The Cable Guy

The Cable Guy is a feature film that has been sold largely as a vehicle for comedian Jim Carrey, though in fact it is something quite different. The film is a dark vision of a television-fed America and the consequences massive amounts of television-watching have on individuals and the public at large. Cable is the preferred method of delivery for the television signal today, and waiting for the cable guy to show up has become an American pastime. The wiring of America for cable has preceded the new attempt at wiring America for the computer, and each successive wave of technology raises similar political issues of access, equity, potential disenfranchisement, and the possibility of a twisted American psyche. Director Ben Stiller develops these issues in terms of the plot of the film and also through background elements such as a running trial on television, people apparently willing to do almost anything for free cable or service upgrades, and the implication that a damaged adulthood may derive from a childhood spent in front of the television set.

In American society, there is a belief that class differences do not matter and that social mobility is such that the sort of social stratification that was and is prevalent in Europe has been eliminated in the egalitarian United States. However, it is clear that class differences do exist at some level, with power unevenly distributed through the levels of society and with the institutions of government and society structur

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the camera seeks out people from all walks of life, all of whom are linked in that they are watching the end of the trial and expectantly waiting to hear the verdict. When the cable signal goes out, these different social classes are linked in their exasperation--their link with the outside world has been cut off, and they are left to fend for themselves. The Carrey character is a representative of a TV-fed generation, and in a flashback we see that as a child, he was left in front of the television by his mother. He asks for her attention, and she leaves him alone because she is more concerned about her own needs than his. The film does not make a lot out of this, but it seems evident that the intent is to blame television for shaping this particular character and for giving him the psychological quirks he shows. All of these aliases he uses in the film--and he never does give his real name--are characters from television shows. This is obvious to many in the audience, though the other characters in the film never get the joke until it is explained to them. For all their TV watching, they have little TV literacy. If they understood what they watched better, they would understand this character better and be able to see t

Category: Film - T