It's All True Reviews

While the recollections of Orson Welles' 1942 goodwill expedition to South America are compelling, this documentary ultimately depends on the strength of the original footage of the director's never-completed work, which prefigures the atmospheric, naturalistic approach that Welles would later apply to Othello. With its extreme low-angle shots and reverent, beatific presentation of the Brazilian people, "Four Men" recalls the work of another propagandist, Leni Riefenstahl, in Olympia or Triumph of the Will. It's All True's reconstructing team fails Welles, however, with a tacked-on, cloying soundtrack; it's also doubtful that Welles and his crew would have edited the film as literally as the filmmakers have done. Still, as a record of the project that kept the director away from his final cut of The Magnificent Ambersons, It's All True is sure to satisfy Welles completists.