As a profound work, "Truman's World" is a comedy film, but its deep meaning is a rare and wonderful masterpiece in the past decade. This feature produced by the Chicago Tribune led to a deeper discussion, which no one expected.

As we all know, "Truman's world" actually has three layers of traps, the first layer is the movie itself, a reality show variety show starring Truman Burbank, which has attracted countless audiences around the world; On the second floor, the audience sitting in the cinema has countless memories and thoughts about the story, including freedom to death, entertainment to death, change and fear, and other topics. The third layer is the hidden worries hidden behind the story: whether we are also "Truman", whether the trajectory we live in is also under the control of some unknown "God"; Are we, too, like poor Truman, who think we're in control of our destiny, but don't know that we're just another Gordon creature's after-dinner clown?

So far, the discussion about these three traps has been boiling, and everyone is amazed by "Truman's world", and they are tired of talking about the movie, and the enthusiasm is reminiscent of the years after the "Star Wars" came out.

However, some people now say that in fact, there is a fourth trap in "Truman's world", which is not the so-called alien civilization, nor the so-called God's perspective, but the internal contradiction between "free will" and "spiritual home" that is generally ignored.

In the film, the ubiquitous camera shows Truman's world realistically, representing gaze, voyeurism and control, a huge, invisible external force has completely put personal privacy under surveillance, and human existence does not serve human beings, but has become the object of external control.

In real life, this can actually be understood as the control and regulation of social institutions. For example, schools, such as the military, such as companies, monitoring, norms, rules, and so on, are everywhere, people need to use ID cards, credit cards, monitors and other ways to put the information of ordinary residents under the control system, this kind of discipline invisibly exists in every detail of society, people through propaganda, education, training and other ways, with strict moral norms to restrain their minds -- of course, the premise of freedom is to abide by the law, this is the social norm.

However, Truman's sadness is not that he can't leave Paradise Island, but that under the guidance of the program team, he restrained himself, lost the urge to go out, and lost the courage to change. It's like the intriguing words in the movie, "Because people accept reality", the movie borrows Meryl's words to express this kind of self-restraint, "We want to provide a house, we want to provide a car, how can we just go?" These shackles are given to us by society, but they are also given to us by ourselves -- the cowardice and compromise that we have lost our yearning for freedom, and this kind of spiritual shackles is the most terrible.

In fact, Paradise Island in the movie can be seen as a satire of the conservative values advocated by the conservative party in the United States, which emphasizes traditional values, family values, and resolutely opposes depravity. Fetuse, homosexual, multiculturalism, since Reagan took office, this kind of thinking has become the mainstream ideology in the United States.

The elegant housewife in the villa is always in the dust, always patiently preparing a delicious dinner, forever waiting for her husband and children to return; When a kind neighbor sees her husband coming home with a briefcase, she always greets her warmly, and always talks about innocuous news in a friendly and gentle manner; Even lawn mowers, kitchen utensils, coffee, and cars have been prescribed, and it seems that the middle class is prescribed to use these brands, "Truman's world is a way of life, a model life, a truly happy life." ”

This in itself is one of the purposes of the program team to create the reality show "Truman's World", which is to promote a model life to the audience.

However, as revealed in the movie, this kind of life is actually just a model show, and behind the glamorous houses and stylized greetings is hopeless hypocrisy, depravity and despair. The show also continues the conservative quest for religious faith, in which the main characters allude to biblical characters.

Christopher is "Jesus-Christ", Paradise Island is the Garden of Eden, Meryl and Malone and other actors are the embodiment of the faithful, and Truman is the only outlier in the whole society.

Truman roared to the sky in the midst of the storm, "If you want to stop me, you must kill me", this blood-boiling scene is reminiscent of the Ramses Pharaoh in "Exodus" who dared to challenge God's authority; Sylvia's confession of truth to Truman on the beach corresponds exactly to the story of the serpent and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where the serpent says to Adam, "If you eat from the tree of good and evil, you will be like a god who knows good from evil," and God lies to man that if he eats it, he will die—because God wants Truman to stay on Paradise Island forever.

