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.

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

"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.

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.