| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998) |
| Director | Peter Weir |
| Writer | Andrew Niccol |
| Lead Actor | Jim Carrey |
| Cast | Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney |
| Genre | Comedy, Drama |
| Release Date | June 5, 1998 (United States) |
| Duration | 1h 43m(103 min) |
| Budget | $60 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDB Rating | 6.7/10 |
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THE TRUMAN SHOW
The hero discovers that he’s the only “real” person in the world, and that the entire universe has been constructed to test his worthiness for eternal life. (That bit of paranoia is useful in moments of extreme temptation.)
That’s not quite Truman, but it’s close. Jim Carrey is the cheery, lovable, optimistic fall guy/hero in Aussie director Peter Weir’s funny sad summer hit satire of television and its potential for mischief. Poor Truman doesn’t know he’s the only real person in his life, which is being played out on a vast TV set with actors and extras (even for parents, wife and best friend) and a fake ocean and sky.
As an unwanted fetus adopted by a corporation, Truman is a poignant example of a human being used for the profit and amusement of others. (Consider our “real” world on the brink of cloning, fetal and embryo research, and the “creation” of disposable people.) Observed by 5,000 cameras, Truman is the unwitting star of a 30 year series popular around the outside the set world he’s never seen.
While his actions within these confines seem “free,” all the events are really controlled by an egoistic creator director, Christof (bespectacled and bereted Ed Harris). The scenario by New Zealander Andrew Niccol (Gattaca) is about how the good natured Truman discovers his situation and rebels.
He tries to escape, while Christof pulls out all his special effects (the climax is a whopping storm at sea) to stop him, and TV watchers root for a happy ending. (When the episode is over, a restless viewer says to his friend, “Let’s see what else is on.”)
Weir (Witness, Dead Poets Society) often mixes entertainment and significance. Truman is funny, not only because Carrey (under some restraint) is in it but because it plays its premise constantly for jokes. For example, it’s important that Truman never wants to leave his idyllic little fake town of Seaview. Whenever he tries, comic barriers are put in his way.
It also belongs in the company of imaginative films, some mocking TV and its creators and audience (Fahrenheit 451, Network), others challenging our ideas of the nature of reality itself (Groundhog Day, Purple Rose of Cairo). In Truman, the target is TV’s obsession with both showing “real life” and simultaneously controlling it, which leads here to the total manipulation of a man’s life and the ultimate violation of his privacy, dignity and freedom.
There is also a theological twist, given the miracle working, godlike characteristics of Christof in his distant control room. He’s cruel and dominating, even if his aim is benign: to protect Truman from a “sick” world. Christof is a megalomaniac who wants to be God. However you mine it, a brainy, fun movie, accessible to mature youth and a wide range of serious and casual adults.
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