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The Truman Show is a 1998 American comedy-drama movie. It is directed by Peter Weir and was written by Andrew Niccol.
| The Truman Show | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Peter Weir |
| Written by | Andrew Niccol |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Peter Biziou |
| Edited by |
|
| Music by |
|
Production company | Scott Rudin Productions |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 103 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $60 million[2] |
| Box office | $264.1 million[3] |
The movie shows the story of Truman Burbank, who does not know that he is living his whole life in a giant dome and is being recorded and shown as a live TV show. All his friends, family and community are actors who are paid to stop him from leaving and not say the truth to him.
The movie stars Laura Linney, Ed Harris, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Holland Taylor, Paul Giamatti, and Brian Delate.
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Truman Burbank was adopted by a television studio after an unwanted pregnancy and he becomes the star of The Truman Show, without knowing. He is being recorded all the time, using around 5000 cameras, and shown across the world.
Truman lives on Seahaven Island, which is made up of a very big set. This means Christof, who created and runs the show, to mostly control Truman's life in many ways, even by changing the weather. Lots of actors are on Seahaven Island to make a community for him, but stop him from knowing his world is not real. The actors often use hidden product placement to earn money for the show, as there are no advertisements. Christof made up events to make Truman afraid of water, like saying Truman's father died in a storm at sea, but this is not true. The other actors also try to stop him from leaving by giving him reasons to stay home and making travel seem dangerous.
The producers wanted Truman to fall in love and marry Meryl, who he studied with at college, but he develops feelings for another student, Sylvia. Sylvia was just an extra and so she tries to tell Truman his life is a fiction, but she gets fired before she can properly explain. Truman marries Meryl but he does not really love her. He instead imagines a life with Sylvia and dreams of going to Fiji where he was told she moved to. In real life, Sylvia joins "Free Truman", a group that wants to free Truman from the life he is in.
As Truman and the show get to almost 30 years old, Truman starts to find strange things around him. There is a stage light that serves as the star Sirius that falls out of the sky and almost hits him, there is rain that only falls over him and not anywhere else, he tunes into a radio that read out his movements around town and he saw his father, who he thought had drowned, but he is quickly bought away. Truman starts to think the city is built around him and questions his life. He asks who he sees as some of his closest friends to help him.
Truman ends up trying to leave the island but many unlikely events block his way. He is caught and returned home with a weak reason. He questions Meryl about their marriage. Meryl changes the subject and tries to do a product placement. This causes Truman to lose control and hold her at knifepoint. Meryl breaks character and ends up being removed from the show.
Christof brings his father back onto the show to get Truman back to normal. The show's ratings get better and Truman seems to get back to normal. However, one night, Christof finds out Truman has started sleeping in his basement. He sends Truman's best friend Marlon to visit then finds out Truman has escaped through a tunnel in the basement. Christof suspends the show's broadcast for the first time ever, meaning a lot of people view the show.
Christof makes the whole town search for Truman and brings daylight to the town at midnight to make it easier to find him. Truman is found sailing away and no longer seems to be scared of water. Christof starts the show broadcasting again and creates a violent storm to overturn Truman's boat. He nearly drowns but he keeps sailing until the boat hits the end of the set.
Truman looks around and finds a staircase that leads to an exit. As he thinks about leaving, Christof speaks to Truman from the sky of the set. He tells him the truth about the show and wants him to stay, saying it is better in this fake world than the real one. Truman says, "In case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night", bows to the audience, then leaves. People around the world celebrate him escaping and Sylvia makes her way to the studio to greet him. The show is left on a shot of the open exit door, which upsets Christof.
After the program ends, Truman’s viewers look for something else to watch.
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- Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank.
- Robin Williams was looked at for the role before. Weir cast Carrey after seeing him in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, saying Carrey's acting made him think of Charlie Chaplin.[4] Gary Oldman did a screen test for the role.[5] Carrey took the role to show he could play different characters, rather than just funny ones.[6] Carrey agreed to do The Truman Show for $12 million but he was often paid $20 million per movie then.[7] Carrey also said it was the fastest that he ever accepted a role.[8] The scene where Truman says "this planet Trumania of the Burbank galaxy" to the bathroom mirror was Carrey's idea.[9]
- Laura Linney as Hannah Gill, acting as Meryl Burbank, Truman's wife.
- Ed Harris as Christof.
- Dennis Hopper was originally cast in the role, but he left in April 1997 soon after filming began.[7] Hopper later said he was fired after two days because Weir and producer Scott Rudin did not think his acting was good.[11] Other actors turned down the role after Hopper left, until Harris agreed to act as Christof.[9] Harris thought about making Christof a hunchback, but Weir did not like the idea.[4]
- Noah Emmerich as Louis Coltrane, playing Marlon, Truman's best friend.
- His name is made up of two jazz musicians, Louis Armstrong and John Coltrane.
- Natascha McElhone as Sylvia, playing Lauren Garland, another student at Truman's college school. She was meant as a background character, but Truman had a crush on her. This relationship was the only real part of Truman's life in Seahaven.
- Holland Taylor as Alanis Montclair, playing Angela Montclair, Truman's mother.
- Brian Delate as Walter Moore, playing Truman's father Kirk Burbank.
- Paul Giamatti as Simeon, the control room director.
- Una Damon as Chloe, Christof's control room assistant.
- Peter Krause as an unnamed actor playing Laurence, Truman's boss.
- Harry Shearer as Mike Michaelson, a TV talk-show host.
- Philip Baker Hall as the network executive.
- Joel McKinnon Miller as a garage attendant.
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The movie was originally going to release on August 8, 1997. However, it was pushed back to November 14, 1997, and then to the summer of 1998.[12][13] NBC purchased broadcast rights in December 1997, around eight months before the movie was released.[14] In March 2000, Turner Broadcasting System purchased the rights, and now airs the film on TBS.[15]
Home media
Paramount Home Entertainment released the movie on VHS on January 12, 1999,[16] and DVD on January 26, 1999.[17] A "Special Edition" was released on August 23, 2005.[18] It was later released on Blu-ray on December 30, 2008.[19] An Ultra HD Blu-ray was released on July 4, 2023, to celebrate the movie's 25th anniversary.[20][21][22][23][24]
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Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, The Truman Show has a 94% approval with 162 reviews and an average rating of 8.50/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A funny, tender, and thought-provoking film, The Truman Show is all the more noteworthy for its remarkably prescient vision of runaway celebrity culture and a nation with an insatiable thirst for the private details of ordinary lives."[25] Metacritic gave the movie a score of 90 out of 100 based on 30 critics, meaning "universal acclaim".[26] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the movie an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[27]
Roger Ebert gave the movie four out of four stars and said it was like Forrest Gump. He thought the movie had the right balance of comedy and drama. He was also liked Jim Carrey's dramatic acting.[28] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The Truman Show is emotionally involving without losing the ability to raise sharp satiric questions as well as get numerous laughs. The rare film that is disturbing despite working beautifully within standard industry norms."[29] He would name it the best movie of 1998.[30] In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Truman one of the 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years.[31]
James Berardinelli liked the way the movie was "not being the casual summer blockbuster with special effects", and he made a comparison of Carrey's "[charismatic], understated and effective" performance to Tom Hanks and James Stewart.[32] Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader wrote, "Undeniably provocative and reasonably entertaining, The Truman Show is one of those high-concept movies whose concept is both clever and dumb."[33] Tom Meek of Film Threat said the movie was not funny enough but still found "something rewarding in its quirky demeanor".[34]
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