You may be thinking, “Thank goodness nobody ever actually produced a crazy TV show like The Truman Show!” But guess what? Believe it or not, we are actually living in that crazy TV show right now! That is, not in the way that we’re all living in a giant biodome with hidden cameras that are recording everything we do 24/7, but more in the fact that the media industry has turned us into walking advertisements for their own benefit. The Lord hates the way those authoritative influencers take advantage of their consumers for the sake of money, in fact, He wants us to say to our system, “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.” (Psalm 101:3)
The creator of this TV show, Christof, believes he created a perfect utopia for Truman to spend his whole life in; he sees himself as a god, and everyone else working on the show seems to see him as one too. Even Marlon, who plays Truman’s friend on the show, says while watching the sunset, “That’s the big guy!” It sounds as if he meant God, except he actually meant Christof, whose window down into the fake town resides within the fake moon. As much as Christof feels like a god here, he still fails to realize that his creation shall never resemble the Kingdom of Heaven. (John 14:2) During his opening monologue, Christof insists that none of the Truman Show is scripted, yet these words are quickly contradicted when he’s seen whispering words into Marlon’s earpiece for him to repeat to Truman. He also is seen directing the union between Truman and his father, and sending out a terrible storm that the others beside him are worried will kill Truman. He is indeed replicating god-like powers, but his hypocrisy is the only test of authority needed to prove why he isn’t only not a god, but also must never be followed as a leader. (1 John 4:1-6)
The creator of this TV show, Christof, believes he created a perfect utopia for Truman to spend his whole life in; he sees himself as a god, and everyone else working on the show seems to see him as one too. Even Marlon, who plays Truman’s friend on the show, says while watching the sunset, “That’s the big guy!” It sounds as if he meant God, except he actually meant Christof, whose window down into the fake town resides within the fake moon. As much as Christof feels like a god here, he still fails to realize that his creation shall never resemble the Kingdom of Heaven. (John 14:2) During his opening monologue, Christof insists that none of the Truman Show is scripted, yet these words are quickly contradicted when he’s seen whispering words into Marlon’s earpiece for him to repeat to Truman. He also is seen directing the union between Truman and his father, and sending out a terrible storm that the others beside him are worried will kill Truman. He is indeed replicating god-like powers, but his hypocrisy is the only test of authority needed to prove why he isn’t only not a god, but also must never be followed as a leader. (1 John 4:1-6)
Lauren seems to be the only character who remembers that Christof is no god, as during the climactic speech, she whispers, “please, God,” perhaps out of desperation. This woman, who develops personal feelings for Truman, and is Truman’s ideal love interest as first interpreted by combining pictures of magazine models, wears a pin that says, “How’s it going to end?” She is the only one who sees Truman’s predicament as enslavement, and would love for nothing more than the series to end so people can go back to not letting some silly TV commercial tell them how to live.
Now how does this lifestyle affect the unknowing star of the show? Truman thinks that this supposedly perfect life is going great up until this moment; he even seems to have fallen off the deep end once he found out there’s a loop the passerby walks in—the same pattern every time. He also finds a traffic pileup, leaves, goes back, and the pileup disappears. He’s catching on to the real setup of his predicament, but this is also made to look like he’s losing his mind from the mundane predictability of real suburbia. He may look dashing and healthy on the outside, but inside, he’s totally wrecked.
In fact, this first ripple of disorder is a stage light that falls from the sky as he leaves the house in the morning. It’s the first time we are indicated that the sky above him is not a real sky, and this suburb is not a real suburb. Looking closer at the stage light, it has the name “Sirius,” derived off the Greek word Seirios, meaning "glowing" or "scorching," meant to symbolize how Truman lives under artificial lights which burn him alive without him even knowing it. (Luke 12:49, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, Revelation 21:8) In the process of his big mental breakdown, Truman makes himself into a spaceman by rubbing a bar of soap onto a mirror. That very shot sums up how this whole feature says the United States perceives itself: always wanting to get more, to achieve higher, to leave the prison of suburbia, but the fact is, they’re trapped in a box. That is the exact predicament of our lives here on Earth, even after gaining the Lord’s Salvation. (Psalm 69:33, Hebrews 13:3)
Digging deeper into that commentary on being trapped in our own living situations, notice how these Truman Show actors in supposedly casual conversations suddenly talk about their possessions as if in a commercial, when the fact is, they are indeed in a big commercial. Product placement is the thing that generates revenue for the show—proving this all to be a sly commentary on the priorities of the television industry; they make people into live advertisements by repetitive product slogans because they only care about money. (Matthew 6:19-24, 1 Timothy 6:6-10) Look around at people today, including yourself: How instantly recognizable are the slogans for KFC, McDonalds, M&Ms, Nike, Redbull, or even whatever school you attended? How many t-shirts or sweatshirts with brand logos do you own? I’ll bet you could even say by heart the general outline of the commercials for Gushers, Lucky Charms, Skittles, Trix cereal, and every informercial that starts with black-and-white footage of a White person failing at simple tasks. These are all corporate strategies of building familiarity and nostalgia in order to generate greater profit, which in turn takes over your wardrobe, your memories, your conversations, and ultimately, your health.
