No Hiding The Truth: The Truman Show

No Hiding The Truth: The Truman Show

Truth in the Land of Make Believe
by Father Ignatius Xavier
A Storyblazer Review of Movies

No Hiding The Truth
The Truman Show

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed,
or hidden that will not be made known. Matthew 10:26

Truman Burbank is an ordinary guy. He goes to work, spends time with his wife Meryl , drinks beer and hits golf balls with his best friend Marlin and dreams of going away to Fiji. But there is a secret about Truman that everyone around him knows that he doesn’t. His whole life is a TV Show. Truman thinks he lives in the town of Seahaven on the Gulf Coast near Tampa, but in actuality it is a giant soundstage in California. The cameras have been on Truman, broadcasting his life to the world, ever since he came out of the womb. All his friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and even his wife are actors. The show is broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Millions tune in to witness Truman, eat, sleep, work and play.

To keep Truman from discovering the truth about his world, there are constant reminders about what a great place Seahaven is. From his youth he has been trained to fear water and his attempts to leave the island are foiled by lack of good transportation. There have been those who have tried to inform Truman of his reality, only to be booted off the show. One such former actress who got canned for all most spilling the beans is an woman named Sylvia.

One night she calls into a rare TV interview with creator, producer and director of the Truman Show named Christof. She boldly declares to him the injustice of what has been done to Truman. She tells him, “You're a liar and a manipulator and what you've done to Truman is sick!" . . . Christof responds


"I have given the chance for Truman to lead a normal life. The world, the place you live in, is the sick place. Seahaven is the way the world should be."
Sylvia shoots back with "He's not a performer, he's a prisoner. Look at him, look at what you've done to him!" To that Christof replies that if Truman really wanted to know the truth he could. “If his was more than just a vague ambition, if he was absolutely determined to discover the truth, there's no way we could prevent him.”

This prophecy starts to come true, as Truman starts to see cracks of reality unfold all around them. Stage lights fall from the sky, he walks into stage sets, and most mysteriously of all, he sees his dead father standing on the sidewalk on his way to work one morning. Slowly he begins to work out the puzzle of his existence and it eventually leads him to outside world despite Christof’s best efforts to keep stuck in TV land.


1.7-billion were there for his birth. 220 countries tuned in for his first step. The world stood still for that stolen kiss. And as he grew, so did the technology. An entire human life recorded on an intricate network of hidden cameras, and broadcast live and unedited 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to an audience around the globe. Coming to you now …… in its 30th great year, it’s The Truman Show!


Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:32

Certain militant atheists and Satan himself would like people to believe that God does not exist and that this material life is all there is to reality.

Those who hate or misunderstand God try to suppress the truth about his existence hoping people will pass through their life never questioning the ultimate meaning of reality as Truman did about his. No matter how hard the evil one tries to keep the world in ignorance on a soundstage of unreality, God’s truth can not be hidden for too long without it seeping through the lies that try to fence it in. God’s signature is written on every piece of creation and his voice echo’s deep within the human heart. His radiance shines forth in those men and women committed to testifying to the wondrous certainty of his mysterious presence.

Despite the fall of man kind, a seed of truth lies wedged in the heart of each man and woman. When a person starts to feel the seed scratch his soul they can either ignore the inner irritation or try and seek to scratch it with God’s reality. To those who seek the truth they will find it. (Matthew 7:7) The cloud of sin only blocks God’s presence it doesn’t obliterate it. God is only too willing to let his light break though the clouds of ignorance and doubt so those that are prisoners can be set free to fully live life. (John 10:10)

Each and every one of us is the star of his own reality show. God, the angels, and saints are tuning in. They are routing for us and praying for us just as Sylvia did for Truman. In particular we have special woman interceding for us. The Blessed Mother Mary prays that each and every one of her children would see the truth about God and walk off the unreality of unbelief. Her prayers open the heart to receive the heavenly rain that falls upon its soil, causing it to come alive with the flowers of truth and reality. When our paralytic legs get the strength to walk, we like Truman can leave the fake world constructed by lies and falsehoods and walk out into the truth constructed by God.

We can then join Truman in saying to his past life,


“In case I don't see ya:
Good afternoon, good evening, and good night!”


A Few Extra Thoughts to Ponder

“Did you ever think about life
as a metaphor for television?” - Chuck Palahniuk

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,

-William Shakespeare (from As You Like It 2/7)


Sam: I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into? -

Frodo: I wonder. But I don’t know. And that’s the way of a real tale. Take any one that you’re fond of. You may know , or guess, what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know.

Sam: Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, or course; but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards.

-J.R.R. Tolkein Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers