Post by FRANK the giant bunny on Mar 21, 2011 15:15:22 GMT -5
THE STORY OF THE TRUMAN SHOW:
Fans of reality TV (God help them) owe it to themselves to see the film "The Truman Show" a movie which serves as the prototype for everything that would come about in television several years later. The film was Jim Carry's first adventure into the realm of serious character roles, although the character still has elements of humor to it. The film revolves around Truman Burbank a young man who appears to live a charmed life, but something seems to be wrong. He begins to notice certain unusual events, such as what appears to be some sort of theatrical lighting figure falling from a cloudless and clear sky.
His father who had died when he was young in a boating accident; falling into the water a drowning, which Truman had witnessed, greatly effected him for the rest of his life. While listening to the radio one morning he hears the radio describing his every move as he drives down the street. One day while walking to work he is stopped by a strange man who looks exactly like his father, and who in fact claims to be such.
Other then those few instances everything is perfect, he has a beautiful blond haired wife, they live in a nice suburb consisting of rows of houses with little white picket fences. Every night he and his life long friend go up on to the ruined bridge and hit golf balls into the ocean, while they both enjoy a nice bear. Truman confides in his friend about his recent concerns regarding his life, which seems to be spinning out of control. His friend assures him that its all in his head, turning with bear can in hand, can positioned perfectly in order to showcase its label, he looks straight; almost as if he is looking pass Truman, smiles and proclaims.........."Ah! ...now that's a bear"
Truman has been obsessed with going to Fiji ever since he was in collage, it was at this point where he met Silvia (not here real name) and falls madly in love with her. For the rest of his life he tries to find her, unfortunately he doesn't know her real name, it seems that the one she had in college was fake. Even though they know they shouldn't be together they sneak off one night and go to the beach, soon after someone drives up to them as they stand by the water, they throw Silvia in the car and tell Truman that she is a very sick person and that he shouldn't listen to anything she says.
Before she is taken away she tries to explain to Truman that everything that he sees around him and everything that has known all his life is not what it seems. The stress of being dragged away however prevents her from clearly explaining exactly what she meant, she is put into a car and Truman never sees her again. In the meantime Truman gets married and settles down into his perfect life, until the day when he can no longer ignore the strange things he is seeing, thus begins his search for the truth.
THE GNOSIS OF THE TRUMAN SHOW:
I probably should have posted the main tenets of Gnostic belief at the very beginning of this thread for within it we find the basic concepts which all of these movies address. Usually these films do not address a single concept but a variety of them all at once. What follows is the basic concepts that this particular film deals with, these are...........
1. [...] the universe was created. This was done by a leader possessing inferior spiritual powers and who often resembled the Old Testament Jehovah.
2. For man, the universe is a vast prison.
3. Mankind may be personified as Adam, who lies in the deep sleep of ignorance
4. [...] we have the possibility of awakening from our stupefaction.
5. Before the awakening, men undergo troubled dreams.
There are a few more considerations not mentioned in the basic tenets of Gnostic belief indicated above, one of these is the influence of the mythological character of Sophia, this shall be covered later. What Truman will ultimately come to realize is that his entire existence is a fabrication, not only does he live a life that has been carefully controlled and directed, the whole town has been fabricated, that he in fact lives inside a huge domed building. According to the various news agencies which follow his every move the building is one of only two structures that can be seen from space, the first being the great wall of china. The structure is basically a television studio which has been set up to chronicle the life and adventures of its star Truman Burbank. The brain child behind this epic television show is Christoph, who is basically its director, and like a director of network television he has his bosses, executives which watch over the show and make sure everything is running smoothly. It is quite obvious that Christoph runs the entire show and is the final authority, in this sense Christoph is a representation of "a leader possessing inferior spiritual powers and who often resembled the Old Testament Jehovah"
The Demiurge of Gnostic myth is an inferior being which has usurped power from the true God, toward the end of the film Truman overcomes his fear of water (having witnessed his fathers drowning as a child), and sails off across the ocean in hopes of reaching town the sits across the ocean. He had managed to escape the ever watchful video cameras (5000 in all) that have been set up to follow his daily exploits, but now after much searching he is finally found and the broadcast continues. The individuals responsible for the show having total and absolute control over every aspect of the false world that had been set up, conjure up a storm of biblical proportions. Here we see Christoph (Christ-of) as the ultimate representation of Jehovah/Demiurge, who in both creation myths cause a storm to wipe away all that dare to oppose their will.
I don't want to give away the ending but I can say that it has always reminded me of the old alchemical drawing featured below
