The Truman Show: Warning for the Future Anonymous

Peter Weir's The Truman Show is a film of great satirical intellect and poignancy. However, beneath the facade, this "comedy" conveys important social messages that provide a warning for the future. It mocks human beings' automatic acceptance of what they are presented with and shows how manipulative and addictive the media can be. On a deeper level, the film also cautions against accepting absolute authority, the interminable hunt for Utopia, and the evils inspired by the desire for wealth. Whether The Truman Show is a satire, a comedy, a documentary, a fable, or even a hoax is debatable, but what is impossible to question is the need to consider its themes and digest its principal lessons.

The international populace is influenced, manipulated, and shaped by the world they live in and the media they are exposed to. Truman Burbank, the primary character of The Truman Show, provides a perfect depiction of modern man, because he accepts the facade created by the society in which he dwells for most of his continuously-televised life. Having been cast from the moment of his birth as the unwitting star of a popular reality TV soap opera, he is unsuspectingly moulded by his society (the people, social standards and...