I recently re-watched The Truman Show this week, and I thought, wow! The ethical dilemmas; the allegory of the cave comparisons; Christof as the Evil Genius; a prediction of how far Reality TV could go; the blurring of the lines between reality and fiction.
"The most significant influence behind The Truman Show is the work of Jean Baudrillard, the famous French sociologist, philosopher and postmodern theorist. His most famous work, the 1981 philosophical treatise Simulation and Simulacra, focuses on the relationship between reality, symbols and society — not unlike the topics explored in The Truman Show. From this work emerged Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality, which Baudrillard defines as the “inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies.” Truman’s world is a concrete example of a hyperreality, as it’s a simulation of a world that is seemingly real but does not actually exist. The key to the hyperreality of The Truman Show is its apparent authenticity, as every element within Truman’s world is designed to copy the appearance of the real one. It’s this replication of the appearances of reality that continuously tricks Truman, preventing him from learning the truth for decades and blurring the line between reality and fiction."
Apparently, with the spread of Reality TV, most of which happened AFTER this movie, a new mental disorder was actually named after Truman Burbank,The Truman Show delusion, in which someone thinks that their entire life is being staged for a TV show or that they're being watched on camera.
There's also the allegory of the cave aspect of the film - after learning about it and watching this film, Truman's soundstage is literally a cave that simulates reality. In fact, Plato envisioned the prisoners in the cave as not really seeing reality but shadows on the wall. Is this much different than The Truman Show?
Questions to answer (Pick 3 to do, you must include #6):
1. How close to the allegory of the cave was The Truman Show? Is it truer to the allegory than the Matrix or Free Guy? Where is The Truman Show the closest to the allegory? Where does it fall short the most? Explain why.
2. How did the Truman Show anticipate what Reality TV would become in the next 25 years? Explain.
3. What are your thoughts about the ethics of Truman being the first human being owned by a corporation? In some weird way, are employees "owned" by their employers with the salary / wages that they pay their employees? Is this metaphorical slavery? Explain.
4. How much does Christof act as Descartes' Evil Genius? And of course,how is Christof NOT like the Evil Genius?
5. Throughout the film, you see the audiences are extremely invested in the show, which would explain why the show had run for almost 30 years, complete with the sale of props and products from the show. Right as the film (and the show) ended, though, the security guards were already asking about what was next. What is the filmmaker saying with that final scene?
6. If there is any film that screams for a sequel, this is one. What do you think happens next once Truman leaves the set (and, in essence, his whole life) behind?
300 minimum words total for all three answers. Due Tuesday night, June 6, by 11:59 p.m.
An essay on The Truman Show and philosophy - https://philosophynow.org/issues/32/The_Truman_Show
Enzo -
ReplyDelete2. It predicts both the predictability and unpredictability of reality TV. It’s predictable in the way that everything is controlled, it isn’t about someone living their lives, but about people living fake lives. It’s also unpredictable in a similar manner, that it isn’t supposed to be just like real life, because real life is boring and not something people would watch, so people would make reality TV something extra, something that wouldn’t be happening in real life while making it seem just like it. That’s just how Truman’s life is, seeming like regular life, but with extra pieces of fakeness added in, like his father’s death, not getting a ticket for a plane to Fiji, the bus breaking down, all fake.
4. Christof is similar to the Evil Genius in the way that he controls everything. He controls every little detail, who Truman meets, where he lives, who he married, everything. He decides everything that happens around Truman, but he doesn’t control Truman. That’s where Christof is different from the Evil Genius. He can’t control Truman’s actions. The Evil Genius not only has full control of the person, but also controls them because of full control of the person’s brain. Christof only has power over the set and the situations, but not over Truman, which is how he was able to escape.
6. I think one of the first things he’ll do is try to go to Fiji. After getting used to real life, he’ll most likely try to visit Fiji, since it’s been his dream for years to go. He’ll probably come back to the US after that, unless he decides to sell insurance in Fiji and live there. Either before or after then, but most likely before, he’ll try to find Sarah, the woman who was playing Lauren Garland, and the person he fell in love with. The most likely case would be that he gets out, finds Sarah, then moves to Fiji with her and they get married, but would have some problems in the middle, as any movie does.
