The movie showed the life insurance salesman/adjuster who discovers his entire life is actually a TV show. That the gist of the movie, the person realises that his life is a sequence of patterns and everything in his life is staged and set to make the show interesting. He realises certain things that make him question his life and that makes him want to travel to find the girl of his life. He eventually finds the way out of his world and possibly made it to the girl of his dream. Well thats all the retell, you could either have watched that or stayed here long enough for that short retell.
When it comes to the the emotional reaction a viewer has to the movie, it was sort of based on that idea of control, of what you do in your life is controlled by someone. This idea has be shown in many movies such as "The adjustment bureau", "The hunger games", "Death race", "Oblivion" and "Gamer"; these are some really good movies (review links below) that plays on the idea of control and this is really a factor that really causes a sense of uneasiness. We all have a feeling of freedom and we are proud to feel that way and the thought of you being controlled by someone causes a revolting feeling wanting you to gain that freedom of being a true individual. We as individuals have the right to freedom and the idea of being controlled or played with causes this sense of inferiority. The idea of people being controlled is a rather angering one and cause that need to be free.
The camera angles of the movie played an essential role in the plot of the story. In fact the whole plot structure of the movie was well thought out. The idea of spoon-feeding information about the story bit by bit and having the course of the story takes its path along that is a splendid way to keep the audience hooked and also to keep the movie more entertaining and to let the people who have no clue whats happening, whats happening. The camera angle essentially contributed to the idea that the protagonist of the show was actually in a tv show. It shows that the whole thing is a tv show and it shows the idea of the protagonist being watched all the time where ever he goes.
There is that beautiful irony where the reporter says.“Thank you for coming today Christof, I know how
much you value your privacy.”; and whats ironic is the fact that the director Christof isn't really there with the reporter and in fact the interview is happening over video call. This is really interesting and brings a sense of an introverted personality but also a sense of secretiveness. In terms of the real world this is probably seen in the case of top secret stuff where nothing is spoken of but a movie director taking that sense of privacy and secrecy is rather unusual.
Taking another look at the end of the movie, although Christof was portrayed as the bad guy controlling the life of an individual Truman in order to make a profitable television show still stands, the probable other aspect could be that Christof was indeed a visionary who wanted the best for Truman in the reality that he was presented in. Christof realised that the world we live in is a world full of lies, deceit and with no more truth than the world Christof created for Truman (although Truman's whole world was a lie) but the idea is that Christof was indeed looking out for Truman and seeked what was best for Truman which also got around making him more profitable. We learn through our failures and that is what makes us succeed; Christof nullified that idea of failure for Truman and all actions that were made by truman where made to keep him in the path of success. Christof strayed Truman away from failure which makes him weak as only in our failures can we be truly strong. However Christof helped inspire and give hope to millions of people around the world by the means of his television show. He helped inspire people and helped them aspire for a better life. He used the life of Truman to help give hope to people and show that life can be worth living. An example of this can be seen when Truman was escaping, Christof challenged Truman and made his voyage a difficult one but Truman persisted and maintainted his will-sprit to succed and this showed the people that a person "will" to do something can never be crushed and if there is a will there is a way. Christof tried to show people an ideal world, a world which all the people could strive towards too. Christof indeed took more action in Truman's life to make it more meaningful, to make it better and to make him enjoy himself a lot more and this makes him more responsible that the people who ignorantly watch the show for their own entertainment and pleasure. Yes, Christof took active responsibility in making Truman's life a sort of Ethiopia where everything is good and green but that doesn't mean he is not in the wrong for controlling the life of Truman and deciding aspects of his life.
There was an ethical issue the movie was trying to convey and it was probably the idea of controlling someones life. It is seen in the movie where truman's every decision were indirectly controlled through his friend or wife. As mentioned before, the idea of of controlling someones life is taking their freedom away from them. You rob them from the freedom of living their lives when they can travel, live and do whatever they want. The idea of controlling someones life to make money of is ethically wrong. Freedom of life is one of the fundamental things that should be given to man and one of the critical things a man can be robbed off. Robbing someone from the right to live their life with their freedom is blinding him from true reality.
The
Truman Show shockingly reveals to us the depths to which our society has
sunk. In realizing this, we are forced to examine ourselves as
individuals to see if we are part of this declining mentality. As we go deeper,
we are awakened to realize that it makes a scathing commentary on us as a
society and our obsession with money, entertainment, and the lives of the rich
and famous. Going even deeper, at the core of The Truman Show,
there is a message aimed at you, the individual. We cannot help
but examine ourselves as an individual contributor to our declining culture. The
Truman Show not only questions the morals and of our society and media, but
it also forces a face to face encounter with the fundamentals of our own
ethics. The media’s role in today's society has been has expanded to have a
gigantic influence on us and has greatly affected our values. The
Truman Show questions these values of society: our disregard for privacy,
the sacrifice of morals for money, the paparazzi, our obsession with
celebrities’
lives, and the extent to which we will go for entertainment. The Truman Show is just such an example of this exploitation of lives exhibited
for entertainment.
“We accept the reality which we are presented.”
It is indeed a true quote and people in connection to the real world do accept the reality which we are presented in. We live our lives as if it were our lives and we have no doubt that we might all be played on a tv show by some aliens. I always thought that my life was a story book that god read and i am just re-enacting it. Its a thought that came to me when I was young but the reason to believe that this world is not reality is hard to believe although it might not be. Its similar to the truman show where he thought his life was his life but his life was actually a tv show. We humans can't comprehend the extraordinary and tend to accept reality as it is. It is a rather interesting thought that we subconsciously accept the reality that we are in and do nothing to question it. As Albert Einstein said "Reality is just an illusion" and is mearly what we humans make it, although the reality we have made and set before us can indeed be a persistent reality that we have assumed to be reality.
“We accept the reality which we are presented.”
“Television, with insatiable hunger for material, has made celebrities into content.”-Roger Ebert, 1998, Chicago Sun-Times. Indeed one of the things that was shown towards the end of the movie is that people don't actually care about the protagonist, they just watched to show to see what happened. Television has made people want to watch it just to see what happens to the persons. People watch tv shows just to know what happens to the celebrities acting in it. Television is that idea of wanting to know about people's lives but in actual fact if something happened to the character people wouldn't actually kill their lives over it. Similar to the truman show the hunger games is a movie where the lives of people are played with in order to make views satisfied. Why do reality TV shows makes us viewers content and happy?
Appendix
The adjustment bureau : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1385826/
The hunger game : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392170/
Death race : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452608/
Oblivion : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1483013/
Gamer : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034032/
1 comments:
Akhil, I love the way you created a natural integration of the question into the response to make it a 'blog' and not a formulaic response to the questions posed! Some really good thinking and connections to things outside the movie... Connections to you and the real world! Thanks! This is a good piece of work : )
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