Study Questions
for Truman Show
(Peter Weir, 1998)
(running time: 103 min)
Things to look for:
· Loosely based on an episode ofThe Twilight Zonecalled "Special Service."
· Connection to Matrix, Dark City, Bladerunner, Memento, Pleasantville, and Network
· Connection to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Descartes’ Meditations, I, and clues that tell Truman something is wrong and how he reasons through them
· Theme of closed loops and what they signify; preoccupation with photos (as records of memory/experiences/self)
· The role of love in finding freedom, self knowledge, and selfhood
· Manipulation of Truman, the crew, and the audience, as means to the “higher end” of entertainment
· Religious allusions—free will, the garden, determinism, obedience
Questions:
1. Explain the manipulation of Truman by Christof (the creator), the cast and the crew. Why is it important for them to make Truman fearful and to control (if not crush) his dreams? How might this serve as a metaphor for our own socialization?
2. Consider the dehumanization of not only Truman, but the cast, crew and audience, who seem to be living their lives vicariously through the characters in the show. Are they any less captive than Truman? Explain.
3. Compare the Truman Show to Reality TV. How is it different? How is it similar? Is either of these types of shows “real”? Compare to Network and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
4. “Everything on the show is for sale”—does this include the actors? Are the actors on the show essentially prostitutes? Explain. Compare to the theme of dehumanization in Network.
5. Meryl complained that the conditions had become “unprofessional.” What does this mean?
6. What did Meryl mean when she said that there’s no difference between a public life and a private life? Is she right? Do we need privacy to be fully human? How much?
7. At what point did Truman become free? Or was there any such point? What does freedom have to do with knowledge? What kind—if any—sets one free?
8. Truman’s world is controlled, contrived, but he is supposed to be “real”; yet he couldn’t thrive, be real, in such contrivance—why not?
9. Explain Christof’s comment “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.” What was the audience’s response to this claim? Why are most people afraid to reject this “reality”?
10. Truman did not prefer his cell, as Christof claimed. Is he exceptional in this, do most of us prefer our cell? If his was such an ideal life, why did Truman want to escape? Compare Truman to John Murdoch in Dark City and Neo in Matrix.
11. Comparing him to Descartes’ evil deceiver, explain the meaning of Christof’s name. What do you think the filmmaker has in mind here?
12. Truman was a “true man” for Christof and his audience. They turn out to be right, though perhaps for the wrong reasons. What makes Truman true in the final analysis?
13. Why are the workers at the studio willing to go along with Christof, even when their actions might kill him? Compare their behavior to the findings of Stanley Milgram in his experiment in the early 1960’s.
14. Use Aristotle’s Analysis of Friendship to discuss the various relationships (usefulness, pleasure, or virtue) Truman had with the characters in the film. Consider the fact that their motives were hidden from him and that his affections had been manipulated.