1 The Truman show is quite close to the Allegory of the cave but not really because at one moment he sees his father and suddenly two persons come and his dad as they were afraid he knew the truth, everybody is keeping him from the truth ( not letting him go out of the cave). The girl he meets knows the truth about everything but right after a man she doesn't know keeps her from saying more to Truman. Nobody wants Truman to know the truth, she’s saying that everybody is pretending. Another moment where police officers are keeping him away from the truth. I think that Free Guy is truer than the Truman show or The Matrix. The difference is that when he tries to know the truth everybody knows the truth except him, they are stopping him from this but in the Allegory of the cave they are not keeping the prisoner from the truth. The thing that is closest to this allegory is when he finds out everybody is hiding the truth, he also realizes that his name Truman sounds like True Man.
ReplyDelete3 I think this is pretty weird and interesting because we can know how somebody is reacting about this when almost finding the real truth. It is like an experiment we do on a mouse. It is also a little bit scary to know that they put a human in a show without him knowing and this since he is a baby, people are watching him do everythings he does in his life. In some particular way, yes the employees are kind of "owned" by their employers with the salary / wages that they pay because if the employers are not paying the employees then the employees can’t live their life, money is necessary for buying food and important supplies.
6. Once Truman leaves the set I think that he's searching for the girl at the beginning because he is in love with her. Everybody will finally see him in reality and not on TV. Maybe he will find a job and work.
Clara
Nathan
ReplyDelete2
I’m not sure how prevalent or what Reality TV was like 25 years ago, but the Truman Show almost nailed what Reality TV is now, or what it tries to be. In the movie, Truman’s entire life was filmed and everything was controlled, including what people said to him and what happened to him. Truman thinks everything is real but everyone else knows it’s not. In Reality TV today, everything is made to look like it’s real but in reality, not much of it is (depending on the show of course). The Truman show takes Reality TV to the next level though and makes a fake world for one person. Reality TV today hasn’t gotten there, though.
4
Christof is exactly like Descartes’ evil genius because he controls Truman’s world. He controls what people say to him, what happens to him, and even the weather. Christof, it seems, cares about Truman but also has been controlled by his power as the producer/director of the show. We saw this at the end of the show when he almost tried to kill Truman and then when he tried to convince him to stay. Of course, Christof can’t actually manipulate Truman’s mind and he can’t change his thoughts but he could do almost anything else. In the end, he also didn’t actually kill him so there’s a little bit of a silver lining.
6
I was thinking about this question myself because I was left unsatisfied with the ending of the movie. I really wanted to see Truman out in the real world and to see how he reacts to everything around him. I think with an extended cut, Sylvia (the girl from High School) meets him and shows him the real world. It might be possible that she is also in love with him just because of how the movie paints her staring at the TV screen. In a sequel, he and Sylvia are together and she is showing him the real world and I think it would be too overwhelming for him. In his life, nothing really terrible has ever happened to him besides his dad’s death. I’m sure that no one has ever been openly mean to him. At the same time, it seems like he still had to deal with regular things like a car payment and a mortgage so maybe he would be fine on that front. In a full sequel, I think it’s set a couple years after he gets out and he’s with Sylvia, but then something happens and they break up and he basically has to live on his own for the first time.
1. I believe that the Truman Show was successful in portraying the allegory of the cave. This is because the storyline of both are very similar. For example, the allegory of the cave shows a similar symbolism of seeing the sun or discovering the truth. Truman also does this in the same order of events. However, one way that is different is that there were no other prisoners. Although Truman thought before that there were others in his position, it was not true and he was all alone in his deception. I believe that it was the most similar to Free Guy since Guy was in a similar situation with Antwan and Christof having overall control of the community.
