Peter Wier’s film, “The Truman Show,” is the depiction of the villainous immorality of using one’s life without their knowledge as a purpose for entertainment for the mass population. It is a popular television show that takes the setting of a stereotypical 60’s hometown where everything is too perfect as it seems. The protagonist, Truman Burbanks, plays the clueless and unsuspecting star of the reality show. Truman’s sadness is mainly perpetrated by Chirstof, the director of the show as he wields his power to shape Truman’s life, the actors play a part but most importantly the society that exists in the film.
The chief villain is Christof, the creator of the show using Truman’s life for his own personal gain. Chirstof played God and shaped Truman’s life into a show that exploits Truman’s feelings and basic rights for entertainment. Christof manipulated Truman’s feelings with traumatically fake events such as the loss of Truman’s father. By doing this he was able to scar Truman and prevented him from exploring and escaping the island. The cause of Truman midlife crisis was the loss of his love; Sylvia. This is why Truman has a sudden wanting to go to Fiji.
The last time they saw each other her “father” told him they were going Fiji. Truman: “where are you taking her? ” Sylvia’s dad: “To Fiji”. Christof was so desperate to hide the truth he almost killed Truman when he was founded on a boat sailing towards the dome. He used the weather system to his advantage to scare Truman and stop him but ultimately failing. The people that were important to Truman’s life such as his wife, mother and best friend were all just actors contributed in villainous intentions by playing the roles designed by Christof in the whole charade.
Although Christof tells the actors what to do and say the actors themselves are responsible for denying Truman a chance to live a life that everyone is born to be entitled to. If each actor saw how sad Truman was and knew what he was missing out on the real world they had a choice to reveal the identity of the show. Instead the actors fill Trumans life with lies, advertisements and no real meaning to life. When Truman and Marlon were on the bridge Truman told his best friend of his situation and Marlon answered “the point is that I would gladly step in front of traffic for you.
And the last thing that I would ever do to you is.. [Christof feed Marlon what to say] lie to you”. There were many occasions when his wife had use blank advertisings in their convocations. When Meryl was coming home from work she saw Truman and told him that she bought a new “Chefs Pal”, when they were in the kitchen Meryl pulled out another advertisement about Moco Coco which really annoys Truman. Truman’s daily life routine that includes waking up, leaving the house, greeting the family across from the street from him with the same everyday phrase “ In case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening and good night. It is then followed by the approaching of two men that want an insurance deal then work. After work its home and he mows the grass.
This process repeats itself everyday of his life. A main villain that plays an important role in the movie “The Truman Show” is the audience. Throughout the movie people can observe and see the reaction of the watching audiences. Watching these scenes of the suspenseful audiences that average person can see how attentive these people are and how distracted they are from the real world when they could be stopping this immoral act of showcasing someone’s life on television for solely entertainment and money.
The audiences that are shown in “the Truman Show” are all ordinary people with jobs, family and a life. There is a scene at the bar where the workers and the customers are all staring at the television While Truman was going crazy, there was a mother and her two children were watching while one of them were crying and the mother simply “shushed the baby”, a pair of old ladies sat in their lounge rooms which Truman show merchandise, a man in the bath tub and that Asian family. All these people watch Truman for only their enjoyment and entertainment. No one took action to speak against this immoralist show except one person; Sylvia.
When there was an opportunity to talk to Christof Sylvia said “This is cruel, why are you keeping him inside a jail. ” She highlights what others could not do to the show and that is expose the immorality of it. “The Truman Show” shows many aspects of his unhappiness caused by the villainous characters and the society that promotes such immorality. Each played a part in prolonging Truman’s eventual reconciliation with the real world, where they did it directly or indirectly. They were all blinded by money, entertainment and drama. With the exception of one person, no one in that movie showed to notice and care for Truman.
