The Meaning of the Truman Show

My reflection on "The Truman Show"

Having watched this movie many times before the feeling that I get when I watch the Truman show never changes. This movie starring the hilarious Jim Carrey, is a movie filled with humour, sadness, anger, joy, redemption and everything in between. Its a movie that many people can relate to and will be a classic for many years to come. Even though nobody probably has ever experienced living a made up life broad casted all over the world for millions to see, there's more meaning to this movie then that. You or I may have experienced the same kinds of emotions and  hardships that the main character, Truman, goes through during the movie. Not only that but we may feel as humans living in a society filled with lots of influences by the media, we may sometimes feel the same way Truman does as trapped in a world that someone has created for us or made up. There are specific ways in which Truman reacts to the changes in media, culture, advancement in technology etc that everyone in the world watching the show can relate to. I think that this is a spectacular movie that portrays the different aspects in a way that a person may feel in our society today. I personally could watch this movie over and over on repeat if I could. I think its an amazing movie that has been a favorite of mine for years and will definitely will stay a movie classic for years to come.

The Truman Show Trailer

Summary of the article "The meaning of the Truman show" By Ken Sanes

 

The article "The meaning of the Truman show" shows the ways in which media depicts us, media, etc, portrayed in the movie. The writer explains how the media is changing and controlling people's lives. What the director of the movie is really trying to say. The movie shows that like the director in "The Truman Show" who planned Trumans every move before hand is exactly what the media is trying to do to its viewers. "The lifelikeness and seamlessness of media fabrications and the fact that they are entertaining, help induce this attitude in us." Like in this quote mentioned in the article, while watching these movies, tv shows and the news created by the modern media our attitudes change depending on what they tell us whats good or bad, right or wrong.

The writer also mentions what he thinks the director of this film was trying to portray when creating the screenplay. "As he makes his escape, and the producer of the show blocks him at every turn, that is the creators of the movie telling us that we too have to take a journey -- of mind -- and distance ourselves from this media landscape, if we want to secure our freedom." The writer belives that the director was trying to send a message to the people, saying that we need to part ourselves fromt he media. Truman represents us, the viewers, and the producers of "the truman show" in the movie represents the media. Even though the producers were trying so hard to get Truman to stay where they wanted him to, in the end he did what he thought was right even if it meant standing up to his fears and running away from the world which was created for him. Thats a great example of a metaphor shown in the film of what the media is trying to do to the viewers and what the viewers should be doing, creating some sort of distance from the made up world the media has created.

But while saying such great, postive things about the movie, the writer makes a very valid statement. " So the movie uses the manipulations of media in order to manipulate us into seeing through the manipulations of media." Even though this movie shows great metaphors about how badly the media can affect the people through manipulating them, this movie is basically doing the exact same thing. Manipulating the viewers to see the manipulations of the media. In the end, the problem just always seems to go back to the media and the way they portray certain things.

The final element depicted in the movie is the audience. Without the audience, the media in which people create wouldnt be possible. We created the media ourselves. As hard as we may try to get rid of it all together, theres something about it in which we always go running back to. "And both the audience and Truman portray our willingness to experience an easier and more exciting substitute for life, which is what fuels the media machine."

In conclusion, the people who are really responsible for the faults of media is us, the viewers. Without the viewers who keep going back each week to watch the same programs that we know are lies, are the reasons why media is portrayed the way it is. Viewers love the fighting, hating, loving, discriminating, stereotyping and mostly believing in what people have to say.

Do you agree with the writer's opinion? Justify your answer with valid reasons.

Yes I do agree with the writer's opinion. He has great points and validations that support what he has to say. It's true, people will believe anything that the news puts out there. No matter how big or small. Its controlling our lives and thats not where our world should be headed. With the media today, people can make us think whatever they please. We're like Truman, puppets who are told what to say and how to think. But I also think its not just the medias fault its the people's too. "And both the audience and Truman portray our willingness to experience an easier and more exciting substitute for life, which is what fuels the media machine." We as humans want to hear the things we want to hear. We have our own opinions and thoughts about certain things in life. Thats why people fight and get into arguments. To protect and honor their beliefs. If our lives consisted of waking up, going to school, doing homework, going to bed, that wouldn't make us happy. We need the little push, the fun, the fights. As much as people may hate to see people fight on tv, some people love that idea. And watching Truman live this perfect, planned life makes the audience watch more and wish they lived life the same way he does. There's some sort of hope there for people. So I can vouch for both sides of the fence. It's everyones fault, the way the media turned out to be. But should this stop? What will happen then?

