The Truman Show (1998) is a movie directed by Peter Weir, written by Andrew Niccol, and starring Jim Carrey. Niccol was due to direct the film until Carrey was signed. It was felt that Carrey's $12 million salary was too great an investment to leave in the hands of a second-time film director, and Weir was drafted.

Plot and interpretations

The film is set in a hypothetical world where an entire town is dedicated to a continually running television soap opera, where all but one of the participants are actors. Only the central character, Truman Burbank (Carrey), is unaware that he lives in a constructed reality, for the entertainment of those outside. The film follows his discovery of his situation and his attempts to escape. On the surface level, it criticizes greed, portraying people who would do anything for fame and money. Central characters pretend friendship to Truman, and in the case of his "wife", bury their real feelings of disgust.

Truman was chosen out of many unwanted babies to be a TV star. However, he is an explorer, and especially, he wants to find a girl that back in college was caught trying to explain things to Truman. Eventually, however, Truman begins to figure out that it's all fake. Everyone tries to reassure him, but Truman has already reached the point of no return, and escapes.

The Truman Show can be considered a parody of the soap opera genre and reality television. It also draws heavily on themes of gnosticism: this religious school teaches that the world we live in is essentially false, and the creation of a somewhat evil and twisted god called the Demiurge. Another religious theme connects the film to the Book of Job, where Satan (operating under God's orders) puts Job through a series of hardships to see if he will renounce God's name.

Close viewing reveals many subtle references to subjects ranging from classic television (The Prisoner) to the Bible. For example, the number of the boat (139) represents Psalm 139, where the Psalmist talks about God knowing the Psalmist's location and his every thought. The creator of the television show, "Christof" (Ed Harris), tries to take God's role, but Truman refutes this claim ("You never had a camera in my head"). Of particular interest is the line "Surely darkness shall hide me, and night shall be my light", which we see literally when Christof hunts for the escaped Truman.

One alternative ending was less hopeful than the one that made it to release. The more hopeful one in the finished film was a result of collaboration between writer Andrew Niccol and director Peter Weir.

Characters' names

Truman: Truman is made up of the two words: "True" and "Man". This is supposed to remind us of the fact the Truman is the only real personality in the show, and that everyone else is fake.

Meryl: Trumans's wife is named for Meryl Streep, an actress. She is so named because she is merely an actor posing as someone who loves Truman, while she has no true feelings for him.

Marlon: Truman's best friend is named for Marlon Brando. Like Meryl, he is only an actor, and has no genuine feelings of friendship for Truman. This is most apparent during the dock scene, when the blatantly lies to Truman about how "I can't be part of 'it' because there is no 'it'.".

Soundtrack

Philip Glass appears very briefly in the movie as one of the in-studio composer/performers. The soundtrack contains excerpts from his scores for Powaqqatsi and Anima Mundi, as well as some music composed for The Truman Show. Glass shared a Golden Globe Award with Burkhard von Dallwitz for the score.

Other

A poster for the movie was one of the first widely-seen photomosaics. Most of the movie was filmed in the master-planned town of Seaside, Florida, near Panama City.

External links

• The Truman Show (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/) at the Internet Movie Database
• Psalm 139 (http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/psalms/psalm139.htm)
• Philosophical and moral issues in The Truman Show (http://samvak.tripod.com/seahaven.html)
• Rotten Tomatoes' selected quotes from critics on The Truman Show (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/truman_show/)

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