Reading 'The Truman Show' inside out

Knox, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5094-6203 (2010) Reading 'The Truman Show' inside out. Film Criticism, XXXV (1). pp. 1-23. ISSN 0163-5069

Abstract/Summary

This essay explores how The Truman Show, Peter Weir’s film about a television show, deserves more sustained analysis than it has received since its release in 1998. I will argue that The Truman Show problematizes the binary oppositions of cinema/television, disruption/stability, reality/simulation and outside/inside that structure it. The Truman Show proposes that binary oppositions such as outside/inside exist in a mutually implicating relationship. This deconstructionist strategy not only questions the film’s critical position, but also enables a reflection on the very status of film analysis itself.