Blu-Ray movie review of The Truman Show
March 8, 2009
The Truman Show is one of the first “serious” movie by Jim Carey. He moved out of the Ace Ventura movies and made a nice leap to a more serious role. Jim Carey brings right amount of comedic performance to this somewhat serious role. The Truman Show was a right movie at the right time. Released back in 1998, the movie resonates well with the reality show craze that was starting to take root.
Truman Burbank, played by Jim Carey, is an average Joe living in an island town called Seahaven. He leads a seemingly normal life. Little does he know that he is a star of a reality show where everyone knows it’s a show except him. He begins to question the oddities that he notices around the town. The odd way his wife acts. Someone resembling his dead father. Strange light falling from the sky. He senses there is something going on and begins to investigate these mysteries. The audiences in the movies and the actual audiences follow the Truman through the mishaps. Ultimately, Truman has to decide where he wants to be.
This was a really well tailored movie for Jim Carey. The drama is not too serious but serious enough to challenge Carey in dramatic role. Jim Carey adds nice comedic touch to the somewhat serious situation faced by the character. The story itself is really timely as it focuses on the explosion of voyeurism in today’s entertainment. Even today, the movie stays relevant and very poignant. It’s thoroughly enjoyable film.
What do you think about this movie? Please leave your thoughts below.
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Fun Satire – A Carrey Favorite
The Truman Show was a delightful comedy. Can you imagine a life that has been scripted since birth? Sometimes I feel like this myself. Who’s following me? Where are the hidden button cameras? But this review is not about my script!
Ed Harris as the director, almost a father figure. He cares, he wants this show to work, but he gets intensly involved in Truman’s life. And a former girlfriend who leads a Free Truman activist group.
The coordinated 24 hour a day life of Truman start coming apart when a studio light falls from the sky, closely followed by his father unexpectedly showing up. Oh my gosh!!
The ending was satisfying. No spoilers, you gotta see it. It really gets funny when he tries to be unpredictible and the studio attempts to stop him at every turn.
I’m not a huge Carrey fan, but if you want great family entertainment and the insidious reality of main media TV, check out this film.
Other cool Carrey films:
The Mask (New Line Platinum Series)
Liar Liar
[But avoid Batman Forever, please!]
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One great Show- 4 1/2stars!
In another of my retro reviews,I thought I would return to one of Jim Carrey’s best performances in The Truman Show.
By now everyone knows the story of Truman Burbank(Jim Carrey) and his life which is viewed by people worldwide 24/7/365.There has been a live feed of him since his birth and the audience has viewed him at most every waking and sleeping moment he has had.He lives in a carefully controlled micro and macro environment.Everyone from his parents to his closest friends to his teachers are all fake;fake in the sense that they are all actors portraying certain parts in Truman’s life.The entire city he lives in(Seahaven)is in a protective bubble and everything from the weather to the traffic to the changing of the days is controlled from the outside.Controlling every last detail of this vast project,and ultimately Truman’s life,is Christof(Ed Harris).Beside’s the enormous responsibility of Trumans’ life,he has the TV network and it’s ratings to figure into the overall equation.It is quite the balancing act.
Now at age 30 Truman starts to suspect something is just not right.He sees a man that he swears is his “father” who is suddenly whisked away.A set light drops from the sky onto the road in front of his house.He is detecting patterns in everything from his neighbours,to traffic to his place of employment.His curiosity and testing of his suspicions start to throw the perfectly choreographed world Christof has created off the comfortable perch it has been on for so long;and he and his staff are having a hard time keeping up trying to predict what he will do next.
Truman knows he MUST get away from the city by any means he can.He must escape and by escaping hopefully find the answers he seeks.In the films climax it is a battle of wills as Truman sails his boat away from the city with Christof conjuring a massive storm threatening to kill Truman.He almost succeeds but Truman barely scrapes through and sails his boat to the edge of the domed world.Truman walks out along a ledge and up a staircase to a doorway through which he escapes and into the “real” world.
