The fear of Solitude

Rating: 10/10 (25 November 1998)

The consciousness of the individualist is only able to imagine the individual consciousness. Somewhere between the illusion of power and the realization of no power exists the existential nightmare which we observe in Truman. He is indeed 'true-man' and can be identified with perhaps more than any hero in the history of the screen simply because he IS the screen and we are given awareness of the fact. Truman will be destroyed by the outside world - maybe a bit pessimistic - because he will become the greatest celebrity in the history of the role. Whereas, to him, our Earth is his Heaven, our heaven is his unimaginable and the frightening realities (violence, pollution) are his Hell. So where is Truman Burbank really going when he passes that irradiated threshold?