Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014) User Reviews (16)

Timed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Orson Welles' birth

[paul-allaer · 7/10 · 8 March 2015]

"Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles" (2014 release; 94 min.) is a documentary about the genius of Orson Welles, 'enfant terrible' of the 1940s-50s Hollywood and godfather of the indie film scene. The movie opens, of course, with the opening scene from "Citizen Kane", where we see Welles whisper "Rosebud", but after that we get a straight-forward and chronological overview of Welles' life and work. The documentary is divided up in 5 chapters, covering different periods of his life (1915-1941 The Boy Wonder; 1942-1949 The Outsider, etc.). To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest from veteran documentary maker Chuck Workman. When I saw his name on this, I felt pretty sure that we'd be in for a great documentary. And it's certainly not a bad documentary. The movie hits all the major high (and low) lights of Welles' career (War of the Worlds; Citizen Kane; Touch of Evil; The Trial; Chimes at Midnight; etc.), and Workman compiles a treasure trove of old clips. He also interviews a bunch of people, including Peter Bogdanovich, Julie Taymor, Steven Spielberg, etc. Yet despite all that, the documentary seems to be missing something. Maybe it's because there is no true new insight or revelation, since yes, we do know that Welles was a genius who was misunderstood and/or difficult to work with. There are a couple of glimpses into Welles' personal life but the tidbit of information from that angle really doesn't add much (we are informed that one of Welles' two surviving daughters refused to cooperate in the making of this documentary). There are a number of great quotes sprinkled throughout the movie such as Orson's "I like Hollywood very much, but Hollywood just doesn't like me much", ha! or this one (about making Citizen Kane): "it wasn't about the money, it was about control". The timing of the documentary is to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Orson Welles' birth.

This documentary opened this weekend without any pre-release fanfare or advertising at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. Since I love documentaries and of course admire the genius of Orson Welles, I went to see it right away. The matinée screening where I saw this at was attended okay but not great (it didn't help that midway through the movie, the fire alarm went off and we had to leave the theater temporarily). If you are new to Orson Welles, by all means take the opportunity to check this out, be it in the theater, on Amazon Instant Video or on DVD/Blu-ray. You will be amazed. For those that are already familiar with Orson Welles, there's really nothing new in this documentary.

I really enjoyed this doc

[celadman-393-962218 · 8/10 · 16 December 2014]

I was moved to review this because the one review on this page completely tore it apart. The way the reviewer wrote made me think that this person had an intense personal dislike of Chuck Workman, for some reason.

So, I thought I'd look at this reviewers other reviews. And guess what? Almost all porn.

So, let's just stick to the subject at hand: Orson Welles.

I first became aware of Welles when I was taking a film class in college. "Citizen Kane" amazed me, not surprisingly.

Welles says, in "Magician," that Gregg Toland, the great cinematographer, came to Welles and said that he (Toland) wanted very much to work with Welles on "Kane." Welles said, "Why? I've never directed a film before." And Toland said, "That's why."

It was uncharted. Anything was possible. And, indeed, it was.

I would encourage any Welles fan to see this. It was well worth it.

I Started At The Top And Worked My Way Down

[ShootingShark · 6/10 · 9 August 2015]

A documentary on the acclaimed theatre and film director Orson Welles, combining clips from his movies with interview footage and commentaries from many collaborators.