It’s amazing to see how acutely The Truman Show revises old ways of thinking that Americans by the 1990s still clung to, and sure enough, even today we need that, because our homes ought to be Heaven, which isn’t limited to a biodome. (Romans 12:2) Once we learn our capability to venture past those fake limitations, we can proudly glance back at those idols made out of the entertainment industry, take a bow, smile, and say, “good afternoon, good evening, and good night.”
Now how does this lifestyle affect the unknowing star of the show? Truman thinks that this supposedly perfect life is going great up until this moment; he even seems to have fallen off the deep end once he found out there’s a loop the passerby walks in—the same pattern every time. He also finds a traffic pileup, leaves, goes back, and the pileup disappears. He’s catching on to the real setup of his predicament, but this is also made to look like he’s losing his mind from the mundane predictability of real suburbia. He may look dashing and healthy on the outside, but inside, he’s totally wrecked.
In fact, this first ripple of disorder is a stage light that falls from the sky as he leaves the house in the morning. It’s the first time we are indicated that the sky above him is not a real sky, and this suburb is not a real suburb. Looking closer at the stage light, it has the name “Sirius,” derived off the Greek word Seirios, meaning "glowing" or "scorching," meant to symbolize how Truman lives under artificial lights which burn him alive without him even knowing it. (Luke 12:49, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, Revelation 21:8) In the process of his big mental breakdown, Truman makes himself into a spaceman by rubbing a bar of soap onto a mirror. That very shot sums up how this whole feature says the United States perceives itself: always wanting to get more, to achieve higher, to leave the prison of suburbia, but the fact is, they’re trapped in a box. That is the exact predicament of our lives here on Earth, even after gaining the Lord’s Salvation. (Psalm 69:33, Hebrews 13:3)
Digging deeper into that commentary on being trapped in our own living situations, notice how these Truman Show actors in supposedly casual conversations suddenly talk about their possessions as if in a commercial, when the fact is, they are indeed in a big commercial. Product placement is the thing that generates revenue for the show—proving this all to be a sly commentary on the priorities of the television industry; they make people into live advertisements by repetitive product slogans because they only care about money. (Matthew 6:19-24, 1 Timothy 6:6-10) Look around at people today, including yourself: How instantly recognizable are the slogans for KFC, McDonalds, M&Ms, Nike, Redbull, or even whatever school you attended? How many t-shirts or sweatshirts with brand logos do you own? I’ll bet you could even say by heart the general outline of the commercials for Gushers, Lucky Charms, Skittles, Trix cereal, and every informercial that starts with black-and-white footage of a White person failing at simple tasks. These are all corporate strategies of building familiarity and nostalgia in order to generate greater profit, which in turn takes over your wardrobe, your memories, your conversations, and ultimately, your health.
It’s amazing to see how acutely The Truman Show revises old ways of thinking that Americans by the 1990s still clung to, and sure enough, even today we need that, because our homes ought to be Heaven, which isn’t limited to a biodome. (Romans 12:2) Once we learn our capability to venture past those fake limitations, we can proudly glance back at those idols made out of the entertainment industry, take a bow, smile, and say, “good afternoon, good evening, and good night.”
Thank you so much for your time in reading! Please feel free to e-mail me at Trevor@TrevorsViewOnHollywood.com or message me through social media if you have any further questions. I’m also doing these types of posts monthly, so if there’s another movie you want me to talk in-depth about from a Christian perspective, please let me know!
Have a great week, and happy watching, God bless!
Have a great week, and happy watching, God bless!
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