Lake Tahoe | The Truman Show!

Truman Burbank has lived his entire life, since before birth, in front of cameras for The Truman Show, although he is unaware of this fact. Truman's life is filmed through thousands of hidden cameras, 24 hours a day and broadcast live around the world, allowing executive producer Christof to capture Truman's real emotionand human behavior when put in certain situations. Truman's hometown of Seahaven is a complete set built under a giant arcological dome, populated by the show's actors and crew, allowing Christof to control every aspect of Truman's life, even the weather. To prevent Truman from discovering his false reality, Christof has invented means of dissuading his sense of exploration, including "killing" his father in a storm while on a fishing trip to instill in him a fear of the water, and making many news reports and 'adverts' about the dangers of travelling, and featuring television shows about how good it is to stay at home. However, despite Christof's control, Truman has managed to behave in unexpected manners, in particular falling in love with an extra, Sylvia (known to Truman as Lauren), instead of Meryl, the character intended to be his wife. Though Sylvia is removed from the set quickly, her memory still resonates with him, and he 'secretly' thinks of her outside of his marriage to Meryl. Sylvia is part of a "Free Truman" campaign that fights to have Truman freed from the show.

During the 30th year of "The Truman Show", Truman begins to notice certain aspects of his near-perfect world that seem out of place, such as a falling spotlight from the artificial night sky constellations that nearly hits him (quickly passed off by local radio as an airplane's dislodged landing light) and Truman's car radio accidentally picking up conversation between the show's crew. As well as these strange one-off occurrences, Truman also becomes aware of more subtle abnormalities within his regular day-to-day life, such as the way in which the same people appear in the same places at certain times each day and Meryl's tendency to blatantly advertise the various products she buys. These events are punctuated by the reappearance of Truman's supposedly "dead" father onto the set, at first dressed as a hobo. The old man is suddenly whisked away as soon as Truman notices him.

• Despite the best efforts of his family and his best friend Marlon to reassure him (the latter being fed lines of comforting dialogue by Christof through a wireless earpiece), all these events cause Truman to start wondering about his life, realizing how the world seems to revolve around him. Stress on Meryl to continue her role in spite of Truman's increasing skepticism and attendant hostility causes their marriage to unravel. Truman seeks to get away from Seahaven but is blocked by the inability to arrange for flights, bus breakdowns, sudden masses of traffic, a forest fire, and an apparent nuclear meltdown. After Meryl breaks down and is taken off the show, Christof officially brings back Truman's father, hoping his presence will keep Truman from trying to leave. However, he only provides a temporary respite: Truman soon becomes isolated and begins staying alone in his basement after Meryl "leaves" him. One night, Truman manages to fool the cameras and escapes the basement undetected via a secret tunnel, forcing Christof to temporarily suspend broadcasting of the show for the first time in its history. This causes a surge in viewership, with many viewers, including Sylvia, cheering on Truman's escape attempt.

Christof orders every actor and crew member to search the town, even breaking the town's daylight cycle to help in the search. They find that Truman has managed to overcome his fear of the water and has been sailing away from the town in a small boat named Santa Maria (the name of the ship in which Christopher Columbus discovered the New World). After restoring the broadcast, Christof orders the show's crew to create a large storm to try to capsize the boat, prompting a heated debate with his superiors over the morality and legality of killing Truman off in front of a live global audience. However, Truman's determination eventually leads Christof to terminate the storm. As Truman recovers, the boat reaches the edge of the dome, its bow piercing through the dome's painted sky. An awe-struck Truman then discovers a flight of stairs nearby, leading to a door marked "EXIT". As he contemplates leaving his world, Christof speaks directly to Truman via a powerful sound system, trying to persuade him to stay and arguing that there is no more truth in the real world than there is in his own, artificial world. Truman, after a moment's thought, delivers his catchphrase, "In case I don't see you ... good afternoon, good evening, and good night," bows to his audience, and steps through the door and into the real world. The assembled television viewers excitedly celebrate Truman's escape, and Sylvia quickly leaves her apartment to reunite with him. A network executive orders the crew to cease transmission. With the show completed, members of Truman's former audience are shown looking for something else to watch.

Psychological interpretation

An essay published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis analyzed Truman as

prototypical adolescent at the beginning of the movie. He feels trapped into a familial and social world to which he tries to conform while being unable to entirely identify with it, believing that he has no other choice (other than through the fantasy of fleeing to a far-way island). Eventually, Truman gains sufficient awareness of his condition to "leave home" — developing a more mature and authentic identity as a man, leaving his child-self behind and becoming a True-man.

[edit]Utopia

Parallels can be drawn from Thomas More's 1516 book Utopia, in which More describes an island with only one entrance and only one exit. Only those who belonged to this island knew how to navigate their way through the treacherous openings safely and unharmed. This situation is similar to The Truman Show because there are limited entryways into the world that Truman knows. Truman does not belong to this utopia into which he has been implanted, and childhood trauma rendered him frightened of the prospect of ever leaving this small community. Utopian models of the past tended to be full of like-minded individuals who shared much in common, comparable to More's Utopia and real-life groups such as the Shakers and the Oneida Community. It is clear that the people in Truman's world are like-minded in their common effort to keep him oblivious to reality. The suburban "picket fence" appearance of the show's set is reminiscent of the "American Dream" of the 1950s.

The "American Dream" concept in Truman's world serves in an attempt to keep him happy and ignorant.

vía: wikipedia