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The Truman Show
In a picture-perfect seaside town, an insurance salesman begins to realize that his entire existence may be staged and observed by a vast unseen audience as part of a long-running real-time reality TV show.
1998 · Directed by Peter Weir · 103 min · Comedy · Drama · Screenplay in the scene database · 44 frames
Tagline
On the air. Unaware.
Plot
Selected at birth and legally adopted by a television studio following an unwanted pregnancy, Truman Burbank is the unsuspecting star of The Truman Show, a reality television program filmed and broadcast worldwide, 24/7, through hidden cameras. Truman's hometown, Seahaven Island, is set inside an enormous soundstage in Los Angeles, which allows Christof, the show's creator and executive producer, to control nearly all aspects of Truman's life. Truman's world is populated by actors and crew members who serve as his community while keeping him from discovering the truth. To prevent Truman from escaping, Christof has orchestrated various scenarios such as the "death" of Truman's father in a boating accident to instill thalassophobia, and has the cast reinforce Truman's anxieties with messages about the dangers of traveling and the virtues of staying home.
Though the producers intend for Truman to fall in love with and marry a woman named Meryl, he develops feelings for an extra named Sylvia. Sympathetic to Truman's plight, Sylvia tries to tell him the truth, but is promptly fired and removed from the set. Truman marries Meryl, but their relationship is stilted and passionless, and he continues to dream of traveling to Fiji, where he was told Sylvia had moved, and living a happy life with her. In the real world, Sylvia joins "Free Truman", an activist group that calls for Truman's liberation from the show.
As the show approaches its thirtieth anniversary, Truman notices unusual occurrences such as a stage light falling from the sky; an isolated patch of rain that falls only over him; a radio transmission describing his movements; and the reappearance of his father, who is rushed away by crew members and put on a bus before Truman can confront him. Inferring that the city somehow revolves around him, Truman questions his life and asks his closest confidants to help him solve the mystery.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Andrew Niccol
- Cinematography: Peter Biziou
- Edited by: William M. Anderson, Lee Smith
- Music: Burkhard von Dallwitz
- Production design: Dennis Gassner
- Produced by: Andrew Niccol, Edward S. Feldman, Scott Rudin, Adam Schroeder
Cast
- Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank
- Laura Linney as Meryl Burbank / Hannah Gill
- Noah Emmerich as Marlon / Louis Coltrane
- Natascha McElhone as Lauren Garland / Sylvia
- Holland Taylor as Angela Montclair / Alanis Montclair
- Ed Harris as Christof
- Paul Giamatti as Simeon
- Brian Delate as Walter Moore / Kirk Burbank
- Peter Krause as Lawrence
- Blair Slater as Young Truman
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese
- Studios: Paramount Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions
- Budget: $60,000,000
- Box office: $264,118,712
- Themes: escape, paranoia, dystopia, dark comedy, suspicion, video surveillance, deception, hidden camera, simulated reality , television producer
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