THE TRUMAN SHOW: Revisiting An Amazing Movie 20 Years Later

   One of the fun things about living in Palm Springs, aside from the number of things to do just about every weekend, is hitting the consignment and donation stores. They are everywhere and with judicial shopping you can find some real deals. When I first moved here with little money, I searched for a chest of drawers. I didn't want some old cheap thing I would need to replace in a year so I watched a tall 5-drawer blonde piece that went from $350 to $225.00 over a few months. Its like eBay but in real time!!!

    The donation stores get some great things. The two biggest, with multiple locations, is Revivals, whose profits go to the Desert AIDS Project, possibly the premier AIDS and HIV center in the country, and Angelview, whose monies help pay for the healthcare of children in the valley. 

   During a 50% off of all donated items at Revivals recently I picked up a Blu-Ray copy of Peter Weir's THE TRUMAN SHOW. I had seen the film when it first came out in 1998 having decided I liked actor Jim Carey after seeing him in LIAR LIAR. He played a lawyer whose neglected son wished, as his birthday wish, that his father wouldn't lie anymore. He never showed up to any of his son's events despite his many promises. To see Carey, whose over the top acting annoyed me, in pantomime, and doing it well, made me realize he really was a good actor. 

   I liked Peter Weir, the director, and had been impressed with his earlier hits like WITNESS, DEAD POETS SOCIETY, YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY and the puzzling THE LAST WAVE. I saw it when it came out in 1998, 20 years ago I realized.

Truman ponders the meaning of life.

   While the movie did well at the Golden Globes and Weir, the scriptwriter and Carey garnered Oscar nominations. the film didn't win any Oscars. Carey, whose movies made lots of money, was not considered "serious" enough to the academy; the film was moderately successful.

   It sat on my DVD player for several weeks and finally, the other night I finally sat down to watch it. While I knew the plot I was not prepared for its message ... you see I watched it after watching the news and the wallowing saga of the Russian probe, the aftermath of the Parkview shootings and the battle to get some kind of order to gun control. In the aftermath of watching it again, 20 years later, I realized that like NETWORK, we were given a message and have chosen to ignore it.

   If you haven't seen it, it in many ways was a harbinger of the total reality show. Truman Burbank had lived his entire life on TV. He was born live and his entire life had been watched by a billion people all around the world. His community was a script and he was the "only" person who didn't know it. 

   He began to notice things, slips in the production. 5,000 cameras followed his every move that was broadcast live 24/7. Creepy feeling then and now, the entire town, the "perfect" community where nothing really happened was another version of a communal society, none I might add that never really worked. Yes, I can hear some say, "What about the Amish?" and today, even they are torn between the old ways and new as Weir showed in WITNESS 33 years ago. He longed to travel, visit Fiji the place he was told the woman of his dreams had gone too ... to see the world.

   As the film unfolds and Truman goes through his day it is, well, nauseatingly boring. Its just about like watching GROUNDHOG DAY where Bill Murray is condemned to repeat the same day until he gets it right. He dies a thousand deaths only to wake up again to "I got you Babe."

Advertising takes a whole new meaning in 

THE TRUMAN SHOW. Here his wife is shilling 

product placement. Sounds like today on any show.

   There is trouble in paradise though. Oddly, Truman buys women's fashion magazines and in a flashback we see a young woman he admired before the woman he marries is put in front of him. He secretly tears parts of cosmetic faces to recreate her picture. 

   After a harrowing series of scenes, one where his father is thought to have drowned when he ignored storm warnings and believed he killed his father, the nauseating placement ads where his wife sounds like a midnight informational advertising shill, the father suddenly appears from the dead, he gets up the courage to flee.  He manages like we all must, to conquer his fears to find out what really is out there ... and in this case, against all odds.

   His "creator," Cristo, played menacingly well by Ed Harris, tries everything in his power to drive him back even risking his death by drowning as the viewers watch wave after wave pound the little sailboat. Truman keeps on and does, in fact, nearly drown. A frantic sound crew finally appeals to Cristo.

World's end!

   Blue skies and calm winds return and Truman sails off into the sunset ... until ... his ship hits something. The boats bowsprit punctures a wall and in getting out to investigate, Truman realizes, what he had come to suspect, his life was manipulated. 

Cristo, the puppet master

   Cristo, sounding like God from the heavens talks to him pleading with him to return to where he, Cristo, producer of the Truman show, has created the perfect world. "Listen to me, I know you better than you know yourself!

"Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night"

   In a speech that could have come from Caesar, popes, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and some might add Trump, that the real world was a dangerous place, bad things happen, don't go through that door, the door out of this elaborate soundstage, stay where you will be safe. Instead Truman bows, says his signature line, "Good morning, and in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night," and walks out the door.

    In light of our daily world today, where cameras watch everything we do, as in China every 20 yards or so, airport security, the Russian probes where whether Facebook admits it or not we very easily could have been influenced in the 2016 elections and possible before that and now after, Weir caught the sense of who are we, who is influencing us and,  more importantly, what are we going to do about it. You will never look at an ad, or see the placement of a product, car, computer, watch again and not see Laura Linney's smiling face shilling whatever product the producer wants. UGH!
   In Cristo's case, we should remember that power corrupts, absolute power, such as he had, corrupts absolutely. We must all, like Truman, be brave enough to walk away, as he did, at any price.

   If you have never seen it, I urge you to watch THE TRUMAN SHOW. If you have but once, like me, ages ago, watch it again. 20 years later it is just as relevant today as it ever was then.  As Santana so eloquently said, "Those that forget history are condemned to relive it.  Unfortunately, as we are all seeing nightly on the news, life does recreate art!

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where the emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed! Be sure to check my re-opened ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I will be adding many new and exciting products. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!