truman show film study

1. The Truman Show
Principal Themes

2. Illusion v Reality Control Freedom Relationships Power of the
media

3. -Christof is often shown in close up,
which makes him seem larger than life,
and low angle shots often make him
seem more powerful.
- The media, including Reality TV
shows, are out to make a profit. Ethical
dilemmas are often secondary to
healthy profit margins.
- Christof: ‘We accept the reality with
which we are presented’
- Truman wants to travel but is
prevented from leaving Seahaven by
various elaborately staged
obstacles.
- As a society we give
the media a lot of
power. Many people
only get their news
from one or two
sources. This means
that they are easy to
manipulate. The
Truman Show
exaggerates this and
raises the question
of whether media
control is ethical.

4. - Christof: ‘In my world, you have
nothing to fear.’
- Truman has no privacy, aside from his
own thoughts. The right to privacy
forms part of our idea of freedom which
we take for granted.
- Truman is deprived
of genuine
relationships, being
bombarded with fake
ones. None of
Truman’s friends are
allowed to be truly
faithful to Truman –
they all have contracts
as actors, and often
have their lines
scripted for them.
- There is horrible dark irony in
the scene in which Marlon refers
to the ‘big guy’ as Truman
assumes he’s talking about God
but he’s really talking about the
creator of the show, Christof.
- Everything for Truman is
already decided for him – who to
marry, who his friends are, where
he works.

5. ‘Truman’ might be a word play
on ‘true man’ – Truman is ‘true’
to an extent – he is not acting,
at least. He is being himself.
However, there are some big
questions behind this. For
example, can a fake world
have someone real inside it?
Is Truman really a true
indication of mankind?
- Christof is often seen
at the control panel
wearing a head set,
telling the actors
exactly what to do like
a mastermind or
puppet master.
- Shots of Truman in the
mirror are commenting
on his identity: is he
who he thinks he is?
- Christof and the studio go to
incredible lengths to create a
believable world – that is, they
create the illusion of reality:
verisimilitude
- Christof has all the control,
Truman has very little.