One puppet for the perverse pleasure of all others

Rating: 10/10 (10 November 2017)

This is an intriguing film. Truman is in his mid or late 20s when we get to him in the present. The idea is that he was one of several children born from mothers who gave away their children for adoption at birth. He was the first one to be born and as such became adopted by the corporation represented by Christof, the director or this show. Suspend your disbelief a lot because the fact that he lived in this artificial cinema setting all his life, which means went to school on a daily basis and to college to get his qualification for his job, is a pure illusionary impossibility. It is maybe easier to make a few hundred people live in this community with only one real inhabitant, Truman, and all the others actors who have to be unionized in a way or another and hence cannot work more than a certain certainly limited number of hours a day and a week and a month and a year. And what about the population of a school from grade 1 to grade 12, not to speak of the full population of a college.
I will not consider the legal side of things. This abduction and total retention of a minor and then an adult in an artificial environment is pure imprisonment, which means totally illegal, and when Christof says Truman could leave anytime he wanted, it is an absolute lie since when Truman finally tries he is nearly killed by Christof's own decisions and acts. That amounts to the inhumane torturing of a grown up by another grownup with a whole bunch of accomplices pushing the buttons. This has to be said because everything in this show is REAL, really REAL. Not just Truman, but all the others. They are maybe a fake illusion for Truman but they are real actors and actresses, really acting on command, prompted by earplugs in constant relation with the studio. Instances of Christof's dictating to an actor what he had to say is even provided. It is all an illusion and a delusion for Truman, but it is all true. And I repeat totally impossible because beyond any material credibility and what's more beyond any human rights as for Truman, and in fact as for everyone in the film. Apart from Truman, they all behave either as criminals or accomplices of criminals.
But we have to accept to enter the film to find a deeper meaning in the story.
The first element is the delusional world in which Truman is forced to live. It has one motto written on a couple of arches: "Unus pro Omnibus, Omnes pro Uno." This motto is old and was first used within some religious conflict in Bohemia in 1618. It is also a traditional motto in Switzerland, but not in Latin. In German "Einer für alle, Alle für einen." In French "Un pour tous, tous pour un." In Italian "Uno per tutti, tutti per uno." And in Romansch "In per tuts, tuts per in." The motto is generally translated into English as "One for all, all for one." It is particularly famous because it is the motto of the famed and heroic though hilarious (three) Musketeers staged by Alexandre Dumas along with d'Artagnan. This motto is immediately visually amplified by the name of the store on the corner of the street in front of these arches, Omnicol, though I do not know what this store might be selling.
This motto is very ethical and is obviously in full contradiction with real life where it is always everyone for oneself. This community, Seahaven, the very well named place because it is a haven and even a heavenly haven to its residents. Imagine keeping up with this illusion that this is a harbor (Le Havre in France) on a sea with no possible traffic, ships, and even the ferry is only a prop on the set. The only boat ever really shown is the boat in which Truman's father will die in a storm in front of Truman's eyes. And then at the end, the second boat will be Truman's escape boat in which he will nearly die by the decision of Christof himself who could not accept the escape with a cynical remark of his that sounds like a death sentence:
Network Executive: For God's sake, Chris! The whole world is watching. We can't let him die in front of a live audience! Christof: He was born in front of a live audience.
At this moment Christof himself is showing the reverse motto: everyone is supposed to do what he wants, even Truman who may die if necessary to satisfy the selfish ambition of the power freak and the control freak Christof is. His name is the very antagonistic reference to Christ – he is an Antichrist – who is supposed to die for everyone and not the reverse. In fact, he is more like Ponce Pilate, thus turning Truman into the Christ of the story to be sacrificed for the interest of the show that is supposed not to die, since the show must go on, as Shakespeare said a long time ago. But this is a film and that's what makes the show a pure fable. The director of the film systematically creates a distance between Truman's experience and ours, the audience's experience, of Truman's fate. The public is shown as having a tremendous level of empathy for that young man who is going to be sacrificed on the altar of a reality TV show. [. . . ]
Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU