What Are The Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Truman Show?
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I chose this question to write about because I think it makes you explore all the depths of the film, and you really have to think hard about it. In my essay, I will be writing about many different types of things that come across the film and also things that can also resemble our real world which I will mention later.
As most people know by now, The Truman Show conveys a message by depicting a series of fateful events in the life of Truman Burbank, (played by Jim Carrey) who has grown up, and lives, in a fake town full of actors. The town is enclosed in a giant dome decked out with high-tech simulators of sun and sky, in which the rain and wind are controlled by the special effects department. Truman alone has no idea he is in a giant TV studio, as the rest of humanity watches him go from one staged situation to another in a nonstop telethon of reality programming.
But in this “perfect” paradise, there inevitably appears a snake. After the crew makes mistakes that cause the seamlessness of the illusion to break down, Truman figures out that his surroundings are full of staged scenes and events. He then tries to make his escape, only to come up against both his own fears, which keep him from leaving, and the obstacles put in his way by the producer-director who has made billions trapping him in a stage and playing God with his life.
In the beginning, 5 babies were born and the unlucky 1 was going to be picked and adopted by Christof. Christof has his own TV show which would show the baby’s life, from beginning to end. Truman Burbank was born at the right time to be in the show. So Christof, adopted the orphan, and placed him into the fake world, enclosed by a massive dome, as said in the film �along with the great wall of China, it is one of the largest man made structures which can be seen from space’ In the dome, a small town called Seahaven, was said to be the ideal world for Truman, and the actors, to live in. With the perfectly green cut grass and all the houses white and symmetrical, or so we think. Sadly, as Truman was only a baby, he could not choose to have a normal life, as a normal orphan, instead he was to be put into a fake world, where 24/7, he would be being filmed, and people could watch him anytime they wanted, by the millions of viewers.
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 to. 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 there 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 are world is like?’ TV shows have been bought 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 there 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, there 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.
Talking about fake, Truman’s �best friend’ called Marlon, also said a quote. The opening scenes of the film start of with Christof, then changes to Truman’s wife, and then Marlon. 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