The Truman Show: Satirical Commentary Directed By Peter Weir

Throughout this journey to find the truth, lots of similarities between the life of Truman and Siddhartha can be found. By depicting his life as a parallel version of Siddhartha’s life, the idea of spiritual journey and enlightenment is indirectly shown in the film. Furthermore, The Truman Show can be analyzed as the

In the very beginning of this scene the director uses a wide shot to show how massive the group of people searching for Truman really are. This section of the scene can refer back to the

When Truman does not walk into his workplace the show’s audience respond with excitement and a sense of pride. High angle tracking shots are used as cameras follow Truman and his every step, unable to anticipate his next move. The reverse shot in the side mirror of a car closely follow Truman and as several people obstruct the view it appears as if Truman is trying to get away and disappear from the scrutiny of the cameras. Truman tentatively surveys the area and for the first time listens to conversations around him. Close up shots of several conversations position the audience to also question those around Truman. These techniques used position the audience to respond with enthusiasm and delight towards Truman and his suspicions about the world he lives in. It is no longer seen as perfect.

The camera tracks backwards as Szpilman walks towards us. It gives the audience the feeling that he is limping into our hands as if we are helping a poor elderly man. Then the camera tracks from right to left as we get the impression that he is searching for something. The director chooses to track his movements slowly to make the audience feel as if Szpilman is moving along in a fragile house just like himself. The camera tracks along showing the audience a full view of him showing us the little steps he is taking just to get to the other room. There is very low lighting in this scene which shows as if he is looking for something quietly without making noise. Szpilman then finds something on the floor, so he bends down and this is shown by tilting the camera down to a low angle. The director has chosen to do it this way because it makes it flow with Szpilman’s movements. Then the camera tracks and zooms into Szpilman walking into the next room. When Szpilman finds a tin opener and uses it the camera focuses on it even though it is a small object and not important. As Szpilman carries on trying to open it the camera is still focused on it. The director makes the audience focus on that repetitive movement of trying to open it but at the same time distracting them from the characters emotions if anything surprising happens.

Utopia - A perfect world. Truman's world was an utopia. Everything, including the weather, was controlled in a huge Hollywood dome. Truman grew up having no idea he was being watched every hour of the day, and that every step he took was being viewed by millions all over the globe. As the show progressed, it became clear how much media influenced Truman's life, and also how Christof played a huge role in Truman's well-being.

Peter Weir’s 1998 film, ‘The Truman show’ effectively manages to portray the message of audience manipulation both through the internal and external audiences of the show. This essay will be critically analyzing the techniques used to manipulate the audience in ‘The Truman Show”. Firstly, by analyzing the sound techniques, then by analyzing the camera shots used. Finally, by discussing how the symbolism used manages to successfully manipulate the audience’s views. There will now be three critical and analytical arguments supporting the statement that ‘The Truman Show’ manages to effectively manipulate the audience.

The film ‘The Truman Show’ directed by Peter Weir, shows how society is manipulated by the power of media. We see how Christof creates a ‘perfect’ environment for Truman to live in since his birth to his adulthood without Truman knowing that his life is being watched by millions of people around the world. The society is quickly being manipulated by Christof and doesn't realise that Truman gets no privacy and he is just being used for their entertainment. This is shown through a series of verbal and visual features in this film.

The way that an individual can experience the realisation of the truth is through guidance or desire. It is shown through Sylvia's confession that “It's fake. It's all for you... It's a show” the use of repetition reinforces that she is revealing the truth to truman,

To see what they see, and compare our own thoughts with the evolution of the characters and the story. The dexterity of the images, and the impact that each scene has in portraying this theme, guide the viewer throughout the film with little use of dialogue and action. Our central character “Jeff,” is struggling with his casted imprisonment, his need for adventure is apparent as he watches outside his window. Conflicted with his girlfriend and conflicted with his theories, his character becomes more palpable, we begin to realize what is going on not only on the outside of him, but the inside of him as well. The aspects of the outside courtyard and the visual isolation of each apartment, help depict the humanity of each individual and sympathy for even the darkest characters. Hitchcock uses his camera, just as our protagonist does, to focus with him. The camera angles are depicted in a way to which we react with the character, rather than at the character, and eventually expose the minor elements of the story that bring to fruition the suspense of the movie and the thrills of discovery.

