Customer Reviews

The Truman Show: Music From The Motion Picture

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is easily one of the best soundtracks I own. Like Star Wars and Edward Scissorhands, this is one of those rare movies in which the music plays an indispensable role in creating a uniquely distinctive feeling to scenes throughout the movie, witha powerful effect on the viewer, whether or not he is conscoius of it at the time. Every track here is spectacular. The only disappointment is the unfortunate omission of Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca which made its own important contribution to the feel of the film.

Highlights of this top notch disc include the Anthem--Part 2 which conveys in music Truman's awakening suspicion in a key turning point scene in the movie, as he symbolically goes through the revolving doors of his office building only to keep revolving until he is outside again, breaking the cycle of his life for once and signalling the beginning of his observant attention to the conspiracy around him. His hyjinks in the hospital trying to confront his wife while conspirators frustrate his attempts to see her are interpreted terrifically in "The Beginning." The hypnotic and ironic "Living Waters" powerfully communicates the scope and power of the conspiracy in which Truman lives at another key scene in which the viewer feels that irony most poignantly. "Drive" helps communicate in the film the comic daringness of Truman's attempted escape with Meryl at the wheel, "Underground" makes Truman's capture by the radiation suited actors, as seen from hidden cameras at bizarre angles, as diabolical and inhuman feeling a scene as the kidnapping of E.T. and Eliott in "E.T." In contrast to these pieces, Chopin's Larghetto is the perfect music for Truman and Sylvia's beautiful, few moments together on the beach.

"Trutalk" with its raising violins and world spanning feel juxtaposed against "Reunion" which precedes it with the mock intimacy of a TV show's music, makes for an eerie experience as the viewer discovers in a brilliant way the extent of the exploitation of Truman and his life by Christof and the world. Then after the intimate and passionately bitter phone confrontation between the two people who claim to love Truman most, Christof and Sylvia, we see them both caressing TV screens of Truman's face as he sleeps to the touching music of "Truman Sleeps." Immediately following the world spanning "Trutalk" in the film, the intimacy of the moment (and, poignantly and ironically, the alienation of it all---their being only able to touch him through TV screens) is amplified.

Then there is the ending, carried along by a series of perfect musical underscorings, the inspiring "Truman Sets Sail," followed by the threatening "Underground/Storm," then the serene triumph of "Raising The Sail," and then finally the amazing "Father Kolbe's Preaching" which follows the confident yet subdued yet optimistic piano and violins with slow steady pounding piano chords whichset the most powerful musical tone, as Truman similarly pounds against the azure boundary of his world, while soaring violins express the human spirit's passion to overcome the boundaries against which it pounds. All this provides for the sense of sublime existential anguish that leaves me with a lump in my throat almost every time. Such incredible music from Mr. Kilar here.

And then, as Truman tells Christof, "good afternoon, good evening and good night" for the last time, "Opening" conveys just that, a sense of anticipation of a great opening, yet also with the triumph of an ending. Perfect music, key to this perfect movie.

Nota bene: Particularly effective throughout this movie and its CD is the minimalist technique in Philip Glass and even, somewhat, in the pieces by Dallwitz and Kilar, which set up hypntotic patterns over against which the emergent melodies are made that much stronger. Whether or not one likes this kind of music normally, in the setting of story telling, in the Truman Show it works powerfully for making a subtly making a scene captivating.

Oh yeah, and Twentieth Century Boy is a fine bit of rockabilly which fits so nicely in the film and here on this disc. Only, it should be placed where it belongs in the story, between tracks 7 and 8 of course.

Overall, I'd say this is worth buying. And if you are a fan of the movie as I am, then there really is not much choice about it.

A very original idea for the film story. Came true by director who knows how to tell the story, realized by producers who made the best release. Followed by composers who can feel the story and have talent to express and integrate it in music. This is how a fantastic idea arise to a masterpiece! Soundtrack.... Dinamic, almost saturated with emotions, but relaxing and fulfilling, so everyone who like good avant-garde music in excellent performance must enjoy. I love this music. It's simply wonderfull. And I found myself in listening it almost every day for the last two months, besides hunderts of others in my rich collection. And I'm going to do it for the next ? months. Until somebody release some more. Wondering about the "great" reason not to incorporate (Mozart's)"Turkich march", but glad to read how people enjoy my favorite Philip Glass music.

The soundtrack to THE TRUMAN SHOW is a patchwork quilt featuring music from Dallwitz, Glass, Kilar, even Chopin. Primarily composed by Dallwitz and Glass, somehow this all comes together into a satisfying whole. The clever, TV show within a movie, benefits from this dual use of composers. When you see it again, notice how the music of Dallwitz underscores the film. Its the music chosen by director Peter Weir to score his film. Then, notice how most of Glass' music is used to score the "TV show." This is music chosen by director Christof to score the "show." Quite a clever and not an as obvious as it might seem concept. The inclusions of the Chopin piece and the music by Kilar are to be appreciated. All in all, one of the better soundtracks of the year.

It must take a certain type of film, presented in a certain way, concerning a certain type of subject matter, to necessitate a score so unique that anything minutely different would have shattered the film completely. Indeed, that is the case with The Truman Show: Less Burkhard Dallwitz, less Phillip Glass, less the style, less a single cue or note, the film would have floundered. In the case of this film, so much depends on the type of music and the way it is presented. Fortunately, the filmmakers succeeded in creating just that type of sound and thereby establishing both the film and its score as a miraculous success.

To typify the music from The Truman Show might be to call it New Age. Phillip Glass's electronics, beautifully mastered and accompanied by Dallwitz's own works, establishes an appropriately clashing combination of two sides of the musical spectrum: music as a melodramatic instrument, and music as a harsh accompaniment to life. The album easily coincides with this endeavor: one track is simple beauty; the next is harsh and seemingly atonal; the next is a masterwork, a lullaby almost, and something that sooths and comforts us; only to be followed by a brutal exercise in ferocity. What comes across on the screen and on the album is not disjointed by two musical tastes or styles or composers, but a necessary whole that shifts and corrects itself as necessary. In the end, no other track could substitute for the ones that were utilized in the final product.

Indeed, this score almost revolutionizes the degree of importance that the composer commands. It sets more than the mood, but the style. To visualize the film is to witness everything as a collective whole, and without this wonderfully apt score, the entire movie might have collapsed without its support. Some of the more harsh underscore may not be appreciated during a Sunday drive through traffic--indeed it might make it worse--but the collective representation holds the new, unique sounds that perfectly epitomize the complex, hypocritical world that the protagonist of the film inhabits. This is cinematic scoring at its most essential, its most diverse, and at its most positively important.

This is the first movie to leave me in tears. Maybe because I feel like Truman at times. What if my life were fake and everyone I know and love are just cardboard cut outs?

Listening to this score brings back the memories and images from the film.

Burkhard Dallwitz's "Its a Life" [Synthesized chorus with soft, electric piano] and "Reunion" [dramatic, sweeping strings] are beautiful and among my favorites. [Note: "Flashback" is a shorter version of "Reunion".]

Philip Glass's "Truman Sleeps" [Piano solo] and the moving "Raising the Sail" [strings and piano] are fantastic!

This album is a wonderful mix of most of the score in the film, including music from other scores used in the film.

The Truman Show soundtrack is truly an album worth having!

The Truman show soundtrack has won many awards, and I can honestly say it's for a good reason. This music does not have a moment when you do not feel something in the music. Because you don't really hear the music, you FEEL it. The music is emotion. You feel the power of ambition, the instability of confusion, and the bliss of happiness. I rarely buy a soundtrack just to listen to it, but I did for this one. Even if you haven't seen the movie, you still see Truman's life through the music. I found when i saw the movie that the music not only enhanced the movie, it became a part of it. I noticed the music. And for that reason I bought the soundtrack. And whenever I play it, Truman Burbank's mind comes alive once again.

Though these tracks carry the movie along and give the viewer great background music, by themselves they are without a doubt just as meaningfully and passionatley sounding. Wonderfully composed, with a very interesting and grand sound. One of the best sountracks I have ever seen and heard.

The tracks that were chosen for the album were taken from some scenes with a lot of movement or drama, which the movie is simply packed with anyway. Songs such as "Truman Sets Sail" are able to create a vivid and great picture of a storm, or whatever is happening, without even needing the listener to have seen the movie before.

The soundtrack is simply brilliant. Probably some of the greatest modernly composed music out there.

this cd is a great piece from the movies - the music can be heard and enjoyed by even if you did not see the amazing film. there are fast and intence tracks, but others that are moving and full of feeling. I found this cd a great reminder of the movie.

Whatever type of music you enjoy, you will be pleasantly surprised by this soundtrack (one of the best movie soundracks out there, second only to "sneakers"). The music is brilliantly emotionally evocative, yet not blaring. It set's the mood well without intruding upon the scene, and you will find it performs similarly in your life. Put it on in the background, fall asleep to it, or just listen intently to it's highly intelligent and masterfully executed sound. Definitely worth purchasing, it's great for music lovers of every level.

I love The Truman Show and really liked the music... at least enough to want to buy the album. But where's the Sonata Truman listens to in the car on his way to work? Big oversight to not include that very popular piece in this collection. I found it elsewhere but wished it was on this collection.