2. The Truman Show
The Truman Show is a beautiful and poignant statement on the drive of imagination. Jim Carreys Truman Burbank is born into a manufactured world that has been specifically created to entertain people through the imagination of a TV show. But for it to work, Truman cant have an imagination of his own. As a child, he is told to know his limitations. He is discouraged by his teachers to explore, and even his father is killed off the show to keep Truman where he is. Its a world that subtly tells him what to think and what to do, to control him through entertainment. But Truman doesnt let these things break him, even though he is at first only vaguely aware of them. He knows that his dreams would never fit in the world around him, that he would be ostracized if he were found out, but every chance he gets, he constantly reflects on, revisits, and investigates items and places that remind him of whats important to him. He refuses to be where he is forever. And when he finds out something is really wrong, he uses his head to fight against travel agents, equipment malfunctions, traffic, radiation, and even the hand of God in his attempts to escape. And its my belief that once Truman reaches the real world, he will not regret it. The Truman Show is a superb representation of that primal drive within us all that has been visited in countless moviesthe drive for freedom, and the ingenuity and fortitude we all have that can allow us to get there. We need not give up.