A satire fit to stand alongside 1984

Rating: 8/10 (8 January 2002)

When I saw Peter Weir's film on its release, I was so engaged by Jim Carrey's wonderful performance as Truman Burbank, that I regarded the film overall as positive and life-enhancing. Seeing it again three years later, I find it a much bleaker experience. Ed Harris as director Christof is such a megalomaniac manipulator that he has perhaps drawn attention away from everybody else involved in the conspiracy against Truman, from the merest technician to the actors playing his best friend Marlon (Noah Emmerich) and his wife Meryl (Laura Linney).
But not only are the production team and players involved in the conspiracy, but so are the millions of viewers of the show. So while we may applaud Truman's brave decision to enter the real world, we should be clear that he will find it full of voyeurs of low intellect and even lower moral standards, who for 30 years have been willing to be entertained by spying on him and depriving him of a real life.
Some people might think that the film's satire is too severe, but I think it is fully justified. Day after day TV puts out programs every bit as inane and manipulative as that depicted in the film. It might be argued that, unlike Truman, the participants in "confession" TV and such programs as Big Brother are volunteers and know exactly what they are getting into. But in a sense they do not, since most of them are unaware of the ridiculous and unattractive sides of their characters which they will reveal to the cameras, and which are the real point of these programs.

The Truman Show stands comparison with George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four as a satirical polemic against totalitarian interference in people's lives - but the threat now comes as much from the media as from Government.