The Truman Show

I did always enjoy the Truman Show. It was actually the first movie I really watched for a lit class (10th grade teacher I really didn’t like was obsessed with it), and I’ve seen it more than any other movie we have or will watch for this class (except for, sadly, the Matrix). And yet watching it again I still saw a lot of new and interesting things.

The first time I watched it for fun. Then for plot elements. Then for little goofs (my favorite being when Marlon loads candy into the machine and the colors change). This time it was for all the elements that made it feel so perfectly put together. Honestly, I just want to run through them and say the Peter Weir is really rather amazing.

First of all, the aspect ratio. This summer while I worked at a video store with a good friend of mine, he taught me all about how different aspect ratios came about and why there is no standard one for movies. But Peter Weir made that not matter here, because he shot it at 1.66:1, the ratio closest to television. This is genius given that we’re supposed to (often) feel like we’re seeing what the people watching Truman in the movie actually see.

Second, the way every little thing that is in the background fits the film. Weir has the papers read headlines like “Who needs Europe?” and so on to ensure Truman never wants to leave. My favorite is the series bottles of Vitamin D, which is taken by those without exposure to sunlight. There are just so many tiny things like that, which I really think make the film far more brilliant than it would be otherwise. This extends to the motto of the town. Despite what the class was saying the words meant in Latin, I took it for 5 years and it says “one for all, all for one,” which is the inverse of the usual saying and really fits the circumstances. Truman is one for everybody to identify with and see. And at the same time, everyone in the city lives solely to help the world see Truman- they all live for one.

Third, finally, and most obviously, the switching back and forth between the world of the movie and the world of the television show is beautiful. It creates a sense that the two are scarcely different and we really can’t tell when we’re watching something real and something created. The true voyeurism of our lives is displayed here. It’s honestly just masterful.

And thus while I did not like (read: hated) Master and Commander, watching The Truman Show again has made me excited for his 2008 and 2009 releases.