So I’m a little late with my movie analysis, and I may be doing this wrong because I chose a movie that wasn’t on AFI’s Top 100 list…. but I’m going to analyze The Truman Show.

I wanted to watch Toy Story or Forrest Gump because those are both two of my top 3 movies, but I nobody I knew had them and I couldn’t find them in the library, so when I saw The Truman Show, I grabbed it. I’ve seen it before but I don’t know it nearly as well as I know those other two. Anyways, here goes my analysis using Robert Ebert’s rules on how to “read a movie.”

The first scene in which I could really tell there was a great use of left vs. right and light vs. dark was at about 9 minutes in, when Marlon and Truman are hitting golf balls and talking about Truman wanting to go to Fiji. Truman clearly is unhappy with his life the way it is and is expressing a desire to “get away” and Marlon, a paid actor in Truman’s life, is less than encouraging. Marlon isn’t necessarily doing anything wrong in this scene, but if you know the underlying plot you know that he is not a good man. Marlon is shown on the left and Truman on the right, and the scene takes place at night in the dark, lending to it’s ominous feeling when Truman is talking about leaving and you, as a viewer, know that that isn’t really possible for him.

Several times Truman is shown with the camera viewing him from above, which, as Ebert says, makes him into a pawn. This whole movie’s premise is that Truman is a pawn in the grand scheme of the world. His life has been made into a television show in which he is the star and he has no idea. He is a pawn in the truest sense of the word. Some moments in particular in which the camera shows him like this are in the beginning when parts of the space craft fall from the sky, and another time when he is having a flashback about the boat accident with his father. Another time he is shown like this is about half an hour into the movie, when he starts getting suspicious and starts walking through traffic holding his hands up to see if people will stop.

Another scene where left vs. right is shown is when he is talking to his wife, Meryl, who is also a paid actor with a personal investment in Truman staying put. He once again brings up the idea of “getting away” and “having an adventure” and she argues with it. Meryl is shown on the left side of the screen when talking to him, and Truman is shown on the right.

Some interesting camera work is done when the director wants to make it clear that Truman is being filmed unknowingly. The camera kind of cuts back and you can see Truman in clear view but the other people aren’t necessarily. The camera then makes the corners black and blurs them out to make it into a vignette.

Another thing I thought was some clever directing/filming/writing is how often the characters besides Truman do product placement. They will be drinking a beer and hold it up and look right at the camera and say something like, “This is a great beer!” and there was a scene where Meryl tells Truman he should throw away his old mower and buy a “new Elk Rotary” and the camera zooms in on her face and she smiles right at it. There are also moments where people try to push Truman closer to a poster for a new product, or they just talk about them, and Truman doesn’t know what they’re doing, but it’s clear to the viewers.

The scene with Lauren/Silvia on the beach is also filmed with dark lighting, emphasizing the emotions Truman is experiencing when she gets ripped away from him.

There is a scene after Truman becomes suspicious and he and Marlon are sitting on the beach watching the sunset. Marlon makes a comment like “the Big Guy has some paintbrush” or something, which is a seemingly uesless comment, but when you know the plot and you know that everything in Truman’s life is actually carefully orchestrated by a larger organization, it takes on a different meaning.

HAVE NOT FINISHED WATCHING AND ANALYZING but this is what I have so far.