Truman: A True Human Representative

Rating: 9/10 (10 January 2003)

Of course you could do the same as most other people do: describe this movie as `a satirical and sometimes hilarious comment on the role of the modern media' Â– or something of the kind. But you would do `The Truman Show' wrong if you left it like this, it contains many more truths than just that.
There are two opposing concepts of life which stand out. One is firmly anchored in the shores of Protection, it means that you do not feel any inclination to venture out into the unknown, for you are happy where you are, and by no means you want to alter the present state of things. For such people the town called `Seahaven' would be the ideal one: it is a haven against the dangerous outside world, here represented by the sea, a place where you can feel absolutely safe.
But Man, throughout his history, has always shown his discontent with staying at home and just maintaining the knowledge passed on to him by his ancestors. He has always felt a desperate craving for new experience. Explorers like Magellan, who was the first man to surround the Earth, stand for such endeavouring energies.
Truman Burbank, although his position as a life insurance salesman might let you presume the exact opposite, is a would-be explorer himself and worships men like Magellan. When he tells his friend Marlon that he wants to leave his secure `desk job' and go to Fiji he also mentions that `there are still islands in Fiji where no human being has ever set foot.' His aim is to see something of the unknown world, add new dimensions to his life.
But Truman's plan is counteracted by the requirements of the show in which he is the unsuspecting hero. By no means is he allowed to become aware of his true condition. Therefore all his attempts to leave Seahaven must inevitably fail. It is as if his life is guided by invisible strings, held together by the godlike Christof. It is only by a superhuman effort that he manages to set himself free, surmounting the fear of the element that he dreads most: water. By undertaking an unlikely escape voyage across the ocean that strikes the TV-program bosses by surprise he finally gets to the boundaries of the world that meant reality to him.
Now he has finally achieved what he always wanted: to find the exit door of Seahaven. And there is nobody who can stop him. He resists the entreaties of his `creator', Christof, and boldly advances into the land beyond the `iron curtain'.
Of course, we might be tempted to regard this scene as a metaphor for the passing of the ultimate threshold of human existence: from the land of the living to the land of the dead. That view seems coherent, but only if you exclude death as the end of the line. For what Truman has in mind is clearly continuity. He is carrying the identikit picture of Sylvia (the woman he once lost and always hoped to find in Fiji) and refers to it as his `map'. Thus his innate discoverer's energy is enhanced by the power of love. And it is this explosive combination that finally smoothes the way for his escape from the protected slavery into the realm of infinite freedom.