Originality of Truman Show - Movie Review Example

Images The first phrase that hits your mind when you watch the Truman Show is originality; a movie about media and corporations and the illusions they have created around us. The movie revolves around a man, Truman Burbank, who appears to lead a simple and normal life with his loving wife, kind neighbors, a best friend and a decent job. As the movie progresses he realizes that there is something wrong with his perfect life and struggles to understand what that is. At this stance, director Peter Weir uses a number of techniques to create the emotive images that carry the story forward. This film relies heavily on the use of evocative images. The major techniques used throughout the film include camera angles, shot types, framing, camera movement, style of music and costuming and sequencing. Truman is surrounded by an illusion that is perfect and artificial and he responds to them in a similar fashion. In the initial part of the movie, he is seen leaving his house for work in the morning. Every morning is the same routine and he goes through them in the same detached manner. As he leaves the house he sees his neighbors, to whom he says the same corny lines with a cheesy fake smile. This is the first impression that the audience receives that the scene in scripted and played out by actors. The artificiality of the scene does not end there and the camera tips an angle that shows us the images of perfectly mowed lawns, white picket fences, pastel-colored houses and proves that this world on screen is a little too perfect. The director of the show, Christof, is portrayed as playing God in this movie. He has created the life around Truman and continues to manipulate everything that goes on in Truman's life. This is symbolized by the string of images used throughout the movie. During an interview of Christof for a television program, there is a small picture of Truman at the top right corner, taking up only a fraction of the screen. This symbolizes the power that Christof holds over Truman's life. The sets of Christof's headquarters in the movie also symbolize his god-like image. In the final part of the movie, when Truman is trying to escape from Seahaven, Christof again plays god and tries to end Truman's life rather than let him escape. As the movie progresses, Truman is disturbed by the clues he gets about the artificiality of his life and the characters in it. He notices his wife advertising the cereal over breakfast and is disturbed by her cheerfulness and fake responses to his questions. He is thrown into the light by the appearance of Sylvia who attempts to tell him the truth. Subtle images are also revealed when a huge equipment falls from the sky on Truman's car, the radio incident when Truman tunes into a different frequency and so on. Truman's character is popular and loved by many. The director proves his point by showing clips of people around the world enjoying the show. Truman is cheered on by the millions watching the show when he finally bows out and leaves the set for good. The camera then moves on to show two security guards who dismiss the show now that its over and are ready to move on to the next. This symbolizes the emotional detachment that the crowd felt towards the show as soon as it was over. While moving images have been discussed for the Truman Show, the front cover of Bend it like Beckham carries a story within its still image. The movie is about an Indian family settled in London and desperately trying to hold on to their roots. They have two girls, the elder, Pinky, who is preparing herself to be an Indian bride and the younger, Jess, who dreams of playing football and chasing her dreams to be like her idol, Beckham. The front cover immediately gives the impression of a witty and simple movie with cultural disparities and a focus on sports. And that is quite an accurate impression of what lies within. The image shows Jess and Jules in a friendly embrace, smiling and happy, and quite indifferent to their families struggling to understand them. Jess's mother is horrified of the thought of their daughter wearing shorts and chasing a ball while people are watching and her father is burdened with racial discrimination and his once failed dream of playing professional cricket. While they desperately try to protect her, Jess befriends Jules, who like her, dreams of professional football. They become friends and play for a local women's football team with a male coach. Jules's mother wishes she would be like other girls, socializing and talking about boys instead of thinking and dreaming of football all the time. In the background of the image you see Jess's mother, sister and aunts pointing and gesturing as if to say "What do you think you are doing" The image exposes the judgment that is being made by Jess's family about her choices. They are shaken by one of their own daughters dismissing their culture of cooking chapattis and aloo gobis and choosing a professional quite obviously dominated by the male population. The movie is a comedy and this is obvious by the layout of the image, placement of the characters in the image and the expressions donned by them. By merely studying the image it is obvious that Jess is overpowered in her opinions by the sheer size of her family. The tradition and cultural values of the Indian family comes on strongly and in contrast to the English tradition and this is exposed simply by the cloths worn by the two girls and number of women in the background. To explain better, Jess is wearing long sweats whereas Jules is donned in a mini skirt and this portrays the conventional culture of Jess's family and certain insecurities of Jess herself. By presenting four women of Jess's family all traditionally dressed demonstrates the contrast of nuclear families in London as opposed to large joint families of the Indian tradition. To conclude, we observe a similarity between what the moving images of Truman Show and the still image of Bend it like Beckham are trying to describe. Both revolve around a misfit in the otherwise perfect illusion; Truman who is looking for answers in the perfectly crafted world around him and Jess who is fighting against all traditional values that in her world are justified. The techniques used by Peter Weir and the graphics used for the cover of Bend it like Beckham also convey another similarity between the two - both are overpowered in their lives; Truman by Christof who is playing god in his life and Jess by her family by their overwhelming unity against her choices. Both these works hold true to the saying, "a picture speaks a thousand words". Read More