that time a director guessed the future
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- čas přidán 19. 09. 2023
- With commentary on freedom, surveillance, trust, and the human want for omniscience, The Truman Show (1998) remains one of the most prescient pieces of media ever created. Here's why.
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The Truman Show
Jim Carrey
Ed Harris
Truman
Laura Linney
Meryl
Reality Television
Reality TV
POV
Cinematography
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So...25 years later...how do you think The Truman Show has aged???...Lucky guess or brilliant foresight?
More like a cautionary tale. Cause now billions of people volunteer to become Truman but sometimes don’t see the horror of what it means to be constantly watched.
Great video.
Like fine wine
@theloneranger07 The Truman Show -> Surveillance -> Cinematography Choices -> Hidden Cameras/POV -> Halloween/other examples from other media -> the extra level of meta cinematography in Truman Show -> omniscient viewership -> foreshadowing the intrusive nature/structure of reality TV before it became huge in the 2000s.
@@SceneItReviews 👏👏👏 Bravo!
Love the social commentary bit at the very end...the entire world is captivated by Truman's tense escape...but after a few seconds of dead air when the broadcast ends they all flip the channel for something new!
It's funny, I remember sitting in the theatre watching him go through that door, leaving that "fake" world behind and entering into the real world, and I expected to follow him, because I didn't consider myself one of those Truman Show peeping toms, I cared about Truman and ... in a second I realized the trick I'd just played on myself.
yep and doing a reality production is quite hard. Honestly, majority of your film is unusable. Out of the 24 hrs of uncorrupted filming, only about 5-10 mins will ever make it. This is why "reality" shows are often faked. A lot of improv than anything. Think WWE and how they do their shows. That's how majority of reality shows were like. Simulated and sometimes rehearsed. The only thing that came close to ACTUAL reality TV are those competition shows like the cooking shows. The things where there's a host, they know they're filmed, and they know they're contestants and know that there is a challenge. Hardly reality but that's how organic you are going to get from being raw.
Easy to forget that this was Carrey's first attempt at a mostly serious role. And not that he wasn't well compensated; but he accepted a paycheck that was only 60% of his going rate because he wanted the role so much.
This and Eternal Sunshine are my favorite roles of his, he’s just so wonderful
The casting of Jim Carrey for this role was just *chefs kiss* perfect
I agree he was a strong pick, but considering how...tame this role is compared to his others, I really have to give the script and director more credit for this one.
still one of my favorites movies and an amazing one to bring us into the next century; the way the tension builds and builds before the movie turns on its head and cuts to the perspective of a 60 minutes type interview of the production was such a unique writing style
i think it holds up as one of the great american films of the modern era and delivers great scenes, acting and music tucked in with its bizarre but pretty great cinematography
By an Australian director too
I don't like some of the overly dramatised bits, and I think that's the reason it's not an all time classic. It's near perfect movie and the talk between Ed Harris and Truman before he leaves will never leave my mind.
@@netaro1890 ok
Jim Carrey is a once in a lifetime ball of energy. Even his semi-dramatic acting is so sharp, always on point. Such commitment to the roles.
Jerry Lewis
Truman show is such a good movie 🍿
Let’s not go over the top… it’s a good movie. A genuine 7 out of 10.
and nozrep, to your comment below: yeah some people think the movie catwoman is great too. Go out and watch some movies, you’ll see how it humbles the Truman show.
yes!
@@latenightlogicall in the eye of the beholder. And I behold that I am not over the top in agreeing with the person when they it is such a good movie. Well plus also it is in my individual, personal top 5, I do behold!🎉😂 I do declare!
So unique
It’s not a movie, that’s why
I think that rather than predicting the future the movie influenced it.
I remember after it’s release at being shocked at people talking about creating something like the Truman show, thinking at people so dumb as not to pick up on the warnings it was issuing.
Lo and behold, reality TV showed up a few years later. It wasn’t a coincidence.
Ah yes I have created the torment nexus just like in the book "please don't create the torment nexus."
So you think...a movie...influenced....a consumer culture?
@@BornToBeUai You think a movie from 1998 that made 4x it's 60 million budget and is still beloved by millions today *didn't* influence consumer culture?
@@sly-shotyes, I do.
"reality TV showed up a few years later"
MTV's 'The Real World' [itself not an original idea] would like a word.
This reminds me of a quotes from The Incredibles 2:
"You don't talk, you watch talk shows. You don't play games, you watch game shows. Travel, relationships, risk; every meaningful experience must be packaged and delivered to you to watch at a distance so that you can remain ever-sheltered, ever-passive, ever-ravenous consumers who can't free themselves to rise from their couches, break a sweat, never anticipate new life."
