Truman Burbank

Date

1998

Description

Creator of the image: Peter Weir (director)
Date of the image creation: 1998
Medium of the image: Film
Person depicted: Truman Burbank as played by Jim Carrey

Truman Burbank is the unsuspecting star of The Truman Show, a massive reality television production which spanned his entire life beginning with his birth. Thousands of hidden cameras are embedded across the planned community, and have filmed every moment of his 30-year life. The show’s creator Christof is able to engineer all the situations that Truman has experienced, capturing his emotions and broadcasting it live to the world. Slowly, Truman becomes aware of the pervasive falseness of the reality that he inhabits. A series of events lead to his attempts to escape from his closeted existence.

This still-frame is captured at the film’s most climatic moment when, after braving an artificial storm to escape from his fabricated town, Truman’s boat literally bumps into the edge of the his world: a massive arcological dome. (Arcology, brings together the concepts of ‘architecture’ and ‘ecology’, describing a world made for itself, such as Buckminster Fuller’s proposed Old Man River's City project, a domed city.)

Truman discovers a set of stairs and a door marked ‘exit’. Christof, is forced to resort to using powerful speakers to speak directly to him in an attempt to persuade him to say on set. After a moment, Truman turns to the camera, for the first time fully aware of its presence. He delivers his trademark catchphrase with a new self-consciousness: ‘In case I don't see you ... good afternoon, good evening, and good night’, before bowing and proceeding to exit the set.

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