``The Truman Show'' The Truth is hidden! A world full of schemes

America loves conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories are a very American phenomenon. Kurt Andersen, author of Fantasyland (Toyo Keizai Shinposha), states that "the Protestant urge to find meaning and purpose in everything mixed with the empiricism of the Enlightenment gives rise to the American mania for connecting the dots and irrationality disguised as rationalism."*2 The Kennedy assassination, Area 51, the Apollo program (which never actually reached the moon!?), etc. It's understandable that a flat-Earth theorist who says he has "went through many conspiracy theories" is also a fan of The Truman Show.

Of course, conspiracy theories are not a phenomenon limited to the United States, but there is no other country where conspiracy theories are believed by as many people as in the United States. Therefore, the works that should be discussed in parallel with The Truman Show are not EDTV (1999, about a man who agrees to broadcast 24 hours of his life as the star of a reality show in exchange for a large fee, starring a young Matthew McConaughey), but rather the TV dramas The X-Files (1993-), Men in Black (1997-), or The matrix (1999). Michael Barkan, author of Modern American Conspiracy Theories (Sankosha), states: "'Trust no one' is a mantra that is often repeated on the TV show The X-Files, and this perfectly sums up the limitless doubts of conspiracy theorists."*3

"X-Files" Trailer

This is the story of a man who sees through conspiracies, trusts his intuition, and arrives at the true nature of the world. Come to think of it, Jim Carrie also starred in another conspiracy-theory film, " The Number 23 " (2007, about a man who discovers that all events in the world are governed and related to the number "23"). When America's wild imagination and desire to explain all facts with an overly consistent theory are presented as a dubious film resembling a conspiracy theory, there is certainly a somewhat grotesque excitement to it.

Come to think of it, "The X-Files," "Men in Black," and "The matrix" are all movies I personally love. "The Truman Show," which captures the American nature of conspiracy theories, is also one of my favorites, but I think it's best to keep shouting "The Truth is being hidden!" only in fiction.

【reference】

*1Slavoj Zizek "The Courage to Despair: Global Capitalism, Fundamentalism, and Populism" (Seidosha)p321 The quoted portion is a comment on Kim Kardashian (the Kardashian family).

*2Kurt AndersenFantasyland: 500 Years of Madness and Fantasy in America (Part 2)” (Toyo Keizai Shinposha)p372

*3Michael BarkanModern American conspiracy theories: Apocalypse, secret societies, Jews, aliens” (Sankosha)p13

Text: Satoshi Ito

Writes mainly on foreign literary criticism and film criticism. Cakes and Real Sound are currently publishing movie reviews. Author of ``Learn the techniques of living from masterpieces'' (Softbank Shinsho).

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The Truman Show

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Publisher: NBCUniversal Entertainment

*Information as of May 2019.

(C) 1998 2015 by Paramount Pictures.