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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Music That Carries A Great Movie, January 6, 2001
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.
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~ Philip Glass
~ Randy Newman
by Andrew Niccol
~ Philip Glass
~ James Newton Howard
