July 7 (Lunar calendar: May 20), 2023 Friday | Dawnxisoul393art

After Watching the Film "The Truman Show"：

We watched Truman's World again today, and we have a better understanding of director Peter Lindsay Weir's intentions, and my experience is much deeper than the first time we watched it. The ordinary people are completely deprived of their freedom, privacy, and even dignity, and become the victims of the mass entertainment industry. The film reflects the hopes and anxieties of humanity and is notable for touching on the most sensitive social issues of today. The meaning of the film is profound, and it will make us shudder.

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Because maybe one day we will start to worry if the same thing will happen in our own surroundings. We think the film has many layers, and the concept of its themes is so creative and empathetic that it makes us ask ourselves, is everyone living around us acting? The director gives the role of Christof, played by Ed Harris, unparalleled authority. He "created" the heavens and the earth, the sun, the moon, the stars, and "everything in the world", while he "sat on a great ball" with 5,000 cameras, so that he could know everything at all times. Modern high technology gives him the magic of omnipotence.

The role of Christof is actually created to reflect people's unspeakable awe of the unknown, nature, and their own unknown "destiny". When faced with danger and confusion, people will instinctively turn to the "Christof" type of character for help, hoping to get their help. On the other hand, Christof is convinced that he offers Truman the best opportunity: a life away from the world, and he hopes that people will accept the reality and live under his protection forever, enjoy a perfect life with him in this beautiful "town". In the film, Truman goes through a process from "unaware" to "confused" to "enlightened".

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Each of the turning points in the film is arranged in a meaningful way. The first turning point is the sudden reappearance of "Truman's father", and the biggest driving force behind Truman's transformation is Sylvia, whom he has been missing dearly, although Sylvia's role as the main motive for Truman's transformation is somewhat "sexual". But she is still the main representative of the confrontation with authority in the film. This is especially true when contrasted with the role of "Truman's father", which makes the symbolism of each character even more profound, the two characters represent completely different ideologies in the same confrontation with the system. The film symbolizes Truman's triumph when he touches the wall of the "town" and walks up the narrow door of the ladder.

The end of the film seems to tell us, the viewers, the "true nature" of the reality we live in, and this "true nature" also symbolize the victory of us, the viewers of The Truman Show: Truman escapes back to our "real" world. Because of the strong implication of the title, its true theme is easily overlooked and misunderstood, which is a waste of the director's good intentions. Thinking about what is real and what is not has always been the driving force behind human progress. 

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Christof, the director of the film, said, "People believe in the truth". But the "truth" has always been reproduced. A mass society proposition that has been going on for over 100 years, the film shows one of the most realistic future forms of this mass society, the immense power of the television industry. Christof believes that Truman's life is normal, while the real reality of the world is pathological. Simply put, do people need the right to suffer more or do they want to be "happy robots"? Truman eventually walks out of the town, while real people may never walk out of this show in the real world.

The film uses Truman touching the walls of the town and walking up the narrow door of the stairs to represent Truman's triumph while telling the viewer the "true nature" of the reality we live in, which also seems to represent the triumph of us, the viewers of The Truman Show. 

After Watching the Film "The Truman Show" (one of our spiritual self-healing thoughts) Dawnxisoul393