This film, which was shown theatrically at various festivals and I caught at my local arts cinema, is informative, well made and provides real insight into Welles' philosophy. This is achieved partly through the terrific footage of Welles himself but also by devoting time to the circumstances of his career. There are the expected plaudits from filmmakers such as Peter Bogdanovich (who knew him very well), Paul Mazursky, and Steven Spielberg, but also firsthand experiences from Norman Lloyd (one of the original Mercury Theatre players and I believe the last one still living), Charlton Heston (Touch Of Evil), Anthony Perkins and Jeanne Moreau (The Trial), as well as Oja Kodar whom Welles lived with for the last twenty years of his life. There are also key contributions from Welles' biographer Simon Callow, who champions the 1966 Chimes At Midnight (and not Citizen Kane) as his masterpiece, as well as noted sound designer/editor Walter Murch. In my view Welles was clearly a fine actor and a brilliant filmmaker, whose intelligence, innovation and gift for his craft is indisputable, but what's more fascinating for me is the career path he took. Many label him a failure; a prodigious talent who peaked in his twenties and then threw it all away. He suffered many indignities, particularly from studio bosses, the Hearst press, critics and bankers throughout his life (New Yorker writer Pauline Kael did a particularly vicious and unfair hatchet job on him in 1971), and when he died in 1985 aged seventy there was muted recognition of his achievements. Conversely I find his biography heroic and trailblazing. Far from getting stuck in Hollywood making formulaic costume dramas, he lived a far richer and more artistically rewarding life. He might have had regrets, when he ran out of money or had to resort to TV shows to retain his status, but all through his life he did great work, often in difficult circumstances where others would give up, and always pushing, learning, adapting, embracing new ideas. This is the true measure of any artist; not how lucrative their work is or how famous they become, and this is why he is held in such regard by so many people who have experienced the frustrations of trying to be a filmmaker with vision and integrity. The movie also illustrates Welles' inestimable influence on cinema, with clips from films as diverse as Woody Allen's Radio Days and Tim Burton's Ed Wood, and some comic interludes, notably a dead-on impression of the great man by John Candy. It's also a real treat for fans of Welles, with footage from some of his lesser known work (such as 1974's F For Fake), and several unfinished projects like his endless production of Don Quixote (a cursed film if ever there was, which Terry Gilliam also tried and failed for years to make). Was Orson Welles a genius ? A mad egocentric ? A pioneer so far ahead of his time ? A charlatan masquerading as an artist ? I think of him as simply a brilliant film director, who poured his soul and originality into his work. To quote Marlene Dietrich, he was some kind of a man.

Good but very, very superficial.

[planktonrules · 27 July 2016]

If you want a film that explores the work of Orson Welles, this film is well worth seeing. However, if you want to see a film about Welles himself and explores his psyche, then you should look further. I knew about most of his film projects but wanted to know what made him tick...what made him so successful but so self- sabotaging (both in films and in his relationships). Sadly, the documentary has very, very little to say about this and instead talks about his genius in a way that almost seems like supplication- --as if to even talk about his faults or psychological make-up was somehow sacrilege. I wanted deconstruction--the film just gives us adoration.

So what question did I want to have answered? Well, most importantly why he never completed so many of his films and how this might be related to his personal life. A genius in some ways but also an incredibly flawed man who made a mess of so much promise.

If you ever find a film that DOES explore Welles' psychological make-up, drop me a line. But a film that ONLY talks about his work but doesn't criticize or analyze it is interesting...mildly...but nothing more. To me, NOT to talk about his psychological state is like doing a film all about George Washington and never mentioning the Revolutionary War!

Smoke and Mirrors

[writers_reign · 6/10 · 4 June 2016]

As a lifelong admirer of Orson Welles I usually feel that anything at all in which he features will be worth seeing - and then I remember things like Ferry To Hong Kong and reconsider. Magician is a once-over- lightly look at the life and times of Welles which thankfully makes no mention of Ferry To Hong Kong thus preventing me describing it accurately as a look at the life and times of Welles warts and all. If you're a Welles buff you can't really see too many clips of Chimes At Midnight even if you can, at you leisure, wallow in the whole film via the DVD now available once again. Magician also offers clips across the board from Welles the actor, Welles the Broadcaster, Welles the writer, Welles the director so it really would be churlish to ask for more

worth seeing but not spectacular

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 19 March 2016]

"Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles" is a documentary from 2014 about the great filmmaker, actor, magician, and personality. I must have seen and read everything there is on Welles, if that's possible, and this particular documentary borrowed heavily from the best there is -- the BBC interview with Welles, which was one of the best things I've ever seen.

Of interest here were the photos of him as a young boy, and interviews with Micheál MacLiammóir, Norman Lloyd, comments by Julie Taymor, his daughter Beatrice, and so many others, some of whom I had not seen interviewed before.

Welles was, to say the least, a complicated man. He couldn't deal with the studio constraints, but without them, he often floundered. Spielberg was interviewed here, and I remember very well from one of the books on Welles that he went to dinner with Spielberg with the idea that Spielberg could help him find a distributor for one of his movies.

When he came home, the interviewer called him, and he said, they only ever want to talk about Kane. Kane was a blessing and a curse. I think some of the people interviewed didn't give him credit for the fact that he was just as talented as he had always been, but the business had become so much tougher.

