4K Ultra HD Review: The Truman Show: 25th Anniversary Edition

By John Corrado

A film that foretold the boom of reality TV and celebrity obsessions, director Peter Weir’s prescient 1998 movie The Truman Show is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

Jim Carrey stars in the film as Truman Burbank, a man whose entire life has been as part of an elaborate television show, masterminded by “televisionary” Christof (Ed Harris, in an Oscar-nominated supporting role).

Truman was born into his role as the star of the world’s longest running TV show, fuelled by product placement, with hidden cameras following him 24 hours a day. Every single person in his life is in on it, accept for Truman, who starts to question if there is more to his manufactured life as an insurance salesman.

This high concept premise, at once a pointed critique of popular culture, has turned the film into an iconic piece of pop culture in its own right, following critical and box office success in 1998. Working from an Oscar-nominated screenplay by Andrew Niccol, Weir’s film works thanks to an incredibly unique tonal balance; The Truman Show is so casually dystopic and disturbing in its portrait of a life being controlled by the TV gods, it manages to be profoundly impactful while still being entertaining.

Once a work of speculative fiction, the film now feels eerily accurate with its depiction of a fake reality crafted purely for entertainment, with Weir and Niccol exploring the deeper ethical questions around Truman’s upbringing. But it’s also a film that doesn’t over-explain itself, guided by Carrey’s compelling, tragicomic portrayal of a man realizing his world is not what it seems that should have gotten him an Oscar nomination (the actor would perform in a similar register in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind six years later, for which he was also robbed of a nomination).

I hadn’t seen The Truman Show since I was a kid, but it had a big impact on me even then, and it’s a film that still holds up. It’s surreal and thought-provoking, while also being moving and very entertaining, the sort of smart studio filmmaking that used to do well with both critics and audiences. The 4K Ultra HD presentation, which was remastered from scans of the original negative and approved by Weir, offers a pristine viewing experience. The image looks filmic and downright gorgeous at times. It’s a worthy upgrade for a modern classic.

Bonus Features (4K Ultra HD):

There are no bonus features on the 4K disc, but the set comes bundled with a standard Blu-ray that includes a number of legacy bonus features. It comes packaged with a standard slipcover.

• How’s It Going to End? The Making of The Truman Show (Play All – 41 minutes, 47 seconds)

• Part 1 (18 minutes, 22 seconds)

• Part 2 (23 minutes, 24 seconds)

• Faux Finishing, The Visual Effects of The Truman Show (13 minutes, 16 seconds)

• Deleted Scenes (Play All – 13 minutes, 9 seconds)

• Product Placement (5 minutes, 25 seconds)

• Truman Suspicious (4 minutes, 23 seconds)

• The Future Cast Meeting (2 minutes, 8 seconds)

• Truman Missing (1 minute, 11 seconds)

• Photo Gallery

• Theatrical Trailers (Play All – 4 minutes, 29 seconds)

• Teaser Trailer (1 minute, 54 seconds)