tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post7470953671371601791..comments2024-03-28T14:16:42.371+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Two recent classic movies - The Truman Show and Groundhog DayBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-64818451803970329252014-02-08T06:52:41.247+00:002014-02-08T06:52:41.247+00:00I skipped the Truman show because, based on the &...I skipped the Truman show because, based on the "creative talent" associated with it, I guessed it would be coldhearted modernist secular propaganda of the sort Adam G. described. Maybe I was wrong. As to "Groundhog Day", it was good, but I have known too many real-life Bill Murrays to not be distressed at the thought of the extended suffering of those poor supporting actors who had to spend, in the cosmos of that movie, thousands or even tens of thousands of days in unpleasant proximity to the conceited Bill-Murray character, waiting for him to get over himself and get his romantic life in order.stephen cnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-77950528439553897912014-02-07T23:32:05.790+00:002014-02-07T23:32:05.790+00:00I'm assuming everybody has seen them.
Oh, you...<i>I'm assuming everybody has seen them.</i><br /><br />Oh, you wound and disappoint me with this assumption!Samson J.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-81582574182953680972014-02-07T20:57:57.466+00:002014-02-07T20:57:57.466+00:00I enjoyed reading this treatment of Groundhog Day ...I enjoyed reading <a href="http://through-a-glass-brightly.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/good-clean-fun-theology-of-body-in.html" rel="nofollow">this treatment</a> of Groundhog Day earlier today.Alhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01920767090954250373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-54835497414218501602014-02-07T18:46:52.605+00:002014-02-07T18:46:52.605+00:00I see your point of view, but I understood the Tru...I see your point of view, but I understood the Truman show as a gnostic attack on normalcy--saying that ordinary, decent life was a sham. Needless to say, I didn't like it much.Adam G.http://www.jrganymede.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-43654075300119534852014-02-07T18:12:33.557+00:002014-02-07T18:12:33.557+00:00Bruce,
The Matrix covered some of the same territo...Bruce,<br />The Matrix covered some of the same territory. It was a different treatment and came to a much different conclusion at the end of the trilogy but it was the same type of story.<br /><br />Why the difference? I don't know about the makers of the Truman Show but the brothers (brother/sister?) who made the Matrix surrendered to their own demons.<br /><br /><br />DonDonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-52769025556571391762014-02-07T17:05:38.099+00:002014-02-07T17:05:38.099+00:00The Truman Show is an interesting demonstration of...The Truman Show is an interesting demonstration of the Argument from Desire, or similar, because Truman comes across as one of those incorrigibly nice and decent Mr. Rogers types. What's most important (and it's presumed this is the cause of the show's popularity) is that he's <i>genuine</i>; it's downright <i>implausible</i> that someone like him could grow up in the artificial, micromanaged set filled with actors hawking product placement. So that is a major clue that Truman does not belong in the false reality, that his 'creator' is not the usurper squatting on top of the dome.<br /><br />If we read the set of the show as the visible world, it makes a lot of sense that we barely see what's outside the dome (aside from very uninformative shots of people watching Truman) -- the outside world stands for Heaven, which (by definition) a human artist cannot depict directly. But it raises an interesting thought -- whether we're entirely correct when we slip into imagining Heaven to be something small, contained and controlled, isolated from the evil of the world outside. In the Truman Show, Heaven is the <i>outside</i> -- vast, scary, and unknown (i.e. a terrible place to be for someone who has rejected God's guidance), but it's also the only place he can find happiness. It's more similar to the picture in the Space Trilogy, where the fallen world is just one unusual blot in a vast cosmos (also dangerous to those who don't follow God).<br /><br />I suppose this skirts the edges of Gnosticism (because, unlike the Truman Show, the real world is an incubator, not a prison), but Gnosticism itself parasitizes on the grain of truth that the human destiny can only be fulfilled somewhere outside this fallen world.Arakawahttp://arakawa.github.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-41285851058729389562014-02-07T16:27:27.115+00:002014-02-07T16:27:27.115+00:00I enjoy The Truman Show very much, but I never tho...I enjoy The Truman Show very much, but I never thought of it in this light. Interestingly, the only theological explanation I had heard before was that Truman's world was the world of religion with its comforts and assurances of meaning/purpose wrapped around the individual personality, with the director as a religious authority/Grand Inquisitor maintaining this false reality, and his choice to leave was a brave existentialist choice to face the reality of solitude. I didn't buy it at the time, but I'm not sure if the message is that obvious then either way. Nicanornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-56714070692656778472014-02-07T13:27:38.491+00:002014-02-07T13:27:38.491+00:00Groundhog Day is one of my all time favourites. I ...Groundhog Day is one of my all time favourites. I saw it as a 15 year old and at first just thought it was an entertaining film. The moral of the story only became obvious gradually over the course of a few years. When i pointed out to my friends that it is a very Christian movie, as only God could have done this, and only the Christian God would have cared about someones inner motivations, the film became very unpopular and was considered 'cheesy' by everyone i knew. This, to me, is just as much proof of it's truth as anything else. Only Christ makes moderns that uncomfortable.AlexTnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-76359488143476630412014-02-07T09:45:44.073+00:002014-02-07T09:45:44.073+00:00@Jables. Thanks. Nowadays I watch very few movies ...@Jables. Thanks. Nowadays I watch very few movies - fewer than anybody I know - and these mostly kid's movies (Pixar/ DreamWorks kind of things); although I used to be a culture vulture and immersed myself both in Hollywood and Art cinema. To emphasize how serious I was in the late seventies/early-mid eighties - I mostly used to go on my own to the movies (so other people wouldn't 'spoil it'), and watch movies with sub-titles when there might be only half a dozen in the audience... Sometimes I even went more than once a day, and twice re-viewed the same movie within a week (Local Hero and Spinal Tap). Anyway, now it is more like one movie a month (including on TV) - so there is zero danger of this blog turning into a festival of film crit.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-18498257417021288822014-02-07T08:01:12.389+00:002014-02-07T08:01:12.389+00:00Very nice post. I enjoy these movie reviews, when ...Very nice post. I enjoy these movie reviews, when you do them, but I won't ask for more: Samuel Johnson says it's best to let a boy read whatever his inclination fancies; how much more with writing?<br /><br />I too deeply enjoyed the Truman Show. Never thought about it much, though. I haven't seen Groundhog Day, but will do it now that I've read this. J. B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/05285490297087135611noreply@blogger.com