《楚门的世界》英文影评Review of THE TRUMAN SHOW

A TRAP

---REVIEW OF TRUMAN SHOW The world is a lie. The world is a deceit. Yet we still love it. We still live in it. Like the things that bring the greatest joy carry the greatest potential for loss and disappointment, the world that carries the most holy beauty carries the very synchronous ugliness. That’s why we love the real world rather than the Seahaven. We love the world only because it is real. And it’s real for its flaws, while the Seahaven is too perfect, which makes it counterfeit and unacceptable.

And what I have got to say is that Truman the name itself is an ironic hint because Truman is not a true man but a prisoner. Yet the most pathetic thing is that he has no idea about it but thinks that everyday is a beautiful day as if the storm would never come. How could one indeed live a life without experiencing the adversities? As for me, It would never be a fulfilling life. It would never be a noble life.

In this movie, Truman once said, “It’s as if we’re being set up for something, like our whole life has been building towards something. Everyone’s pretending to us.” I was deeply impressed with these few words. They touched my heart indeed and deeply. I, now and then, was thinking that we watch a movie, which was, in fact, reviewing our own lives. We were trying to find the similarities between us and the characters while we were watching their struggling of life. If so, “Am I

being set? Then what am I being set for? Has my whole life been building? Then what has my whole life been building towards?” I asked myself. Yet I couldn’t answer it. Is it for endless exams? Is it for marriage or a future child? If so, am I losing my freedom without choice just as Truman and even I have no idea about that?

On the other hand, the world we live in now, to some extent, is the same as Seahaven but its lies and deceits. We want to escape from it all the time since we know that we lose our freedom, yet we couldn’t, as if we have been trapped into it and the trap would last forever till we die. As the designer of THE TRUMAN SHOW Christof said, “We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented.” Perhaps that’s the reason why we are trapped and we have no way to escape. It seems that we’re trapped because of some other things, some other people, yet we would finally have to recognize that it is ourselves who trap ourselves. We have been just used to deny it and blame others. Like Christof said,“If his was more than just a vague ambition, if he was absolutely determined to discover the truth, there's no wa y we could prevent him.” So shouldn’t Truman himself be, to some extent, responsible for being trapped? For the same reason, how could we always blame others but ourselves for being trapped in the living circle?

The world we live in now is bigger than Seahaven and our lives are unlimited, unlike Seahaven. However, where else have we been to in our

entire life? It’s as if we are in an endless prison, being limited inside deeply and forever. Yet we don’t know a bit about it. Then what has been preventing us to the outside world? First, let’s see a dialogue between Truman and Meryl. Here comes it:

TRUMAN: I need to get away. See some of the world. Explore!

MERYL: You want to be an explorer. This'll pass. We all think like this now and then.

That’s it! When w e were young, we would always had so many dreams to explore the world. Yet we couldn’t go wherever we wanted to go. We had no money but prohibitions from parents. We couldn’t just up and go. However, since we became an adult, we still couldn’t just up and go we would have new barriers and what’s worse, all of the oringinal dreams passed. We would be stucked in so many other trifles, such as various payments, marriage, children, parents and so on and so forth. Everybody said that can wait. But wait until when? Maybe until we die. If we can’t do what we want then we just survive but not live.

However, Truman finally found his way to live after fighting with the furious storm and made it. It can be guessed that no matter what adversity he would meet in the future, he would live an indeed noble life. He had chosen that. No regrets would he have. Our lives are the same. If the world is bound to have evil with goodness, I would still choose it rather than the Seahaven. The real is the perfect. I hate anybody else’s

pretending. And I own my own choice. The exit to the freedom must lie in somewhere. I know it and I always believe it.

Tina

2014.6.13.