Documentaries about Welles are always worth seeing. He was one of the most charismatic and interesting people who ever lived, and he'd probably tell you that himself. And the people around him seemed to adore him. So really, as much as I have liked other documentaries better, this one is worth seeing too.

Fine retelling of the Tale of Orson Welles.

[powellkevin · 10/10 · 9 August 2015]

This is a fine documentary. I liked it. Guess you can't please everybody.

I wanted to tell a story here. A friend of mine was a cab driver in LA from 84 through 90 or so and swears this story is true.

As a present for my friend's birthday, another driver let him pick up a regular, weekly round trip: Orson Welles to and from some Italian restaurant in LA. Welles gets in the cab, and my friend tried to engage him in conversation. "I'm a big fan, Mr. Welles," etc. And... nothing. Stony silence. "Cause you know, Third Man is one of the best movies ever..." etc. Nothing. Not word one. Now, my friend tries to to get him to say something. "Boy, they really cheated you on Magnificent Ambersons." Silence. My friend finally gets down to saying, "Cause, you know, Citizen Kane really wasn't that good."

Welles also said nothing on the way home.

Fascinating insight into one of the most original artists in history.

[alexanderdavies-99382 · 10/10 · 8 October 2017]

In spite of what another reviewer thinks, I found "Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles" to be an engrossing and fascinating documentary on one of cinema's most original artists. It is the ideal tribute in celebrating the 100th anniversary of Orson Welles' birth. The interviews offer some insight into the man as well as the director and actor and the contribution from Welles biographer and actor Simon Callow is especially valuable. From the time Orson Welles decided on a career in showbusiness, he was destined to do things his way by being an individualist. Part of this may have been down to his being a Democrat and that his mother was politically very active in helping to establish women's rights. Welles was the kind of artist who would sacrifice his principles for no one, certainly not with his directing career. All this is shown via Welles' infamous clashes with "R.K.O" over his first two movies, "Citizen Kane" and "The Magnificent Ambersons" and how Hollywood deemed the director to be virtually unemployable by the end of the 1940s. I enjoyed the section about Welles' career in radio where he created "The Mercury Theatre" which was dedicated to producing dramas of the highest quality (which they did). The discussion over the production of "War of the Worlds" is probably the career highlight for Welles as far as the medium of radio is concerned. It was a pity that Welles couldn't make his version of the novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. Such a film would have been the equal of "Citizen Kane" in terms of cinematic value. The documentary reveals that "R.K.O" insisted that Welles reduce the budget for his forthcoming movie "Heart of Darkness" by so much. In the end, the project was shelved indefinitely. I shalln't talk about "Citizen Kane" very much as a lot has been said about the film over the years. For myself, I have come to appreciate and to enjoy the film a good deal. The documentary shows how Orson Welles struggled to secure any financial support for his later films after his reputation throughout Hollywood proceeded him. Welles took on some acting jobs in England, so as to raise money for his film adaptations based on the work of William Shakespeare. There is discussion about Welles' work on the masterpiece, "The Third Man." It is interesting to note that even though Orson Welles is the one people remember the most from that film, his time on screen is not much and he didn't work for long on the production. I had a chuckle when it was revealed how Welles refused to be filmed inside the real sewers in Vienna and that an elaborate reconstruction was built at one of the British film studios - just to please him! Something that wasn't mentioned to the best of my knowledge, was the fact that Welles worked on the radio shows "The Lives of Harry Lime" and "The Black Museum." Both are hugely entertaining and should be better known. Peter Bogdanovich talks extensively about his interviews and discussions with Welles and this was fascinating. To read all about their discussions, the volume "This is Orson Welles" comes highly recommended. There is interview footage with the man himself and this is essential in gaining an idea as to what made him tick. Orson Welles was the kind of person who carried with him an aura of mystery and seemed to encourage people to think of him in that way. A thoroughly enjoyable tribute all round. Fans should like this.

Workmanlike <- see what I did there?

[rdoyle29 · 8/10 · 24 February 2023]

Is it too on-the-nose to point out that this documentary is directed by someone named "Workman"?

Perhaps.

This is an absolutely fine documentary that does two things very well:

1. It covers his entire life.

2. It grapples with all of his work on a fairly equal footing, not portraying him as a "once great man".

(I lie ... it does a third thing well. It portrays Welles as a person who must have been one hell of a great person to hang around with.)

Because it covers so much ground in a taught 90 minutes, it doesn't cover much of anything in any depth. It's best for folks with at least some significant Welles gaps that require filling.

