Guest Blogger: Alexa 2

The Truman Show is a great example of a character driven film. The entire plot revolves around the main character, Truman Burbank, and his daily life. Truman has been living a lie. Since birth he has lived in the fake city of Seahaven, with no one but actors to play the roles of father, mother, friend, neighbor, grocer, etc, all the while being streamed live to every household in America through their TV’s. And here’s the twist; Truman is ignorant to all of it. He doesn’t know any differently. Through his eyes, he is a perfectly normal Insurance salesman, living in small town, USA, with a great wife, and good friends. Jim Carrey’s performance as Truman is unforgettable. He makes the character lovable and relatable to millions of people. As for the character of Truman himself, his catchphrase says it all, “Good morning! And in case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!” He is the eternally optimistic type. He is kind and caring to those around him, and he is the friend you would always want next to you. He is always happy and good for a laugh or two. Overall, Truman is the “all American” guy who is easily likeable. There are hundreds of themes we could pull from this movie, and many of them relate to the process Truman goes through to discover the truth, but there is an even larger message the audience must keep in mind. This film attacks the importance and prominence of media in our society. We see (rather exaggerated) the influence of media crazes and the people they can hurt in the process. When we begin to dive into people’s lives with video cameras, bad things begin to happen. I agree with critics, this is a movie worth seeing. While being somewhat predictable in the unraveling of the plot, The Truman Show makes you step back and really think about what the media has done to our society (or what we have done to it) and how people are adored through it.