When I saw it in theaters in 1998 I thought intrusive reality tv was pretty far fetched. Clearly I was wrong.
never underestimate how terrible we can make everything
1984
Fahrenheit 451
Brave new world
Where they intersect...
YOU ARE HERE
The look of content determination on Carrey's face after the boat storm, it makes me well up every time. Nothing can stop me now. Natascha McElhone was great casting too, memorable expressive eyes.
I think her voice is underrated too. She speaks so little, but her voice sticks in your mind.
This is one of those rare movies that I actually re watch once every year or two because it’s just so damn well done. Brilliant when it came out, and still brilliant today.
The Truman Show is such a great movie, Jim Carey's performance deserved an Oscar
"Cue the Sun" , such a brilliant yet terrifying moment
I love all the small details in this movie. It hasn't aged a day. I like when you can see Phillip Glass (the composer of the score) sitting at the piano playing in the control room. He's just kinda in the background.
1998: The Truman Show was a dystopian science fiction story
2024: Nothing dystopian about it.
One Jack to another, just to say, the work you're doing is some of the best on this platform. Very exciting to see the genre in such good hands!
You going to make videos again? Love your stuff brother
Cheers legend! Your videos are constantly popping up in my recommended so I appreciate it ✌hope you're making a triumphant return soon!
And thank goodness there was never a Truman Show 2. That ending, that wonderful hopeful ambiguous ending is perfect.
My first thought when I saw the Truman Show was that it was an updated version of P. K. Dick's novel "Time Out of Joint". The premise is different but they are both about a man trapped in a fake town constructed by powerful forces to exploit the man for their own purposes, with people around him pretending that the town is real. The premise of the Truman Show is more relevant to our present dystopia, but it does have the advantage of being made almost 40 years later.
Social commentary. The public is just the last to know.
I still cry every time I see this film
I think "Jennicam" was probably where they got the inspiration for this btw, she started live streaming her entire life in 1996. She was on Letterman the year this came out.
interesting! just googled her - what a fascinating time the late 1990s were haha. And I think the script was started in 1991, so I assume that was before Jennicam?
@@SceneItReviewsProbably yeah.
also there was the 'Real World' on MTV - which was mentioned in the video - years before that
The Truman Show literally established its very own unique subgenre of horror.
This movie still holds up to this day in my opion.
Should have won an oscar
Recently rewatched it. Peter Weir was at the top of his game in this era. Because of this we got Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine and Man on the Moon.
I was working at Paramount Studios when they filmed the boat stuff and the walk up the blue sky. We called it the B-tank, and they had re-painted the more normal looking sky to what is seen in "The Truman Show." Hightened reality. However our current world puts celebrity above all else. Most of us are not smart enough to realize that reality shows are just as scripted as everything else. It has spawned personal narcissism and selfishness. From CZcams creating some of the worst people around (and some good people too) to reality shows helping to put a dimwitted demagogue in our White House. (i.e. The Celebrity Apprentice) And everyone eats it up, in that case, just like the Truman Show. The tragedy of Jim Carrey is he was so good at the rubber face comedy stuff that he was never taken seriously as an actor. "The Truman Show" worked because it tip-toed on that fine line between comedy and drama.
It really was upsetting to see how naturally successful a sleazy reality TV star was at running for President.
You were there?? That's so cool! I saw some of the behind the scenes footage of the big 'wall' they had to run the boat into, and they still had to work out a way to shoot it without getting the reflection of the real sky in the background - very fun creative practical filmmaking! And couldn't agree more - it's so strange that people voluntarily watch shows that are predicated on the idea of spontaneity and "liveness" when they're clearly as artificial as scripted television.
It's considered a classic today, but NETWORK probably predicted the future of our media world better than anything I can think of. As a film buff I'm sure you've seen it, but if you haven't, it's a must see. @@SceneItReviews
How'd you like your gas prices in 2023?
@@ioannisgiannas9875 What exactly do you believe the President's job to be? Do you think that somehow it has something to do with gas prices?
Jeez, this channel is such a treasure! Great job!
There was a movie that came out several months later called EDtv, that was much, much, more prophetic in foreshadowing the near future’s form of entertainment. It’s often overlooked because of the Truman Show’s massive success prior and it being considered similar, but if you go back and watch it, it nails the reality tv craze to a T. I’m not even saying it was as good of a movie, but considering it was released only 9 months later, it too would have fell into the same pre-reality television era.
I had to laugh when you showed the clip of the "perfect sunset" because it had the wrong moon phase for where it was in the sky as well as both the sun and moon being way too big.
Do you think they wrote fake science text books in case Truman was interested in the moon or astronomy? I guess they would've just steered him away from it.
