Unnatural Details In The Truman Show
The Truman Show is a 1998 American science fiction comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir.
The Truman show is a movie, about a show, about the life of an everyday person, but it is set in an ideal city, in a perfect scenario, controlled by television producers. They can control everything from who he interacts with, to what the weather is like. Truman is thrust into the show as soon as he is born, so he never knows that his every move is being broadcast to the world.
Being in Truman’s shoes, it would be very difficult to figure out that everything was not normal. The life he was born into was the life on the set of the show, so with all of the effort put into concealing the truth, life would seem very normal. The producers of the Truman show used lots and lots of lights and various equipment to both make the dome seem as if it were nothing but open sky, and to film and provide a lifelike feel to the show.
On the other side, the producers of the movie used these effects to make the show seem more authentic. Good examples of this are when they showed Truman from the perspective of the show. The different visual effects they used helped show us the context of the show, such as when they framed it as though we were watching Truman from cameras hidden in buttons or objects he carried around. The movie also used dialogue to make the show seem more realistic and intense. The movie starts at a pivotal time in Truman’s life, so there is a lot of evidence of how his life is ever so slightly off. There are flashback scenes, such as when young Truman is climbing the pile of rocks by the beach and his dad quickly pulls him down, and we can hear the whirring of machines in the background.
Another example of Truman’s life being somewhat unnatural is the light falling down in the street close to him. This light falling down is definite proof that Truman’s life is definitely not normal, and I believe introduces the movie’s main conflict; which is the fact that Truman wants to live a normal life, but everything around him is very carefully manufactured and controlled by others. All of the small unnatural details such as these are symbols for Truman’s fight for freedom, and his failure to live a natural, normal life.
