One of the Greatest Films Ever Made - A Masterpiece by Any Standard

Rating: 10/10 (12 July 2013)

One of the few Hollywood produced films that WILL stand the test of time as ART - high ART - I'm talk'in Ugetsu, Ikiru, Seventh Seal - the rarefied air - the 'I've been to the mountaintop' of cinematic art...
Now - what happened with the public reception? Many of our nation's best critics realized to one extent or another how great the film was - perhaps not as much its prophetic nature - which, if you saw it originally in the theater - you might try viewing it again - to see.
The featured review is on the right track. 1998 was a bumper crop year for Hollywood film - yet, few in Hollywood seemed to realize it. True, Carry's goofy reputation, if somewhat deserved, caused many to miss the point - but, at the end of the day, all of the latent denial in the American psyche - specifically catered to by the Hollywood elite - produced the most blatant Oscar night debacle in a long history of this tragically repeated motif - great art once again denied the laurel wreath in deference to crass commercialism - in this case two of the greatest English language films ever made, The Truman Show and American History X, shunted in favor of a shameless piece of fluff based on dubious if not downright dishonest premises, Joseph Fiennes' vaunted backside, and the rather gauchely revolting nepotistic spectacle of Gwynnie dancing with Daddy...
Truly, the American public really did not get The Truman Show - it got by most of us - perhaps, it requires repeated viewings - such an incisive critique of the American psyche as it is - where even the most sacred things are trampled under our incessant self-created need for security and the lies we're willing to tell ourselves to perpetuate it. The final conversation between Truman and his life-long 'friend', Marlin, is imo one of the greatest scenes ever filmed - revealing the depth of the corruption of our wayward civilization - enough to make Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor blush with shame.
Weir has made a number of very good+++ films: Dead Poets Society, Last Wave, Witness... but...
THIS IS HIS MATERPIECE A FILM ONE SHOULD SEE AGAIN AND AGAIN. NOT MERELY VG+++ : GREAT.