land area, possibly where people live, and creating houses, shops, and industry buildings. I think if that did happen and did go on TV, I feel that if the show had gone on more than about 3months tops, people would start to get very bored of it and viewers would drop because they are getting bored. I personally think that if this did happen in real life, so many people would be against having a baby put in a TV show from the very beginning. Even though Truman was an orphan, he should have still got the chance to have a childhood. And all babies should, if there orphaned, or have parents.
In the Truman show, all the actors and Truman himself live in symmetrical houses. All things are the same. All the houses are painted white, all the grass is the perfect colour green, and perfectly cut. With the occasional houses who have gnomes or other ornaments. You only get to see the inside of one of these houses and that of course is Truman’s house. His home has the 1950’s style furniture, and they wear “preppy” style clothing. None of the cars are extra special; they are all modern and simple. Extras who wanted to be a part of the show would need some place to stay, and they would probably stay in one of these houses. If they were not keen on the styles they had chosen for them that was pretty bad luck on them because everything is based on that particular era of style in that time. All clothes the men and women wear were smart. All the furniture would look old to us, but to them, a unique, and a nice touch to there home. Personally, if I was given the offer to work as an extra on the Truman show, I would not have taken it. 1950’s style clothes and home furniture really doesn’t appeal to me.
I think the film was a real success. Newsweek said: ‘The Truman Show is a miraculous movie’. The greatest strength of the film is when Truman’s life starts to become stranger to him. As the film moves on, weird things start to happen to Truman which makes him think. For example, when he was driving to work one day listening to the radio, something goes wrong and he picks up a commentary of a man speaking about Truman and following his every move. Truman starts to discover the truth about where he is. In the end he makes a run for it, sailing out to the sea and hits the end, by then he finds out by Christof, the real truth.
However I think the greatest weakness of the film is that Truman is found to be very gullible for how long they could have kept the show running. When electrical equipment fell from the sky or studio, Truman was tricked by the radio saying that an aeroplane had dropped some of its cargo.
