Week 4 : The Truman Show

Week 4 Journal Entry

The Truman Show

I had watched this movie a long time ago when I was young, but never realized the hidden philosophical messages behind the story or the strong criticism it has towards mass media. Back then, I had simply treated it as an entertaining movie. Now, after all the media related subjects I had gone through each semester, I could relate what I learned in class while I was watching the movie. The Truman show is certainly more than just an entertaining movie with Jim Carrey starring in it. It is a movie that questions media and it’s control on people’s lives.

To begin, the synopsis of the story is about 29-year old Truman Burbanks (Jim Carrey) whose whole life has been broadcasted to the world through the television screen. Every move he makes is broadcasted live through the abundant amount of cameras in his town called Sea Heaven (in actuality it is a very large set made specifically for him to live an ideal life). The Executive Producer, Christof, or as I called him throughout the movie ‘The Director’, tries to control Truman’s life, even going through such heights as removing his love interest, Sylvia. Throughout the show however, Truman begins to notice the truth and risks his life to escape the false reality created for him.

There are several themes that I noticed in the movie, the first one I’d like to talk about is the manipulation of someone’s life through media. Truman had lived his life completely unaware that he was being watched by millions of people all over the globe. Did he deserve this kind of life? Did the producers of the show have any right over his life? Control who he falls in love with or what he does? Whilst it is as much as the producers blame for the show, the media consumers, us, is also the main cause for the kind of life he has been living. Without viewers, the Truman Show wouldn’t have survived. The media consumers simply asked for more and more content to be made for the Truman Show, pushing him to his limit. The Kardashians serve as a modern example of media manipulation by the masses. Although The Kardashians receive mixed reviews from its viewers and is both widely mocked and admired, their popularity always seems to stay high.

The Truman Show also gave us hints of references to God. For example, the Director has total control of Truman’s life, as if he is playing God. What and when something happens in his life is fully controlled by him, and the only thing he can’t control, which Truman delightfully mentioned at the end of the movie, is the fact that he can’t control his mind. My friends also mentioned what he noticed at the end of the movie, which were references to Noah and the arc. When Truman was about to leave his ‘heaven’ and into the real world by, he rode his ship through horrific waves, and managed reach the wall. When he ‘walked on water’ and spoke to the sun. His whole journey was also in reference to the fact that his whole world was against him and his strong beliefs. 

In the end, The Truman Show was a movie that speaks on what lengths one would go through to find out the truth and the media strong involvement in hiding it. Truman was Eve, following his curiosity to eat the forbidden apple.