The Truman Review (mini review #2)

Again with the Jim Carrey movies! The Truman Show was released in 1998, however, unlike Eternal Sunshine, The Truman Show does have those slapstick lines like "and if I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.” I’m going against by saying this, but this is a Jim Carrey Comedy that I actually like.

The plot is so fantastically simple, but it greatly reflects our media based world that we are creating. The movie follows the life of Truman who has a seemingly perfect life. But wait, there’s more! Every second of Truman’s life is actually documented on a 24 hour television show, called The Truman Show… hence the name. This has been going on all of his life without him noticing anything!

It’s only after a series of unfortunate events, that Truman realized that his is in fact, on a television show. 

This films deals with the idea of how we construct our own reality and why we shouldn’t play God. 


The creator of the show, Christof,

no not that Christof, this one, 

handpicked Truman as a baby to star in this television show. Christof is essentially playing God and if we didn’t learn that doing this was bad from Frankenstein, this film helps to relay that theme.

For a seemly simple plot line, I do find that this movie does have a hidden depth it to. To me, the movie is a statement about how much we rely on the media and the creator of that media to construct our daily lives. By this I mean how a content creator or the content itself is able to create this false reality where everything is perfect. Sometimes so wickedly perfect. Lets take this Britney Spears music video for example. 

I was still a kid when this video came out and it taught me that high school is this amazingly fun place where I will always get the guy and there will always be time for random dance breaks while wearing cool sweat pants. But unfortunately, this is not reality. As much as I wish! Media has the power to change and alter how we think and perceive things and I think that is the biggest message that this film is trying to convey.

I think this really reflect today’s Western world as we at the point were to some people, the construction that the media creates, is more important then actual reality. Like Eternal Sunshine, this movie made m look at how much beauty I am taking from the little things that other people may not be able to have, like the means to convey my opinions to you.

 

Also, maybe my social science geek is showing, but this would be an awesome case study. You could chart Truman’s development and specifically change his environment for things like if you wanted him to be raised with a British accents because why not? So you would build up this fake world around him and then when he is introduced to the “real world” see what kind of psychological effects that is has on him. Maybe I’m just looking to in depth in this. But hey, I’m over the word count!

I give this film 4.5 psychological disorders out of 5.

Here's the trailer: