A movie about control and the illusion of freedom

Rating: 9/10 (25 December 2013)

The Truman Show is a movie that is simply brilliant. The more I think about this movie the more I seem to see in it. Its ending left me totally stunned and the entire movie is pure originality and it is made in a way that you are not sure of how it is going to end.
The Truman Show is a television program that is focused around one man, Truman Burbank (Jim Carey). He has no idea that he is the star of a television program and he simply goes about life as if it was his life. The show goes for twenty four hours a day, seven days a week with no breaks. Advertising is made a part of the show, and is blatant to the audience but Truman simply does not think there is that much strange about it. The show takes place inside a huge dome, called the Hollywood dome, that surrounds a beautiful beach town. At one time Truman has wanted to leave the town, but they have always found ways to keep him inside. They decided that the best way was to give him a phobia about water as the town has been built on an island. So they killed his father while on a boating trip.
The movie is about control, they say so at the beginning. Though Truman is not supposed to know that he is living in a television show, they try to make sure that every aspect of his life is controlled. The first realization of this is when he catches the eye of one woman and he decides that he wants to get to know her better. But Christof (Ed Harris) the director prevents this by sending another woman to him that he is going to marry. Once that happens, his next goal is for Truman it impregnate his wife, but the problem is that he does not love her and because he does not love her he has no desire to have children with her. He is still very much in love with the woman who he glimpsed for a second.
Another way they control Truman to keep him in the town is through subtle things like a job, friends, and a mortgage. He wants dearly to go to Fiji, because he believes the woman he loves is there, but he can't go. He has a mortgage on the house and the car making money tight. When he does try to go more problems begin, like the bus breaking down, a forest fire, and finally a nuclear meltdown. In this movie there is no coincidence, and you realize this when everything seems to happen to push Truman in a particular way. It seems that it is real life, but we see through the façade when we know that everything in Truman's world is controlled.
It is interesting though to consider whether this is reflected onto our world. The Truman Show seems to be a cry out for freedom and individuality. In one aspect it could be a movie of rebellion against God. Screaming that God has no right to control our lives and that we should be able to do what we want. Another aspect is that it is an attack against the government, which I think is more so. The government seeks to control people's lives but there is a cry that the government limit itself and give us our freedom to do what we want. In a way, the Truman show seems to be like 1984, where Big Brother knows everything about us.
As for rebelling against God's control, we must remember that God has given us a free choice of turning away from him. Truman has no choice whether he wants to stay or go. No matter how hard Truman tries to leave, Christof refuses to let him go. God does control the universe, and he does everything for our own good. Christof claims the same for Truman, but Truman has no choice, we do. Truman does not know the truth, we do. Truman believes everything in the dome is real, where it is not. God has revealed himself and his plan to us in the bible and thus we are able to make a choice based on that.
Another aspect is privacy. In the Truman show there is none. Truman does not have a private life, even though he thinks he does. Every action, everything that he does is watched by millions of people world wide. His funny things in the bathroom are a private matter to him, but people watch him and laugh at his antics.
It is also interesting to note that Truman has no friends. Everybody around him is there because they are being paid to be there. His best friend never says anything from his heart but from the mouth of Christof. His wife does not love him, and does not even consider their marriage legitimate because she crossed her fingers when she made the vows. As such the life of Truman becomes a sad, lonely, and false life. Though he believes that he has friends, he does not and if all were to go away, he would in the end be left with nobody.
The Truman Show is simply one awesome movie. It is one that I would put up in the region of the classics. It stands alone with its plot and its story, and it takes on board some very deep themes.