ReplyDelete3. I believe that having Truman be owned by a corporation is very unethical. He had no choice in the situation which is crucial for any legally binding contract. Especially since they were essentially selling his life and privacy. I dont believe that employees are a very similar comparison to Truman’s situation since employees know that they are working for someone else and also receive pay for their work. I believe that Truman’s situation is closer to metaphorical slavery than an employees position.
5. The filmmaker was trying to convey that people have become so obsessed with others lives that they stopped living their own. Especially since many businesses took advantage of this. I believe that they are also trying to communicate a complete shift in culture.
6. I think that Truman will meet up with the girl who was trying to free him while he was in the set and she will help him readjust to society. Since this is a very large change, Truman will probably have lots of issues with this but it will overall benefit him. Furthermore, having someone to help him adjust will be very beneficial.
Jasmine Demski
2. Christof is almost exactly how Descartes would describe the evil genius. Christof the man who made the whole world that Truman lives in fits the criteria of the evil genius, he has full control over the world around him (until things go wrong on the set) he also manipulates the story of Truman's life. The evil genius or evil demon as described by some has the ability to deceive us constantly making sure that what we think aligns with what it wants us to believe this is what Christof does to Truman we see this with the entire world Truman lives in and when Christof brings back Truman's “father”. The evil genius being able to constantly deceive us means we know nothing of truth. This is much like Truman and how he knew nothing of his world's truth until very late into his life. However Christof isn't exactly the evil genius though he has the abilities that the evil genius is said to use in his world building and creation of false realities. The key difference between Christof and the evil genius is that Christof is not as cruel and the evil genius would be imagined. This however is not meant to look past the atrocity of keeping Truman in a cage his whole life, this is meant to show the mercy Christof showed when Truman finally found the truth. Again Christof may have tried to kill him with the storm and the waves, Truman was able to make it through those hardships and survive so almost as a reward Christof lets him go after talking to him. If Christof was truly evil down to his very last atom he would have had Truman killed by a more hands on means so with that said there has to be a sliver of not pure evil somewhere in Christof. An example of this is the way Christof talked to Truman after the storm was over, he talked to Truman as a father figure bringing up past memories, saying he knows him most and saying he truly cares for him even if this was meant to manipulate Truman there seemed to be some truth in his words of care for Turman.
ReplyDelete3(6). After Truman leaves I think his life becomes extremely chaotic for quite a long time. After exiting the set I presume he sorta stands around until Sylivia comes for him. Truman would immediately see here and they would both run to each other and embrace each other. Shortly after Truman would be rushed by the staff of the show trying to meet him and see him to which Sylivia would respond by pulling him away and probably taking him back to her home so that he may rest and escape the chaos of the new and confusing world around him. After a while of adjustment the course of action I would have Truman take is to sue everyone and everything possible for infringing upon his basic human rights even if he was adopted by the corporation that made the show.
The Truman show was almost perfectly able to predict what some TV shows were going to be. Most modern tv shows are reality tv shows about famous people and their day to day lives and somehow they have huge amounts of viewers. The most famous reality show I know is Keeping up with the Kardashians. In the Truman show the entire world is infatuated with the fake life of a young man named Truman much like how people are obsessed with the life of the Kardashian family. People watched Truman grow up, go to school, get a job, fall “in love” and pretty much everything that he ever did much like how people love to watch the Kardashian family at home being people and going places being normal people (if possible for them) and just living. For both the Truman show and keeping up with the Kardashians I beg the question why? Why are people so obsessed with watching the daily life of a person just because they are famous and are popular?
2. I think The Truman Show really accurately predicts how people today view reality TV today. I think it showed perfectly two perspectives. One perspective is from the director's side, controlling everything, and making sure everything looks like “reality”. The second perspective is from the multiple viewers tuning in to The Truman Show. Everyone knows that it’s staged, but still tune in and watch anyway, surprised when anything out of the ordinary happens. It also anticipated the scripted drama narratives in reality TV also. Truman’s whole life was manipulated to create content. Shows and producers now do the same thing just to engage the audience like zooming in cameras, and creating dramas for certain people,
ReplyDelete3. I don’t think that it was right for a corporation to adopt Truman. I think using him strictly for views and money was completely wrong. They took someone’s whole life and built it themselves and gave him no real experience. I think the worst thing for me was that they kept him in a dome and still let him read about other places when they knew that he wasn’t able to go. I do think a little bit that employees are “owned” by their companies. Depending on what type of job and position that you are in, it can dictate your life. You may not be financially stable to do the things that you want to actually do due to your job.