Carrey does such a good job of portraying just the right emotions at just the right time;such as when he faces down his own wife and his best friend knowing what they must think of him for raising doubts,but all the while deep inside knowing something is not right and that he must carry on no matter what.
The movie works on so many levels simultaneaously;as reality TV to the extreme;an experiment in psychology and physiology;a micro and macro study of human development in a controlled environment with controlled stimuli;it even has it’s theological threads as Christof literally plays God over Truman’s entire life with even part of his name,Christ,emphasizing that fact.Truman is in a very real sense Christofs’ Adam!
Whatever level(s)you view this film on it still remains one heck of an entertaining film with a unique and different vision and story to tell.I think it is one of if not THE best performance by Jim Carrey to date,in a more serious vein.This role really challenges an actor to have a great depth and understanding of the part in order to properly emote at just the right moment and still staying true to the core of the character.Jim Carrey made it look effortless and I commend him for his talent and ability in that regard.
The DVD picture is crisp and clear and is available in D-2.0 and D-5.1 surround sound.Special features on this DVD include:A two part doc on the making of the Truman Show,one on the visual effects of the movie,four deleted scenes,photo gallery,two trailers, and two TV spots.
This is a movie that is a win-win all the way around.Jim Carrey gives a career cementing performance with this role while Ed Harris follows a close second with his portrayal of Christof.Director Peter Weir walked quite the tightrope with this script but managed to reach the other side unscathed;quite the feat considering the depth of the material he had to handle.It has been about eleven years now since its’ inital release and it still holds up excellently.
This is a definite must have movie!
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Great movie, great Blu-Ray, almost.
Well, this is a definite favorite of mine. The film itself, that is. If you like Jim Carrey in not-as-funny-as-dramatic movies, like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you’ll love this. If you just like his comedies like The Mask and Ace Ventura, well, this might not be for you, but worth a look. It’s not necessarily a comedy, obviously a drama, but a bit of a laugh every once in a while. Even being dramatic, it’s still a very enjoyable movie, and his performance is great. I’ve read some comments where people say “I don’t see why people love this movie so much, anybody could play Truman Burbank,” and, well, that’s just fantastic, but they didn’t, so why moan about it. Anyway, as for the movie itself, yes, it’s great, I absolutely love it.
Moving on, the Blu-Ray. Welp, I’ve had a rather up and down experience with this. It’s one of the better Blu-Rays of 10+ year old movies, that’s for sure. Occasionally it gets really grainy, kind of DVD quality, but that’s hardly consistent, only in some shots, and kind of makes sense as those shots are usually supposed to be from tiny, bizarrely placed, hidden cameras. That being said, it does get annoying going from a crisp picture to all of a sudden DVD quality, but overall the quality is great. The audio is great, as well. Compared to the DVD, you hear more things, and crisper, as well. Things like the waves, the sound of cloth, sighs and all those little things just sound better. The special features are rather disappointing, unfortunately. The trailers seem horribly unfitting for the film. The scenes taken out are, for the most part, uninteresting(which makes it obvious as to why they were taken out), but also in standard 640×480. I don’t fully understand this entire “Make the movie 1080p 16:9 and the special features 480i 4:3″ thing some studios are doing, but this Blu-Ray has that. Not that it bothers me too much, I bought this movie on Blu-Ray to enjoy the movie itself.
Would I suggest this to anyone? Mmm, maybe not ANYONE, but anyone who’s able to grasp the main idea of the movie. Some of the people I’ve shown it to didn’t quite understand what the main plot was. So, I would only suggest this if you understand the main idea or point first.
If you’ve decided on buying it, but don’t know if the extra bucks are worth it for the Blu-Ray over the DVD, I can only say yes. I won’t get technical, but there’s really no way an upconverter can give as good a picture as a real blu-ray, too much is forever lost in translation. Buy it on Blu-Ray. You won’t regret it.
