Harbour Highlights: The Truman Show

“We accept the reality of the world with which we're presented. It's as simple as that.”

Welcome to Harbour Highlights, a selection of cult and classic films handpicked by the Harbour Lights staff. This month we’re coming to you from Seahaven Island, enclosed in the largest studio ever constructed, and along with the Great Wall of China one of only two man-made structures visible from space, now in its 30th great year... It's The Truman Show.

Released a year before the first version of Big Brother was aired, the idea of a person’s life being broadcast to an audience of millions seemed a startlingly original idea in 1998. These days Peter Weir’s prescient classic is remarkable for being only a slight exaggeration of the type of programming that would dominate TV for the next couple of decades. Exploring the nature what constitutes reality – a theme popular in films at the time, with Dark City and The Matrix released either side of The Truman Show – the film earned Oscar nominations for its direction, screenplay and Ed Harris’s role as the godlike TV producer Christof but, surprisingly, not for Jim Carrey’s revelatory performance as Truman, his first major drama role (he had to settle for a Golden Globe win instead).