Of God, Humanity, and the World: Reflections on “The Truman Show”

Popular analysis of The Truman Show generally has focused on the comments the movie is making about our media culture and corporate influence in our lives. However, as the names of the lead characters (Truman, Christof) suggest, there is more to the movie than a critique of corporate media culture. With echoes of stories of the Garden of Eden, the Book of Job, and promises of heaven, the movie raises interesting and troubling questions about the nature of God and his relation to humanity in the Western tradition. With echoes of Descartes’ “evil genius” and how we come to know ourselves, each other and the world, the movie also addresses some fundamental assumptions of modern philosophy. The answers provided by the movie show that The Truman Show is a radical critique of commonly held assumptions about God, humanity and the world in which we live.