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Great concept…Maybe done after The Number 23 it would have been better…
Jim Carrey is a great actor these days…He is producing a dark comedy with Lisa Lampanelli for HBO and he has found himself.
This movie is a great idea…A man’s is adopted by CORPORATE America and his entire life is broadcast without his knowledge to millions of viewers…The problem is that his life is not allowed to progress naturally and he eventually comes to the truth…
The only problem with this movie is that Jim Carrey was in his goofy phase still and Laura Kinney is creepy perfect for the part…If he had done this after The Number 23…It would have been much darker and much better….Overall, worth watching
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Completely Original
Pay attention to camera placement in this film. It’s genius and further evidence that, along with Ridley Scott, Peter Weir remains the best working director never to win an Oscar. Had the Academy not waited until Return of the King to Award Peter Jackson, Weir likely would have won for Master & Commander -a masterful piece of film-making.
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One of the best movies of all time!
I can’t wait for The Truman show to be released on blu-ray. This movie is so well acted and such an original story line.
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The Truman Show – Blu-ray Info
Version: U.S.A / Paramount/ Region A, B, C
Aspect ratio: 1.78
MPEG-4 AVC BD-50 / High Profile 4.1
Running time: 1:42:56
Movie size: 35,44 GB
Disc size: 39,84 GB
Total bit rate: 45.90 Mbps
Average video bit rate: 36.57 Mbps
Dolby TrueHD Audio English 3672 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3672 kbps / 24-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio French 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Subtitles: English / English SDH / French / Spanish / Portuguese
Number of chapters: 24
#The Making of (41m)
#Faux Finishing: The Visual Effects (13m:16s)
#Deleted Scenes (13m:09s)
#TV Spots
#Photo Gallery
#Teaser Trailer
#Theatrical Trailer
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ONE WORD… STUPID
This is one stupid movie. Not just stupid, insultingly stupid. And the fact that there are so many glowing reviews proves how stupid human beings are in general. To make a long and very boring story short, the message is that we’re not in control of our lives. We are mere puppets on a string… manipulated and controled by a higher power. Oh, and of course because movie makers and the media “think” they are Gods, why not portray themselves as such? So the whole movie is built around a bloody TV show! The producers etc are the “Gods” who can make anything happen… from the sun rising to the oceans storming. It’s such a dumb premise I don’t know where to begin. Allow me to ruin the movie by telling you the ending. Wait for it, wait for it… he sails to the end of the world (the ridiculously large “set”) and walks off the show (walks out the exit door). Well done sir. It means absolutely nothing, but well done. So… what has changed for me after watching this movie? I still don’t believe in a higher power. Never have, never will. I’ve always thought folks who live their lives through TV shows are pathetic (maybe the only positive message in this movie). And that’s about it. All in all, a complete waste of time. I love movies with a powerful message. The Matrix worked for me on many levels, for example. The Matrix really peeled back the nature of our reality… creator vs. created, reality vs. social construct, good vs. evil, of course the obligatory love story, and so on. But THIS movie, was just plain pathetic. It also had that very insulting aspect to it. The insult being that those in the media, entertainment or otherwise, THINK they have so much power over “we the people” that they must use that power to warn us about it. Confused yet? It’s not that complicated. I’ll rephrase… the arrogant folks who made this movie, are SO full of themselves, that they believe TV, and by extension movies, have so much influence and control over us, that we are mere couch potatos. Sitting on the “sofa” of our lives, while TV tunes out the reality all around us. Now, maybe this is true for some (maybe it’s true for many), but it’s never been true for me, and I find it insulting. Thus my review. But am I giving this movie more credit than it deserves? Is it even that deep? Or am I reading meaning into a largely meaningless movie. Well… who cares? But if I’m right, take this movie’s advice and don’t waste your precious time watching it. Unplug your cable, cancel your NetFlix subsription, and go for a walk instead. Peace out.
