Turning Point in the Truman Show

Turning point in “The Truman Show” In the film The Truman Show directed by Peter Weir, Weir brings out messages about how reality TV is perceived by the world and what it really is through the final scene in the movie where Truman goes out to sea and finally escapes from Seahaven. I think it was a turning point of this film because it reveals a system of a reality TV, which manipulates and controls everything possible but the only ones that belong to it. In the final scene, Truman goes out to sea to get out of Seahaven.

Christof tracks Truman down in the sea and makes an attempt to make Truman get back to the island by creating a lethal artificial storm. Despite the storm, Truman is determined to continue his voyage, but then gets surrounded by the painted sky. Christof gives a last try by talking to Truman nevertheless Truman stays steadfast and exits the stage. In this scene, there are many elements and techniques that turn Truman into our hero. In this scene, Truman is always filmed by using low angle shots, making the audience feel that they are looking up to him.

Also, the boat that he was on is called “Santa Maria” (the bless Virgin Mary). Furthermore, a flag on the boat had a symbol of an eagle, which represents freedom, power, and victory to Truman. Later when he hits the painted sky he walks on false water, which resembles one of Jesus’s ability to walk on water referring Truman as God who we admire. This final scene is considered to be a turning point, because many change occurs due to Truman’s strong will. Changes that occurred are: Truman himself, mood, and the nature of the show. First of al the most noticeable change was a change in Truman himself.

He breaks free from the obstacles that block him from getting out of Seahaven by overcoming his fear of water (aqua phobia) and misleads everyone else involved in his show. The mood of the scene changes. The scene starts off with sunny and calm weather where the sky is blue and creates a happy and relaxing mood. However, as Chistof creates a storm towards Truman, the tone goes down somber by using grey clouds, the Sun disappearing, with a lot of loud banging noises, and leads to Truman’s distorted face due to his grief after knowing all the truth.

Nonetheless as the film approaches its very end Truman reveals the real nature of the show by differentiating himself from the rest still involved in the show, and exits out the door. It is followed by a shock and pity on Christof’s face, audience in the cafeteria, and the security guards finding “something else to watch” showing that they were all exploiting Truman by deceiving him, contrasting with Truman’s genuineness. Furthermore, the final scene is a turning point because it reveals a true system of a reality TV, contrasted to what we thought it was.

Christof keeps on boasting that the show is the most genuine and pure as it could be, however, that is inconsistent with the unreality of the reality show. Throughout the film everything is controlled, his powers, his wife, and his friends are all fake, his parents and family, friends are all actors reading out the lines, which limits the possibility of Truman contacting with the outside of Seahaven, the reality. However Truman’s Genuineness stems from who he is inside. Christof sees himself as having created an ideal paradise for Truman, which is a digital garden of Eden in which Truman can be forever innocent, forever pure.

His delusions of Godhood lead him to believe that he has created who Truman is. The falsity of Christof’s anticipation to Truman leaving the world is a message that controlling the memories doesn’t mean controlling the soul. Truman’s liberation of the soul comes from embracing the love for the woman he once saw, Sylvia. His request for her using the simple tools of photos of women in fashion magazines cropped and rearranged into her face represents his triumph of his desire for his love over his physical barrier, which surrounds him.

Truman thinks freedom is more important than safety, and would rather take a huge risk to get it. As an example, Truman is holding a finished photo of a resemblance to Sylvia on the boat. Increasingly, we live in a Truman universe as well, saturated by advertisements and we are manipulated by basic film techniques they use. In the film Truman struggles to get out of the show whereas we struggle to be a part of the show, we go for popularity. Truman freed himself from the imprisonment, but the other havent’, and proves that Truman wasn’t the creation of Chrsitof.

Reality TV is a highly dramatized structure and attificial life. It bridges the gap between fiction and life by fusing two, creating verite performances surrounded by scripted elements. The Truman Show feeds a script to everyone but Truman, but the script is invisible, by managing everyone else’s dialogue to minimize Truman’s interactions with every other human being in his life, except the two people who go off the script, his dad and Sylvia. His thoughts cannot be controlled.

Reality TV pulls strings of our instincts and by refusing to choose a world that may be dangerous and threatening, but also real, Truman chooses the reality and freedom over the enslavement of entertainment. When he leaves, Truman has found freedom, those viewers still watching have not. In conclusion, via the final scene, which is considered as a turning point due to its exposure of a true system of a reality show in order to prove that reality TV shows can only manipulate the ones that belong to it.