Insurance agent Truman Burbank discovers the hard way that his life is a 24/7 television show. Cinema has rarely been as visionary as in the media satire “The Truman Show” with Jim Carrey.
“Good morning!” Truman Burbank cheerfully greets the neighbors. “Oh, and if we don’t see each other again today: good afternoon, good evening and good night!” He is a ray of sunshine, this insurance salesman portrayed by Jim Carrey in the idyllic island town of Seahaven. But soon the lucky man will learn that his entire life has been a lie for 30 years, which millions around the world are watching as a reality show and soap opera on television.
25 years ago, the film “The Truman Show” by Australian director Peter Weir was released in German cinemas (November 12th). ZDFneo will show it on November 10th and it will be available to stream on Paramount+.
The film, which seemed to come from the future, ushered in a new era in 1998. The media satire (screenplay: Andrew Niccol) seems like a harbinger of many current phenomena today.
When “The Truman Show” was filmed in Florida and studios in Southern California in 1996-97, reality television was actually still in its infancy. The Dutch television format “Big Brother”, for example, in which ordinary people share a house monitored by cameras for several weeks, only started in 1999, then in Germany as a franchise at the beginning of 2000 (at that time first on RTLzwei).
Participants in reality formats now usually show a level of performativity because they know about the cameras. Of course, this is where they differ from the naive Truman.
This is how Truman’s reality is constructed
The film gradually explains how the world of Truman, who has lived unknowingly in a gigantic studio since his birth, is constructed. He was adopted by the production company, family and friends are all actors who also have to do product placement. Around 5,000 installed cameras document Truman’s life around the clock for hundreds of millions of fans.
What happens on the other side of the island is of no interest to anyone in the town: “Who needs Europe?” is the headline of a fake newspaper, for example. Truman was subjected to extremely ethically questionable traumas so that he wouldn’t want to leave the water, such as the death of his father at sea, which was allegedly his fault.
The art world is directed by Christof (Ed Harris), the megalomaniacal creator of the long-running series. We’ve become bored of watching actors give us false feelings, says the TV man, who even has the power to make the sun rise in the studio. Even if Truman’s world is fake, there is nothing wrong with Truman himself, he says.
But one fateful day, Truman’s lies begin to crumble by chance, for example when a spotlight falls from the “sky”, Truman meets his “dead” father or it rains very strangely, namely only in spots above him. Truman becomes skeptical (“I have the feeling the whole world revolves around me”) and threatens to see through the game. Christof has to fear for his cynical life’s work.
A mental disorder is named after the film
The resonance of the film about the total surveillance of an individual became apparent a few years later, for example, in medicine and psychiatry, where scientists spoke of Truman Syndrome. People with Truman delusion are convinced that they are constantly being filmed by hidden cameras (for the entertainment of others).
Director Weir recently stressed to BBC Culture that the film is also about more fundamental paranoia. When he met actors auditioning for the film, some told him that they identified with Truman because when they were young they “felt like an impostor that everyone was acting around.”
The film resonates on many levels
The film’s complex themes reached culture and society in the years that followed – with reality shows and documentary soaps on television, but also on a different level after the attacks of September 11, 2001. New laws allowed states to carry out more surveillance to combat terrorism. Since then, many people have grown afraid of losing their privacy. Surveillance became more possible in the following years thanks to billions of cell phones – both for security agencies and corporations.
Mass voyeurism like in the film also hit the whole world in social media culture. Today many feel as if they live for an audience and for the entertainment of others. Thanks to online platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, we can all now become Trumans via online identity.
“The Truman Show” also addresses the philosophical question of what we understand to be real. Christof says: “We accept the reality of the world that is presented to us. It’s that simple.”
But on social media we are confronted with a reality that is orchestrated in many ways. The world Christof created is Truman’s truth. We all also find ourselves in echo chambers of our own truth. The lack of clarity about what is real seems to be increasing – think, for example, of the images generated by artificial intelligence in 2023.
At the end there is Truman’s self-empowerment
The 1998 film ends with Truman trying to escape the city that was specially built for him on a sailboat. Christof tries to capsize the boat using an artificially created storm. But Truman finally reaches the wall of the sky dome. He discovers an escape staircase and a door into the dark – actually exactly the opposite of a light at the end of the tunnel.
Christof speaks like a god to Truman and implores him to stay in Seahaven. He will find no more truth in the real world than in his artificial home. But Truman’s weariness and curiosity win out. He chooses the exit.
Who in Truman’s position would have the courage to escape all the illusions?