Truman Show [Blu-ray] [1998] [US Import]

The "Truman Show" directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol is a film about the life of a man called Truman Burbank. Unbeknown to himself he was adopted by a film company, when he was a baby and since then he has been the star of his own reality TV show which is broadcasted all over the world. The only purpose of his life is to entertain television viewers worldwide. All the people around him are actors, even his so-called parents, his wife and his best friend Marlon, who are acting from a script written by the creator and producer Christof (played by Ed Harris). He lives in Seahaven, a specially constructed film studio which is like a world within the world. Seahaven is situated on an island, which Truman has never left, because he is afraid of water. His life is very ordinary - he is married to a woman called Meryl, he has got a nice small house and an office job - but nevertheless millions of people all over the world watch him every day. Christof is able to manipulate Truman's behaviour as he can easily change the weather, decide which person should talk to Truman and what about - he can decide everything in Truman's life. However, after two decades Truman starts to be suspicious as technical breakdowns become more frequent (a spotlight falls down from the sky when he's on his way to work and his car radio starts to transmit the producer's instructions). In addition to this, Truman has seen his father again, who is supposed to be dead and he starts to think about events in the past, in particular about the time when he met Sylvia - his real love. Through various flashback scenes, we gain an insight into Truman's past, and events which shape his personality and ambitions. The rest of the film consists of his gradual realisation that all is not as it seems. All this leads to a fascinating turning-point and ends through a combination of desperation and joy.

This film certainly has many aspects that one has to think about; on the one hand it shows the enormous power of today's media (just think of all the reality-shows on TV) and on the other hand it shows that a person has to accept the reality he or she lives in. It provokes thoughts in the viewer, about whether our world may not be real, and that there could be an external force controlling all our actions and watching what we do on a reality TV show.

"The Truman Show" is a great film about a man brought up in an artificial world created specifically for a TV audience. Everyone around him is an extra or a character on the set, including his wife and his best friend. The story has echoes of the tale of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, created by a vengeful God. Ok, it might be stretching a metaphor too far, but Truman is initially given the truth about his state by a disgruntled female extra whom he subsequently falls in love with. The process of disillusionment is gradual. The final denoument is brilliant, with Truman asking a disembodied voice the penultimate and ultimate questions of life," Who are you?" "I am the Creator...of a TV show" answers Christof (Ed Harris at his best); "Then, who am I?" "You are the Star". Given the choice between the uncertainty of the outside and the security of his controlled environment, Truman chooses life as a human being. The film also manages to encapsulate the dilemma faced by parents and their growing children, particularly in strongly hierarchical families. This one should have won Oscars.

Ok....if you are reading this review for the Special "Collectors" edition of the TRUMAN SHOW then I am going to assume that you are already familiar with the film itself and are more curious about the extras on this DVD.

Well, in one word; 'Disappointing'. The original film was a bare bones DVD release with literally nothing in the way of added features, and this updated version goes some way to addressing this imbalance, but overall it doesn't bring that much to the party and still feels lacking.

Excatly what you get is this;
TV spots & Teaser trailer (hardly worth watching trailers when you own the actual film itself is there?)
Photo Galleries (ho-hum)
A 2 part documnetary about the making of. (sounds promising but actually dull as ditchwater)
and a Visual effects feature (again, not very gripping)
the best feature are the deleted scenes which are actually quite lengthy and are genuinely intriguing but hardly going to stand repeated viewing.
Sadly, there is NO directors or cast commentary which I would have thought would be the main attraction for a "Special Collector's Edition" ?

I have rated this 5 stars because the film itself is so outstanding, but if you are asking "Is it worth updating my old basic copy for this new one?" I would have to say "NO". Don't get me wrong, if you still don't own this wonderful film then this is THE edition to get, but when you consider that you can still pick up the original version for around a fiver then I cannot advise you to spend more than double that for this release, Sorry.