The movie turned out great, I'm glad he didn't go the 1984 or V for vendetta route
The camerawork was insane
Lmaoo when she said she was an actress playing an actress playing a character I realised how the actors pulled it off so well
The Truman show was loosely inspired by a French Canadian film that came out 5 years earlier. As the script was shopped around Hollywood for adaptation rights, it later gave birth to EDtv. That came out after Truman Show.
Lequel?
The fact that this movie was shot on film adds considerably to the risk taking made on the director’s part (though that was a given in the 90s).
How so?
It has subtle comedy, but primarily its a mystery/drama. It's actually hard to pinpoint what style it actually is !!
So, choosing to hire a really whacky over the top comedian like Carrey, I think was a huge risk, that paid off incredibly well.
This film will go down (or has) in history as a modern classic. It's SO well filmed, written, prophetic, everything, charming, touching..
Also, Paul Giamatti can add another classic to his acting CV. Although its only a small part, he's still great. He's incredible in everything he does. One of my favourite actors.
Sideways and John Dies at the End are standouts for his acting,
I think Laura Linney captures the essence and the whole arc of the movie in her performance, it's really one of the best all time performances on screen.
Tons of valuable insights, and I love the way you present your thesis. Your explanation of the cinematographic techniques used to make this unique film absolutely shine is truly enlightening.
However, I disagree with your basic premise that The Truman Show is some kind of foreshadowing of the future, intentional or not.
The main reason is that reality TV is mostly scripted, except perhaps for some of the skill-based competitions like Project Runway (although these are highly engineered regardless, from what I understand). The contestants know that they are on television and are actively participating in the drama. Truman of course is not in on it and is not there of his own will.
If anything, the movie is in the same vein as other movies of the Y2K era, such as The Matrix and Office Space: "I'm stuck in a box. I need to get out!"
I see the link you are making between the two, but I think the fundamental message of The Truman Show is pointing in a completely different direction than the nature of reality TV.
Regardless, wonderful presentation. Thank you for all the hard work you put into this, I learned a lot about one of my favorite films!
Agreed, Truman is not a direct corollary for modern reality participants (except maybe Ronald on Jury Duty??).
However, I feel like all the other characters, the producers, and the audience's appetite for an 'artificial reality' are pretty accurate to the modern appetite for Reality TV. Especially the way in which the producers have the power (in real time) to manipulate Truman's world and present the in-world characters however they want.
You'll never see a film like The Truman Show or Pleasantville in theaters these days. They won't make movies like this anymore.
Oh, how I love this movie so much...
The ending editing was a nice sendup
So happy to hear Runaway Quartet by Moments as background music. Really love the piece.
im glad I watched this not knowing what the plot was and slowing finding out along with Truman
One of those movies I just wish I could forget, just to discover it again…
One of my favourite movies. Probably in my top 5 movies of all time.
Jim Carreys best film. Not his FUNNIEST. But his best.❤
Agreed. The Majestic was also good.
@@englishgalmd Yes! Really enjoyed that film. Extremely underrated.
even if his world was fake, he really was the one true man
“*You* were real. That’s made you so good to watch.”
The Truman Show Is Forever Amazing.
Jim has talked about how prophetic this movie is
having rewatched this movie over the years I've found it's different every time, and you made me realize that it actually became MORE unsettling, whereas Children of Men I'm almost desensitized to the violence and almost more comfortable with the plot and setting there, whereas Truman Show something feels way more OFF than I detected before.. it has a lot to do with the camera work, I'm likely more aligned with being able to immerse myself in that liminal space of the "observer" behind truman, idk it's just strange how these movies are not perfect, but still achieve that meta level of dynamic transformation just right.
and when I say they aren't perfect I mean there is no 1:1 adaptation here, if you go over that threshold you enter the more whimsical imaginative, stylistic space, and at the perfect 1:1 it's just a reality show or something without any way for the creative mind to get lost in, so by creating this almost NEAR perfection, .8 to 1, we get this space where the mind can literally inhabit and build on the imagination of the work.
Didn’t predict, but inspired
one of the best movies of all time
Still my favourite movie of all time. So well done, and it doesn't hurt that it really taps into my absolute hatred of reality TV!
It didn’t predict. It offered.
I think not only did this guess the future of 'reality tv' but of thr constant filming people take upon themselves like on family channels. Children grow up with their life broadcast out to the world- whether they are told about it or not, they will not understand the truth/ real ramifications till they're much older. A very scary thought
I have loved Peter Weir since I saw "Picnic At Hanging Rock" in the mid-70s at the Nuart Theater in the westside of L.A. He has made so many great movies, in some many different genres.
I knew the moon was hollow.
You should do a video analyzing the Safdie brothers work very underrated 👏👏
In hinsight, everything predicts the future.
The best of Jim Carrey along with Eternal Sunshine
Right up there with The Matrix and Groundhog Day for me as far as films that keep you up all night wondering.
