Genre
Although the genre appears to be quite difficult to identify in The Truman show, there seems to be elements of different genres. For example, you could say that the film is a comedy, because of the utter absurdity of the plot and also because we all recognise Jim Carrey as a comic film star, who is well known for his wacky movements and funny facial expressions. However, we could also say that in some ways, The Truman Show is more of a fantasy because we are presented with an extremely unusual world, which we later find is truly a world of fantasy and make-belief. There is also a sense that as a result of this, the genre might also be classed as a drama, especially when realisation hits Truman that all is not what it seems and he feels that he must do everything in his power to escape the fake and fantastical world in which he is trapped in and therefore, it is easy to understand why the genre of this particular film is so hard to define, although, we could say that because this movie doesn’t fall into any particular category, a wider audience is attracted and consequently engaged, proving that an indefinable genre can be an advantage .
Narrative
It is obvious that the Truman Show is a non linear narrative, especially when there are flashbacks to different parts of his younger life and in some ways; the fact that the film possesses a non linear narrative is a successful way in showing the confusion when it comes to unfolding events and the discovery Truman makes of realising that the ‘perfect world’ he lives in really isn’t perfect at all. In nearly every film narrative, Todorov’s theory of equilibriums is normally present. As an audience, we expect a problem that affects normality to occur and then to later be solved and when looking at The Truman Show, this theory does seem to be proven. Therefore, because we expect a problem to occur, we could also say that Roland Barthes theory of deconstruction from signs is also apparent. In my opinion, I believe that this ‘perfect world’ we see at the beginning, of bright blue skies and happy, robotic people are all actually underlying signs that in order to maintain Todorov’s theory of equilibriums, may not be completely what they appear to be, because everything really is so ‘perfect.’ It could also be hard to distinguish who is the main villain in the film as well, however, following Levi Strauss’s theory of Binary Oppositions; you could say that because the director of the show, Christof often wears dark black clothes and keeps Truman trapped in this world, he is the villain. Another clear opposition to prove this is the fact that Christof films The Truman Show whilst in the false ‘moon,’ which contrasts from the bright sun, presenting the opposites of light and dark and therefore, good and evil.