How long has Truman been led to believe that he has been living a "Real Life"?

Truman was led to belive his whole life that he’s been living what he thinks to be a “real life”. Everything seemed real. From his parents and friends to his marriage has all been made up and planned for a tv show hes been working on his whole life. He doesn’t know otherwise. He thinks that his parents and friends are real people that love him dearly. And someone who you care for and trust with your life tells you something you would believe it. When his parents told him not to go some where or do something, of course he listend he thinks they’re his real life parents. I think that he had some suspicions after who he belives to be “laurnen” the love of his life, told him everything was made up. But at the same time he probably thought she was kind of crazy. If right now in this moment in life, someone came up to me and told me I was on a tv show and everything was made up, I would think that they were crazy too. There were no reasons for him to think anything was fake. Until the producers started to make mistakes that helped Truman realize what was really going on.

What film genre is The Truman Show?

If I was a movie critic and I were to pick what kind of genre this movie would be placed in I would say Drama. But I also think there were parts in this movie where I beilved it to be a thriller or comedy. The beginning of this movie started off kind of humorous. Jim Carrey who is known for doing all sorts of comedies was making a few jokes and did some pretty comedic actions. But once the movie got around 30 minutes in, it started to get kind of twisted and weird. I was very confused and didn’t really understand what was going on. Which can lead me to belive it was one of those psychological thriller movies. Towards the end when he’s running away from the producers, and they’re trying to get rid of him with the storms and police men and etc, it looked almost like an action film. If I were to walk into the movie right then and there I would think that there would be more fighting then that. But once the movie was over and I figured out what the moral of the story really was and what was really going on, it was 100% a drama.

The difinition of a drama is any situation or series of events having vivid, emotional, conflicting, or striking interest or results: the drama of a murder trial.

This movie definitely represents what drama is all about. It has the emotional scenes where Truman is confused about what is going on in his life. He started to understand what is really happening but at the same time doesn’t want to believe it and is scared to. There are the major conflicts in the story and the twists and turns of events that lead up to that. After he fights through his emotional battles and realizes he has to get out, there are lots of physical obstacles he has to fight. Things like the the cops, the ocean (which hes been scared of his whole life after his “father” died in the middle of the ocean) and so much more. In the end he gets his way and theres a striking result that makes viewers say wow. Through out the whole movie, the viewers are not only emotionally attatched to the character but keeps people watching and shocked with the movie’s crazy twists and turns of events. This movie definitely fits the criteria of a emotion filled drama.

Does this movie act as a metaphor for our own lives. Justify your answer with valid reasons.

Yes it does create a metaphor for our own lives. Not only did the writer of the article “the meaning of the Truman show” Ken Sanes mention that in his article. But I believe without a doubt this movie has many metaphors where the viewer can depict what the real metaphor is in the movie. There are many metaphors found in this movie, but the two major ones that I found are: 1) Truman had to get over his fears to be on his own and 2) how much the media affected Truman to make him think and believe he was living a normal life.

The producers of the show “ the Truman show” in the movie, created lots of barriers and obstacles to keep him in the confined area created for him. They got him afraid of water, gave him a perfect life, made his mother sick to make him be afraid of leaving his “home” and figure out for himself what is really going on. Even though there were so many physical obstacles that were created for Truman to stay in the confined dome, his emotional wants and needs easily took over. He wanted to find “Lauren” who he belives to be the love of his life and starts to rethink hard about what she had told him the last time they were together. And once the misatakes started to come about by the producers, it started to make perfect sense for him. I think that’s what our lives is all about. Even with the many physical obstacles were are put in front of, at the end of the day our emotional wants and needs are going to take over those obstacles. We will do the things that we want and will do everything it takes to get there.

The second metaphor I found is the media aspect. The producers of the show created news, tv shows, radio stations, magazines to make him believe things the way they wanted him to. technology isnt perfect, they used technology to try and fix the mistakes that were made by technology. They had made up newspapers, magazines articles and etc to make him believ the things that they wanted him to believe. When the show made the mistake of a light falling, they put it on the news for Truman to see and to try and fix the mistake that was created. Like Truman in our society today we believe almost everything that is said in the media. We want to believe certain stories are true. The media affects us alot on the way we think and is basically taking over our lives. These metaphors show the progression of our world today. Is this good? Is this bad? You be the judge. But do you really want to live in a world like Turman? Boxed in, never really know what's really going onin our world?