It was a film that eerily predicted the modern world of mass surveillance and social media, where millions of people document their daily lives on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
The Truman Show, released 25 years ago today, starred Jim Carrey as the eponymous Truman Burbank, whose entire life was fiction designed to entertain millions around the world.
The film, directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol, grossed over $264 million worldwide and earned three Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, and Director.
But he also ended up giving his name to a psychological delirium, where patients – there have been hundreds – believe they are, like Truman, the subjects of a television show.
One victim killed his dad and sister thinking they were broadcasting his life to the world on a game show, another allegedly assaulted a toddler and his mom thinking he “had to get out of the Truman Show”.
Released 25 years ago today, The Truman Show told the story of a small-town insurance salesman whose every move was watched by millions around the world. Above: Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank
In the film, Truman’s every move since birth has been documented by 5,000 cameras placed in his hometown of Seahaven Island, which is actually a giant television studio.
Everyone at Seahaven, including his wife Meryl – played by Laura Linney – is an actor.
As his life as an insurance salesman unfolds on screens around the clock, a loyal audience of 1.5 billion people watches across the world.
In what becomes his catchphrase, he cheerfully says to his friends and neighbors, “In case I don’t see you: good afternoon, good evening, and good evening.”
Truman comes to suspect that his life is a fiction after a series of clues emerge, including the moment a light fixture falls from “the sky”.
He decides to flee the made-up world, much to the anger of series creator Christof, played by Ed Harris.
In the film, Truman’s every move since birth has been documented by 5,000 cameras placed in his hometown of Seahaven Island, which is actually a giant television studio. Everyone at Seahaven, including his wife Meryl – played by Laura Linney (left) – is an actor
As his life as an insurance salesman unfolds on screens around the clock, a loyal audience of 1.5 billion people watches across the world.
Truman comes to suspect his life is a fiction after a series of clues emerge, including the moment a light fixture falls from ‘the sky’
Jim Carrey is seen as Truman Burbank as he greets his hometown neighbors
When the film was released, reality TV was still in its infancy. The hugely successful Big Brother, originally a Dutch creation, premiered in 1999.
The show saw ordinary people sharing a home for several weeks as television cameras filmed their every move.
From then on, the reality TV genre would become a global phenomenon, with shows like The Only Way is Essex and Keeping Up with the Kardashians proving hugely popular.
The Truman Show also foresaw both mass surveillance and the widespread use of social media in the modern world.
With the former, millions of CCTV cameras are keeping a close eye on ordinary citizens in Britain and elsewhere.
In the latter, millions of people document every detail of their lives on Instagram and TikTok.
And while the film was released towards the end of the 20th century, its premise dates back thousands of years to Greek philosopher Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
In this Plato depicts a group of people who have spent their whole lives chained to the wall of a cave.
The shadows they see cast on the wall by objects passing in front of a fire end up being given names.
And, while not a reflection of reality, the shadows are real to them.
Christof evokes this meaning when he says: “We accept the reality of the world presented to us. It’s that simple.’
Truman Syndrome was originally named and documented by sibling experts Dr. Joel Gold and his brother Ian.
This often affects successful people, who may end up believing that they are being filmed all the time and that the world in front of them is not real.
In 2009, Australian Anthony Waterlow killed his father and sister because he believed they were broadcasting his life to the world on a game show to murder him or convince him to kill himself.
When examined by a psychologist, he specifically mentioned The Truman Show.
Truman decides to flee the made-up world, much to the anger of series creator Christof (above), played by Ed Harris
Laura Linney is seen portraying Truman’s wife Meryl as she shows her husband a potato peeler she has just bought, while advertising it to millions of people.
Truman suspects his world is fiction and eventually breaks free from the fantasy world
Truman’s best friend Louis Coltrane, played by Noah Emmerich, is also an actor
And in 2007, psychiatrist William Johns III allegedly assaulted a 2-year-old child and his mother in New York after he left his Florida home because he ‘had to get out of the Truman Show’ which he believed was filming him in his hometown. .
The condition was named and documented by expert Dr Joel Gold and his brother Ian.
In an article in the journal Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, they described it as follows: “…a new delusion, mainly of a persecutory form, in which the patient believes that he is being filmed and that the films are shown for the entertainment of others.
“We describe a series of patients who presented a delusional system that they were the subjects of something akin to a reality TV show…”
They examined the lives of five patients who thought they were the center of a secret television show.
A patient walked into a federal building in New York and demanded to see “the director.”
He said he had to come to Manhattan because he thought the 2001 World Trade Center bombings were faked for the TV show filmed around him.
The man said he had to see for himself if the twin towers were still standing. If they weren’t, he said, it would be definitive proof that he was the unwitting star of a reality TV show.
Another was convinced that his every move was secretly filmed for a TV competition.
A third believed that everything – the news, his psychiatrists, the drugs they prescribed – was part of a fake stage world of which he was the unwitting star.
In August 2008, another newspaper article told how a 26-year-old postman “felt the world was slightly unreal, like he was the eponymous hero” on The Truman Show.
Reviews of the film itself have been largely positive.
Writing in the Daily Mail in 1998, Christopher Tookey said: “The film works well as a surreal nightmare, in the vein of the TV series The Prisoner or the horror classic Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.
Carrey is seen as Truman alongside his wife and ‘mother’, played by Holland Taylor
The show airs 24 hours a day, so viewers can even tune in to see Truman sleeping
“It’s as compelling as a celebrity nightmare, of what the world would be like if it really revolved around you and no one behaved normally around you.”
Noted American critic Roger Ebert, who gave the film four stars, added: “I enjoyed ‘The Truman Show’ on its levels of comedy and drama; I loved Truman the same way I loved Forrest Gump – because he was a good, honest, easy-to-befriend man.
“But the underlying ideas made the film more than just entertainment.
“Like “Gattaca”, the previous film written by Niccol, it highlights the new values that technology imposes on humanity.
“Because we can engineer genetics, because we can broadcast real lives on television – of course we have to, don’t we? But are these good things to do?
“The irony is that the people who ultimately answer this question will be the very people who are produced by the process.”
