The Truman Show Review

It appears to be a simple life on the island of Seahaven, where Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) has a perfect wife, a best friend who he can tell anything to, a career, a neighbourhood where neighbours are incredibly friendly. His whole life seems as average as any man’s life, except for the fact that Truman entire life has no truth. In reality, Truman is one of the five unwanted pregnancy. He was adopted by a film company and raised in a studio of actors and stage props. From the day of his birth, thousands and millions of people around the world watch him. He is surrounded by actors in one big studio and regularly followed by hidden cameras throughout “the island”. He is the star of a 24 hour popular television show known as The Truman Show. The entire world is watching his every move whether he is eating, sleeping or working. Everyone knows but not him. To Truman, this is his life, this is his reality, this is the way it has always been.

Daylight, sunset, traffic, people, it’s real but not real. Truman has always wanted to travel but never succeeded. Like in his high school year, he wanted to be an explorer and his teacher right away tell him that there are nothing to explore or his wanting to go to Fiji to find his love. It has been stopped by one way or another. His entire life is monitored and controlled. Once in a while, he finds very odd things like a stage light fall from the sky, rain only on him and not his surrounding, or the radio talks about where he is going to go, a total stranger calling him by his name. This didn’t keep Truman wondering until he falls in love with an extra. Truman finds a studio behind the elevator of a building that normally isn’t on his routine. Even more frustrated, Truman looks back into his photo albums to find his wife crossed finger in their wedding photo. For 30 years being trapped, he has finally decides to leave Seaheaven. Christof, the director of the show who has been monitoring Truman from the start and as always, he tries to keep him trap ever since and he is not going to let him go just now.

Jim Carrey successfully potrayed Truman as a moral person and as a star on his own with every emotional journey that Truman took. Carrey gives us an unpredictable and unique Truman. We never could have guess what Truman is going to do, Carrey surprise us with every bits and every move of Truman. Truman is funny, honest and as well as a star of a show that he doesn’t know exist. The very aspect of his life is well planned and shaped by the “people” surrounding him, who have hidden in-earphone. Jim Carrey was a “Perfect Truman”  and a talented actor. He can change his expression much more than anyonen else.

Ed Harris – Christof the director of the show was also very well potrayed. He is obsessed with watching and controlling Truman’s life as we;; as being a father to him.

Here the filming techniques was extremely well planned from different angles to create different moods. The audience can immediately know when something unexpected happens. There are three main style of camera, the “hidden camera” style, the normal type and the barrel gun type. Having hidden camera style with black haze around, scattered around the town to give the idea that the place is a film set. It stayed in one position with no panning or turning point. The normal type was used very carefully to give audience a sense of a story rather than a reality show because this is a story of Truman discovering the truth of his life. The normal style is average to any other movie in relation to how the story is being told. Toward the end of the film, the third style was used to give us a sense of discovery, of the world closing behind Truman. There are wide angle lense, some unusual camera angles and special “camera” hidden in more mobile places like Truman’s ring, his wife Meryl’s necklace and one bouy camera along the water surface ready to shoot when if Truman is offshore.

In history of movie making, audiences have been fascinated by the idea of watching other people real lives. These start with the need of artificial lighting, sound recording to create different weather conditions, different timing. Since then, filming techniques and styles have developed so that we can make “our subject” less aware of the film process. Many, like Truman, are not happy to be included in a production like this, having the entire world watching you. Producers and filmakers don’t realize that to others, television isn’t part of their daily lives and may become something that they will regret later on. Truman doesn’t know that he is part of a TV show neither was he truly imformed consent. We don’t get to see a great deal of what is behind the finish product. Film making process might take 5 years and we can only see a 2 hours short. Director chooses what to show and what not, give audience a certain meaning and image.

What is the message of this movie? It’s a complex one. One might say the message is obvious, one might say it has different meanings. Many obvious one are about the way media is beginning to make an impact on people’s lives. The way Truman’s wife always advertise “Moco- cocoa” and the “Chef’s pal” to Truman’s best friend who buy the same beer pack for years tells us that celebrities advertise products that they have no need for. It is also about how reality TV can change aspect of people’s lives. The two old ladies, the bartenders, the police officer, the family, the man in the bathtub who never seems to leave – They are all people who their lives is wasted in front of television. They find comfort in watching these reality show. Same as today with show like the Apprentice or the Big brother. The message here is the impact that media made nowaday, it has the power to control and change people’s thoughts of lives, making them believe that having something is so important than what it really is. They manipulate us. If one day, the press decides to make change people’s perspective of believe in certain things, it could easily done within a day. For example if this made the headline: “Supermarkets provide poisonous food”. Within a day, many would gladly stop consuming from Supermarkets. The film bring the message to those who can understand and read it, it’s meant to change people’s perspective of the media and the press.