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The Reality of the Truman Show
The first time I saw The Truman Show, I was hooked. The movie is highly critical of the media and of how reality is manipulated to entertain the largest group of people. I have always been critical of the way television shows always claim to distribute “reality” to the public, and The Truman Show exemplifies many of the reasons reality television is so highly criticized. Truman, played by Jim Carrey, is an engaging character whose life is displayed on camera for the world to watch. He is surrounded by actors hired to interact with him and inspire the emotion that makes Truman so interesting to watch. The emotions and actions of the actors aren’t real, so though they are believable, Truman’s emotions and actions cannot be real either. Truman is floating in a naïve sense of truth. This movie illustrates how though we may believe that what the Television is flashing before us is reality, there is a truth much different from what is displayed on the screen; and we should be critical enough to see the real truth for ourselves.
Truman Burbank is the focus of a television show that began with his birth and subsequent adoption by the TV studio. Every aspect of his life is on camera, and there are thousands of cameras that follow every action from various vantage points. While he is growing up, going to school, and getting married, he is being watched. He is watched as he leaves his actor/wife to go to work in the morning, and watched as his actor/best friend hang out with a six-pack of beers. It all seems so quaint and real but the truth is that his life is a sham. His wife isn’t real, she doesn’t even like him, which he finds out by examining their wedding photos and finding that her fingers are crossed during their wedding kiss. His best friend Marlon isn’t real; instead of being a true friend Marlon is used to manipulate Truman into certain frames of thought. He takes advantage of outings to hit some golf balls to convince Truman to stay put on his island instead of going to Fiji for a vacation.
Not only are the characters used to influence Truman’s sense of reality, but the media in his world as well. The radio station creates a convenient explanation for the equipment which falls from the sky right as Truman is walking to his car in the morning. According to the announcer, a plane accidentally lost equipment that morning, causing the invasion into Truman’s world. Truman’s “father,” who was killed off the show in a boating accident designed to make Truman terrified of the water, somehow manages to get back onto the set and disturb Truman’s life. Seeing a man who is supposed to be dead alive once again is a big deal, and quite a shock, especially when random strangers appear out of nowhere and take the man away with no explanation at the time. The explanation comes from the newspaper which spins the incident into an issue of cleansing the town of homeless people and from the woman playing his mother, who claims that she “sees” Truman’s father in every face on the street. Truman remains unconvinced, he knows what he saw for himself.
These events set off a chain reaction of discovery in Truman’s life. He realizes that he is being followed when his radio accidentally picks up the frequency broadcasting the transmission from actor to actor. In an effort to discover some truth, Truman goes against his routine and visits the building next door to his, and sees people sitting at donut-laden tables where an elevator should be. After being dragged from the building he goes to see his wife, Meryl, at the hospital where she works. At every turn he is conveniently blocked by some obstacle or another and he cannot get into the operating room where she is performing “surgery.” He attempts to fly to Fiji but is told by the travel agent that they are booked up for a month because it is the “busy season.” When he tries to take a bus, the bus breaks down, and when he tries to drive away with Meryl, he runs into bumper to bumper traffic, a bridge over the water that terrifies him, a forest fire, and ultimately a nuclear meltdown which forces him to stop the car. When Truman tries to run, he is tackled by men in tinfoil suits and dragged back to his home.
All of these obstacles are the design of Christof, the creator, designer, and omnipotent watcher over Truman’s life. He is responsible for every person Truman sees, every word they say to him, and every challenge he faces. He observes Truman from his studio in the moon and engineers heart-wrenching scenes with a frightening genius. The best example is probably the return of Truman’s father, who is reunited with his son in a dramatic scene involving fog, various camera angles, and synthesized music all coming to a climax as Christof orchestrates the camera to a close-up as Truman embraces his father and sobs, “dad!” These are the scenes that drag the audiences into Truman’s life, drawing on their sympathy and awe. They accept the reality as Christof presents it to them, drawn by the intrigue to watch more. Christof lets them see what he wants them to see, his story, and the audience blindly follows along. They either don’t realize or choose not to see the reality of Truman’s situation. His emotions and actions are being manipulated in the exact same way as theirs are.
