Extras : Scene index, Theatrical Trailer, Teaser trailer
Director:
Peter Weir
(The Cars That Ate Paris, Dead Poets Society, Fearless, Gallipoli, Green Card, The Mosquito Coast, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Truman Show, Witness, The Year of Living Dangerously)
Producers:
Scott Rudin, Andrew Niccol, Edward S. Feldman and Adam Schroeder
Screenplay:
Andrew Niccol
Music:
Burkhard Dallwitz
Cast:
Truman Burbank: Jim Carrey (Ace Ventura 1 and 2, Batman Forever, The Cable Guy, The Dead Pool, Dumb And Dumber, Earth Girls Are Easy, Liar Liar, The Mask, Peggy Sue Got Married, Pink Cadillac, The Truman Show, TV: In Living Colour)
Christof: Ed Harris (Absolute Power, The Abyss, Apollo 13, Borderline, Eye for an Eye, The Firm, Glengarry Glen Ross, Jacknife, Just Cause, Milk Money, Needful Things, Nixon, Paris Trout, Places in the Heart, The Right Stuff,
The Rock, State of Grace, Stepmom, The Truman Show)
Meryl: Laura Linney (Absolute Power, Congo, Primal Fear, The Truman Show, TV: Tales of the City)
Marlon: Noah Emmerich (Beautiful Girls, The Truman Show)
Lauren Garland: Natascha McElhone (Mrs Dalloway, Surviving Picasso, The Truman Show, What Rats Won't Do)
The Truman Show,
in similar fashion to EDtv, takes the simple premise of filming a man
as he goes about his daily life and making it entertainment for the masses.
However, whereas Matthew McConaughey's character willingly signed up for it,
insurance salesman/adjuster Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey, in a superb
performance that makes you wonder why they passed him up for an Oscar nomination)
has been filmed for every single moment
of his life in a unique town named Seahaven - unique because it's not a town
at all, it's a film set with five thousand cameras and a host of actors posing
as the townsfolk. The most bizarre thing? Truman hasn't got a clue that all
that surrounds him is fake.
Before I saw it, I thought the film would take a long time to get into the
swing of things, but all the preamble is taken care of in the trailers and
pre-release advertising. No sooner have the opening "credits" (you'll see why)
ended than Truman's world begins to become unhinged: a camera falls from
the "sky", his life becomes one whole product-placement commercial and he
thinks he saw his father, who died lost at sea when Truman was just a young
boy...
The principal members of the cast, besides an excellent turn from Carrey,
are Laura Linney as his nurse "wife" Meryl, Noah Emmerich as
his "best friend" Marlon and
Ronin's
Natascha McElhone as Lauren, the woman who might just be able to
help him out of this once he begins to twig what's going on. Finally,
Ed Harris plays Christof, the creator and director of The Truman Show,
to whom the credit of its worldwide success should go.
The picture is presented in an anamorphic 1.85:1 ratio with no artifacts
noticeable but there are a few drop-outs in the print and the picture
jumps slightly a couple of times.
The Region 1 discs wasn't anamorphic though and was presented in a less-wide
1.66:1 ratio. I presume that was the intended ratio and that both the UK
Region 2 DVD and the theatrical ratio will have lost a small amount of picture
information at the top and/or bottom, but it's been cropped sensibly and I
much prefer this small adjustment if it means the difference between seeing an
anamorphic or a non-anamorphic picture. After all, I'd only have zoomed it in
to fill my widescreen TV, thus losing resolution had that happened.
The average bitrate is a high 7.92Mb/s, often hovering just under 9Mb/s.
The sound is very good too and presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Surround
depending on the language of choice, but the sound is used more for clever
aural and visual moments rather than blasting you out of your seat.
Extras :
Chapters and Trailers :
24 chapters for the near 100-minute running time which is enough plus
a teaser trailer and longer theatrical trailer. Usually, many trailers give
too much away from a film but it's worth watching these two as they give
the necessary background info to Truman's life.
Languages/Subtitles :
Dolby Digital 5.1 in English, German and Czech, whilst those of Hungarian
and Polish origin only get a surround option. Subtitles are available in
English (and hard of hearing), German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish,
Dutch, Bulgarian and Icelandic.
Menu :
A basic static and silent menu with a shot of the front cover and the usual
options. Apparently the Region 1 disc contained one with animation and sound
so it's a shame we don't have it here.
Overall, watching this film makes you think a lot about what's going on around
you. If life's meant to be a great big challenge with one task to complete
after another then what's it all for if we'll just end up like dust within
a hundred years? In contrast, are all those moments in life that seem way too
convenient just a coincidence or is there a real hand at work amongst it all?
The Truman Show is one of those rare films which makes you feel like
you're really enjoying it while you watch and can't wait to see more of it.
Sadly, there' not much in the way of extras. On the plus side, our disc
is anamorphic and the Region 1 DVD isn't.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
