he Truman Show suggests that the achievement of a higher level of entertainment requires a disregard for people’s lives. At the start of the film, the director comments, “We have become bored with actors give us phony emotions,” and his comment demonstrates the theme of the audience’s desire for a higher level of entertainment that permeates the film (Weir). Unfortunately for Mr. Burbank, the audience’s desire makes him unknowingly live a fictional life, which provides the viewers with the next level of entertainment in the form of real emotions. Unfortunately, the fake life entrapping Mr. Burbank also devalues him, which evidences itself in how the director plans Mr. Burbank’s life, keeps him from leaving, and in how Christoff almost kills
