The Art of Communiculture Fall 1998

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The Truman Show directed by Peter Weir (Paramount, 1988), 102 minutes.

In a summer of synthetic movies, Peter Weir's film was both welcome and disquieting. The Truman Show is about us: our dependence on television, the price we pay to create a sense of reality in a contrived world, and the possibility that love could reconnect us to what we're missing.

In case you missed it, here's the gist: Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) is confined by his fear of water to Seahaven, the planet's most livable town, which also happens to be the world's largest television studio. Truman is the star of a show he does not even know exists, a show that started while he was still in utero. Over a billion viewers tuned in for his birth and have been watching him ever since.

"The Truman Show's" audience has grown so that nearly every person with a television has witnessed the major events of Truman's life: his first steps, his first day of school, the drowning accident that killed his father, his wedding. The perverse joy of the show is, of course, that it is an immense conspiracy. Truman is blissfully unaware that his entire life is controlled by an army of actors directed by the show's creator, named, appropriately enough, Christof (in whom all things in Truman's world hold together). It's one long episode of "Candid Camera" without the trademark, "Smile! … ," as Truman goes on responding with complete sincerity to each contrived event. Truman is real, he is genuine, and therefore—in a peculiar twist of logic—he is good, and this gives millions of people hope.

It does?

It does, if you listen to Christof, that is.

Christof knows that the appeal of his show lies in the naiveté of his non-actor. Viewers find comfort in their identification with Truman—"Truman's ...

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