The Truman Show and Pleasantville Review

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The Truman Show and Pleasantville Review

The Truman Show, a comedy/ drama was directed by Peter Weir (nominee

for Best Director in 1998, Academy Awards). The film was scripted by

Andrew M. Niccol, including last years "Gatttaca," a similarly themed

tale, Niccol delivers optimism and affection for the human condition.

Jim Carry plays the role of Truman Burbank who is a charming and

unwitting star, the world's most popular, 24 hour non-stop soap called

'The Truman Show'.

Pleasantville is a winsome and witty comedy/ drama starring Tobey

Maguire as 'David' and Reese Witherspoon as 'Jennifer'. This film is

the work of director Gary Ross, known for 'Big' and 'Dave' who both

won him Oscar Nominations.

Any film that has a concept of 'fly on the wall' is bound to get

streams of people flowing into the cinema; this is the concept that

was used during the Big Brother series which was a success; this is

also the same case with both the films, Pleasantville and The Truman

Show.

Both the films have a comedy based genre making it fun and enjoyable

and they both contain reality TV themes, being stars of TV shows in

quaint and not so quaint hometowns. The opening sequences of both

films are confusing and not much is actually revealed to the audience

and so they are left in uncertainty of what the storyline truly is.

The opening sequences are different. The Truman Show starts off with

short interviews of the cast and the creator of Truman's world,

Christof. Christof (Ed Harris) says that people are tired of 'phoney

emotions' and 'phoney actors', they need something real. Marlon (Noah

Emmerich) and Meryl (Laura Linney) describe the show and give their

own views about how everything is 'all true, all real, nothing here is

fake,……….., things are just merely controlled', and how close their

relationship is within the show and there is 'no difference between

private life and public life, my life is my life, my life is the

Truman Show'.

The TV screen within which you can see Truman gives you a perspective

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