Being an arty psychological puzzle - and one which might well be not just incomprehensible but also meaningless - I'd always been interested in checking this film out; the fact that it was a critical and box-office failure made it doubly fascinating. Still, what must have seemed like the turkey of the year when new has, with time, acquired a certain charm all its own! On the surface, the film is certainly good-looking (shot by Billy Williams in numerous European locations, mainly a sunny Greek island) and boasts a fine score by Johnny Dankworth (which, in keeping with the film's theme, seems oddly unsuited to what's going on); the star cast responds competently to the mystifying plot (structured like a Chinese box - where past events are constantly re-enacted, identities exchanged and, of course, nothing is what it seems). Still, while Anthony Quinn may be everybody's idea of a Greek larger-than-life character, here he is saddled with an unbecoming Picasso hairstyle and, underneath it all, Michael Caine may well have been mirroring the bewilderment felt by his character since, in his autobiography, he singles out THE MAGUS as his worst film ever (though I personally would beg to differ and choose THE ISLAND [1980] for that unenviable spot)! Actually, it all reminded me of L'INVENZIONE DI MOREL (1974) - another obscure island-set drama where a man intrudes upon a remote community sharing an exclusive fantasy existence: incidentally, that film was partly shot in my native country and also featured Anna Karina (who in THE MAGUS has the rather thankless role of Caine's jilted girlfriend - though her performance is quite good and his callous treatment of Karina has a strong bearing on the main character's ultimate personal growth) as the mystery woman who captivates the hero; with this in mind, as I lay watching the film under review, I wondered at the possibilities had Karina exchanged her role with that of Candice Bergen (who's too young for her role but great to look at nonetheless).Then again, the subject matter was far more congenial to a Joseph Losey rather than the journeyman Guy Green...and one can only surmise how different - and more significant - the film would have been in the former's hands! As it stands, there are some undeniably compelling passages but also a lot of shallow modishness (the skin-flick with Bergen and Julian Glover[!] at the climax is plain risible) and lame moralizing (the WWII flashback scenes, featuring a bizarrely but effectively cast Corin Redgrave as the Nazi Commandant, being especially maudlin).At several points towards the end, it feels like the story is coming to some sort of conclusion but it just goes on and on, peeling off yet another layer to the meandering enigma; to get an inkling of what the film is like, just imagine watching two of the more cerebral episodes of the cult TV series "The Prisoner" (1967-68) back-to-back! In hindsight, the film's epitaph may have been delivered by none other than Woody Allen who once remarked that, if he had to live his life all over again, he would do everything exactly the same...except watch THE MAGUS. As for myself, I wouldn't mind taking another look at it in future: by then I'd be over the initial "shock" and could perhaps appreciate it better...

I have always wanted to see the movie because I loved the novel, but was warned away because I'd heard that the movie was a stinker. It is. Fowles wrote the script and I could follow it fine, despite the fact that I read the novel over thirty years ago.The soundtrack is execrable--jarring, jangling, and utterly inappropriate--breaking any attempt at mystery or mood in the movie. I suspect that the director must take a lot of the blame as even Michael Caine is terrible in it and he was already doing excellent work in ALFIE a couple of years earlier.The "Mysteries" evoked by the book are not well-translated onto the screen. I'd love to see someone remake this one.

John Fowles's novel is a long, dense, complex work, and trying to compress the story into a two-hour film seems foolhardy, at best. Having read the book six months ago, I was expecting something really bad, especially considering the earlier reviews I've read here.I found the movie fascinating. It's very late 60s (especially the musical score, which is quaint, to put it politely), and the ending is unsatisfying, whether or not you've read the book. However, I can overlook these flaws because the movie does, incredibly, succeed in conjuring up some of the mystery and magic of the book --- the forceful character of Conchis, the tempting sexuality of "Julie", the jarring shocks when the story seems to suddenly change direction.I can't think of two actors better suited to play the roles of Urfe and Conchis than Michael Caine and Anthony Quinn. Candice Bergen is a good choice as "Julie".It's beautifully filmed, which helps to reinforce the atmosphere.Anyone who watches this movie expecting everything to be explained at the end is bound to come away frustrated. Many people felt the same way about the book, but I started it knowing that it probably wouldn't all make sense, so I was prepared when it ended somewhat ambiguously. The very end of the movie does seem like a cop-out (after all, there's a good 150 pages of plot that are dropped from the novel) but perhaps it's as good as you can expect from a theatrical feature.Now that the film is available on DVD, beautifully remastered with an excellent anamorphic picture and sound, I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys surrealism and doesn't mind a certain amount of ambiguity. This film does give you an idea of what the book might be about (something I'm still pondering). Nice to have it on DVD.

Agreeably, The Magus was confusing and many critics hated it. However, very few novels can be condensed into a movie with all of the novel's major details. I do feel the movie captured the 'feel' of John Fowles book. It was mysterious, beautiful Greek Isle scenery and a great cast, especially a young and sexy Candice Bergen. I found it to be an excellent cautionary tale. When the movie was released, I was a young college student aspiring to become a high school teacher. This created a strong sense of identity within me for the Michael Caine character, and his punishment for bad behavior and later redemption. Warning, watching The Magus on TV is a waste because of commercial interruptions and the editing massacred the script's flow, leaving a very confusing plot. Unfortunately, I do not think the flick is available on DVD?Postscript: Good news. Cinema Classics Collection is schedule to release The Magus DVD on October 17, 2006. Hopefully it will be an unedited release version?