An Honest Liar

source: An Honest Liar

The cunning, combative career of James "The Amazing" Randi, slightly better known as a professional disprover of psychics and faith healers than as an escape artist and illusionist of his own right. His career arc is an unexpectedly exciting one - he rubbed elbows with Johnny Carson and Alice Cooper in his prime - and as showy as one might expect from a lifelong performer. I found his transition right from the stage into the professional debunking game to be a natural one, not to mention noble (he considers work as a magician to be entertainment, while paranormal hoaxes are just thievery) but some see hypocrisy there. While it stays on the subject of his career, the documentary is a fascinating one. It switches gears in the final half-hour to focus on his personal life, where he's ironically caught by a private swindle during production, but apart from the obvious parallels to his working life I didn't find that long aside terribly interesting. Still, a good story, though perhaps not one that needed a feature-length documentary to explore.

!!!! SPOILERS !!!!! Yeah I know it's a documentary but I'm taking no chances James Randi ? One of the first names I discovered via getting connected to the internet . I know over 3.600 IMDb comments beg to differ but when I first had an internet account in Febuary 2001 my favourite sites were the skeptics ones exposing and demolishing everything to do with faith healing , para-psychology and other nonsense . One name that constantly kept cropping up , almost on a par with being a secular God of the skeptical movement , was James Randi , a Canadian born sceptic who started out as a magician and who later became an exposer of frauds , hoaxes and other naughty rip off merchants . This documentary tells of his life , his great successes and his present life which despite all his fame involves something of a personal tragedy of sorts The documentary works best when it concentrates on Randi exposing cheats and how gullible the public are when it comes to being cheated . Anyone remember The Carlos Hoax ? I'm too young too remember but archive footage shows Randi taking a young South American called Jose Alvarez who claimed to channel spirits of the dead to Australia , making up easily checkable fake resumes and getting "Carlos" on every Australian news and documentary show Carlos strutted his stuff with the dead . He could have been a household name today but it was up Randi and Alvarez themselves to stick their hand up and state it was all an act and was done merely to show how lazy , incompetent and downright useless journalists can be when checking facts . Then we get the famous exposure of evangelical faith healer Peter Popoff whose direct contact with God was down to the much less miraculous miracle of wearing an earpiece and getting his wife to give names and ailments of people in the congregation . Randi's (in)famous and long running feud is also covered along with a few now forgotten self promoting self proclaimed mystics Now one thing you can't really accuse Randi of is being lovable . From what I've seen of him he's short tempered , doesn't suffer fools and takes no prisoners . This isn't a criticism and if DOCTOR WHO was an American show Randi would have been born to play the anti-heroic cantankerous incarnation of the first Doctor . Don't believe for a second that this is a sycophantic glowing love letter to James Randi and the clue is in the title - AN HONEST LIAR . As it turns out Randi is a homosexual which he revealed late in life . Again not a criticism . And he partnered up to Jose "Carlos" Alvarez many years ago . Again not a criticism . But as it turns out Alvarez isn't who he claims to be and is one Deyvi Pena who entered America on a false passport , Cue a fair amount of unspoken innuendo that the man who exposed so many con artists has become a victim of sorts to a con artist . I thought this aspect of the documentary which has a feel of undisguised schadenfreude was rather unfair and just a little bit cruel towards Randi and ends an often fascinating documentary on a downbeat , negative vote

Without detailing into spoilers, This movie provided enough interesting lessons spanning much wider than just a movie. I think it's pretty unique in its underlying message, at least I don't know of any other movies with these lines underneath. I may even fall in a separate category. For scientists this movie will show you that there are other variables besides "controlled conditions" and "a bunch of references" which you should be taken into account, when performing tests with humans: humans may deliberately fraud your research. As far as I remember that was never a topic or even a consideration during classes on how to conduct controlled experiments. It also taught me that, no matter how smart you are, people will always be able to fool you. So you do need strict conditions and help of trained professionals when performing tests or experiments in this area. The movie also taught me that even if you put the plain proof that people are frauds in front of people, it is no use. Apparently people disregard the truth even with evidence and for reasons I can't yet comprehend, donate gazillion of dollars to frauds even with recorded proofs of fraudulent behavior. The movie made me aware that knowing the truth is one thing but assuming other people are interested in the truth is another thing. Apart from these and other pretty unique things the movie lets you think of ... it gives an insight in the career of Randi. I was not completely aware of his complete career, which was an eye opener. I also did not know how broad his operations stretched, the determination during the 2 years of paranormal research was absolutely stunning. If I would have to categorize the movie in my DVD/Blu-Ray collection I would create a separate drawer "Truth".

I really enjoyed this documentary for the most part. The parts discussing his rise to fame in the skeptical community, early life, and antics are what make this documentary wonderful. If the documentary alone was more on these things, and maybe focused briefly on his more recent personal life I would have given it a 10. Honestly as much as I admire Randi and his life choices, I do think the documentary dragged way too much on his homosexual relationship. They build up to it, but focus far too much on it. Maybe if it spent 5 minutes on it or something that'd be great, but way too much time was spent on it when I would have loved to see more of the "side parts" where they discuss more of his historic attacks on charlatans. I know in the USA that's the "big thing", but it really seems out of place in an otherwise very well communicated, clear documentary that does him justice. Strongly would recommend.

