For Sci-Fi Month, I've been compiling a "top ten" list of some of my favourite Sci-Fi TV shows and movies. Here's a handy-dandy list to recap the first two weeks:
Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies
10. Metropolis
9. A Scanner Darkly
8. Silent Running
7. THX-1138
6. The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
Top 10 Sci-Fi TV Shows
10. The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne
9. Red Dwarf
8. Babylon 5
7. The Lost Room
6. Jeremiah
Without further ado, it's on to Movie #5:
The Truman Show
What? That quirky, oddball dramedy starring then-fart-joker extraordinaire Jim Carrey? That's not science fiction! Au contraire! Or should I say, au CAN-traire (I don't get out much)!In all seriousness though, I get the feeling that critics and the public alike are reluctant to label this movie "science fiction" for two reasons:
1) It hardly fits the mold of "traditional science fiction" in hollywood - spaceships, clones, robots...
2) If it's science fiction, it can't be art. Right?
However, the The Truman Show not only began as a speculative fiction script, but it remains science fiction by simple dictionary definition: it contains elements of technology outside the realm of contemporary usage, without which the plot would not exist.
For those who even now are furiously hammering onto their keyboards that "reality television DOES exist," well...does it exist in the form of a dome that, in the movie's own words, is large enough to be seen from outer space with the naked eye? Does it exist with spotlights huge and bright enough to be stand-ins for the sun? Does it exist where we have "weather control programs" capable of generating force winds that can capsize a schooner? NO. IT DOES NOT.
But enough raving about critical labels. I have a whole post devoted to that, and I should be using this time to talk about what is, in fact, a spectacularly good movie. What could have easily been a lousy gimmick flick became a powerful meditation on what it means to be human, thanks in large part to director Peter Weir and writer Andrew Niccol (who previously penned Gattaca).
The "reveal" of The Truman Show was never the point. Most audience members already were well aware of the "man behind the curtain", that the lead character is a man on a television show who has no idea he is on a television show. Even the tagline of the movie: "On the air. Unaware." gave away the fact that Truman Burbank is living his life on primetime television without his knowledge.
No, what really makes up the heart of this movie is the thesis that there is a perceptible difference between the reality of what we choose and what is chosen for us. This goes back to those troublesome "reality TV shows" that I mentioned before. My personal distaste for them notwithstanding, I think it is commonly agreed upon that little to none of what transpires on these programs "feels real." That subliminal intuition is blown up and put under the microscope in The Truman Show.
The movie is littered with references to truth and fiction from the very beginning. Even the character's name is a pun; the "true man" of television. Ed Harris, the creator (in of itself a play on words), begins the film by saying: "We've become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions. We are tired of pyrotechnics and special effects. While the world he inhabits is, in some respects, counterfeit, there's nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts, no cue cards. It isn't always Shakespeare, but it's genuine. It's a life."
Of course, from that thesis, all kinds of immediate moral and logical questions explode into discussion: At what point does entertainment become abuse? Is the subject a prisoner, or a participant? Most importantly, where does the truth end, and where do the lies begin?
For The Truman Show, the lies are most exacerbated in the form of a denied romantic relationship. Truman falls head over heels for Sylvia/Lauren (played with great sincerity by Natascha McElhone ), but some undefined quality means she is unsuitable for public viewing, and they turn him instead in the direction of Meryl (Laura Linney). The moments Truman experiences with Sylvia are the most real in his life, and echo throughout all his adult years to the present day, which finds him confronting another crisis in the form of his resurfaced, supposedly dead father.
This brings up another, vitally important question: what if the producers had simply allowed the relationship between Sylvia and Truman to exist? Would Sylvia have spoiled the secret? Her later appearances would suggest this is the case, but given the chance to be with her true love, would she accept a lie? The movie never completely answers that question, and it's an interesting point to leave open for speculation.
What it does resoundingly answer is the question of the world Truman lives in. What is it that makes the world we live in real? Is it loss? Our work life? Our friendships? To Truman, there has always been something "wrong." It's undefinable, but it's there. Let me sincerely state at this juncture that all of this movie rides on the performance of the lead actor.
He's just so wonderfully innocent and honestly cheerful that I can actually buy people tuning into this show 24/7. He has quirks, foibles, a daily routine. He plays off the people around him without a hint of malice or underhanded intent.
But what really sells Carrey's performance to me is when we see him take control. When the walls start coming down, and Truman pulls aside the mask to look beneath, it's not a psychotic paranoid episode, or a vicious retaliation. It's simply a desperate plea for something REAL.
The emotional and literal climax is achingly beautiful. I won't spoil it here on the offchance that you have yet to see it, but suffice it to say that when the final barrier is reached and connected with, it is heartbreaking to watch.
The Truman Show is a daring, bold movie. It does the job of any good science fiction film: it challenges us to ask, then answer: is there something "true" to our daily existance? What is it about reality that ultimately makes it so worth living? It isn't Shakespeare. It's something genuine. It's a life.
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