How Is The Truman Show Constructed Reality

In The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Wiccol, a man named Truman Burbank is unknowingly the star of a reality TV show. The film’s audience finds this out before he does, and wants him to realize that nothing around him is real and that it would be best for him to leave Seahaven. As the reality that Christof created falls apart around Truman, the audience observes every moment and knows the truth and wants Truman to as well. The intimate relationship established with the audience in The Truman Show is scrutinized because of the surveillance that Truman is under and the constructed reality falling apart.
The intimacy that builds throughout the film can be observed from the moment it starts. In the opening scene

of The Truman Show, interviews are taking place and the camera flashes back to Truman multiple times as the show is aired when he is in the bathroom, which is believed to be the most private room in the house. This is where we see Truman at his most genuine and vulnerable: when he is alone. It is soon revealed that he is not able to leave Seahaven because of the constant surveillance that he has been under for 10, 909 days. As he stares into the mirror, which has a hidden camera behind it, the film audience gets the first view of Truman: a man who is pretending to climb Mt. Everest while he thinks that no one else can see him. However, the film audience can, and a relationship is quickly established in the first few moments of the movie. The film’s audience is watching the scene and immediately wants Truman to know that he has been watched his entire life. The audience having an emotional response in just the first scene even though the movie starts en media res instead of from the beginning of Truman’s life shows how seeing him as the explorer stuck in a dome quickly draws in the audience, and it helps to understand that no matter how constructed Truman’s reality is, he will always remain real.
The audience has observed all of the things that Christof has placed in the show and notices how each one is not real, but Truman does not catch on until much later. In the beginning of the film when Truman is about to go to work, a stage light labeled ‘Sirius (9 Canis major)’ falls from the sky and almost hits him. The light is actually one of the fake stars that was set in the sky to make it seem like the night sky is real. Later in the film, the rain setting malfunctions and the raincloud not only rains just on Truman, but follows him around until it finally rains all over the beach. These are a few of the signs that something is not right, and the audience wants Truman to know that nothing around him is real. The connection between character and audience deepens, and the audience continues to observe Seahaven slip and fall apart. As Christof’s reality begins to malfunction, Truman begins to pick out the things that are not real in his life, and eventually sets himself free. The film audience has been able to see through Christof’s constructed and controlled reality the entire time, and once Truman does as well, the film audience truly does understand that Truman remained genuine because he did not know the truth in the beginning. Being able to observe all the events of The Truman Show helps the audience understand that only the truth could set Truman free in a world where nothing is real.