The Cinematic Features Displayed in Pleasantville and The Truman Show
The following essay, which I have composed, is based on two important
films of the last decade. Their titles are "Pleasantville" and "The
Truman Show". Starting with the "Pleasantville", the general overview
of the film's plot gets more complicated the further you get into it.
It brings up several issues all of which I have commented on in this
essay.
The film starts with two teenagers, David and Jennifer. David has an
addiction to old reruns of a fifties sitcom also by the name of
"Pleasantville". Jennifer is the complete opposite of her brother,
leading a rather promiscuous lifestyle. During an argument, their TV
remote is broken, meaning they are unable to watch their television.
The argument is between David who wants to watch the Pleasantville
marathon and Jennifer who wants to watch a film with her date who is
coming round in a few minutes. Then a supernatural event occurs as a
TV repairman rings the doorbell seconds after the breakage.
The TV repairman has a common interest with David in Pleasantville. As
he sees David is a die-hard fan, the repairman gives David a special
remote which transports them into their television, into
Pleasantville. Pleading with the repairman to transport them back, he
gets upset and leaves them in. Because of this they have to stay stuck
in the roles of Bud and Mary-Sue, two of the shows characters and have
to continue in their characters lives.
"The Truman Show", as mentioned before, is also a major film in the
last decade. The general overview of the plot is simple for viewers to
recognise throughout the film. Set a f...
... middle of paper ...
...s the edge of the dome. He sees a
stairway, which he climbs. This is like a stairway to heaven. He finds
there is a door, which opens to reveal blackness at the other side.
Christof now gives him a choice: to either end his life in Seahaven in
this supposed 'perfect world' free from all danger, or cross over to
the other side and live again in the danger. He goes into the
blackness and starts the new life, ending the transmission of "The
Truman Show".
In conclusion, I think both directors are trying to show that there is
no perfect world for everyone as the two films showed. Both Seahaven
and Pleasantville are like prison cells, and the people inside them
are prisoners unable to make their own choices in life. It is for this
reason why they are influential films with a strong cast, plots and
messages behind them.
Describe some ways in which business values and artistic values in Hollywood contend with one another.
A utopia is a seemingly perfect world, with happiness, honesty, equality, and peace. Although in the novel, 1984, by George Orwell, and the film The Truman Show, directed by Peter Wier, the readers and viewers are presented with a negative utopian society. A negative utopian society is a perfect world that somewhere has gone wrong. The controllers in the novel and film succeeded in achieving complete control and power, which was their attempt to make the ideal society. Each controller has a different threat, in 1984 it is association while in the film, The Truman Show, it is separation from the outside world.
The 1920s were a time of change especially concerning the entertainment industry and the build up of movie companies. Entertainment is an important aspect in everybody's lives and just like people entertainment changes constantly. In the beginning of this time period people were becoming less confined and open their minds to new ideas this had an effect of new ways to entertain. The big operation of this time period was films it started out with silent films, until “talkies” pictures that synchronized sound came out. The creation of films especially “talkies” changing movie business, culture, and, created a lasting effect on visual entertainment.
I think that Truman represents every man, “true-man”; he is extremely relatable, has a sense of humor, character, and he is very sensitive to his gut feelings and what he thinks is right and wrong. Sylvia is his dream girl that he remembers from college who tried to tell him the truth. She is the only character who seems to actually care for Truman. She represents real love and caring in contrast to his fake relationship with his wife, who is only an actress. The thing that he holds onto the most about her besides her message is her eyes. The eyes represent the window to the soul. I love how they advertise in this movie; this represents all of the subliminal advertising that we witness every day. It’s right in front of us, right under our nose and most don’t even think twice about it; they simply consume, comply, and obey.
What are the issues of watching and voyeurism in film? The intention of this essay is to discuss both films (The Truman Show, 1998 and Rear Window, 1954) alongside established theoretical criticism (Laura Mulvey and Norman K. Denzin) in an attempt to demonstrate how the issues of watching and voyeurism, as seen in todays mainstream Hollywood cinema, both engages and entices the spectator and to look at how the definition of the voyeur has changed. Before entering into a discussion about voyeurism in Rear Window and The Truman Show, an understanding of what is meant by ‘the dynamics of voyeurism’ in film must be attempted. The dictionary definition of a voyeur is: (1) a person who gains sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engage in sexual activity, and/or (2) a person who enjoys seeing pain or distress of others. Voyeurism is initially noted for the investigation of the woman, demystifying her mystery, however, I think this definition is a small interpretation of the word voyeur. So the intention of this essay is to explore further the meaning of voyeurism by looking at two films adjacent to, two critics with conflicting opinions of what voyeurism is represented by in film. But to understand what voyeurism means we need to look at the cinematic gaze and two types of looks; scopophilia and narcissism.
