The Truman Show [Includes Digital Copy] [4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray]

Director: Peter Weir Peter Weir

Overview

Peter Weir directed this comedy-drama, a commentary on all-pervasive media manipulation. Scripted by Andrew M. Niccol (Gattaca), the film plays like a combination of the British TV series The Prisoner and Paul Bartel's The Secret Cinema. Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) is unaware that his entire life is a hugely popular 24-hour-a-day TV series. In this real-time documentary, every moment of Truman's existence is captured by concealed cameras and telecast to a giant global audience. His friends and family are actors who smile pleasantly at Truman's familiar catchphrase greeting, "In case I don't see you later, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!" Employed at an insurance company, Truman is married to merry Meryl (Laura Linney), and they live in the cheerful community of Seahaven, an island "paradise" where the weather is always mild and no unpleasantness intrudes. This is the basic situation of the series, which has grown over the years into a billion-dollar franchise for the TV network. As an unwanted pregnancy, Truman was adopted by the network and raised in the zoolike environment of a TV soundstage. Thus, the TV audience became hooked when Truman was very young. Now, at age 30, he still doesn't know he's a prisoner on an immense domed city-size soundstage, simulating Seahaven. Both the illusion and the ratings will collapse if Truman ever leaves Seahaven. In addition to elaborate events staged to make sure he stays put, Truman is given constant reminders of how wonderful Seahaven is compared to dangers in other parts of the world. However, his growing suspicions make him curious enough to try to leave, and the show's director and master manipulator Christof (Ed Harris) must constantly devise ways to thwart Truman's escape attempts. To enter the harbor, Truman must overcome his fear of water, intentionally instilled in him when his father "died" in a boating accident and was written out of the script. Exteriors were filmed in the Victorian-styled upscale community of Seaside, Florida. In addition to the Burkhard Dallwitz score, original music by Philip Glass and classical excerpts are also featured.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/04/2023
UPC:	0191329249208
Original Release:	1998
Rating:	PG
Source:	Paramount
Language:	English
Time:	1:42:00
Format:	Blu-ray
Sales rank:	1,630

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jim Carrey	Truman Burbank
Ed Harris	Christof
Laura Linney	Meryl Burbank/Hannah Gill
Noah Emmerich	Marlon
Natascha McElhone	Lauren/Sylvia
Holland Taylor	Matka Trumana,Ron,Don
Brian Delate	Father
Blair Slater	Young Truman
Peter Krause	Lawrence
Harry Shearer	Mike Michaelson
Terry Camilleri	Man in Bathtub
Heidi Schanz	Vivien
Ted Raymond	Spencer
Judy Clayton	Travel Agent
Paul Giamatti	Simeon/Control Room Director
Fritz Dominique	Truman's Neighbor
Angel Schmiedt	Truman's Neighbor,Truman's Neighbor
Muriel Moore	Teacher
Mal Jones	News Vendor,Bar Waitress
Judson Vaughn	Insurance Co-Worker
Earl Hilliard Jr.	Ferry Worker
David Andrew Nash	Bus Driver/Ferry Captain
Jim Towers	Bus Supervisor
Savannah Swafford	Little Girl in Bus
Antoni Corone	Security Guard
Mario Ernesto Sanchez	Security Guard
John Roselius	Man at Beach
Kade Coates	Truman (age 4)
Marcia DeBonis	Nurse
Sam Kitchin	Surgeon
Sebastian Youngblood	Orderly
Dave Corey	Hospital Security Guard
Mark Alan Gillott	Policeman at Power Plant
Jay Saiter	Policeman at Truman's House
Tony Todd	Policeman at Truman's House
Marco Rubeo	Man in Christmas Box
Daryl Davis	Woman at Picnic Table,Man at Picnic Table
R.J. Murdock	Production Assistant
Matthew McDonough	Man at Newstand
Larry McDowell	Man at Newstand
Joseph Lucus	Ticket Taker
Logan Kirksey	TV Host
Adam Tomei	Control Room Director
Una Damon	Chloe
Philip Baker Hall	Network Executive
John Pleshette	Network Executive
Philip Glass	Actor,Composer
John Pramik	Keyboard Artist
Krista Lynn Landolfi	Bar Waitress
Joe Minjares	Bartender
Al Foster	Bar Patron
Zoaunne LeRoy	Bar Patron
Millie Slavin	Bar Patron
Dona Hardy	Senior Citizen
Jeanette Miller	Senior Citizen,Garage Attendant
Tom Simmons	Garage Attendant
Susan Angelo	Mother
Carly Smiga	Daughter
Yuji Okumoto	Japanese Family Member
Kiyoko Yamaguchi	Japanese Family Member
Saemi Nakamura	Japanese Family Member
Burkhard Dallwitz	Composer
Wojciech Kilar	Composer

Technical Credits

Andrew Niccol

Peter Weir	Director
Andrew Niccol	Screenwriter,Producer
Scott Rudin	Producer
Adam Schroeder	Producer
Edward S. Feldman	Producer,Producer
Lynn Pleshette	Executive Producer
Larz Anderson	Special Effects
Craig Barron	Special Effects
Michael J. McAlister	Special Effects
Peter Chesney	Special Effects
Pat Banta	Stunts
Howard Feuer	Casting
Michael J. McAllister	Second Unit Director
Arthur Rochester	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Recalling such satires of TV mania as Network (1976) and Real Life (1979), Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998) takes aim at the consumers and creators of the ultimate TV celebrity-victim. Shooting from a number of "hidden camera" angles as Truman Burbank goes about his day, Weir blends the eponymous TV show with the film, complete with a "making of" documentary. With the perfection of the Seahaven "set" evincing a Twilight Zone creepiness, Truman's life is both banal family drama and sitcom, yet the slack-jawed viewers never turn it off; TV mastermind Christof is the deity the audience deserves. As Christof struggles to maintain control once Truman figures out the truth, the limits of Truman's life visualize his existential dilemma as a media-made entity -- and a metaphor for our own imprisonment in a culture defined by media and consumerism. The movie's brutal final image directs its criticisms as much at a passive, sensation-seeking audience as at those who provide the sensations; this cold climax deprives the movie of its potentially happy ending, turning its commentary back on the audience as might a Stanley Kubrick film. Originally written by Andrew Niccol in 1993, the film's critique was rendered all the more timely by such 1990s voyeuristic excesses as afternoon talk shows and MTV's The Real World; Jim Carrey's atypically low-key presence as Truman was in itself a comment on media stardom. A substantial summer hit, The Truman Show received Oscar nominations for Director, Screenplay, and Ed Harris's Machiavellian Christof, while critical kudos affirmed Carrey's dramatic talent.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola