“The Truman Show” is, in essence, a satire of the media’s pervasion into every single aspect of our daily lives: what we see, hear, smell, touch, and even taste. Instead of we ourselves running our lives, the media is telling us how to live, what to want, and even censoring what is unwanted, i.e. anything that would harm their profits. This is evinced in the film as everything around the main character, Truman Burbank, is planted and scripted to a point that, at times, it becomes too insanely outlandish even for us as the viewers to believe, such as the falling of a random object from the sky, and the forced advertising. The stripping away of personal privacy (mostly to the ignorance of the victim) is evinced in the film, where there are hidden cameras everywhere - even in the newsstand where Truman gets his news from - to record every little thing that Truman does. Note the irony in the before stated example. All of this is largely exaggerated in the film, but only as an attempt to make this more obvious to the viewer; in real life, the media would never want to let this be exposed to the victim.
Truman Burbank, the star of The Truman Show (only within the film) was a prematurely born baby who fit into The Truman Show’s start of production deadline, and was thus taken into the show. Everything that he does is spontaneous and unscripted, unlike everyone and everything else. This is the selling point of The Truman Show - reality TV that is unscripted - but only for the main character. This is much like the reality shows aired nowadays, such as Survivor or The Amazing Race. For the duration of these programmes, which is relatively short compared to that in The Truman Show, the main characters’ privacy disappears, they have no scripts to read off, and everything else is planned and scripted. In The Truman Show, the period of the programme is extended to over Truman Burbank’s entire life-span. He is influenced by the producers and thus the actors to think and act exactly as they want him too, reminiscent of a totalitarian government dictating how their people should think and act. When he deviates from the expected course of action, the media in the movie takes steps to prevent his departure: from the unavailability of flights out of Seahaven, the constructed town Truman resides in, to flaming pyrotechnics devised to deter him from wanting to escape. Even his “wife” and “best friend” tell him, when he wants to leave, that it is a bad idea and that he should never even attempt to act it out. This is, in essence, Truman being told what to think and do. Departing from this constructed reality, we realize that in our very own lives, the media is committing the exact same unthinkable act - dictating to us individuals what we want in our lives, and how we want to live it.
Seahaven! At first sight, it seems a friendly subrural urban town, but slightly too perfect - personally reminding me of Pleasantville, a movie where perfection is too forced. This perfection is not worked for by Truman himself, but pushed onto him by the producers and actors of The Truman Show. “The American Dream” is more or less that of gaining personal prosperity through hard work, perseverance, courage, and the likes of it. Therefore, the perfection in this little “seaside town” does not tie in with The American Dream, as Truman simply does not have to work for his own prosperity within the constructed reality that is Seahaven. Even in his romance life, this is found to be true, for his future wife unnaturally intrudes into his life even as he is eyeing another girl in his fake college. Seahaven does seem to be an ideal place for Truman Burbank to live out the American Dream, but since it is all false and phony and provided straight to him, does that not defeat the purpose of the Dream? The American Dream is of achieving prosperity, and Truman is spoon-fed prosperity.
As the programme maker of the Truman Show, Christoff's role was to plan the whole production and oversee it so that it runs the way that he wants it to. From the beginning, Truman’s entire life was dictated by him, and specific examples include Truman’s father’s suggestion to go fishing, as well as the artificial storms that were created in two cases, one to remove his father from his life, and another in an attempt to prevent his departure from Seahaven. The “loss” of his father, which he associated with the conjured storm, gave him such a traumatic experience and left a deep scar within him, manifested as his hydrophobia. The context of his acquiring of hydrophobia is to a point as to render his irrational fear unnatural. This is precisely the objective of Christoff, the director of this programme, that is, to enliven the “plot” of the Truman show, creating unexpected plot twists and events so as to break away from a routine lifestyle, thus capturing the attention of viewers spectating Truman’s life in the reality outside of Seahaven. In today’s world, programme makers are the ones in control, scripting and planning all the events for the audience’s viewing, especially in shows such as Survivor and Fear Factor. The Truman Show is merely an exaggeration of this power that the programme makers wield over the programme (which is actually blatantly implied in their title) to such an extent that even the weather’s mood can be adjusted to suit Christoff's preferences or intentions. In the Truman Show, even the “sun” in Seahaven’s constructed reality is at his command. In a similar way, the television programmes which we view for viewing’s sake have become a portal that channels the personalities of the scriptwriters and programme makers. This is largely similar to advertising in today’s world: products in the past were catered to customer’s needs, whereas today’s products are largely for luxury, so advertising is used to create a sense of need for the product. In these cases, it is the producer’s intent that is manifested. Christoff’s mention of there being “no more truth out there than what we have given you” only supplements this idea.