It’s too perfect, this scene and the entirety of the show Christof creates. When a caller on a talk show claims that Christof has turned Truman into something unreal, he replies, “I have given Truman the chance to lead a normal life. The world, the place you live in, is the sick place.” I fail to see how his manipulations are any less sick than the terrible place he is protecting Truman from. His claim that he is “protecting” Truman reeks of protecting his interests as a TV show director and protecting the fan-base he has established with the show. He limits the information given to Truman and blocks his “star” from exploring the world outside his own, claiming that if Truman “was absolutely determined to discover the truth, there’s no way we could prevent him.” It seems that preventing Truman from discovering the truth is his sole goal. At the height of the film, Truman’s life is a battle for the truth fought between him and the force he has found working against him, though he still doesn’t know who he fights.
The stage for the final battle is set on the sea that separates Truman from the rest of the world. His desire for the truth is so strong he overcomes his terror of the water and attempts to sail to freedom. Christof sends him a storm complete with thunder and lightning and gale force winds. It is incredible that this storm is the result of two conflicting ideals, the seeker of truth and the keeper of the truth. This idea goes beyond mere reality TV and broadens to all media and even the government. It is easy to correlate the huge body of the government or the body of the media with Christof, the manipulator of the information and the figure who decides who hears and knows what. Truman is the people, the ignorant populace who is at first naïve and complacent but fierce in his desire for information once the ball is rolling.
Here is where the relationship between Truman and we the populace ends. We have not yet found that drive for knowledge, the real and true knowledge. We are just like the viewers of The Truman Show. We are still absorbed in the forged reality of the story and have not yet broken through the silver lining to the bare bones of what we are seeing. Truman should be our icon for reality and his drive should be our drive. Truman knows that the world outside his dome of illusion is different and new and unexpected. He may be afraid to step outside the door but what truly matters is the journey to get to the door and the realization that there is a door in the wall.
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My kind of reality show…
The concept behind `The Truman Show’ is more pertinent to us today than it was when the film was released. Sure, the idea of television controlling the world is not a new one, but in a world where every new television program is another take at the reality genre it becomes more and more probable that an event such as this one may one day take place. The opening words by the shows creator say it all:
“We’ve become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions. We are tired of pyrotechnics and special effects.”
With that said, `The Truman Show’ begins. The film tells the story of Truman Burbank, the only non-actor in a world filled with actors. He is married to an actress; his best friend is an actor; his high school teachers and current employer and seriously everyone around him, from his mother to his late father to the person that happens to walk by his house at precisely the same moment every morning. The thing is, Truman doesn’t know this. He actually thinks that his life is legit, but what he doesn’t comprehend is the fact that everyone in the known universe is watching his every move being projected onto their living room television set.
Yes, Truman is the star of his own reality show; a reality show he is unaware exists.
I remember watching this film when it was first released and I was merely thirteen and I felt that the film was boring and unentertaining. Because of the misinterpretation I stayed far away from this film for years, only recently entertaining the notion of watching it once again. My feelings the second time around are vastly different. `The Truman Show’ is a marvelous study of the effect that television and the media in general has on each and every individual, and the damage it can do to ones psyche.
The acting here is beyond good, especially when in regards to the star of the whole show; Jim Carrey. Many have said that this is a career best for Carrey, and I think I may have to agree (although he was beyond superb in `Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ as well). He brilliantly captures Truman’s naivety and his destructive curiosity once he starts to put the pieces together. Laura Linney is wonderful as Truman’s wife Meryl, contrasting her faux perfection with her genuine dissatisfaction with her actorly existence. I was not entirely blown away by Ed Harris (the only Oscar nominated performance in the bunch) for I felt that his performance was not a very difficult one. He pulls it off, sure, but there wasn’t much to pull off here. Supporting players like Natascha McElhone and Noah Emmerich are also wonderfully complete and add layers to each and every scene.
