Blogging By Cinema-light: Don't Make a Scene: The Truman Show

The Story: One thing I haven't missed about going to movies during this pandemic (although I miss the experience badly) is that discomfort one feels after going to see a bad movie. "I wish I had those two hours back," I'd think. I feel it strongly these days as I can no longer deny that I have more yesterdays than tomorrows.

And this week I find myself thinking "I want the last four years back!" This has been nuts, the natural conclusion to the influence of television, advertising and public relations into public affairs and politics. In the past, we've had politicians elected because they looked better on camera, we've had politicians' reputations buffed and polished by media specialists. Polls are taken seriously, even as gospel...we're surprised when the statisticians get them wrong. Elections are staged like beauty pageants and election night is always a race to see which network can predict the winner first, whether the polls have closed or not. News is not news but entertainment because...numbers. And if opinion—however crazy—generates numbers to impress the advertisers, then foment and foam is the order of the day.

And the internet generates the illusion to its users that any slob can be a star. All you need is clicks. For its users, this is some sort of democratization, when all it really is...is anarchy.

But, is that any worse...or better...than politics being manipulated by the "hidden persuaders" of professionals in advertising and public relations? Is Ed Harris' Christof right when he says "there's no more truth out there than in the world I created for you"?

All I know is that for the last four years we've had the manufactured product of a "reality show"...which (if anyone knows how those things are produced) is a contradiction in terms...in charge. The carefully groomed and edited image of affluence and competence just can't substitute for the true reality, and for someone who appreciates the checks and balances baked into our system of government and who works with them, rather than trying to subvert them. That system was initiated to replace a monarchy, however flawed the original incarnation was, and, in that "spirit", we shouldn't be welcoming a return to kingdoms.

So, this scene, with the caveat that freedom isn't free, you have to work at it. Nor is it absolute. And if it is, you may be doing it wrong.

And..."In case I don't see ya...Good Afternoon, good evening, and good night!" (Yeah).

The Set-Up: Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) has lived his life like anybody else...but like no one else. Unbeknownst to him, his life has been lived in a bubble of manufactured circumstance. He is the star of a nationally broadcast "reality" show and the town he lives in a set, his friends are all actors, and his life has been carefully plotted and controlled by the show's creator, Christof (Ed Harris). But, Christof can't control everything. Truman begins to suspect that the life he's living is bizarrely "off-kilter" and that something's wrong—for example, during his "college" years, he fell in love with one of the show's extra's, Sylvia (Natascha McElhone) instead of the intended love-interest, Meryl (Laura Linney) played by actress Hannah Gill. Sylvia had attempted to tell Truman the truth of his life, but was fired from the show. Now, Truman has taken the step of leaving his little town and, has arrived—after Christof's attempts to stop him—at the edge of the dome where the series has been recorded.

Action.