In the film, Christoff remarked how much we “accept the reality of the world as it is presented to us.” This quote, giving food for thought, exposes truly how vulnerable we are to the media as well as the extent of its influence over the tiniest details of our daily lives, even in the bathroom or with friends. In the instance of the film, Truman Burbank has been accepting as reality the false facts he has been presented with all his life, but he only became vaguely cognizant of it when a malfunction of his car radio allowed him to overhear an unknown individual tracking his whereabouts.. This raises a rather existentialist question: what is real? How real are the lives we lead? Are we all being spoonfed a dose of constructed reality, much like the entire human race in the 1997 film The Matrix? Be that as it may, this is not the beginning of a psychotic breakdown nor even a transcendence into a higher form of consciousness. Truman’s journey to having an epiphany gives inspiration to us in that people are inquisitive by nature, always spouting questions and seeking answers. This curiosity, fatal only to felines, is the fundamental basis of our technological advance over the centuries. Difficulty and resistance to this unquenchable thirst for truth only renders us slightly slower; in the end, we will get there, much like Truman’s long journey from Seahaven to the portal to the real world. Ultimately, intuition will allow us to vaguely discern truth from lies and when given the chance, when we are empowered, it is likely that we will the right decisions for ourselves. Thus, no matter how hard an external power tries to influence our subconscious and dictate to us how we should live our lives, this external power cannot overcome the sheer mulishness and individual survival instinct that is so firmly embedded within our hearts and minds; the media can mask it, overwhelm it, but individualism can never truly be destroyed if it truly exists.
Kersh, Serena, Jamie, Arjun from 09S06J
Truman Burbank, the star of The Truman Show (only within the film) was a prematurely born baby who fit into The Truman Show’s start of production deadline, and was thus taken into the show. Everything that he does is spontaneous and unscripted, unlike everyone and everything else. This is the selling point of The Truman Show - reality TV that is unscripted - but only for the main character. This is much like the reality shows aired nowadays, such as Survivor or The Amazing Race. For the duration of these programmes, which is relatively short compared to that in The Truman Show, the main characters’ privacy disappears, they have no scripts to read off, and everything else is planned and scripted. In The Truman Show, the period of the programme is extended to over Truman Burbank’s entire life-span. He is influenced by the producers and thus the actors to think and act exactly as they want him too, reminiscent of a totalitarian government dictating how their people should think and act. When he deviates from the expected course of action, the media in the movie takes steps to prevent his departure: from the unavailability of flights out of Seahaven, the constructed town Truman resides in, to flaming pyrotechnics devised to deter him from wanting to escape. Even his “wife” and “best friend” tell him, when he wants to leave, that it is a bad idea and that he should never even attempt to act it out. This is, in essence, Truman being told what to think and do. Departing from this constructed reality, we realize that in our very own lives, the media is committing the exact same unthinkable act - dictating to us individuals what we want in our lives, and how we want to live it.
