Peter Weir's 'The Truman Show': How is it going to end?<\/p>\n
By Rayya Makarim<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): After a five-year hiatus, Peter Weir (The Year
\nof Living Dangerously, Dead Poet's Society, Witness, Green Card)
\nis back with his latest masterpiece. The concept of The Truman
\nShow is built around a fundamental secret -- a conspiracy, if you
\nwill.<\/p>\n
So, if by some good chance you don't know about it, stop
\nreading now, and start queuing for the next available screening
\nat your local theater.<\/p>\n
Every second of every day, from the moment he was born, for
\nthe last 30 years, Truman Burbank has been the unwitting star of
\nhis own 24-hour TV show. When he speaks to the camera, he thinks
\nhe's having a completely private moment in front of his bathroom
\nmirror. Little does he know that millions are sharing that moment
\nwith him.<\/p>\n
Truman lives in the ever-cheery community of Seahaven, works
\nat an insurance company and is happily married to Meryl (Laura
\nLinney). His best friend Marlon (Noah Emmerich) always appears
\nwith a six-pack of beer (one of the endless product placements
\nthat pay the show's bills).<\/p>\n
Truman suspects nothing. It turns out that Seahaven, with its
\nmotto \"It's a Nice Place to Live\" is a set belonging to the
\nworld's largest television soundstage, and all its inhabitants
\nmembers of a large cast of actors and extras who work together to
\nkeep Truman in line.<\/p>\n
Directing the action from above is the God-like Christof (Ed
\nHarris), the creator of \"The Truman Show\". \"We've become bored
\nwith watching actors giving us phony emotions. We're tired of
\npyrotechnics and special effects. While the world he inhabits is
\nto some respects counterfeit, there is nothing faked about
\nTruman. No script, no cue cards.\"<\/p>\n
So far, Weir has introduced the audience to two different
\nrealities. One is the actual film The Truman Show directed by
\nWeir and written by Andrew Niccol. And second, the television
\n\"The Truman Show\" directed by Christof.<\/p>\n
When Weir lets us join his film on day 10,909 of the
\ntelevision show, another reality is introduced. Technical
\nglitches, like a lighting kit dropping from the sky, rain falling
\nonly above Truman's head and the car radio that announcing every
\nturn Truman's car makes, lead us to a third reality -- fowl ups
\nthat reveal that Truman's world is fake. This reality is probably
\nnothing new for us but fundamental to Truman himself.<\/p>\n
Once all the realities emerge, only one of them remains
\nconstant, and that is Weir's film as a whole. The other two
\nrealities clash with each other and bring Truman to believe that
\nhe's in a major conspiracy. It is at this point that Truman's
\nworld starts to come apart.<\/p>\n
The most fascinating thing about this movie is how Weir
\ndistinguishes between the film The Truman Show and the television
\nshow \"The Truman Show\" (Christof's creation).<\/p>\n
All movies are shot with concealed cameras but this one had to
\nconvey the idea that the subject was being filmed under
\nsurveillance. This explains the wide range of shots and angles
\nused.<\/p>\n
Oval and circular surfaces are also used to give the
\nimpression that Christof's 5,000 hidden cameras were built into
\nthe props: a camera in Truman's ring, in Meryl's pendant, in
\nTruman's car radio, etc.<\/p>\n
For Christof's show, Weir hired Rick Whitfield to direct a
\nsecond shooting unit. This unit was specifically used for
\nextensive video coverage of Truman's life. The results are the
\nsequences we see on the various TV screens displayed throughout
\nthe film.<\/p>\n
With the different levels of realities presented by Weir, the
\nchallenge for Noah Emmerich and Laura Linney was how to portray
\nactors playing Marlon and Meryl.<\/p>\n
At one point, Truman has had enough and starts harassing his
\nwife for the truth. The actress in the role of Meryl breaks under
\npressure, complaining that she cannot survive under the
\ncircumstances: \"It's unprofessional,\" she sobs.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, the best performance is by Carrey, who
\ntriumphantly portrays a man in doubt. Just when Truman thinks
\nhe's figured it out, Christof interferes and shifts the plot. We
\ncatch glimpses of Carrey's manic comic persona, especially in
\nthose scenes where Truman realizes that everything revolves
\naround him.<\/p>\n
\"Somebody help me, I'm being spontaneous!\" Surprisingly,
\nCarrey succeeds in fixing a tight grip on his famous rubber-face
\nroutine. Instead, he quickly returns to the tragic Truman, who
\nexpresses pain and fear, and a longing for something that he,
\nhimself, isn't quite sure of.<\/p>\n
On a philosophical level, we have met with the issues offered
\nin The Truman Show before. It is part of an endless dialog on
\ndeterminism and the question of free will.<\/p>\n
Watching a sunset, Marlon says to Truman: \"That's the big guy.
\nQuite a paintbrush he's got.\" Here, Marlon is actually referring
\nto Christof's control room, a man with so much power that he can
\ncue the sun.<\/p>\n
Christof has only so much control. Truman would rather die
\nthan live in captivity, so he escapes by sailboat only to bump
\ninto the horizon (the end of the set). Threatened by the
\ntelevision show's doom, Christof convinces Truman that he belongs
\nin the safe artificial world that he created. According to
\nChristof, there is no evil in that world. There is also no truth.<\/p>",
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