The Truman Show as Life

By: Connor Lenahan

I am an absolute sucker for video essays about film and television. Because I’ve studied them both in school a lot of my life is spent deconstructing shows to story elements, and production techniques, and generally discussing stuff that I’ve watched/should watch. There are YouTube channels that do high level breakdowns of films, like Every Frame a Painting or Nerdwriter1, who make our entertainment transform into easily digestible pieces of art. The latter I have shared before on Unbreakable – he was behind the way that Christopher Nolan regularly tipped off the twist to The Prestige and how Steely Dan constructs a song. Tonight I wanted to share his latest on The Truman Show.

I will openly admit that I am suffering from a head cold that has made paying attention hard today, but the most powerful part of the video still hit with me. There is an interesting way to read this film as it pertains to our current political culture and, specifically, how the mechanisms of the system are now more exposed than they every had been – much like the production of the reality show Truman lives in. The author of the video is way better at explaining it, but he certainly gives more weight than you’d imagine to the stellar Jim Carrey picture.