The Truman Show: Music From The Motion Picture

Comparisons to Forrest Gump have saddled The Truman Show: the nebulously cheerful protagonist, the Tupperware set design, the Big Picture conceit. But those parallels dissolve when the soundtrack album commences. This is no brand-inducing pop-song nostalgia trip; it's an authentic document of The Truman Show's musical imperative, a mix of percolating minimalism and sweeping orchestrations that imbue the film with its atmosphere of apocrypha and fable. Composers Burkhard Dallwitz and Philip Glass share the responsibility. Dallwitz gets the opening theme; Glass, the anthems (borrowed from previous scores) and much of the finale. One highlight is "Truman Sleeps," Glass's solo-piano on-screen cameo. The eccentric closing track, a rockabilly remake of T. Rex's "Twentieth Century Boy," couldn't be more true to director Peter Weir's populist vision. --Marc Weidenbaum Amazon.com

Hooray for Truman and minimalism!

I've loved The Truman Show for years, and I've recently begun to appreciate the minimalist compositions of Michael Nyman and Henryk Gorecki, so I'm really enjoying this album that combines Truman and minimalism (not by Nyman and Gorecki, but by Philip Glass, Burkhard Dallwitz, and Wojciech Kilar, who only composed one piece on the album--"Father Kolbe's Preaching," probably the most beautiful and recognizable track from the film). This is the kind of music that truly inspires and calms at the same time, however cheesy that description may sound. November 25, 2008

Recycled Glass

This is another cd with Philip Glass songs being used from other full length Glass recordings. There are only a couple new songs, and they are short and rather similar sounding to other Glass music. Philip Glass is being recycled too much! October 27, 2006

Good music with smatterings of great music

The score for the Truman show features a few wonderful pieces of music, including some classical things, and there are quite a few tracks from the album that are great stand-alone tracks. When the album is viewed as a whole, though, the tracks don't really seem to go together very well. Perhaps that it because so many of them are written by different people. The music is good, and some of it is much better than good, but the lack of coherency in this score keeps me from giving it a full 5 stars September 29, 2006

My favorite drama score!

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! January 4, 2006

Amazing!

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. July 1, 2005

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