“The Truman Show” is a film directed by Peter Weir in 1998.
The plot’s spotlight is Truman Burbank, who was adopted and raised by a corporation since he was born, living inside a television show which simulated reality. Without knowing it, Truman is the main star of that show, since he is the only genuine person on it. Everything else, from his friends and family, to his neighbors and random strangers, his profession, the town he lives in, and even the weather and sky, is fake. This delusion that the main character lives in is very interesting, because what one can analyze as the film proceeds is how first Truman accepts and believes in this fake world, but then starts to deconstruct reality and begins to seek the truth. The sentence which best describes the roots of the philosophy behind this film is when Christof, the creator and director of the show, says: “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented.” The strength of this sentence relies on how relevant and fundamental this principle is. Reality is constructed based on perception. How can one be sure that his whole life perceptions are truth? That values, people, even space and time, are real? There is no manner of being 100% sure, and this is what “The Truman Show” plays with. At the end of the film, when Truman finally is breaking the illusion of reality and discovers the set wall, climbing the stairs to the exit door, it is very intense and rewarding. As he goes up the steps towards the truth, one can relate to him and feel what he is feeling: The realization that all his doubts were real, that his life was going to start from that moment, closer to the truth. That sequence, and the whole film, has a connection with Plato’s epistemological philosophy in the Allegory of the Cave - In order to be closer to the truth and to overcome ignorance one has to free himself from preconceptions, beliefs, traditions and bias, which is a hard but gratifying quest. How can one release himself from his whole previous perception of life? Just like Truman, questioning. Doubting. Asking himself: Is this true? Is this really important? And pursuing the truth.
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