The AFI Lifetime Achievement Awards: Orson Welles

Plot

The American Film Institute Life Achievement Awards: Orson Welles gathers close to a dozen stars, including Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Carson, Ingrid Bergman, Robert Wagner, Natalie Wood, Janet Leigh, Joseph Cotten and Dennis Weaver, plus some other luminaries in the audience, to give the AFI's most coveted award to the maverick director. The awards dinner, the third in AFI's continuing series, features clips from the breakfast sequence of Citizen Kane, the shoebox sequence from Touch of Evil, the funhouse sequence from The Lady from Shanghai, the Shrewsbury battle sequence from Chimes at Midnight -- in other words, it provides a pretty good summation of Welles' career and impact upon movies. The fact that Welles biographer Peter Bogdanovich was among the consultants probably has a great deal to do with the show's verisimilitude. Some speakers stumble: Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy massacre the story of Welles famous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, and Sinatra reads his speeches and a special song written about Welles for the occasion from a script in his hand. Yet what really distinguishes the show is its inclusion of some altogether rare footage from The Other Side of the Wind, Welles' never-completed, mythic film. The two lengthy sequences, and Welles' really funny mock-pleading for "finishing money" during his thoughtful yet defiant acceptance speech, provide fascinating glimpses into the Welles persona and are a powerful reminder of Welles' considerable skills as a showman. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., Rovi

Review

There's a curiously awkward feel to The American Film Institute Life Achievement Awards: Orson Welles that undoubtedly comes from what it represents: Hollywood's attempted reconciliation with, and belated appreciation of, the maverick writer, director, actor, and producer. It's something Welles was definitely aware of; his quoting Samuel Johnston's Contrarieties ("There are some goods so opposed...") in his acceptance speech is a nod in that direction, for as several Welles biographers have noted, there was some animosity in Hollywood over his winning such a prestigious award. Along those lines, the show lacks the notoriety of the first AFI awards tape, particularly John Ford's fiery and defiant acceptance speech and the warmth of James Cagney's awards dinner. Some fond speeches and very good selections of Welles' best work (Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Chimes at Midnight, Jane Eyre, Touch of Evil, and The Third Man) make the awards show interesting for Wellesians, but the feeling one gets is that most of the principals didn't really know Welles or his work. Perhaps that's appropriate, for although he lived another nine years, he never finished another film. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., Rovi

Cast

Ingrid Bergman; Joseph Cotten; Natalie Wood; Charlton Heston; Frank Sinatra - Host; Orson Welles

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