Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #15 The Truman Show
Box Office: $125.6 Million
Oscar Nominations: Best Director (Peter Weir), Best Supporting Actor (Ed Harris), Best Original Screenplay
Oscar Wins: None
MovieRankings.Net: 94/100
Available To Stream: Amazon Prime ($4)
The Truman Show is most remembered for accurately predicting our future obsession with reality television but the movie is not really about that. It's about free will and how important that is. It's something that can be easily taken for granted. When you see Truman not have it, it's shocking.
Director Peter Weir and screenwriter Andrew Niccol did a brilliant job taking a concept that everyone has thought about and pull it off perfectly. This is a movie that is very well thought out from product placement to building fear in Truman's mind to keep him in Seahaven. Those details allow us to fully believe that this is Truman's life. It's a pretty big idea for us as the audience to buy into and The Truman Show pulls it off completely.
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Weir would only direct two more movies after this (Master & Commander and The Way Back). Niccol (who also wrote and directed #40 Gattaca), never reached these heights again. He's since made big concept movies (directed and wrote Simone and wrote The Terminal) that were flawed. The difference with Gattaca and especially The Truman Show is that these are movies that got all the little things right.
My only complaint with the movie is that I don't love how it ends. It's a huge credit to Jim Carrey that he makes Truman relatable at all considering he lived such a weird life. But, I think Truman would be angrier. His entire life and everyone he has known is a lie. He's been manipulated and imprisoned since birth. I don't think you give a bow and leave.
Looking back at Carrey's career, it is stunning that he was never nominated for an Academy Award. When I think of the best actors to never be nominated, I do think of Kevin Bacon, Bruce Willis and Donald Sutherland first but Jim Carrey should be on that. Between this, Man On The Moon and Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind, he was a pretty terrific dramatic actor. Mix that with him being one of the funniest actors of all-time, that's quite a resume.
Ed Harris as Christof is one of the best villains of the decade. Harris is fantastic at playing people who take themselves very seriously. Harris seems to be a very serious man and throws himself into roles. He never half asses a part. Whether in A History Of Violence as a gangster or Apollo 13 trying to save his crew of astronauts or even Westworld playing a wannabe cowboy, he's always serious and always excellent.
To the original point that I made in the blog, this is about free will. But the reality show prediction was wildly astute. When this came out in 1998, The Real World was a modest hit for MTV but it's not like you had reality television on network TV. This was years before Survivor, The Bachelor and Big Brother. The obsession hasn't really waned either. Love Island did huge numbers and that's a pretty new show. TikTok is closer to reality television than a scripted show.
We've become a population of people who want to be Truman. We want to be watched. Don't get me wrong. I'm not passing judgement. How can I? I streamed my own solitary confinement (well at least until Dave killed the feed). We have fewer true movie stars than ever before. Is this because we've become more interested in watching these augmented realities? Peter Weir nailed that the country would be obsessed with a Truman-like character. Can you imagine if this was real?
I don't love how this ends but maybe that optimism is needed. To be excited about the outside world and all the possibilities is a nicer way to look at tomorrow than wanting revenge for all the lost yesterdays. They say that health is the most important thing you can possess. I'd put free will a close second.
15. The Truman Show
16. Fargo
17. Swingers
18. Reservoir Dogs
19. There's Something About Mary
20. Sleepers
21. Schindler's List
22. Rushmore
23. Fight Club
24. Saving Private Ryan
25. True Romance
26. Dumb & Dumber
27. Kingpin
28. Donnie Brasco
29. Heat
30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
31. Rounders
32. Unforgiven
33. Trainspotting
34. The Game
35. Out Of Sight
36. Carlito's Way
37. Seven
38. L.A. Confidential
39. Speed
40. Gattaca
41. Misery
42. Tombstone
43. Ransom
44. Wayne's World
45. The Insider
46. Back To The Future Part III
47. A Bronx Tale
48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. The Sandlot
51. Happy Gilmore
52. Contact
53. The Green Mile
54. Man On The Moon
55. Boyz N The Hood
56. Grosse Pointe Blank
57. Independence Day
58. The Rainmaker
59. Go
60. The Firm
61. Magnolia
62. The Talented Mr. Ripley
63. Tommy Boy
64. The Usual Suspects
65. In The Line Of Fire
66. My Cousin Vinny
67. Awakenings
68. JFK
69. Toy Story
70. Home Alone
71. Jerry Maguire
72. Titanic
73. Billy Madison
74. Apollo 13
75. Braveheart
76. Edward Scissorhands
77. Cape Fear
78. The River Wild
79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
80. 12 Monkeys
81. Stir Of Echoes
82. Mission: Impossible
83. Total Recall
84. Quiz Show
85. For Love Of The Game
86. Being John Malkovich
87. Men In Black
88. Scream
89. Alive
90. Three Kings
91. Glengarry Glen Ross
92. Die Hard With A Vengeance
93. The Blair Witch Project
94. Twister
95. Dirty Work
96. Election
97. Tremors
98. Any Given Sunday
99. The Wedding Singer
100. Clerks