The best John Huston’s documentary movies
We present our ranking of the best John Huston’s movies. Do you love cinema? Or are you looking for a movie of your favorite actor to watch tonight? Surely you have some to see or that you did not know yet about John Huston.
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
6.9/10
The extraordinary life of Orson Welles (1915-1985), an enigma of Hollywood, an irreducible independent creator: a musical prodigy, an excellent painter, a master of theater and radio, a modern Shakespeare, a magician who was always searching for a new trick to surprise his audience, a romantic and legendary figure who lived only for cinema.
Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff
7.7/10
In 2001 Jack Cardiff (1914-2009) became the first director of photography in the history of the Academy Awards to win an Honorary Oscar. But the first time he clasped the famous statuette in his hand was a half-century earlier when his Technicolor camerawork was awarded for Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. Beyond John Huston's The African Queen and King Vidor's War and Peace, the films of the British-Hungarian creative duo (The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death too) guaranteed immortality for the renowned cameraman whose career spanned seventy years.
Five Came Back
8.2/10
The extraordinary story of how Hollywood changed World War II – and how World War II changed Hollywood, through the interwoven experiences of five legendary filmmakers who went to war to serve their country and bring the truth to the American people: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens. Based on Mark Harris’ best-selling book, “Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War.”
And the Oscar Goes To...
7.1/10
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.
San Pietro
6.6/10
This documentary movie is about the battle of San Pietro, a small village in Italy. Over 1,100 US soldiers were killed while trying to take this location, that blocked the way for the Allied forces from the Germans.
George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey
7.7/10
Biography of the legendary filmmaker directed by his son.
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
7.4/10
As his life comes to its end, famous Hollywood director Orson Welles puts it all on the line at the chance for renewed success with the film The Other Side of the Wind.
Embracing Chaos: Making the African Queen
7.3/10
A documentary about the making of John Huston's 'The African Queen'.
Filmmakers vs. Tycoons
7.1/10
How the cinema industry does not respect the author's work as it was conceived, how manipulates the motion pictures in order to make them easier to watch by an undemanding audience or even how mutilates them to adapt the original formats and runtimes to the restrictive frame of the television screen and the abusive requirements of advertising. (Followed by “Filmmakers in Action.”)
Babenco: Tell Me When I Die
7.3/10
Besieged by cancer and nearing the end, the genius Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco (1946-2016) asks Bárbara Paz, his wife, for one last wish: to be the protagonist of his own death.
Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies
7.8/10
The life and work of Samuel Goldwyn, a Polish-born glove salesman who became one of Hollywood's greatest independent producers, is remembered in this classy documentary created for the PBS American Masters series. Based on A. Scott Berg's acclaimed biography, the film includes new interviews with Goldwyn's surviving family members as well as vintage interviews with such luminaries as Bette Davis, John Huston, Laurence Olivier and others.
John Huston: Adventures of a Free Soul
6.7/10
The portrait of a whimsical and rebellious, yet cultured and cosmopolitan actor, screenwriter and director – going against the grain of conventional Hollywood filmmakers: from The Maltese Falcon to Prizzi’s Honor.
Report from the Aleutians
6.4/10
A documentary propaganda film produced by the U.S. Army Signal Corps about the Aleutian Islands Campaign during World War II. The film opens with a map showing the strategic importance of the island, and the thrust of the 1942 Japanese offensive into Midway and Dutch Harbor. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Buñuel
7/10
Completed a year after his death in 1983, this program presents the definitive biography of Spain’s renowned Surrealist film maker and iconoclast, Luis Buñuel. Using photographs, film excerpts, and numerous interviews with Bunuel, the video chronicles his early friendships with Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca, the stormy reactions to many of his groundbreaking films, and the influence he has had on international cinema. Among those interviewed are directors Federico Fellini, John Huston, and Jose L. Saenz De Heredia; Buñuel’s wife, Jeanne Rucar, and son Juan; actor Francisco Rabal; and Octavio Paz.
Federico Fellini's Autobiography
6.9/10
Federico Fellini was one of the most individual and thought provoking directors who based most of his films upon his own reflections, dreams, life events and fantasies, who did not convey any special message for humanity but regarded cinema simply as entertainment. Is there an answer to everything? Can it possibly be? If yes, then life can no longer be so curious, so dynamic, so creative...
Hollywood and the Stars
NBC's pioneering documentary series, produced by the David L. Wolper Production Company, in association with United Artists Television. Each 30-minute show concentrated on a Hollywood genre, film or legendary star. This series ran from September 30, 1963 until May 18, 1964, and many of its individual episodes were released into the home gauge market in shortened form. Certain episodes would focus on films being made at the time, notably Preminger's The Cardinal and Huston's Night of the Iguana.
On the Trail of the Iguana
6.2/10
Behind the scenes documentary of the filming of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana.
James Joyce: A Shout in the Street
7.8/10
An account of the adventurous and bohemian life of one of the worlds greatest writers - James Joyce.
B.Traven: A Mystery Solved
B. Traven is one of the most mysterious figures of the 20th century. He wrote The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and a dozen other fine books which have sold in millions around the world, but no publisher, no agent, and no fellow author ever met him -he has remained the Marie Celeste of literature, a name without an identity. Nobody knew in what language he wrote. Nobody knew in what country he had been born. Nobody knew if he were one man or several. It was even said that those who sought him were struck down and destroyed. Was this photograph, taken in London in 1923, a picture of Traven? It was certainly a vital clue.
Rocky Road to Dublin
7.5/10
Rocky Road to Dublin is a 1968 documentary film by Irish-born journalist Peter Lennon and French cinematographer Raoul Coutard, examining the contemporary state of the Republic of Ireland, posing the question, “what do you do with your revolution once you’ve got it?” It argues that Ireland was dominated by cultural isolationism, Gaelic and clerical traditionalism at the time of its making.
