The Truman Show by Andrew Niccol – my other, video note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/note-on-truman-show-written-by-andrew.html where I have a few thousand other reviews - 10 out of 10

 

The Truman Show by Andrew Niccol – my other, video note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/note-on-truman-show-written-by-andrew.html where I have a few thousand other reviews

 

10 out of 10

 

 

The Truman Show offers viewers not just a great Show, but also the opportunity to look at various symbols, identify with the hero, observe various layers, and at a second (third or more) viewing, you notice another aspect that fits the world of today, or on the contrary might have changed, for better or worse

 

I remember when I was an adolescent – not that some strange feelings related to The Truman Show do not appear today, or was it yesterday – having the feeling that this world moves around me somehow, in a way expressed by Protagoras, the ancient philosopher who said ‘man is the measure of all things, of those that are, that they are, and of those that are not, that they are not’, something to that effect anyway…

Jim Carrey is phenomenal as Truman Burbank, an insurance salesman, allegedly, who has an ordinary life, just like most of us – those living in the west, or in this particular case, Eastern Europe, but still, when set against Sudan, where they have the biggest calamity of the present, on the cover of this week’s The Economist, we are in the ‘developed world’

 

He has a routine, which reminds me of Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/aristotle-in-ninety-minutes-by-paul.html who said ‘we are what we do regularly, excellence is not an act, it is a habit’, close to the Talmud injunction Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny…’ attributed also to Lao Tzu apparently

This very ritual is one clue that something is wrong, at one point, Truman shows this to his wife - Meryl Burbank aka wonderful Laura Linney, who has to pretend to be an actress who pretends to be a wife, and more overwhelming still, the actress has to be rather pathetic at stages, furious, false, and so much more, in succession

 

In the car, he points out that in the next moment, a man with flowers will walk by, then a woman with her dog – or something else, I forgot what – and it is all part of a pattern, they go around the block and come back, this is good detective work, for indeed, we see with the hero that there is something weird going on

Weird is now associated with Orange Jesus aka Felon, who has the bigger chance to win the elections on November 4, and become, again, the most powerful man in the world, still an incredible scenario for yours truly, a vicious, disgusting, lying, convicted of fraud, and other felonies individual is about to climb on top of the world…

 

And for the second time, as if more than seventy million people in the once ‘greatest democracy in the world’ could not see elemental distinctions between good and bad, many deeply religious will vote for Satan - if you believe in that, well, he is as close to Beelzebub as one can get, what wit breaking all the ten commandments and more…

Truman wants to leave this place where he has lived all his life – which, spoiler alert, is the set of the ultimate reality show, a dystopian world- and travel to Fiji, only he is trapped, the travel agency says he has to wait for a month, as he climbs aboard a bus for Chicago, the driver finds the vehicle is defective and passengers must descend

 

He takes his Ford car, and Meryl, and he tries to drive out of the town, even crossing the river – in order to have him well placed in their Show, which has an immense planetary audience, they have instilled this fear of water, when his alleged father had drowned, all is fake there, parents, spouse, friend, they are all actors

Only once out of the town, they encounter emergency services, for the atomic plant nearby has had an accident – just a measure to stop the main protagonist in the lucrative media program, another false event – and even if the hero walks out, then runs for freedom, they overpower him, and he is back in his old place

 

His supposed best friend, yet another actor, Marlon tries to soothe the disappointed Truman, and says ‘look, if all this were false, then I would be part of it, your best buddy would be lying too’, words close to what he said I guess, and indeed, he was a liar, paid to do a job which for Meryl becomes too much in one scene

The protagonist is more an more convinced of the lie he lives in – which brings to mind a character from https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-glass-bead-game-by-herman-hesse.html who looks at the world and says this is Maya aka an illusion – and has a confrontation with his spouse and she has a breakdown

 

After she had just made some publicity to some coffee, to the puzzlement of her husband (what are you talking about) Meryl is not capable to take it anymore – like the man from Network, mad as hell and could not take it anymore – and she shouts at the camera ‘why don’t you do something’, there are seven thousand cameras for The Truman Show

Ed Haris is magnificent in the role of Christof, the Grand Wizard aka God of the Show, he is the one who came with the script, the idea, manages everything, when the music starts, what the actors need to say to Truman, whom he had taken when he was born, the first to be out in the world live, on television, and then kept him in this arena, cuddled to some extent, protected, but without freedom, something we need to ponder, think about for ourselves…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”