I've always loved magic. I study films and music to the point that while I still appreciate art at its best, the secrets have been spilled. I want to keep the secrets of magic under wraps so the best showmen can still captivate me. I'd actually never heard of James Randi, a self- proclaimed substitute for Houdini after his death, or maybe I had but forgotten him, so it was a delight to find out he'd been involved in significant events in magic that I looked into - such as Uri Geller's live exposé. Even in his 80s he's a charismatic entertainer who's fun to watch. He knows the value of the secrets of magic, and hates when it's abused to manipulate people for profit, rather than entertain them for profit. It's very satisfying to watch Randi's successes as frauds are exposed and the filmmakers have a wealth of footage to illustrate their points. The chapters may seem to end prematurely, but it culminates in its crisis point in the third act in a way that keeps a balanced argument as to whether what Randi is doing is justice or invasive of people's freedom and hope. But what's most engaging about the doc is Randi's own life and the hidden side of him of his partner. An Honest Liar is a very well put together doc about an important figure in magic everyone should know about. 8/10

I only recently became aware of James Randi as a debunker of hoaxes. I decided to watch this documentary. I was really loving this and prepared to give it a 10.... until about an hour and a half, the point at which the director prods James Randi into saying something due to his fears of losing his life partner of 25 years. He asks the director not to include his last comments. If at that point, the scene had ended and it had still been included in the movie, I probably could have lived with the director's choice to include the scene. However, the interviewer twice assures him that it won't be used AND THEN USES IT. (justifying it at the end credits as saying James Randi had agreed to ALL interviews being used. Well yeah, at the time he signed that he wasn't aware his life partner might be deported). James says "if I thought any of this would be used. I'd end the film now". (If the film had ended at this point, I also would have been fine with that choice) Instead.... The director answers "no no no no" to try and calm him while James says he is trusting the interviewer. The interviewer does try to point out that they had discussed using ALL interviews, but then instead of holding firm... when James Randi says "I want this last part to vanish"... interviewer says "OK UNDERSTOOD. NO WORRIES." Randi then says again, "I trust you or I wouldn't be doing this." Interviewer, "Thank you". If he truly believed it needed to be included he shouldn't have told James Randi he wouldn't! It's not like James Randi just admitted killing Kennedy or something that had to be revealed to the world, something that truly justified violating his trust. For shame. Hope the interviewer doesn't plan to ever request an interview from anyone ever again. He has no integrity. The film then includes some quotes about "cons for good" which I think was trying to justify the inclusion. But it's a false equivalency. Including James' comments is NOT on the level of exposing psychic Channelers duping people for money or pointing out flaws in the scientific study of parapsychology.

This is an interesting biography about James Randi (a.k.a. 'The Amazing Randi') but it's also one that seems very muddled and confusing towards the end--such that I really wasn't sure WHAT the filmmaker intended with this movie. Most of the film is about Randi's crusade to expose charlatans who prey on people by using magic tricks and labeling them either psychic powers or powers from God. When talking about this, the film was at its best and the first 85% of the film makes SANE viewers admire and love Randi and his work. However, towards the end, Randi's partner gets in trouble with the law for identity theft. His reasons seemed understandable but instead of just leaving the story there, the filmmaker ODDLY chose to then include a bunch of interviews with Uri Geller--all of which was left unchallenged by Randi or his associates. Giving a questionable character like Geller this opportunity just seemed bizarre as well as ran counter to the spirit of the rest of the film. I didn't understand this at all and it completely confused the film--and seemed unnecessary and, perhaps, a bit underhanded. Overall, I say watch the film but just turn it off near the end or read up on Geller--he's certainly no saint!!

The title 'An Honest Liar' should honestly be the only thing that you read, before watching it. For those who won't do that, I will summarize the elements that make it my favorite documentary: -Nicely structured storytelling 'An Honest Liar' is long, but it has a calm yet captivating pace. Interviews are mixed up with enough found footage to prevent a talking-heads syndrome. -The turbulent life of Randi This is a magician that can tell you his life's story for hours, without boring you. -Controversial chapters Randi has devoted his life to revealing the truth, but is hiding one in the meantime. This plot wraps around the story, and is told in a way that allows you to feel with the reason of this deception. For skeptics on the matter, this might broaden their horizon. -Scope of the plot The scope of 'An Honest Liar' is big, just as the life of Randi. It will probably touch some familiar subjects, from interesting angles (fi: Faith-healers). It even reached out of the borders of a documentary when the interviewer partakes in a lie himself, allowing you to consider the broad definition of deception. -It's educative nature There are several life-lessons told throughout the documentary. What it can teach the viewer is very subjective, but there are lessons about deception to be learned in there for most of us. -The atmosphere Interviews being held seated, but the camera work is varied enough, and settings capture the atmosphere of the interviews. This is most noticeable in one of the more emotional scenes near the end. -What I disliked The lack of action in the own footage. There is, for instance, a lawsuit going on at the time of recording, but the camera isn't in on the action. This didn't degrade much from my overall viewing pleasure, so I won't hesitate to grant 'An Honest Liar' 10 out of 10.

I am a big fan of James Randi, I've been following his work ever since I learned about him, sometime in my teens, so obviously I had been eagerly expecting this movie. And what a let-down it was in the end! The movie meanders randomly between recounting his work and his private life, without taking a firm line (both could have been valid). A couple of important parts of his work are presented, but insufficiently explained and with little context. Most importantly, the movie's pacing is terrible. It is ostensibly divided in chapters but the titles seem to have been placed after the movie was completed, as a kind of caption rather a structure of the narrative. So not only do you not get to learn much new about Randi, not only do you not get to have a glimpse on his thinking (unlike what was masterfully done in Jiro Dreams of Sushi), but on top of that the movie is rather boring.