The Truman Show: film analysis and philosophical themes

Truman Show and Free Will

The Truman Show is a film about Truman Burbank, a man who was adopted by a corporation and unknowingly turned into a reality television star. While Truman thinks his life is like everyone else's, he is really living in a giant studio and having his entire life broadcast as a television show. The studio and almost every detail of Truman's life is controlled by one man, the creator/producer of the show Christof. This sets the scene for a film that explores many areas, one of the most important being the issue of free will and how people are affected by controlled surroundings.

What is free will? It is having the power to choose what you want to do. However, free will only truly exists if a person is aware that they have a choice. Before Truman is aware that he is part of a television show, he has no power to change the situation for himself. This communicates a simple truth: that a person is only capable of changing for themselves what they are aware can be changed. In the general sense, Truman is not a prisoner. However, without the knowledge that his world is created and that there is something beyond it, he cannot choose to leave his current world. This shows how controlling what a person knows can actually limit or remove a person's free will.

One of the other questions raised, is what happens when other people can see that someone is being controlled via a lack of knowledge. Lauren answers this question as she fights for Truman's rights. She protests, organizes rallies, and in one bold move, gets a part in Truman's imaginary world and tries to tell him what is happening. In these actions, Lauren's actions are almost exactly similar to someone fighting for the rights of animals, or rainforests, or the environment. The interesting point is that these are the ways people fight for things that are not capable of helping themselves. Truman is a human being with the same potential as any other. Yet due to circumstances, lack of information, and the level of control other people have over his life, he becomes as defenseless as a rainforest or the dolphins. This shows that a person can not only loose free will, but lose any ability to help themselves, just by someone else controlling information.

It is worth noting too the level of control that exists over Truman's life. Christof controls who Truman's friends are, what he does each day, and even who his wife is. It is interesting to see that Christof is forced to find Truman a wife after the experience with Lauren and must do so quickly. In controlling Truman, it is not any kind of mind control. Instead, Christof simply puts the right woman in the right place at the right time. Meryl catches his attention and just as Christof wanted, they develop a relationship and get married. The film also reveals that one of the plans for the show is for Truman to have a family. Without Lauren's interference and the series of errors that leads Truman to suspect something is happening, it seems likely that this would have occurred. This clearly shows how much a person can be manipulated. Yet as noted, there is no kind of mind control or anything similar in the way Truman is controlled. Instead, it is just an understanding of basic human psychology and an ability to alter and control the environment.

It is noted though, that there are some aspects of people's personalities that cannot be changed. Truman has a desire to explore. The film shows how it was present at an early age, from Truman climbing the rocks to see what was beyond there to Truman announcing that he wants to be an explorer in school. This desire to explore was something that could not be changed. However, by altering the environment again, it could be controlled so Truman would not act on this desire. In childhood, a barking dog on the bright out of town is enough. As Truman gets older, more is required. This leads to the dramatic events of his father's drowning. This event scars Truman, leaving him with a fear of water that prevents him from being able to leave. In part, this controls Truman. Yet again, there is a part of him that retains that desire to leave. It is Lauren's mention of Fiji that has him wanting to go, but it is also his desire to go as far from where he is as possible. In the end, it seems this desire cannot be contained and Truman's drive to explore eventually has him questioning his surroundings and finding his way you. In the end then, the film seems to suggest that human nature cannot be controlled. The environment and circumstances can be controlled so that a person's desires will not be great enough to overcome their fears.

The film also suggests that another aspect of people cannot be controlled, which is their ability to love. Truman does marry Meryl, but there is little suggestion that he is in love with her. Instead, it is a marriage of convenience, with Meryl practically pushed on Truman. Certainly, he could have had some control and chosen not to marry Meryl if he was determined enough and he probably would not have actively pursued Meryl. But given that she was there and that the environment was controlled, he seemed to stumble into marriage, not really loving her, but not having a good enough reason to bother fighting it. In the opposite way, it is shown that no matter how much Christof controls the environment, he cannot stop Truman from loving Lauren. Even in his controlled life he manages to recreate a picture of her and even with everything that happens and his marriage to Meryl, he never stops loving Lauren. Clearly there is some part of a human being that simply cannot be controlled.

The next question raised is what happens when Truman gains knowledge. This happens gradually as Truman suspects that something is happening and then slowly gains more and more evidence. The more he begins to suspect, the more he challenges the boundaries and strives to break free. This suggests that it only takes a brief glimpse at the truth for a person to find the motivation to break free. Truman was completely in the dark. Even without knowing the truth of what was happening, just knowing that something was not right was enough for Truman to take action to find out the truth and escape from his fictional life. This includes overcoming his fear and sailing across the ocean. It seems that a desire to be free may be enough to overcome the greatest of fears. This shows both how great free will can be and how much the environment needs to be controlled for a person to be manipulated.