Seahaven! At first sight, it seems a friendly subrural urban town, but slightly too perfect - personally reminding me of Pleasantville, a movie where perfection is too forced. This perfection is not worked for by Truman himself, but pushed onto him by the producers and actors of The Truman Show. “The American Dream” is more or less that of gaining personal prosperity through hard work, perseverance, courage, and the likes of it. Therefore, the perfection in this little “seaside town” does not tie in with The American Dream, as Truman simply does not have to work for his own prosperity within the constructed reality that is Seahaven. Even in his romance life, this is found to be true, for his future wife unnaturally intrudes into his life even as he is eyeing another girl in his fake college. Seahaven does seem to be an ideal place for Truman Burbank to live out the American Dream, but since it is all false and phony and provided straight to him, does that not defeat the purpose of the Dream? The American Dream is of achieving prosperity, and Truman is spoon-fed prosperity.
As the programme maker of the Truman Show, Christoff's role was to plan the whole production and oversee it so that it runs the way that he wants it to. From the beginning, Truman’s entire life was dictated by him, and specific examples include Truman’s father’s suggestion to go fishing, as well as the artificial storms that were created in two cases, one to remove his father from his life, and another in an attempt to prevent his departure from Seahaven. The “loss” of his father, which he associated with the conjured storm, gave him such a traumatic experience and left a deep scar within him, manifested as his hydrophobia. The context of his acquiring of hydrophobia is to a point as to render his irrational fear unnatural. This is precisely the objective of Christoff, the director of this programme, that is, to enliven the “plot” of the Truman show, creating unexpected plot twists and events so as to break away from a routine lifestyle, thus capturing the attention of viewers spectating Truman’s life in the reality outside of Seahaven. In today’s world, programme makers are the ones in control, scripting and planning all the events for the audience’s viewing, especially in shows such as Survivor and Fear Factor. The Truman Show is merely an exaggeration of this power that the programme makers wield over the programme (which is actually blatantly implied in their title) to such an extent that even the weather’s mood can be adjusted to suit Christoff's preferences or intentions. In the Truman Show, even the “sun” in Seahaven’s constructed reality is at his command. In a similar way, the television programmes which we view for viewing’s sake have become a portal that channels the personalities of the scriptwriters and programme makers. This is largely similar to advertising in today’s world: products in the past were catered to customer’s needs, whereas today’s products are largely for luxury, so advertising is used to create a sense of need for the product. In these cases, it is the producer’s intent that is manifested. Christoff’s mention of there being “no more truth out there than what we have given you” only supplements this idea.
In the film, Christoff remarked how much we “accept the reality of the world as it is presented to us.” This quote, giving food for thought, exposes truly how vulnerable we are to the media as well as the extent of its influence over the tiniest details of our daily lives, even in the bathroom or with friends. In the instance of the film, Truman Burbank has been accepting as reality the false facts he has been presented with all his life, but he only became vaguely cognizant of it when a malfunction of his car radio allowed him to overhear an unknown individual tracking his whereabouts.. This raises a rather existentialist question: what is real? How real are the lives we lead? Are we all being spoonfed a dose of constructed reality, much like the entire human race in the 1997 film The Matrix? Be that as it may, this is not the beginning of a psychotic breakdown nor even a transcendence into a higher form of consciousness. Truman’s journey to having an epiphany gives inspiration to us in that people are inquisitive by nature, always spouting questions and seeking answers. This curiosity, fatal only to felines, is the fundamental basis of our technological advance over the centuries. Difficulty and resistance to this unquenchable thirst for truth only renders us slightly slower; in the end, we will get there, much like Truman’s long journey from Seahaven to the portal to the real world. Ultimately, intuition will allow us to vaguely discern truth from lies and when given the chance, when we are empowered, it is likely that we will the right decisions for ourselves. Thus, no matter how hard an external power tries to influence our subconscious and dictate to us how we should live our lives, this external power cannot overcome the sheer mulishness and individual survival instinct that is so firmly embedded within our hearts and minds; the media can mask it, overwhelm it, but individualism can never truly be destroyed if it truly exists.
Kersh, Serena, Jamie, Arjun from 09S06J
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