This is essentially CCTV
Surveillance stuff
Which exists
if i am not mistaken the book written by some author in the 1990s that almost predicted the invention of iphones to a ‘t’ accurately had already published that book. I mean just, like, societally culturally et ceterally….. all those items and things were conglomerating and begetting the additional future things almost all at the same time. You like, comparatively how, various ancient cultures around the globe all built pyramid structures around the same times or whatever and had like, no contact with each other due to the spherical oblong nature of this planet which we inhabit
Never heard of Truman show but if it has Jim Carrey I should check it out. He was great in Sonic
The Truman Show is an actual piece of art you can take seriously. Sonic(or any other movie like that) isn't even close to being in the same league. McDonald's vs a Steak dinner.
Still brilliant by any measure.
Watching the Truman Show through a lens of how we consume social media today is startlingly scary.
Natascha criminally underated
Many of us experienced this in 2020. Actually looking around at what we could see with our eyes vs what was controlled by the “directors”, we got that awful feeling as we first couldn’t fathom the hideous nature of the control and feeding lies to keep the production rolling. We questioned ourselves, first, and then when we tried to share that with some of the willing and unwilling actors, they thought we were just paranoid. It’s chilling and I wish it were all just interesting fiction.
pitch: truman show but truman's a gooner
This movie was ahead of its time, but not so much as to alienate the audience, just enough to be amazing. And it still is.
wow. very unsettling.
My favorite film.
Top 10 movies of all time.
Late nineties. 1998 to be exact was the year this great film was released.
In addition to modern day reality tv shows, even scarier, perhaps, is the film’s parallel to things such as family channels on CZcams where children, like Truman, are literally raised surrounded by cameras under the watchful eye of strangers on the internet. Yes, they are actually able to see the cameras but most likely unable to comprehend the true significance of the camera and what it means until they’re older and already have their whole childhood on the internet. Scary times….
Alternate title: every boondocks episode
A masterpiece
great video bro!
Reality TV existed long before THE TRUMAN SHOW.
yeah...that's why I mentioned it in the vid
I feel like some kids of family clogging channels are gonna watch this movie and really relate
underrated is Death Watch (1980), starring Harvey Keitel, Romy Schneider and Harry Dean Stanton. "In a future where dying of illness is exceedingly rare, a terminally ill woman becomes a celebrity and a man with camera implants goes to secretly record her for a morbid TV show"
One might make the argument that Candid Camera was a form of reality TV. America's Funniest Home Videos as well.
Remembering The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan, filmed in Portmeirion, Wales.
The movie was inspired by JenniCam. About a year earlier Jennifer Ringley set up web cams all over her apartment that showed everything she did 24-7. Of course there was no video streaming then but they uploaded a still photo once per minute.
Someone else mentioned this, but the first draft of The Truman Show was written in '91, so it definitely predates it.
I get the bit about being realistic to fool Truman, but i never understood the bit on the beach where it rained on him
Side note: Another movie that surprisingly nailed it out of the park is PCU.
Watched it recently. Not sure if because it’s really well done or they cut out so much, but the go pro hidden camera stuff isn’t there as much as you think. At least what I noticed. Or the way they filmed it still comes off as movie like.
I believe there was Ed TV before it but yeah they are kinda pioneer of the reality tv idea
The truman show is an excellent piece of cienmatography but also a terrifying (pre) retrospective on modern television and how it's all fake.
Not a prediction, a disguised documentary.
In 1998 it was a fun comedy. In 2023 it's a thriller.
I saw it back then and I saw it some months ago.
Makes me think of The Prisoner.
I would like a remake of The Truman Show where the meta doesn't break and we just see it from Truman's point of view
Holy h scene it I played your DVD games as a baby boy
Groovy man
i love this movie and the madness of this extreme situation while everything looks calm and normal
Jim Carrey deserve the main role in a really dark movie, he deserves the role of a mob godfather in a classic film noir or the role of a super strange serial killer in a horror movie
comedy actors always claim that it's easier to make people cry than to make them laugh and this guy is one of the funniest person in the world so for him it's easy to take Anthony Hopkin's role in the silence of the lambs or Nicholson's role in shining and i'm pretty sure he can be a perfect sith lord in a star wars movie, he can play a calm and thoughtfoul character
this movie is great and this actor is amazing
I can't believe you didn't reference the 24 hour twitch streamers.
I remember being quite disturbed about the whole premise of this movie, & thinking how in the future, this could actually happen.
Fast forward to present-day Washington DC, & the illegitimate resident illegally occupying the Oval Office. It's all a pantomime.
"All the world is a stage..." ~William Shakespeare
Hey great vid! Pretty sure Ace Ventura launched his career so I'd rather say it was part of his 1994 Trinity and not 1996 😊
Anyone else noticed Scully was in the truman show?