The Truman Show (1998) - Postmodernism

Figure 1. Movie poster

Hyper-reality - Throughout the film it is shown that Truman is living within hyper-reality itself. This is as he is born into a world where he has all of his life filmed, without him knowing. This is hyper-reality as this is very unlikely to happen in reality.


Figure 2. The Truman Show behind the scenes

Breaking the 4th wall - In the film Truman begins to realise that his life is not what he thinks, he realises that things start to happen when people know where he is and what he is likely to do. After going against what he would normally do, Truman goes to a building and finds people eating lunch, having a drink and chatting 'behind the scenes', causing him to think even more about his life being a lie. 

Nostalgia - Just like Celebration Town in Florida, Seahaven Island, where Truman lives, is shown to be an old fashioned, perfect American town from the past.


Figure 3. Truman in The Truman Show


Simulation - The film not only shown to be hyper-realistic, but it is also a simulation. This is as Truman's whole life has been simulated. Actors are playing his family and best friends as well as random people in the street. 

Meta-fiction - There are actors within the film pretending to be both relatives and friends of Truman's. Although Truman believes that their relationships are real, the actors know that they are not, showing that they know that they are living in a different reality to Truman.



Illustrations list:

Figure 1. (1998) Movie poster. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/

Figure 2. (1998) The Truman Show behind the scenes. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/06/truman-show-anniversary-jim-carrey-peter-weir-laura-linney

Figure 3. (1998) Truman in The Truman Showhttp://www.dazeddigital.com/film-tv/article/40216/1/the-original-truman-show-screenplay-was-way-way-darker

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