The Truman Show

The Truman Show (1998) is a movie directed by Peter Weir, written by Andrew Niccol, and starring Jim Carrey.

Plot and interpretations

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

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.

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. Traditionally, many readers of the Psalms consider this comforting or reassuring; the film argues that this is not only immoral, but also practically impossible (witness Truman's line, "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.

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.