Review: "The Other Side of the Wind" is a Provocative, Messy Piece of Brilliance

Scene from The Other Side of the Wind

Even in death, it seemed like director Orson Welles couldn't catch a break. His directorial debut, the highly acclaimed Citizen Kane, was mired in controversy and protest from its early release - and his later films would only continue to be pushed through development hell and often funded in less conventional manners, whether they be taking bit parts in inferior works like Transformers: The Movie, or even editing adult films. Still, Welles was a man of passion and it shows in his final film, the incomplete The Other Side of the Wind which was incomplete at the time of death and once again mired in lawsuits that prolonged its release by 30+ years. Thanks to Netflix, it's finally here and it's a mirage of a filmmaker who continued to push boundaries, finding the limits of film to be endless and in the process making avant garde art. This final film, actually an attempt to restore good graces with the Hollywood studio system, is probably his most challenging and unique in a career full of challenging and unique projects. It's why it seems like an odd fit for Netflix, even if it's one of the greatest puzzles of 2018.

To a wider audience, Citizen Kane is the beginning and end of Welles' lengthy career. It's a bit of a mislead, though it's hard to argue when countless institutions name it among the best films ever directed (not to mention most influential). However, the ingenuity on screen would ignore the fact that this wasn't just a technique that Welles would rely on for the next 40 years. No, he would continue to challenge himself, as a magician and performer who famously tricked audiences into believing in a space invasion with the War of the Worlds broadcast. To stop at his first film would ignore the audacity that included adapting Shakespeare (Othello, Chimes at Midnight) or Franz Kafka (The Trial) into a new vision of film. He believed in the art of film so much that one of his final films, F for Fake, played with the idea of reality so effectively that it's both a documentary and an early form of mockumentary. Even his turn in The Muppet Movie was subversive and smart.

Which is why The Other Side of the Wind is both such a compelling film and a bit predictable for an artist who never was pleased with conventionality. Even if his career was known for being challenging, his long lost film feels like it owes credit to people who appear in his supporting cast: Peter Bogdanovich, Paul Mazursky, and Dennis Hopper specifically. They were all directors known for their output in the late 60's and 70's as part of the "New Hollywood" movement. To think of Welles as finding any influence from The Last Picture Show or Easy Rider would seem a bit ridiculous on paper. However, it's exactly the type of jumping off point that the film's flow starts at. Even Mazursky's work on the anarchic music program The Monkees (and the even more manic film Head) leaves the impression that Welles was somewhat indebted to those filmmakers who took his experimental style and took it to the next level. While F for Fake was a film that played with form, it's hard to deny that it had some trace of Welles still in it. 

The Other Side of the Wind never sets out to be like what you expect from Welles. Considering that the film was complete with only 40 minutes edited by the late filmmaker, it's hard to argue that this is a pristine vision of what he wanted. However, it's close enough. Subbing in for Welles is Bogdanovich on an opening narration that lays out its own cryptic code for the rest of the film, which details the final days of director Jake Hannaford (John Huston) before a car crash. He's chasing a muse (Oja Kodar) and trying to make sense of an incomplete film. Welles denied any similarities to his life, but it's hard not to see it all as something personal. Even the choice to cast Huston, who substituted acting and directing so effortlessly, feels like a grander commentary. It helps in part because Jake comes across as a bit arrogant and upbeat, even as his life is mired in controversy and his frustration with the studio system becomes rather apparent. He turns to his staff, notably Bogdanovich, in a move that feels like master seeking advice from mentor. This is only the tip of how far down Welles' attention to subtext actually goes. For a film that's shot with the realism of films like Easy Rider, it's intriguing that he mixes in his own kaleidoscope of surrealism as the film progresses.

With all of this said, the film almost seems lacking of a conventional plot and replaces it with intimate conversations that carry the audience through thematic revelations of Jake Hannaford's life. It's here that Welles appears to be doing one of his most incredibly different approaches to film yet. A large portion of his film features a titillating series of nude scenes that are expertly shot to turn the smut into art, and also raise questions about Welles. Despite his willingness to experiment, he always felt conservative enough to not feature two central characters wandering the desert while naked. It's here that he feels more vivacious, trying to comment on something deeper and edgier, and most of all escaping the studio's prudish nature regarding sex. It's all part of Welles' grander design, and in that way makes him feel just as vital to the New Hollywood movement as any of the director-actors that he has filled the cast with. It's all a grander commentary on the film industry, and it's at times scathing. However, he does it in such a vague way that it's often hard to think of it in a negative sense.

The film is a collage of concepts that only fall further into the imagination as the third act develops. Suddenly Jake is shooting lamps when a screening of his movie backfires. There's an anarchic sense of humor to the whole thing, and it only adds thought provocation to everything. What does this mean and why was it so mired in lawsuits for so long? There's clear effort to make it matter, notably with Bogdanovich painstakingly compiling everything together with the team. However, the incomplete nature is something even the living and younger Welles faced - as his film The Magnificent Ambersons still remains fractured. It's all a trope of Welles' life as a filmmaker; someone who was misunderstood and maybe not appreciated enough outside of the filmmaker community. Here he makes a strong case for what he could bring to film in a way that was relevant and new, and even when there's whole scenes that are missing shots, he makes it work. He leaves something to the audiences' imagination, even by accident.

The Other Side of the Wind is an odd fit for Netflix, who treats 90% of their original films department as hidden backlogs. In some ways, it's an insult in spite of the streaming service's huge influence to get this film out in front of a larger audience than say a traditional theatrical release. The fact that audiences will be robbed of seeing this on a big screen since Netflix's theatrical release patterns have been garbage is probably the saddest part of this deal. With that said, it's likely that this won't be a film as cherished outside of art house communities - thus kind of making it a perfect end to Welles' misunderstood career. The hope is that it isn't forgotten and that is legacy grows over time as people rewatch the film and find depth and meaning to the images. It's definitely exciting to see new Welles, and the imagery is some of the more provocative that he's ever shot. However, it's time for audiences to grapple with how much significance this film will have in Welles' bigger filmography. It's probably never going to be Citizen Kane great, but maybe it will be the lost masterpiece that takes as long to understand as it did to reach audiences. That's the magic of Welles, basically.

In all honesty, the only way that the film would've been better is if Welles had completed the film himself. It's one of life's greater tragedies when a creator's message has to be interpreted through someone else's voice. With that said, it makes The Other Side of the Wind an interesting challenge of a film, trying to say so much about the director's late-career bitterness at studios while adding meta subtext to casting major New Hollywood names that work for one of the most esteemed of Welles' generation (Huston). It's definitely not going to be for everyone, and it's probably going to be a confusing mess to some. However, if the idea of seeing a film that's immersed in cryptic meaning and gorgeous cinematography as well as charismatic performances, then this film is worth a watch. It won't ever be the entry point for those wanting to "get" Orson Welles, but it may help to explain just how large his hubris would end up being by the end.