In the early years of narrative cinema there was little pressure on filmmakers for the ‘evolution of film forms before nickelodeons’ (Salt, 1990, pp31) as cinema neither became a mass nor high cultural product and was still a novelty but ‘Production companies’ profits were based principally on the sales of longer fiction films’ in the later years (Musser, 1990, pp256) so focus was made for the production of popular narratives so I will show how the early development of narrative evolved from trick films to complex narrative. I will analyse the short film Mary Jane’s Mishap (1903, Smith) and an extract from the seminal The Birth of a Nation (1915, D.W.Griffith).
Standing Out in a Crowd: The Aesthetic of Modernist Cinema 2 Among the large objects, such as vast plains or panoramas of any kind, one deserves special attention: the masses. No doubt imperial Rome already teemed with them. But masses of people in the modern sense entered the historical scene only in the wake of the industrial revolution. Then they became a social force of first magnitude. Warring nations resorted to levies on an unheard-of scale and identifiable groups yielded to the anonymous multitude which filled the big cities in the form of amorphous crowds.
Truman’s journey began at a low point which gradually declined, then spiked at the conclusion of the film. In the beginning, Truman is depicted as a happy man living in a utopian world (as identified by the picket fences, friendly neighbourhood and “American dream” lifestyle). However, this world is superficially nice for Truman and he becomes restless, as seen when he pretends to be an explorer and says “maybe I feel like a teenager”, triggering his call to adventure and questioning of himself, justifying it as a positive event.
5. "Television, with insatiable hunger for materials, has made celebrities into content" (Roger Ebert 1998, Chicago Sun-Times) this relates to The Truman Show because just like other celebrities, Truman was just a normal everyday person, until people starting wanting more, and suddenly he isn't just a celebrity anymore, he is the product of what everyone wants, and that is what the part about celebrities being
Have you ever felt like being watched? Or maybe you have felt like someone was controlling your choices? Also controlling the way you live and what you eat? The giver is mainly about a boy that is in this perfect community and tries to escape with another kid named gabe.The truman show is mainly about a guy who is being watched as a tv show and tries to also escape but instead of having to care for a kid, he has to survive through the sea and the weather.They both have to escape through something dangerous and challenging but that's not going to stop them.
'The Truman Show' is the story of a baby who is bought by a television
As said in the movie, millions of people are viewing The Truman Show. There have been a few close calls to Truman finding out the true nature of his life through bystanders. One evening on the beach, Lauren, the love of his life tried to tell Truman that he was living in a fake world and that everyone he knew was lying to him. She was stopped and taken away too fast for Truman to completely understand what she was trying to tell him. Everyone knew but Truman, therefore making this an example of dramatic irony. The use of this metafictional element gives the audience of the show the power to change Truman’s destiny. All it takes is one person to break character or break onto the set to reveal to Truman the truth. Lauren felt that what Christof was doing to Truman was wrong and Truman had the right to know. This example shows us that one little decision to tell someone something they didn’t previously know, has the power to change someone’s life. Little did Truman know those words were what would someday change his destiny. To conclude, every single one of us has the power to change not only our life but the life of others with the decisions we
One of the major differences between the film and the novel is the depiction of the delusional image of reality. However, it still manages to bring forth the dystopian image of both their Utopian societies. In The Truman Show, life is a real life play in an environment that provides comfortable lifestyle and happiness at the cost of reality. The producer of The Truman Show, Christof states, “We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented”. This message is the underlying theme in the story and as such, will foreshadow Truman’s acceptance of a delusional reality in the film. Meanwhile, in the film everyone except for Truman is acting and not living an authentic life. There is no sense of “real”; no real affinity, no secrecy, and no faith, all of which Truman is blindly unawar...
Truman in this movie is not an actor, he is just a normal human being trying to be living in a normal world with a normal life. Although we as the watchers know that none of that is true. "Television, with insatiable hunger for material, has made celebrities into content," this is a quote that can explain very well to what happened to Truman. First he was taken as a baby, adopted by an organization, and never knew who he truly was. Christof had created a celebrity no doubt, but can Truman really be a celebrity without truly knowing what he us doing. Everyone around the world watches Trumans' every move, it is safe to say that when they do not watch the show, they become very hungry for more info. The one word in that quote that really sticks out is insatiable, it means impossible to please. In the quotes context it is saying a hunger that is impossible to overcome. These watchers from everywhere very rarely turn off the show because they want more, they are hungry for more, and they will always want more until the show is at its end, and then they could still want more. The Truman Show, is a prime example of how that quote written by Roger Ebert can be so powerful, the movie and the quote were both released in the same year. This quote was written for The Truman Show, it is to show us that one day technology will ultimately prevail and we will have this insatiable hunger for more and more, until there is no more
When we take into account the history of U.S movies the Progressive Era is roughly chartered around 1900-1920, a period that witnessed intense social reform. Social unrest and street crime became a major concern as cities were expanding rapidly filling with immigrants and the poor and leading some of them to form criminal gangs (Rafter 15). There was forced prostitution and police were uneducated, corrupt and brutal and this state came to a close with the enactment of the anti-alcohol 18th Amendment which encouraged bootlegging and organized crime. During the silent film era US became concerned about the manifestations of crime. Ordinary citizens for the first time began to think about the sources of criminality and ways to improve social