What The Truman Show taught me

The author, 30, enjoys watching the NBA and Major League Baseball. A Computer Science graduate of De La Salle University, he taught in schools as well as in companies. Right now, he’s trying to pursue a career in freelance writing.

"I think the best movies are those that make you think," he says. "Movies that you can play your mind over and over again."

The Truman Show is my favorite movie of all time because it makes me think of how I should act if I were the lead character.

In the movie, Truman Burbank (played by Jim Carey) feels special because of all the attention he gets from the people around him. On the one hand, he’s popular. On the other hand, getting all the attention has its downside: you feel paranoid because everyone is supposed to be watching you.

Truman lives in an artificial world, a world that is actually a big movie set where there are cameras everywhere. The numerous cameras are there so that those involved in making the show can follow Truman wherever he goes.

The "movie people" led by their director, Christof (played by Ed Harris), try to manipulate the show by controlling Truman’s life. Somewhere at the end of the film, Christof tells Truman that he’s the star of the show. And he being the star, the audience is anticipating what he says next or what his next actions will be. That is a critical part of the movie since Christof is trying to give Truman an option to continue the show or not. It forces Truman to make a decision: Would he rather be the star of the show that is scripted, or live an ordinary life which is not scripted?

All through Truman’s life, the movie people (from now on, I’ll call them "the production people") control his wants, desires and aspirations, even though for most of his life, he isn’t aware that he is being controlled. But during his college days, he meets a girl he really likes. "Really likes" meaning the desire isn’t imposed on him by the production people. However, the girl, Sylvia (played by Natasha McElhone), even though she likes Truman, can’t do anything about it because she knows there is a conspiracy.

Truman and Sylvia try to evade the cameras and go to a secluded beach where Sylvia informs Truman of the grand conspiracy; that the life he is living is a lie. As Sylvia convinces Truman of his hopeless plight, the supposed father of Sylvia comes driving to the beach and informs Truman that his daughter is mentally sick, and therefore, she does not know what she’s talking about. The supposed father drags Sylvia away to his car, as Sylvia advises Truman to get away from this place (or world). Truman, concerned for someone he truly likes, asks the supposed father where he’s taking Sylvia. "To Fiji" is the reply he gets.

From then on, Truman has a goal to work for. Something not put in front of him just because the script calls for it. A goal that comes from his own heart, his own choice, with no outside influences whatsoever.

Truman’s goal, to put it in simplest terms, is to go to Fiji because that’s where the girl he really wants is supposed to be living. Of course, she’s not really living in Fiji. Her supposed father (who is not really her father) just said that, since that was what the script called for. Which makes Fiji a symbolic place. A place of freedom. A place of true happiness. A "symbolic place" which, ironically, turns out to be the "real place."

For me, the climactic part of the story is when Truman is at sea, trying to confront his worst fear (his fear of being at sea), while the production people keep on manipulating the "weather". At one point, when the wind is getting too strong, Truman ties himself to the boat so that he won’t be separated from it when it overturns. He survives through this violent weather (which he now knows is being controlled by those who are conspiring against him), and he shouts (to them), "Is that the best you can do?"

This statement is inspiring as we go through the many difficulties in our lives. It challenges us to become fighters no matter what the circumstances.