Citizen Orson

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 18 April 2016]

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles celebrates the centenary of the birth of the legendary Actor, Director, Raconteur and Foodie. The documentary has no narration, it just uses clips from Welles movies, footage from interviews and Welles himself ends up narrating his life through anecdotes and stories he told throughout his career.

The problem is if you want to know about the man just watch the Arena documentary from the BBC that was made a few years before he died where you get Orson Welles, his life and career from the big man himself, many clips of which are used here.

Magician feels like a tepid rundown of his career. There are some major contributors such as Steven Spielberg but the only interesting aspect I took from this is a man who became a low budget independent film-maker, forever looking to raise money so he could complete the many films he had in production at any one time, some of them going on for years, many never completed.

Orson Welles was an important figure in cinematic history, this documentary is a starter not the main course.

Highly Entertaining and Worth Watching

[Michael_Elliott · 11 May 2017]

Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles (2014)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This is certainly a highly entertaining documentary that takes a look at the career of Orson Welles. It features archival interviews with the director as well as archival and new interviews with a wide range of filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Richard Linklater as well as actors like Charlton Heston and Welles' two surviving daughters.

I've read a lot of negative reviews aimed at this film and while I understand where they're coming from, at the same time I think they're being a bit harsh. Yes, this film could have gone more into the mind of Welles and it could have focused more on his personal life. It could have done a number of things but I think it's best to judge what's actually here and not judge what isn't here or whatever we might have wanted the documentary to be about.

I really thought the film did a good job at giving a quick look at the work of Welles going back to his childhood to his radio work to his movies and of course the projects he was doing at the end of his life. I thought the archival interviews with Welles were great and I really liked how they pretty much helped the legend tell his own story. The film clips are wonderful and it was just a great way to get introduced to the man and his films.

If you're already familiar with Welles then you might not learn anything "new" here but this is still a highly entertaining documentary and one that's certainly worth watching.

Superficial

[bigverybadtom · 3/10 · 23 April 2017]

The movie was presumably a "quickie" meant for the centenary of Orson Welles's 1915 birth. It goes superficially over Welles's life and work, and a number of people who have interacted with or call him a strong influence are interviewed. But basically this documentary says a lot without teaching much.

It starts with describing Welles's childhood and his broken home, how he was a child genius who could do a lot of intellectual (but not athletic) things, how he ended up getting into Hollywood and cinema, as well as stage acting, and how he kept starting a bunch of movies but never finishing them, how he kept getting into trouble over creative control and financing, and how he became a legend despite all his troubles and comparatively thin body of finished work.

Yet you ultimately find out little about Welles. His chaotic family life is not really covered, nor the reason he could not discipline himself enough to complete more work, nor why at the end of his life he went into decline with self-parody. His trouble with Hearst over "Citizen Kane" is not even mentioned. Interesting only as the most basic of introductions to Orson Welles.

Inept documentary about a towering personality

[lor_ · 24 November 2014]

MAGICIAN is a dud - a less than mediocre run-through of the life and career of the legendary entertainment figure Orson Welles. I caught a theatrical screening Saturday that proved to be a complete waste of time.

Contrast this loser with the 2007 documentary SPINE TINGLER!, which informatively and entertainingly profiled schlockmeister William Castle. Unlike Welles, Castle is a mere footnote in film history, but the portrait of him was lively, to the point, and even created an emotional connection (bordering on pathos) when looking at his declining years and premature death - the elements sorely lacking in MAGICIAN.

Director Chuck Workman is famous and lauded in some circles (not mine) for his career in compilations (more accurately excerpts) -often responsible for the abbreviated Academy Awards show's highlight reels of great moments in film. I find him to be a master of trivializing, taking works of art ranging from a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon to any number of great feature films and extracting a cute or memorable moment from each, then juxtaposing them together for generally idiotic effect (e.g., a montage of famous screen kisses). I'm old-fashioned: I like to sit through an entire cartoon or movie, even endlessly long ones like BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ, THE DECALOGUE or SHOAH. My dreaded "high-brow" satire would be a Saturday Night Live tribute to Jacques Rivette by Workman (or perhaps Tom Schiller, pick your poison) consisting of fleeting clips from his brilliant but notoriously long feature films.

