The Truman Show was created in 1998, and was directed by Peter Weir. It is a show within a movie about a man whose life is fake and is being controlled by someone he does not know. Christof is the creator of the television show The Truman Show. His idea of following Truman’s life from birth to death is unique. Truman Burbank is the only real person on the show. Christof is a God-like figure, who controls Truman. His name is presented to be a parody of Christ. His control of the environment demonstrates clearly that Christof is portrayed to be like God, which explains why he is dominant over everything.
In the last scene of the show, Christof made it clear that he was the creator of Truman. Christof has control over everything in Truman’s life: the existence of the people in his life, the weather and even the death of his father. Christof‘s God-like images portrays him to be the most powerful, compassionate and creating being. What does Christof’s God-like image suggest about men in today’s society? Why do men feel the need to be in control to show love? Christof, as a God-like figure, shows the danger of an American male who needs to be in control.
In the last scene, Christof started a storm to stop Truman from escaping from the ‘perfect’ world he created for him. Truman was defiant and he shouted to the storm saying that he would not be deferred. This stirred up vicious anger in Christof which caused him to have the storm turned up to a higher level. Christof is willing to put Truman through anything possible so that he would not be defeated. Another example of Christof putting Truman in danger so that he could remain in control over his life was by using Marlon, Truman’s best friend to affect him emotionally. Marlon was brought into Truman’s life at seven years old.
The friendship created at such a young age was mainly based on manipulation. Christof strategically placed Marlon into Truman’s life as a means to manipulate his world and remain dominant over him. Ultimately Marlon makes use of Truman’s innocence, his natural, uncontrolled emotions, and his unquestionable trust in his wife, to cushion the bubble of ignorance in which Christof has placed Truman. Christof, as a God-like figure, highlights a males’ need for others to be lower than him in order to love them. It is quite interesting to look at how Christof is perceived from Truman’s world and from the outside world.
The outside world sees him as just the director of a TV show. He controls what happens on set and is the main creative visionary for the show. He is loved by many people as any other celebrity is, but has little more power than anyone else in the real world. But from Truman’s world, he is completely unseen and at the same time he is still powerful. The person behind the scenes of the world’s most popular TV show is completely invisible in the world he has created. Christof is disconnected from the happenings of his creation, but at the same time is overwhelmed by it.
In one of the scenes of the show, Christof was gently placing his hand on Truman’s head as he sleeps, as a caring parent would do. Although Christof never meet him physically, he views Truman like a son. He spends his life making sure that every aspect of Truman’s life goes right. In conclusion, Christof’s hunger for dominance made him portrayed himself as being “God-like” . Christof’s ‘God-like’ and controlling characteristics in the show, explains why men feel so insecure about their masculinity. Some men feel better about themselves when they can be dominant over everything around them.
