This is the worst movie I've seen in many years.

Pfft... rent Synecdoche NY. It's unbearable.

It's all about surface activity and your entertainment, huh?

Yeah, that ending was just great, eh. Talk about crass. Original? It is the antithesis of original. The film we now have is something like 86 minutes long. The happy ending imposed by the studio executives is nothing but a crass commercial ploy to try to end the film with the required happy ending that, apparently, so many audience members still require to feel they've had a satisfying experience at the cinema. Someone please alert William Shakespeare that those tragedies are a real downer, and re-writes will be expected by close of business Friday. Welles shot two - to two-and-one-half hours worth of post-edited film, and then left the country to go to South America and film It's All True (or Confidential Report). Admittedly, this was foolish. He had, however, left with editor Robert Wise (who would go on to direct West Side Story and The Sound of Music) detailed instructions for cutting the film. Wise, though, followed the instructions of the studio bosses, and cut it to what we now have, which is a magnificent mess. Additionally, Welles had already written another hour to one - and a-half hours worth of script which would bring the film to an epic length of between three or three -and one-half hours. This was largely focused on Agnes Moorehead's character, ending her days in a run-down boarding house. He had also blocked the material for actors and camera direction. What was seen by some (the original two hours plus) is the stuff of Hollywood legend. Some said it was the greatest movies ever to (almost) come out of the dream factory, with Agnes Moorehead giving the greatest single performance of an actress ever captured on film in America. Even with the travesty left us, there are many moments of greatness. The crane shot at the ball. Tim Holt looking out the window at his mother and her beau, in an astonishing tableau of Freudian complications. The snow scenes. Agnes Moorehead's tortured scheming against those she loves and resents. Bernard Hermann's haunting musical score. These are some of the finest achievements in the history of film, where the medium is raised to the level of true art. Admittedly, it is maddening to watch the film in its present state. Peter Bogdonavich says Welles cried while watching it with him, and then told him to, "Turn it off; after this point it's not my film." Welles believed it would have been his greatest film, better than Citizen Kane. When you read about the history of the film and what happened to it, you can't help but wonder, and mourn for what might have been, and what we as lovers of film have lost.

I think he probably wants 'change' like in Transformers.

Did you see the same movie I did? Nothing changed? Everything changed. The movie is about change. I'm sorry Agnes Moorehead did not become a giant robot or turbo-charged vehicle. Perhaps you should change the battery in your hearing-aid, or the channel, so you can go back to TV Land and watch some more I Love Lucy re-runs. Lucy, by the way, was partly responsible for the loss of the master-negative of the original print of The Magnificent Ambersons. Desilu acquire the film archives of RKO. Lucy was not terribly concerned about film preservation, and used to tell the vault custodians to throw it out or burn it.

Agreed! I keep wondering if OP is just trolling. He can't be serious.

Martha
Austin, Texas

Thank you. Dysfunctional? Most people are dysfunctional. Myself, I love The Magnificent Ambersons. Admittedly, the characters in The Sound Of Music are much more functional ... and boring. I guess most of the people populating Hamlet and Oedipus Rex are also dysfunctional. So distressing. Perhaps the writer of those comments should go contemplate the smoothly appealing bliss of a test pattern, or their CAT scan, which are probably wonderfully similar in their function - they announce that nothing is going on, and it's time to turn off the juice and take a long nap.

I've seen a lot of movies in which all the characters are hopeless from beginning to end. When none of the characters ever grow, evolve, see the error of their ways or even attempt to improve their situation or when there's no message, what's the point? I don't enjoy those movies either.

That's not what I see in this movie. The characters have their issues but, for me, whether I agree with their actions or not, their behaviors are understandable and fall within the context of the story. This is a movie with a message but it's also very entertaining on a number of levels.

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I´m not a Welles fanatic generally, but it´s still kind of difficult to understand how someone can love cinema and not at least appreciate Ambersons on some level. The camera work, lighting, shot selection in particular are exceptional even in the butchered version we got to see & there are numerous scenes of true greatness. One does not need a very lively imagination to envision that in its intended form, this tale with an epic reach coulda been among the greatest works of art ever created. And complaining about the woodenness of acting seems also silly as the performances that I saw looked remarkably nuanced considering the period. A pretty great film despite all hardships that befell it. 9/10.



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

#65? That needs to be divided by 10...at least.

It could've been a great film since it was famously cut, re-shot, and re-edited by the studio to the point of travesty.

Only the first half-hour is untouched, and its fluidity and cohesiveness mark the greatness of Welles' true vision and what the rest of the film could've been.

To note one instance of the kind of travesty of the re-shoot and re-editing, in the scene where George confronts his mother in her bedroom, we see alternating closeup shots of George and his mother. The shot of George was done by Welles, with its deep shadows and great lighting that was a trademark of Welles. The shot of his mother, with its bland lighting and camera angle, was done by someone else who clearly had no inkling of Welles' styles.