6. I think the best sequel for this would be he goes on a quest to find Cynthia. I think it should pick up right when he left, and Cynthia trying to find him too. I think they could reuse Christof may be trying to find him and maybe manipulate him into coming back. I think it would be difficult for Truman to connect with the real world, because everything in his whole life was fake so I think it would be difficult to connect with people.
Hannah
ReplyDelete6. I think that when Truman leaves the show, the first thing he is going to try to do is to find the love of his life. I think that once he sees what goes on in the real world and how much fear there is, he might want to go back to the Truman show because there was nothing to fear. I also think he will have a hard time adjusting to the normal world because he has grown up on the ideas and morals of this fake world he lived in. He will have a hard time forming new ideas and being open to new things.
1. The Truman show was kind of similar to the allegory of the cave, but I think it didn’t finish the story. It didn’t include the part where the caveman goes back to tell the other caveman about the world that lies in front of them, because he was the only one that was stuck in the cave. I think the only part that is similar is the fact that he was stuck in a world, which he thought was the only thing out there when, in reality, there was a whole other world beyond it. I don’t think it is as accurate to the allegory of the cave, as free Guy and the matrix, because in both of those movies, the main characters try to go back and get more people to break free from the “cave”.
2. The first thing that I thought of when I saw the Truman show was keeping up with the Kardashians. I think that this movie anticipated the rise of reality TV within recent years and the appeal of following people throughout their whole lives. I think it also relates to the idea of paparazzi and how those people follow celebrities around and try to get into their personal lives. people, especially in recent times really like the idea of watching another person live their normal life, and I think that the Truman show predicted that.
2. The Truman Show depicts a man named Truman Burbank who is, unknowingly, the star of a reality TV show, being broadcast to millions of people. While it was released in 1998, it was ahead of its time. Today, we are overwhelmed with reality TV shows that feature real people in real-life situations. Examples can be dating shows, survival shows, and even shows about people's everyday lives. It was a precursor of a world in which people's lives are constantly being recorded and broadcast for the joy of others. It raises important questions about the ethics of reality TV, and about the way that it can exploit people for the sake of entertainment.
ReplyDelete4. Christof is the one who created the fake world Truman lives in, and he controls Truman's every move. He is like Descartes' evil genius because he is a powerful force that seeks to trick Truman and keep him trapped in a false reality. However, there are also some important differences between the two. First, Christof is not an evil force that wants to deceive Truman for its own benefit. Instead, he sees himself as a god-like figure who is making a perfect world for Truman to live in. In his head, he is doing what is best for Truman
5. I think the filmmakers are trying to show the world how little everything means to them. As soon as the show ends, the guards just flip to the next channel like the show never happened. 30 years of watching the same show and when it ends people just disregard it. This shows how people just use things for their own benefit and when they use it all up and it runs out they just discard it. This is what is happening to make our world die the way it is dying.
Bryce
1. How close to the allegory of the cave was The Truman Show? Is it truer to the allegory than The Matrix or Free Guy? Where is The Truman Show the closest to the allegory? Where does it fall short the most? Explain why. I think that the Truman Show was somewhat close to the allegory of the cave but not entirely the same. One similarity between the Truman Show and the allegory is that they both involve a character who brakes free of their previous life and sees the real world for the first time. But one difference is that in The Truman Show, Truman brakes free of the town and the show, but we never see what happens after. This is different from the cave because a big part of the allegory is what happens when the prisoner goes back to tell the other prisoners what he saw. Another difference between the Truman Show and the allegory of the cave is that in the Truman Show, Truman was the only one essentially “in the cave”, and in the allegory, there are multiple prisoners in the cave. I think that both free guy and the matrix are closer to the allegory because they involve other people who symbolize the other prisoners in the cave.