The movie, 'The Truman Show' is about a reality television show that has been created to document the life of a man who, adopted at birth by a television network, is tricked into believing that his life, his reality, is normal and the environment that he lives is real. It is set in a town called Seahaven, which is essentially a simulation of the real world similar enough to the outside world that the viewing audience can relate to it. The town is a television studio inside an enormous dome in which the weather, the sun, the sky, and all the actions of the citizens are directed by a team of special effects people. The entire show is directed and produced by the creator of

The main character Truman is the unsuspecting star in a reality TV program. His entire life has taken place in a giant studio, constructed into a real-life small town, and equipped with thousands of cameras to monitor all aspects of Truman's life. Every single person, except Truman himself, is an actor, and every second of his entire life is monitored and

The director (Peter Weir) has many views about modern day society that he is trying to convey in The Truman Show though two were stand outs. The first will focus on is that we will never have the whole truth. It is impossible because of the amount of people that lie and bring deceit. Also, the world and media tries the hide things from us that degrade the higher society or itself in our eyes. It might cause a backlash like from the people, like in The Truman show when Christof said ‘Listen to me, Truman. There’s no more truth out there than there is in the world that I created for you. Same lies. The same deceit. But in my world, you have nothing to fear. I know you better than you know yourself.’ Subsequently, when Truman said ‘You never had a camera in my head.’ From these two quotes show that you can’t know everything about a person just buy watching them their whole life. So in turn, means that not the whole truth can be found. Also that Christof is trying to ‘protect’ him from the real world, which is like and example of the ‘higher’ grade society or media trying to hide people from the truth or show it in such a way that reverses the

The impact of media over society has substantially increased throughout the past decades and reached a point where humans delude themselves and believe the reality which they are presented. In the Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir, Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank who is adopted by Hollywood at a young age and unknowingly lives his life in a TV show. Weir purposely omits invective language and insults towards media in order to allow the people to see their own vices and stupidity. Weir allows viewers to laugh at the mesmerized public, making this satire horation. Through his use of irony, verisimilitude, and caricature, Weir attacks the influence of media over society and the public’s unconditional surrender to it.

The Truman show is a story about a man named Truman Burbank, a normal man that doesn’t realize his entire life is staged, fake and streaming live every moment of every day. Within the first few minutes of the movie starting you think everything is perfect in Truman’s fake world with is nice welcoming neighbors, friendly businessman and people around him. What you don’t know and realize is that Truman’s 1950’s utopia is scripted and controlled by another mini village of people behind the scenes of the world’s largest studio every built. Everything seems to be perfect for Truman, he has a successful job as an insurance sale mans with a sweetheart wife who is also a nurse and his best friend from childhood who loves to stop by at random time with a cold six pack in hand to help distract Truman and keep him on track. However, Truman is a smart man and slowly starts to see things out of place and puts things together, while he still doesn’t know he’s living in a studio he’s slowing realizing something just isn’t right. Than he begins his quest to answer his question and break out of

Okay he's making a left turn onto Lancaster square. Oh my Gosh something is wrong! Uh change frequencies." This moment wakes up Truman and brings to his attention that media was so strong they sheltered everything from his life and his life may be fake. He starts to become more aware of the media's powerful control over him and capability to hide aspects of his life. Not just in The Truman Show, but in reality, although we may think something is real it is good to question and rethink judgements. For Truman, after getting the jest of his situation he seemed to be more content with his life and realizes his true capability while seeing through the hoax of the media. This part of the movie is a true turning point as it shows that media can be very persuasive over Truman, but it is his critical judgement of situations involving media that can lead to the betterment of his life. Not only is this theme and the power of media relevant in the film, but it can be taken into our lives by questioning the world around us. It is always important when having a conflict with media to ask yourself: is this real, and what is the media truly trying to accomplish