Truman Show attacks media but upholds imperialism

   Review by RC35
   
   The Truman Show, starring Jim Carey, satirically documents the life of
   Truman Burbank, a man raised from boyhood by his corporate adoptive
   parent in a fictitious Hollywood, continuously-televised world where
   actors work to convince him of the legitimacy of his life and
   surroundings. The film correctly exposes the artificial nature of the
   media, and the decadence and delusion of the Amerikan populace. But it
   incorrectly portrays people blindly led by the media and ignores the
   possibility of an objective reality. The film incorrectly boils the
   world down to a simple dichotomy of the creator and the created,
   ignoring the ways people can be bought-off by those in power and
   thereby dictate, or remain complacent to, the actions of the
   oppressor.
   
   The Truman Show has been running 24 hours a day, for Truman's entire
   life (30 years), and has no separate commercials. Instead, product
   advertisements are included as part of Truman's interactions with
   people. Truman senses the artificiality of his human interactions (why
   do the people walking down his street come around and around again if
   he doesn't move?) and begins to rebel against his life by attempting
   to escape and committing violent attacks. In order to prevent such
   incidents, the "creator" of the TV show writes experiences into the
   script that would prevent Truman's escape, like making Truman fear
   oceans by staging his father's death at sea and then having actors
   continuously blame him for the father's death. This method of
   psychological warfare is accurate as far as how imperialists have
   worked to suppress the oppressed desire for revolt. The oppressor
   takes away the land and resources of the oppressed and justifies it
   with religious or biodeterminist examples of racial superiority. In
   both cases, material interests are the principal motivation for
   oppression.
   
   However much Truman's life is artificial and alienating, it is not at
   all materially comparable to the lives of the international
   proletariat. His meaningless life is nevertheless free of violence and
   provides all the necessities and commodities of a bourgeois existence
   -- when his "wife" flips out and quits the show, the producers even
   provide a new love interest to improve ratings. Yet, loosely
   interpreted, the film tries to make Truman's life a parable on the
   emptiness of Amerikan life as subject to media hype, and ultimately
   the constructions of the capitalist class. While Amerikan in the movie
   do little more then stare at the Truman Show, they also rejoice when
   he finally escapes the set.
   
   Every time Truman questions his white picket fenced, paper-pushing
   Amerikan lifestyle, an actor comes along to tell him to stop chasing
   stars and accept his lot in life. Most Amerikans have unproductive and
   meaningless jobs, too, but the film fails to question why few viewers
   questioned the psychological torture that Truman experienced. Instead,
   like real Amerika, the characters used their sympathy for the
   oppressed (Truman) to feel better about the meaningless, but
   materially rewarding lives and jobs they have.
   
   In the same way, very few Amerikans have or do question the
   information that the media feeds them. When the media says "terrorist"
   or "military target," it doesn't matter to most in the Amerikan
   populace if either one is fighting for national freedom against
   imperialism or the other is composed of unarmed civilians. The fact is
   that imperialist actions and media have served the material interests
   of bought-off Amerika. For there to be successful propaganda, there
   needs to be a populace willing to accept the message. MIM doesn't buy
   into the idea that people are stupid pawns of the "big guys." People
   have the ability to make everyday decisions regarding the oppression
   of themselves and others. Available to all is the choice to work to
   overthrow imperialism, but that choice is a lot less attractive to
   decadent Amerika.
   
   In the end, Truman chooses the uncertainty of the violent and
   deceptive "real world" over a continued existence within the equally
   deceptive but safe life on the Truman Show. The decision is presented
   as the ultimate answer to alienation. Individual choice to
   subjectively define reality is framed as the greatest subversion to
   the controlled interactions in Amerikan society. Although individual
   ability to experience life without the fear of repression is a good
   ideal for the future, this model for ending oppression is not in the
   interests of the international proletariat. Instead it pretends that
   each individual can escape from group power relations that exist
   innately within an unequal world. MIM says that Amerikans wishing to
   end oppression for good have to commit class, nation and gender
   suicide in order to unite with the international proletariat against
   oppression. Escaping within the myth of supreme individuality only
   ignores the fact that people benefit and are oppressed as groups.
   
   The Truman Show brings the role of the media to light, but insists on
   upholding imperialist ideals, especially the one that says most people
   are basically stupid and weak -- though they like individual heroes
   who stand up for themselves without challenging the system. But the
   film, like most of Hollywood, is not attacking, or even mentioning,
   the destructive forces of U$ imperialism. The only lip-service given
   to progressive organizing is when the "Free Truman Movement" is said
   to be rallying against Truman's oppression (and that's a single-issue
   movement around liberating one person...).
   
   Fighting imperialist media is about creating an independent media
   aimed at fighting the principle oppressive force in the world, U$
   imperialism. Individual stories can be inspirational, but if we made
   the movie, it would have also featured a real revolutionary movement
   against the imperialist power structure and its media, not just the
   noble story of one man who decides not to play along anymore.