 | Truman Burbank has unknowningly lived his entire life with paid actors, surrounded by millions of cameras recording his every move and broadcasting them throughout the world. As a child, Truman displays a desire to travel and explore the world, so he is psychologically manipulated by the show's creators to fear water and any forms of travel that would take him away from their constructed reality. He remains blissfully unaware until, one morning, a theatre light falls from the sky and crashes to the ground before Truman's eyes, and Truman's belief in the illusion begins to unravel.
The Truman Show is especially inspiring as an epistemological drama. It gives one the sense that, no matter how dogmatically society may cling to a lie or error, the individual is ultimately sovereign and, if he so chooses, will win through to the truth. The movie also portrays the battle between the malevolent universe premise (embraced by the show's creator, who believes the real world to be more cold and inhuman than the lie he has constructed), and Truman's optimistic outlook.
Other facets of the film that may appeal to Objectivist are its parody of managed, fiercely regulated communities, and Truman's ultimate rejection of the altruist ethic.
|