What I love so much about `The Truman Show’ is that it stays true to the concept in every aspect of the film. There are product placements throughout the entire film, and they pop up in the most ridiculous manner, which adds light to the idea that television is steadily controlling our every thought and action. The script is brilliantly fleshed out, creating real characters with real problems and real concerns. Weir’s direction is amazing, visually captivating from start to finish by using techniques (with camera angles and placement) that create an air of reality within this faux reality.
This is what makes television worth watching.
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Unusual theme
I like this movie alot; I like Jim Carrey as a serious actor and as a semiserious one. He is an incredible actor. The story gives one pause to consider what if my life had been entirely staged, scripted, and was on display 24 hours a day. Yikes!
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ABSOLUTELY BEYOND OUTSTANDING
For me to give a 5-star rating to any Jim Carrey movie, before I saw this 1, I’d say you’d see the sun rise in the west first; or see Bush become a Christian!
Very very small-the ending, kind of leaves 1 hanging; especially with Natascha’s character when she rejoices over Carrey’s choice and throws on her coat and runs out the door, where’s she going? To him?
But for what the movie is and attempts to accomplish, BRAVO x 1000. To qualify, for people who are not into a surreal brand of movie, without question, avoid this one!
Ed Harris’ character Christof? Like Carrey’s, bravo! A little malevolent, at the end when he tells Truman to choose to stay; is it love, or control? Masterfully played! And Laura Linney, always outstanding. Natascha McElhone? First roll I’ve seen her in but, as with Harris and Carrey, very poignantly played!
Some of the philosophical questions attacked, interestingly enough, are issues, and choices, America is contending with today.
What is it we’re seeking? security, with the known and totally controlled, or the adventure of the unknown, freedom, and exploration?
How do we define sickness? completely controlling a human being’s life for ratings, or the rest of the world itself gone completely mad with rising crime and a government we don’t seem to be able to control any more, and an apathetic spirit which chooses to just disengage?
Is it sick/wrong for the network or corporation or whomever it is to claim ownership over Truman, in an obvious capacity, when in a more invidious one we delusionally call ourselves free today at the same time government has virtually reduced us to slaves?
What is it Goethe says, “None are more easily enslaved than those who call their slavery freedom”? Truman’s mistake-discovering the game; when are we? If you like movies like “V For Vendetta” you’ll like this 1 too.
A++++++
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Truman Show
Great movie that gets you thinking about your own perspective of reality. Jim Carey does very good and the best part is that he did not use one bit of crude humor like he does in many of his other shows.
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A triumph!
In the near future, Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) has lived a great life with a wife (Laura Linney), great job, friends and parents. But what he doesn’t know is that his hometown is actually fake and that he is the star of a popular long running reality program that has monitored him since his birth in the world’s largest TV studio ran by Christof (Ed Harris). His life has been witnessed by millions from across the globe, he wants to discover the true nature of his world for his seeks the truth.
A brilliant and highly original Sci-fi comedy drama from director Peter Weir and writer/producer Andrew Niccol. Co-starring Noah Emmerich, Holland Taylor, Peter Kruase, Tony Todd, Harry Sherer and Paul Giamatti this is truly one of the best movies of 1998. I love the premise of what if your life was really a TV show which is a novel idea, the acting is terrific and so is the directing. This is a touching, funny and unique movie that has to be seen to believed, a must see!
This DVD contains terrific special features like a two part “Making of” documentary, a featurette on the visual effects, photo gallery, four deleted scenes, Teaser and Trailer with 2 TV Spots.
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