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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.

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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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