Exactly. I appreciate that you and others here don’t flee from movies like this because of that surface interpretation. I don’t remember reading any Christian criticism of the movie when it came out so maybe it wasn’t any big deal. But there have been other movies like the Harry Potter ones that have been condemned by some groups.
I agree with you that it is first and foremost about how much can the human spirit be constrained by careful upbringing/manipulation. Of course it was also commentary on the infatuation with reality TV. The producer toward the end tries to convince Truman that he, the producer, is God. But that still doesn’t thwart our hero from escaping the staged reality. One would like to think no one could ever get away with exploiting a child like that, but never say never I suppose.
When I first saw the show, I was mildly entertained (that is to say: fooled for longer than most) by the whole concept and probably had a more ‘surfacy’ reaction of being vaguely uncomfortable with it and, of course, indignant at would-be power figures with God-complexes. Then when I heard a pastor refer to it as one of his favorite movies, it caused me to reflect about it more.
If indeed it is all about the Jim Carey character (Truman) perhaps as a representative of each of us, then it could be that much its story-line (including the god-like executive producer) are plot-devices, peripheral but necessary story elements for the protagonist’s journey. Sort of like an exacting King or Land Owner or Unjust Judge may be necessary story elements in Jesus’ parables, but then when we busy ourselves trying to decode something of God in those figures, we may be missing the whole point of the parable where the message is pointed straight at us. That the producer was given a name like “Christof” of course invites an obvious focus that way. But if that was the extent of the plot-writer’s intent, then I continue to propose that he/she actually bit off more than they could chew. The Spirit can move in mysterious ways - through us, and yet at the same time in spite of us.