spow-07667 Review of The Truman Show

The Truman Show (1998)

Interesting as a satire piece, not really a good movie plot-wise

[6/10 · 11 September 2017]

As a satire this movie was decent, as a movie for pure entertainment purposes it had a weak plot and no real climax point. There were many places where satire was seen in this movie. The first satirical element we saw was irony when Truman agreed to take part in a job that he needed to take the ferry to get to, except he was prepared to go and then he did the exact opposite, walk off the pier and not go. This was a good example of dramatic irony. I think that the target of this satire is reality television. There are many similarities between the Truman Show and reality television such as, both give others insight on people's' lives through television and both are a little too invasive in the stars' life, especially the Truman Show because the people can watch Truman for 24 hours if they'd like to. Because the target of this satire is reality television it could be said that the Truman Show is merely an inflation of reality TV to show people the problems that are present in reality TV. The Truman show shows Truman as a baby and you get to see him grow up, most have been watching him his whole life, and in reality TV when there are child stars, like Kendall and Kylie Jenner (who have been on reality TV from a young age), the audience watches them grow up as well, the Truman Show just takes it to the extreme. Reality TV and the Truman show are also similar in the fact that they don't want the stars to leave, so they create obstacles. In reality TV the obstacle that most stars face when trying to get out of the limelight is media backlash/loss of fame. Both of these things can be very hard to face, that's why the star will continue to be a star and make their boss company money. The obstacle for Truman is that he is terrified of water. This fear was instilled in him by the producers of his show, made so that even if he wanted to leave he would be too scared because Seahaven is surrounded by water.