ReplyDelete4. How much does Christof act as Descartes' Evil Genius? And of course, how is Christof NOT like the Evil Genius? I think that Cristof is somewhat similar to Descartes's evil genius. He is similar to Descartes's evil genius because he is able to manipulate Truman's reality and his surroundings to make him believe whatever he wants him to believe. For example, he can control the weather, the time the sun rises, and the landscape. He is also able to hand-pick the people in Truman's life and he is able to control what they say and how they act. But Cristof is also different from the evil genius because it's evident that Cristof loves and cares about Truman and almost views him like a son. Cristof is also not able to completely control what Truman thinks, and due to this, Truman was able to figure out that his reality was fake
6. If there is any film that screams for a sequel, this is one. What do you think happens next once Truman leaves the set (and, in essence, his whole life) behind? I think that once Truman leaves the set, he will become more like the celebrities we see today. I think that it's likely that he would do interviews, and even write a book about his time in the show. I also think that in the sequel they would include a reunion of Truman and Silvia meeting again for the first time. This would also probably include Truman joining the “free Truman” movement and possibly suing the show with Silvia. I am curious to see if he would stay in contact with the people he was close with on the show, like his mom, Marlon, and Meryl.
Nina
2. The show followed Truman around 24/7, with zero breaks, showing his raw life to everyone. While today’s reality TV isn’t this extreme, the shows are still made to seem that way: “real”. We all know that most of reality TV is either scripted or the people are manipulated into behaving a certain way to enhance the show and create more drama. In a sense, this is what the Truman show also did. The actors reacted to Truman based on what they were told to say through the earpieces that connected them to the directors, similar to how producers influence people in reality TV shows.
ReplyDelete3. I think it’s really messed up that Truman is owned by a TV company, and has no idea he’s living inside of a set. It almost felt like they were wasting his life and potential of what he could have been, just for the entertainment of others. I don’t think employees are “owned” by their employers, and I wouldn’t call it metaphorical slavery. You are being paid, and have the option to quit your job, meaning there’s always a way out, and you are also benefiting from the job (salary). I feel like there are no benefits to slaves through slavery, they didn’t make money, and they never had the option to stop or quit when they wanted to. So, it probably wouldn’t be appropriate to compare it to slavery.
6. If there was a sequel, I think that once Truman begins a new life in the real world, he will go crazy. He has no experience with actual people that aren’t just acting, meaning he won’t know how to interact with others because the development of his social skills had been so skewed and fake his whole life. It would also be interesting to see how people talk to him. Since everyone watched the show often, would they try to manipulate him into doing things because they know he lacks knowledge about the real world?
Mikayla
Ellie
ReplyDelete3. Throughout the entire movie, I kept thinking about how unethical the premise is. First off, he is literally OWNED by the company. The company manipulates the world around him to make it go the way they have planned. Truman, also from birth, has had his entire life filmed and streamed to the world without his knowledge. Not only that, but they have given him no money for the buttloads they have made off of him. This is extremely violating and is probably illegal. I do not think that employees are “owned” by their employers. Employees are under some restrictions regarding their job, however jobs should not (directly) control every moment of someone’s life.
4. Christof very closely resembles Descartes’ Evil Genius. Cristof manipulates Truman in every conceivable way. He chooses who he will love, and if Truman finds someone else he loves, Cristof will take them away (other wise known as Sylvia). Christof has thought of everything. He instilled Truman’s fear of water from a young age to prevent him from trying to leave the island. And in order to do this he pretended to kill of his father!
6. In the Truman Show sequel, I think that Truman will find Sylvia. Truman and Sylvia will lead a life together. I also think that Sylvia will show Truman all of the amazing things in the world, as they travel to Fiji and all around the world. I have a feeling that Truman would get into reading. He would discover more truths about the world, or maybe even become a sailor or a scientist. It would be mainly about Truman exploring life. Maybe he would become invested in philosophy and people and learning about reality. That seems probable to me due to the many years he has been kept away from the real world.