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"Oh, weird.  She cited my comments in two B.C. publications but not my review for Christianity Today, which I would have assumed was higher-profile?  Um, okay.  Adele Reinhartz wrote: : The principal differences between the film and the Genesis account, on any : interpretation, are the roles of the Creator and his relationship with humankind : both within the garden and outside it. Christof's interest is not so much in : humanity as a whole but in Truman specifically.   Um, well, for starters, there is the fact that, in Genesis, there are NO humans outside the garden.  The better analogy here is NOT between humanity in Eden and humanity in Seahaven, but between the spark of divinity trapped within human flesh in Eden (as the Gnostics perceived it) and the spark of true humanity trapped within Truman's body in Seahaven.  One might ask whether the Demiurge's interest was in divinity as a whole or only in that part of it which he trapped within the created world specifically.  : The contrasts between the God of Genesis and the Christof of THE TRUMAN SHOW : have led some reviewers to see an anti-Christian, perhaps even a gnostic, : message in this film.   She's got it backwards -- I don't see the film as specifically anti-Christian, but I do see the film as promulgating a Gnostic mythological worldview.  As I state in the BC Christian News review, in a sentence she apparently did not quote:  \"Seen in that light, Truman's story is one of self-actualization, of asserting one's humanity purely on one's own and escaping from the created world. It is not quite the story of salvation, whereby the true God steps into the world to redeem it from within...\"  Note that I do not specifically say that the film opposes any specific religion here.  I am more concerned with a bias of SENSIBILITY here -- i.e., the fact that the film espouses a do-your-own-thing-and-let-the-rest-of-the-world-go-to-hell outlook, and justifies it by saying that Everybody Else Lied To You.  : Perhaps, but a more transparent motivation seems to be entertainment and profit.  It seems to me Reinhartz is trying to have it both ways, here -- one moment, she's approaching the film as myth or metaphor, the next, she's suddenly approaching the film from a more banal and literal angle.    : Chattaway suggests that Christof, a \"rip-off\" of Christ, may be a metaphor for : false God (BC Report 9, No. 44, 1998). Christof is evil, as is the world that he has : created. But there is little evidence within the film to support this conclusion.  I dunno, I think Andrew Niccol is very aware of what he's up to when he names the characters in his films.  Names like \"Truman\" and \"Meryl\" and \"Marlon\" are hardly accidental in this film, and names like \"Freeman\" and \"Morrow\" are hardly accidental in Gattaca, so why should \"Christof\" not hint at something too?  Curiously, BTW, I cannot find a copy of this article in my archives -- either on my hard drive or in my folder or in my magazine boxes -- though I DO remember discussing this film with the magazine's editor over the phone (though that might have been when I was pitching another article to him).  ... Aha, mystery solved!  In my e-mail archives, I discovered an article on this film by BC Report editor Terry O'Neill, which I sent to a friend of mine on July 24 1998 -- in this article, O'Neill quotes a variety of Christian critics, including me (he merely quotes my article, not anything I said to him in person), but the \"rip-off\" comment is made by someone ELSE who happens to have a name rather similar to mine:  On the other hand, B.C. Catholic film reviewer Alan Charlton argues that The Truman Show can be viewed in a way that is actually pro-Christian. In this interpretation, Christof is a rip-off of Christ -- a Christ-off. \"If anything, [the movie] is making an argument that you should turn your back on the false god [of security and materialism],\" says Mr. Charlton. \"That's what we've got to reject. It's limiting your humanity...Christof is evil. And the world he set up was evil.\"  And note that Charlton apparently uses the \"false god\" analogy to argue that the film is PRO-Christian!  So not only has Reinhartz incorrectly attributed someone else's ideas to me, but she may have misrepresented the intent behind those ideas!  : Rather, the Genesis imagery encourages viewers to reflect on themes that are : fundamental to the human experience in the late twentieth century, including the : role of the media and the shaping of individual identity.  I can see why reporters would have harped on the media angle when covering this film (\"Hey, look! It's all about US!\"), but I have never believed that that was the most important thing about this film, myself.  As I said in my review of the later film edTV, which was a remake of Louis 19 (the top-grossing Canadian film of 1994):  \"When The Truman Show came out last year, many people saw in it a critique of the modern media and celebrity culture. Although there were elements of that in the film, I did not think that was its most salient feature, since Truman Burbank himself was neither obsessed with the media nor aware of his own celebrity. Rather, for him, the film was a romantic tale in which he learned to reject the artificial safety of friendship, marriage and community in order to follow the yearnings of his heart.\"  So ... should I send a note to Reinhartz and/or her editors letting them know they should fix this factual error if the book is ever re-printed?  \n"
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