Big Picture Big Sound

The Film

In 1998, director Peter Weir and screenwriter Andrew Niccol gave the world this quiet yet insightful parable about a man whose entire life was being lived on television. Adopted by a corporation, Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) was raised inside a completely fictionalized world, unbeknownst to him, with every important moment, every life experience, broadcast around the world. Truman slowly begins to awaken to the fact that he has been living a lie and his world is not real. When he begins to turn against his surroundings to uncover the truth, The Truman Show's producer, Christof (Ed Harris), an obvious symbol of Big Brother, or even a false god, does everything in his power to keep Truman from discovering reality.

The Truman Show, not surprisingly, foretold a world that was just around the corner. In today's plastic society of "reality" television, the Orwellian proportions of The Truman Show do not seem so far fetched. Jim Carrey, keeping the more outlandish physicality of his comedic sensibilities subdued, put in one of the best acting performances of his career. Many were sorely disappointed when The Academy failed to even recognize Carrey with a nomination.

Be that as it may, 10-years later, The Truman Show tells a story that still holds much importance today and it is also an enjoyable film. It is filled with genuine emotional moments. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, but mostly it will make you examine what it truly means to be alive.

The Picture

The Truman Show arrives on Blu-ray Disc with a 1080p/24 AVC/MPEG-4 encoding at ~32Mbps.  I've never seen the Truman Show look spectacular and I was hopeful that this Blu-ray release would be a vast improvement, but although it does offer some better-resolved imagery and detail the overall transfer is a disappointment. The release suffers from very obvious source damage like speckles, dust and scratches that should have been cleaned up. It also suffers from varying degrees of sharpness. There are times when the transfer looks sharp and detailed and others when the picture softens and background detail in particular becomes somewhat lost.

The color saturation is the strongest part of the film; flesh tones are natural and the hyper-real blues of the sea and sky all look vibrant and consistent. Black levels are solid, if not inky black, but contrast is occasionally a bit hot. The scene in chapter 3 when Truman is at the docks contemplating getting on the ferry shows some obvious blooming and bleached out details in the white wooden banister.

The Sound

The Truman Show does come with a well recorded and mastered English TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack that is clean, dynamic and well-balanced, but being dialogue-driven, the mix itself quite unadventurous. The surround channels are put to use for a small amount of ambient information, giving the entire mix a dry, dull sound. The most exciting and active sequence comes when Truman tries to make his escape during the "storm" on the sea -- all six channels are finally put to full use for an expansive soundfield, even if the directionality is still somewhat subtle.

The Extras

The supplemental materials provided on The Truman Show are about as ho-hum as the video transfer itself. There are some typical "making-of" and "behind-the-scenes" featurettes and deleted scenes and trailers that won't require multiple viewings.

The extras available on this release are:

• How's it Going to End: The Making of The Truman Show (1.78:1/standard definition):
  • Part 1 -- The first half of this "making of" deals with the evolution of the script, which originally began life as a darker, more futuristic, dystopian vision, and finds the cast members discussing their roles in the film and the motivations behind the characters.
  • Part 2 --  The second half deals with the set design of The Truman Show, mainly the  town of Seaside, FL where Truman Show was filmed. Eventually, The Walt Disney Company would actually imitate the design and feel of Seaside in designing their own "traditional" hometown of Celebration, not to far from Seaside.
• Faux Finishing, The Visual Effects of The Truman Show (1.78:1/standard definition) -- Visual effects supervisors Craig Barren and Michael McCallister discuss creating the hyper-realistic visual look of The Truman Show.
• Deleted Scenes (4:3/"windowboxed"/standard definition) -- Watching these three, fairly lengthy deleted scenes, it's not too difficult to fathom why they were cut. They do not further the story and would most certainly have slowed the film to a crawl.:
  • "Product Placement"
  • "Truman Suspicious"
  • "The Future Cast Meeting"
• Photo Gallery (1080p/24)
• Theatrical Trailers:
  • Teaser Trailer (1.78:1/high definition/Dolby Digital 5.1)
  • Theatrical Trailer (1.78:1/high definition/Dolby Digital 5.1)
• TV Spots:
  • Newest Lights (4:3/standard definition)
  • Newest Vital Signs (4:3/standard definition)

Final Thoughts

This is a fine film that only grows more relevant with time. The quality of The Truman Show's Blu-ray transfer is far from reference in comparison to many other catalog titles, but it still offers a big improvement over previous versions.

Where to Buy

• The Truman Show on Blu-ray Disc (Amazon.com)

Product Details

• Actors: Jim Carrey, Paul Giamatti, Philip Baker Hall, Ed Harris, Laura Linney
• Director: Peter Weir
• Audio/Languages: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, French & Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG
• Studio: Paramount
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: December 30, 2008
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• List Price: $29.99
• Extras:
  • How's It Going to End: The Making of the Truman Show Parts I & II
  • Faux Finishing, The Visual Effects of The Truman Show
  • 4 Deleted Scenes
  • Photo Gallery
  • 2 Theatrical Trailers
  • 2 TV Spots