In the biblical story, Adam and Eve, who ate the fruits of good and evil, were cursed by God, and it was a sin to seek truth and self-perfection - the rules of good and evil in the Garden of Eden were different from those in the mortal world, and a lie was a virtue, and the pursuit of truth was a sin. For God wants people to never understand good and evil, right and wrong, and shame - one of the basic tenets of Christianity: people are to rely entirely on God, not on their own abilities, and to believe in God in all that they do, and God will guide them in the way.

It is understandable for humans who are still in a state of confusion, but for humans who have already experienced the Enlightenment, it is very absurd. This is the beginning of the conflict between the "spiritual homeland" and the "free will".

As we all know, with the development of science and technology and society, the significance of religion has been much weaker than at the peak of the Middle Ages, but religion is still a culture, and due to historical reasons, it has long penetrated into the marrow of the national culture of various countries and has become one of the cornerstones of modern civilization. The influence of "Bible" stories has been imperceptibly precipitated in people's subconscious, unconsciously influencing people's thinking and regulating people's behavior; At the same time, accompanied by desire. With the continuous expansion of hope, the rapid changes in society, and the collapse of the traditional value system, more and more people realize that they need a spiritual sustenance and a spiritual home, so more and more people reconvert to religion, and faith begins to flourish again.

In the "Truman's World" movie, the conservative party created such an ideal paradise island, peaceful and happy, sunny, happy, peaceful and quiet, so that Meryl, Malone and others were immersed in such a life, gradually losing themselves, just like Truman, gradually began to lose their free will, born in sorrow and died in peace. This black fairy tale expresses deep concern about this situation: what is the role of people rediscovering the meaning of religion and pursuing faith for the soul?

Human beings are judged by God instead in their pursuit of truth; Humanity's quest for freedom was instead destroyed by God. There are countless examples of this in history, and Truman is just one of the simplest examples in contemporary society, and he is much happier than Giordano Bruno, who was burned alive.

The film shows this anxiety in the form of a black fairy tale, pushing such a story to the extreme, fully showing the terrible consequences, and then denying it. This is an important addition to the profound connotation of "Truman's world".

Another positive aspect of "Truman's world" is the final result of Truman, who not only regained his freedom and re-embarked on his own life; It also overturned the meaning of the existence of the entire Paradise Island, so that everyone else in the program team was also freed from the fate of being manipulated.

It is true that, as Christopher said, "The outside world is as false as the world I give you, with the same lies, the same fraud, but in my world, you don't have to be afraid of anything", but the question is, choose between false beauty or real dirt?

On the surface, this is a Hamletian question: to live, or to die? But in fact, this is a false proposition: because in the story of the movie, even if Truman chooses to stay, he has no way to stay after learning the truth, and the only truth of this variety show has become false, so the show will become a joke.

Therefore, "Truman's world" is destined to collapse, and the dense control like a spider's web cannot imprison a heart yearning for freedom after all. As Truman said: even if you set up 5,000 cameras, you can't put a single camera in your head; So, in fact, the movie doesn't give other options, only one answer: go out.

Truman broke the confines of Paradise Island and successfully walked out of the Garden of Eden, and in the "Bible" story, the next thing could not be clearer: mankind was born. Of course, after Truman leaves Paradise Island, he will also have to deal with a wild world - for Truman, but his choice has a strong metaphor, the underlying core of which is the possibility that "an insignificant but prescient individual liberated the free will of all mankind".

Through a dark fairy tale that borders on jokes and mockery, "Truman's World" directly pushes God to the judgment seat, which is a great ode to human free will, and in the confrontation between free consciousness and spiritual home, human nature yearning for freedom still has the last laugh.

Although "Truman's World" is still an entertaining comedy film in the final analysis, the film still manages to transcend the entertainment effect of popular movies and enter a more serious creative field, becoming a perfect carrier of cautionary fables, laughing and tearing, and the storm of ideas in people's minds is the most powerful force.

The Chicago Tribune's subtitle for this feature reads, "Does the movie's audience cheer for Truman's departure from paradise island?" ”