EL MOZARIAHI"1

Yassine El Mozariahi

Professor Gomez

English 114B

May 3, 2019

ReWrite Essay III

Creating a film with such complexity such as The Truman Show required a director with

amazing talent and vision. Peter Weir was the perfect man to take the script of The Truman Show

and transform it into a movie that can keep the audiences entertained and leave them thinking

about the movie. He described the script in one of his interviews to be similar to a hedgehog;

“Beautiful creature, but full of spikes. You could go seriously wrong with it… it was going to test

every facet of filmmaking.” According to The Power of the Image: The Truman Show, Peter Weir

brings the set of the movie to life by adding the social, love, drama, and comedy life. Truman,

the star of the movie, is played by Jim Carry and Weir does such an exquisite job in shaping

Truman to be a loved character, victimized, and has the hearts of the audience. The director is

capable of controlling the audience’s feelings and emotions from his ways of creating his scenes.

Being controlled by a group or an individual emits the feeling of being treated like an ani-

mal. Truman was caged in a town sized studio since birth and believed that was a real world he

lived in. His life is being constantly monitored and all his life decisions are limited. He has been

brainwashed since birth to perform under the director’s, Christoph, wishes. Such examples of

brainwashing include his fear of bodies of water that was caused by his father drowning at sea.

Of course this was scripted and his parents were paid actors, but Truman had no idea everything

around him was a lie. The article explains that every image has a purpose to create an emotion or

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feeling within the audience and that Truman is just a pawn; “In studying the image in The Tru-

man Show, we need keep in mind that all images are construct, created for a particular purpose,

for a specific audience.” The goal for every scene as I previously stated was for Peter Weir to be

able to control the audience’s feelings as he wishes.Another example of manipulation and control

over Truman that the audience can observe in the movie is that he is constantly discouraged to

leave the studio. Marlon, his best friend, always advices him to stay in the island since it is “per-

fect”. Also, no flights are ever available or any other mean of transportation is possible to leave

Seaheaven. This way of treating Truman makes him the victim and the underdog in the viewers’

eyes.

Peter Weir is able to take control of the audiences’ reactions and emotions using different

filmmaking techniques such as camera positioning, sympathy for Truman, and the storyline. Weir

wanted to have power over what the audience felt during different scenes of the movie and how

to feel about every character. The director adds hidden cameras in the movie to portray to the au-

dience that Truman is secretly being watched and that Truman is oblivious to this fact. Nola Gal-

gher, author of the article, explain that, “By showing Truman from many vantage points we are

made aware that he is being watched.” This also builds the sympathy people have for Truman

since they start to notice that he is actually caged in a studio and being watched like some circus

act. To add to the sympathy, Truman’s wife is an actress who is faking her love for him and lead-

ing him on. The director makes us dislike Christoph when Truman was reunited with his father

and Christoph was manipulating Truman the entire time. Weir then cuts to the technicians room

where Christoph is being congratulated as if he has just saved a life. Galgher explains, “At this

precious moment the nature of Christoph’s exploration of Truman becomes evident to viewers.”

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The audience in the movie is not aware of Christoph’s evil ways but the audience watching the

movie can see Christoph’s real face and why he is the villain of the story. The last touch Peter

Weir adds to make both the audience in the movie and the audience watching the movie dislike

Christoph is when he adds the scene of Christoph trying to kill Truman and keep in the studio.

Truman was was Christoph’s star and money maker, without him there would be no show and

everything he built, studio, would go to waste.

The movie shows Peter Weir’s genius skills such as his choice of casting, camera angles,

music, and cross cutting. He starts off by casting a world known actor, Jim Carrey, to play the

star in his movie. Jim Carry automatically brings attention to the movie since he has accumulated

a large number of fans over the years and was at the peak of his career when the movie was

filmed. We can see in the movie and read in the article that the camera angles being used sets off

different emotions to the viewers. An example is when Truman is reunited with his father, we

view how the angle of the camera keeps changing to focus on the situation then zooms in to their

facial expressions to focus on the love portrayed for the viewers to connect to the Truman and his

dad. The music used in the scenes plays a major role win controlling the vibe. If the situation is

serious, such as when Marlon and Truman are having a conversation while sitting on the ledge,

then the music is low with low beats per minute to put the viewers in a serious manner. Other

scenes such as when the mood is uplifting such as when Truman wakes up and goes to work, the

music is lively and the beats per minute are higher. Last, the cross cutting between scenes gives a

whole view and understanding of the entire movie which is crucial in understanding the plot. AS

a result, Weir shows the audience through his movie that it is similar to the lives we live, “ …we

are constantly being aware of the power of the media.” The life we live now with all this tech-

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nology allows people to constantly monitor our locations and what we are doing through our

phones, laptops, credit cards, and social media.

There are some points I would’ve liked to add to strengthen my essay such as inlacing links

with the movie and adding my to credibility. I would have added quotes from the movie to con-

nect to the article, this way the reader can understand my point with greater ease. Another point I

would have added was comparing the movie with other similar movies. Finally, to increase my

credibility I would use scholarly sources about the movie to support my arguments. This way the

reader of my essay won’t have doubts about my claims.

Creating the Truman Show required a world class director such as Peter Weir to bring the

script to life. He executed the movie perfectly well and exceeded my expectations of the movie.

As a result, I am convinced of his skills and will most likely watch any of his other work since

the Truman Show is a movie that I will remember.

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