MovieChat Forums > The Truman Show (1998) Discussion > Too much realism makes no sense

Too much realism makes no sense


I've mentioned before, how the 'Sirius' thing is really stupid and redundant.

It's like.. would a three-year old, that doesn't know much anything about the world, let alone The Universe around it (except latently, of course, but we'll bypass that for now), be upset or think 'hey, my world is faked', if Sirius was in the wrong place, or wasn't in the sky at all?

Of course not.

Truman, for all intents and purposes, is exactly like a toddler that doesn't know anything about the world around their domestic, little life and maybe their sandbox. Anything happening in another continent, let alone solar/star system/etc. is 100% beyond their thinking, beyond their everyday reality.

Truman would NEVER even think about Sirius, if this movie was realistic, because no one would have told him.

Which is easier in a controlled environment; painstakingly create a labeled lamp and keep it in the exact position it's 'supposed' to be at all times for every single star in the night sky, OR ... omit information?

Which is easier, tell me?

On the same token, 'all' this 'realism' is way too much and unnecessary expense. Why would there be THIS many people, THIS much traffic, THIS many cars and so on and so forth. Why have cars at all? They could have just simplified the thing by making the village completely walkable, European city-style (Watch some 'NotJustBikes' videos to know how it works).

When you think about ALL the things that could be simplified, it's RIDICULOUS that the dome is even that big, that there are THIS MANY PEOPLE involved, this many people hired, etc. Why would they make some guy just randomly drive around Truman's location only for him to catch on and see the loop? (Realistically, they wouldn't do that, but then the movie couldn't happen..)

Just look at EVERYTHING that could be pruned down to a minimum and all the people that could be removed. This could be a tiny fishing village without much modern tech, no stars whatsoever, no sun and moon, just some random light that happens and Truman would accept it just as much as reality as what we are shown.

There is NO REASON to have all this information, all these people, all these offices, all these boats, trains, buses, etc. If Truman doesn't know about it, how is he going to miss it?

Maybe the STUPIDEST thing in this movie..

(there are so many stupidities and 'whoopsies' that HAVE to happen for this movie/story to be possible - including attaching lamps in a singular, flimsy way, when everyone should know by now there are LAYERS of security (in actual theaters and such) in attaching those things EXACTLY so if one thing fails, the other thing still keeps the lamp from falling)..

..is the 'Fiji'-thing.

Not only is Truman TOLD about the world, world map, he's told about the existence of Fiji, and that Earth is round. Wouldn't it be more efficient in keeping him thinking Earth is flat? (I know it's round, but Truman wouldn't)

Why would the 'dad' of the staff member Truman fell in emotional lust for, even MENTION anything like 'Fiji'? WHY? Also, how can he know this wasn't a lie anyway? Also also, he could've MADE UP a fictional place... why say 'Fiji' at all?!

It boggles the mind how movies that have the STUPIDEST thing happen, get the most praise. Everyone reacts to this movie like it's the biggest masterpiece since the creation of solar systems.

How the heck do you miss all this stupidity?

In any case, all this 'realism' they painstakingly construct is COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY, and thus makes no sense. Truman doesn't HAVE TO KNOW about moon. Why construct a fake moon? Useless, unnecessary toil!

Wouldn't it be easier to just keep him in the dark about everything you don't absolutely NEED him to know? The basic amenities, how to shower, dress, sleep, etc.. how to get food and so on.

Heck, you can CUSTOMIZE the dome to _ANYTHING_ you like, why not live a little and instead of 'dull, realistic village with dull, realistic office job', create some kind of fantastic, imaginary, colorful, completely unrealistic and beautiful world for him? Make everyone wear antennas and have purple and green skin! Why not? Have some imagination.. but nope. Just 'dull realism' that DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THERE!

Sure, a lot of it is for the viewer, but I am just saying they mis-used their budget in the worst way possible.. everything could be scaled down to be smaller, MUCH smaller. Even with 10% of the amount of people on the 'set' would be too many.

The 'ads' could be more subtle - the actors shouldn't say the lines, just use the product, then the ad AND all the information (including the 'exotic location names') would just be a voice-over and some text and such while the actor is using the product. That way, it would've been much more subtle.

Does Truman REALLY have to have a boring office job as well? Couldn't be more like Peter Pan and Tarzan combined, just going on wacky adventures every day and resolve problems and mysteries and find treasures and and and..?

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I think in part some of what you're asking is due to the fact that primarily the show was put on the air for monetary purposes. If they didn't add things like cars or at least some other realistic factor into the show that relates to other people in the real world it wouldn't make any money, nobody would watch it and the show would eventually die because it's basically too boring.

Apologies, but I'm assuming the Sirius thing you're mentioning has to do with a scene in the movie which I can't seem to remember at the moment.

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BEWARE! Avortac4 is a troll trying to waste everyone's time with such idiotic comments. Look at his posts. He doesn't think anything in any film makes sense. His post may seem like it makes sense in the first sentence or two. But he always quickly wanders off into a completely idiotic idea, and then writes a wall of text that makes no sense. And his sole purpose is to waste your time, thinking he's cute for doing so. Don't feed the troll. If you write a comment, you're giving this troll EXACTLY what he wants. Don't comment after my comment.

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