And so it is not surprising to me that Workman trivializes Orson Welles' life and career. Most of MAGICIAN consists of old interviews with Welles or other deceased witnesses, ranging from Sydney Pollack to John Houseman. Ken Burns has made a career treating subjects for whom living witnesses are few or nil but through eloquent narration and sometimes readings by talented actors has brought them to life. Where Workman does have a live testimonial the results are - you guessed it- trivial: Welles biographer Simon Callow is a terrific actor and erstwhile director himself, but his comments are unenlightening; Welles' longtime companion Oja Kodar (who I saw give a highly educational talk on Welles decades ago when she presented excerpts of his unfinished films including THE DEEP and THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND) is totally wasted in an interview that makes her out to be a flake; Welles experts Peter Bogdanovich and Joe McBride plus recently deceased Paul Mazursky briefly have minimal information to contribute; and Francis Coppola's longtime editor Walter Murch is strictly footnote material discussing the "improvements" (this seems to be a cottage industry) in Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL that have been made by re-editing the Universal re-edited picture. Perhaps meant to insult on purpose, Workman even works in comments by Wolfgang Puck (!) concerning Welles' famous appetite. Thanks a lot, Chuck.

To further trivialize matters, Workman insists on including numerous film homages to Welles, such as clips from DAY FOR NIGHT, ED WOOD and the TV movie about KANE starring Liev Schreiber. There is more junk like this than attention to Welles' voluminous screen acting career which gets short shrift other than references to how "in demand" he was. The controversy regarding Welles vs. Herman Mankiewicz in apportioning authorship to CITIZEN KANE (screenwriting-wise) is obfuscated rather than clarified by this worthless documentary.

For someone who knows little to nothing about Orson Welles the film hits the familiar clichés -his boy wonder achievements dating back to childhood and growing up in Woodstock; mercurial milestones in theater and radio, triumph and fall in Hollywood and latter years as true independent filmmaker. For me it amounted to a mass of generally misleading information (frequent claims that FALSTAFF not KANE is his true masterpiece) and significant omissions (his Kodar period sloughed off and his long collaboration with the late talented pornographer Gary Graver (more famous as Welles' cameraman) ignored.

No need to worry - I suspect another filmmaker, perhaps even Burns or his brother Ric, will conjure up a suitable treatment of the renaissance man Welles. In the meantime MAGICIAN instantly belongs on the scrap heap of bad movies which, to paraphrase Theodore Sturgeon in his famous quote about science fiction, make up 90% of film history ("but then 90% of everything is crud").

Terrible

[ritzidean · 1/10 · 6 September 2015]

Unintelligent documentary about a very intelligent man. No cohesive theme or statement about Orson Wells. Chunks of a better documentary edited together into a bad one. Has some interesting comments about how he made films, otherwise just sycophantic incantations about how great he was. Includes a montage of pictures of Orson Well's girlfriends and wives, how does this contribute to the story? Came off as sexist as these women are regulated to photographs without anything interesting to say about his personal life. Snips here and there of celebrities saying thins about Orson Wells without drawing any meaningful summations about Orson and his art. Smug, smarmy, and depressing in the way it cheapens Orson Wells legacy.

The Man And His Movies

[StrictlyConfidential · 5/10 · 19 November 2020]

If you are at all curios about the life and career of American actor, director, and producer, Orson Welles - Then - This celebrity bio-documentary should prove to be of some special interest to you.

Through stills, archival footage, and interviews - "Magician" covers the full spectrum of what made Orson Welles tick. And it also brings some insight into why, even today, a number of his films continue to be an influence on contemporary movie-directors in America, and beyond.

Stylish And In Depth

[RonellSowes · 8 March 2021]

Of all the Orson Welles documentary this is probably the most famous and considered the most comprehensive. Which it might be. The documentary follows his life from childhood to death and everything in between; using his work to track his life, with only slight mention to Welles' personal life. And considering this documentary is titled Magician it's ironic how it utterly ignores Orson's career as a magician. But there's only so much you can fit in a 91 minute documentary. It heavily utilizes the numerous interviews Welles did as means to comment on his life. And who else better to comment on Welles' life than Orson Welles? Certainly more than many of the cretins featured in this. Who might know some of the facts but fail to recognize the actual truth or essence. However, some of those in this like Peter Bogdanovic or Oja Kodar knew Orson very well and some of the best living pundits on him.

Magician: The Astonishing Life And Work Of Orson Welles is a stylish, in depth view of the tragedy that is Orson Welles.