The Truman Show Movie Analysis Sample

As Christof, director of The Truman Show states, "We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented. It's as simple as that" (Christof). We are influenced by a lot of things in our day and age. One of the things that influence humans the most is the media. The media influences us by making us think certain aspects of life are real when they aren’t. In the Truman Show, we are introduced to Truman, a boy who was adopted by a television company and given a real-life sitcom show starring him. Christof, the director of the show, controls the reality of the place where Truman lives. Throughout the movie, we see the various ways that Truman has been used as an advertising product for the show. Just like the show controls Truman’s reality, the media is the one controlling us as a society. When the media takes over us it makes us insensitive to others and we sometimes don’t see the harm we are doing to them. 

Since Christof is the director of the show, he doesn’t want to lose his main star, Truman, so he will do anything to keep Truman there. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, authors of signs of life in the USA: readings on popular culture for writers states “Filmmakers have been providing Americans with entertainment that have both reflected and shaped their hopes and desires for over a century now.”.  In the movie we can see Truman is trying to find his way out of the studio set, he runs into his friend who tries to stop him telling him he is crazy for thinking that the whole world revolves around him. With this, we can see that even though the whole world was watching him the people from the set wanted to hide this from him. When Truman starts to realize that everyone he’s ever lived with is just an actor, he finds a way to get the cameras away from him so he can escape into the real world. Christof, director of the Truman Show states “You were real. That’s what made you so good to watch.” (Christof) With this quote, we can see that everything in the studio was created by Christof for Truman so that he could have natural interactions with people. Christof had been controlling Sea Heaven ever since Truman was a little kid, just like in today’s world the media is the one controlling everything we do and not letting us see the world with our own eyes. 

Throughout the Truman show, we are shown many products that viewers have bought from the show. One of these products is the pillows that two ladies had hugging. The show was selling these products to make profits since they aired the show completely free. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, authors of signs of life in the USA: readings on popular culture for writer's state “Whether you believe that films distract us from the real world or inspire us to imagine a better one, their central place in contemporary American culture demands interpretation.” (Maasik and Solomon 446). This quote connects to the film because the show was trying to inspire people to live the same way that Truman was living. The show also inspired people to buy things so they could feel that they were part of the show itself. This is comparable to our society because we often buy merchandise or ‘merch’ from artists to symbolize that we are part of the things they are doing. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, authors of signs of life in the USA: readings on popular culture for writers states “The trick here is to advertise a product without having people actually know they’re being marketed”.  When we have something that connects us to the artist itself it makes us feel special because it shows we are more enthusiastic than other people. 

Even though Truman was used as a product from the studio to sell merchandise the director of the show still cared a little about him. This is shown in the movie when the director is being interviewed and asked how many cameras there are in the town, to which he answers thousands of them, but says that he started with only one camera recording Truman as a young child. When he is saying this, you can hear in his voice that he is caring for Truman almost as if he was his own son. Christof, director of the Truman Show states “Say something goddammit! You are in television! You’re live to the whole world!” (Christof) With this quote, we can see that Christof is trying to get Truman to say something because he fears letting go of him because the show was his greatest creation, and he is watching it end in front of his eyes. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, authors of signs of life in the USA: readings on popular culture for writers state Filmmakers have been providing Americans with entertainment that have both reflected and shaped their hopes for over a century now”. We can compare this to our society because we too don’t like to let go of our favorite person/s because we’ve grown attached to them so much, we can’t live without them. Christof relates to a parent letting his child, Truman, go into the real world. We can see he is not ready for that because he tries to keep Truman from leaving by trying to kill him with a made-up storm in the studio set. It’s not until Truman waves goodbye to the camera that Christof is finally able to let go. 

In today’s world, the media is the one controlling everything around us. The media controls everything around us and we don’t even know. It has been controlling us since we were kids just like Truman had been controlled since he was born. The media will go to extreme ways to reach its goal no matter whom they hurt or what they do. We might not notice but we’ve all been affected by the media at some point in our life and if we don’t open our eyes and realize we will always be controlled.  

From Textbook Authors 

Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, authors of signs of life in the USA: readings on popular culture for writers “Filmmakers have been providing Americans with entertainment that have both reflected and shaped their hopes and desires for over a century now.” (Maasik and Solomon 445).  

Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon, authors of signs of life in the USA: readings on popular culture for writers “Whether you believe that films distract us from the real world or inspire us to imagine a better one, their central place in contemporary American culture demands interpretation.” (Maasik and Solomon 446). 

From Film 

"We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented. It's as simple as that." (The Truman Show) 

“You were real. That’s what made you so good to watch.” (The Truman Show) 

Work Cited 

Maasik and Solomon. Signs of life in the U.S.A.: Readings on popular culture for writers 

10th edition. 

The Truman Show. Directed by: Peter Weir, starring Jim Carrey, Paramount Pictures, 1998