John Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick

John Huston: The Man, The Movies, The Maverick (1989)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

The title pretty much tells you everything this documentary is about. Clocking in at 129-minutes, this documentary covers both the personal and professional life of director John Huston and features interviews with the likes of Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Evelyn Keyes, Michael Fitzgerald, Arthur Miller, Anjelica Huston, Tom Shaw and Michael Caine. Robert Mitchum serves as both host and narrator. I think the film deserves a lot of credit for being very open and honest about this subject matter and I'm glad that they didn't try and show Huston in some false light. This includes mentioning his killing a woman in the 30s by accidentally running over her, the various wives he had and other character flaws. We also get to hear several great stories about what he was doing before he came to Hollywood and then, of course, his Hollywood films speak for themselves. You really get a great idea of what Huston was like and this documentary makes you want to go out and see the films all over again. There are some great stories told by Bacall as she recounts several moments between Huston and her husband Humphrey Bogart. There are some great stories about being on the set of THE African QUEEN as well as others about KEY LARGO, THE MISFITS and countless other films. Overall this is a very well-made and an extremely detailed documentary that tries to cover just about everything Huston did. This includes his acting gigs, his WWII documentaries and his paintings. If you're interested in the director and his work you're not going to find a better movie than this. Even better are the countless interviews with Huston throughout his career so you get to hear from the man himself.

John Huston was a very strange man--sort of like Ernest Hemingway (for good and bad) but with more of a commercial bent. He was an enigma, as he was supremely talented yet in addition to making many brilliant films (such as "The Maltese Falcon" and "The African Queen") he also made some films that were total crap ("Myra Breckinridge" comes quickly to mind). A terrific writer, director and decent actor, he was also a terrible husband and family man. He was also an amazing eccentric, owning monkeys and walking to his own drummer.

This film is a lengthy tribute about the man and his films--with a slightly emphasis on the man. Filled with clips of his films, interviews with family and movie stars from the late 1980s as well as a few clips of Huston later in his life. Unfortunately, the really interesting interviews were often missing--and you can't blame the film makers for not having a time machine to get them! But it would have been wonderful had there been some way to have interviews with Humphrey Bogart (one of his closest friends), ALL his many wives and John Wayne (who, unlike the rest, apparently hated the man and once decked Huston during one film shoot because of how Huston was treating the actors). Plus, a few people were alive but either were unwilling or unavailable for the film--such as Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando and many others. I am sure they tried, however, to get them but couldn't.

So how is the film overall? Well, it's excellent in many ways. Foremost, I loved that it was 129 minutes--too many film tributes on famous directors are just too short and cram too much into an hour or hour and a half. Also, while it was NOT exactly a 'warts and all' treatment of his life, it did discuss some of his MANY shortcomings--such as his wives, his time away from his kids, his ling and his drinking. BUT, it also felt a bit sanitized as well. How could the film fail to mention some of his most god-awful films--again, "Myra Breckinridge" comes to mind. Also, Huston was famous (at least earlier in his career) for mistreating his actors--yet the film talks about what a great guy he was--with Paul Newman saying how much he liked actors. I think the truth about the man is that while you probably would NOT want to have had him as a father or husband, he was an amazingly complex and talented man--one you CANNOT forget because of his oddness, his immense skills and his contributions to films.

Myra Breckinridge John Wayne--decked him

This film is included as a bonus feature on the two-disc version of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre." I was not very familiar with John Huston before seeing this film, but now I seek out his movies.

This is a comprehensive portrait that covers Huston's entire life, features anecdotes from himself, his family, and his friends, and gives insight into his personality.

Huston was very much a renaissance man: served in the Mexican cavalry; worked as a writer, director, and actor; served during World War II; was an accomplished painter; and even became master of the hounds for Irish fox hunts.

This film also provides good information about such Huston classics as "The Maltese Falcon," "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," "Key Largo," "The African Queen," "The Misfits," and "The Man Who Would be King."

Huston was a larger-than-life personality who has left us a timeless body of work, and this is a fitting tribute to him.

"John Huston: The Man, the Movies, the Maverick" in an unimpressive documentary which covers quite a bit of territory, but goes on for much too long. Robert Mitchum was not the best choice to serve as host/narrator as his voice is a monotone and not very exciting. The witnesses were well chosen, but big portions of Huston's life seem to be missing. The last films he made during his lifetime were barely discussed.

Reviews on this site appear to praise the documentary highly. One reviewer is quite confused, however. He seems to think the Huston directed "Myra Breckinridge" when he only appeared in it as a character named "Buck Loner." The reviewer writes "he also made some films that were total crap ("Myra Breckinridge" comes quickly to mind)." This is repeated twice later in the review,, but it is false. Michael Sarne directed "Myra Breckinridge" and there is no doubt that it is a bad film.