The Truman Show –(Good Morning, Good Evening And Good Night)- A comparison with the Corporate World by Premkumar Raja

“The Truman Show - Jim Carrey takes the title role in this marvelous thought-provoking slice of satire from director Peter Weir and writer Andrew Niccol. Since birth, Truman has been brought up inside a giant Hollywood dome, inside of which is the made-for-TV town of Seahaven. Everyone he knows – his neighbors, his workmates, his parents, his wife, and even his best friend since childhood – are actors hired by media mogul Christ of (Ed Harris) for the planet's biggest and most intricate one-man gawp-fest”.

The Truman Show provoked many reviews like the one said above. I saw this movie a decade ago when I was a very young graduate looking to fly high in this world. During those days I thought this movie was a wonderful piece of creativity by the director and his crew. Of Course! JIM CARREY, Everybody loves Jim I love him too. He is a wonderful Actor.

Recently when I was watching this movie in one of the TV channels along with my wife, I saw a wonderful similarity between the incidents happening in today’s corporate world with those incidents in the movie. So here I am trying to write my comparison in an article format, I think I can call it an article for my blog. I hope it comes out well!!!!!

Yes, when I saw Jim Carrey in the movie entering his office like a nice guy in the block with smiles all over his face, yet the looks he got from the security guards and his peers reminds me of an executive entering his office with smiles all over his face, waving at friends and peers etc. but with a Oh! No! Its not Friday yet, attitude.

On reaching his desk Jim calls the travel company to get some tickets for his trip to Fiji. He bends his body below the desk and speaks to the agent in a low voice without realizing there are cameras hidden under his desk like our corporate executive speaks to his girlfriend to call her out for the weekend or for a dinner later in the night. Our corporate executive also makes same mistake all the time like Jim.

In the movie Jim realizes he is under the hammer or the camera through the car radio scene, as the radio jockey announces his car’s movement exactly as it happens inch by inch.

Jim’s face expression as the radio jockey announces his car’s movement, reminds us of the face of an executive in the corporate world, whose peer is actually delivering the speech which the executive is suppose to deliver in a meeting with the senior management. OH!!! My GOD what a coincidence, it exactly matches with that of Jim Carrey, in that sense every executive in the corporate world are Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) only, given this scenario. It’s very hard and gross feeling. Here I have to appreciate the director for his work and the series of events he put together, after the car radio scene.

Jim will be at total loss, he cannot believe he is in a normal world, he will start looking around him in a whole new perspective, like our executive who just came out of the meeting where he got a beating from his superiors for lack of proper preparation, lack of commitment, insincerity, blah! Blah! Blah!

Jim’s head will start spinning like our corporate executive’s head, who saw his/her peer (who stole his speech) whispering into his/her boss’s ears and the boss started yelling at the executive like “ IF you don’t do it properly next time, I make sure you have to burn your resume…. blah blah blah ” Yep that’s right… It’s a corporate world for the executive and its Seahaven for Truman Burbank; they are made for each other.

The movie shows that they have the director’s stand or the command center up in the sky, which has the capacity to direct the entire set or studio with a click of a button or send a command to the characters near Jim to take the next step like sending Jim’s friend to his house when he was fighting with his wife or sending waves while he was sailing in sea or a nuclear accident when he was trying to escape etc.

In the corporate world the senior management can be compared to this command center, which is somewhere in the office (invisible to many) yet has all the power to send the right message to the right person through any unconventional method like sending a cleaning executive to peep at the executive desk or wake him up if they found him sleeping through the cameras or send a alert to his supervisor if they found him in the rest room for a long period of time etc.

It also explains what makes (command center) the executive’s friends at work, suddenly change their attitude towards him and start talking without any context or yell at him as if he was an enemy for many many years. Awful!!!

In the movie the director’s command center will act as the nerve center in the same way the middle management in the corporate world acts as the nerve center capable of changing gears at any point of time to handle any contingency in the company. Sometime going any further in the interest of the company or for their own.

The director up in the sky command center will order for more thunder storm, lighting, rain etc to shakeup Jim trying to escape Seahaven in a boat like the middle management which will send sudden surprises for the executives by asking him to send his detail plan for the next year or send him a call through his superiors to get for something…. God only knows what…. while he was about to leave for home etc.

Finally Jim finds out he is living in a Hollywood studio built only for him, right from his mother’s womb to till date, he yells at the director “ Are you not happy! What are you waiting for my death…” and the director says “ No your are a Star… God…speak up to the world your are on television” .
Jim turns back faces the Seahaven studio world and says, “ If I didn’t see you again Good Morning, Good Evening and Good Night” and walks out of the studio. Well that’s how Jim’s agony for about thirty years comes to an end in the movie.

Our corporate executive standing at the brink of retirement or …whatever makes such a yelling “ Are you not happy! What are you waiting for? My death…” to his HR people who are busy in finding ways to insert some last minute deductions in his last pay check or his retirement benefits papers to save money for their corporate boss’s pockets?

After hearing this almost spontaneously the HR Manager says” No your are a Star…Look everybody in the office are here for you….”

Our executive replies with a wry smile in his face “ If I didn’t see you again Good Morning, Good Evening and Good Night” and walks out of the corporate house once and for all or with a save it for another day attitude.

I wonder how the Hollywood director was able to get it right in every scene, which can be actually compared to the corporate world? I wish I know the source for this movie and no wonder if it points to Corporate World. Well that’s my wild guess!!!