The Magus

Guy Green – 1968 – England

Infamous for decades as one of the worst films ever made, nowadays The Magus seems relatively harmless; one of many cinematic curiosities from the late 60s that don’t need to be categorized as good or bad but can simply be enjoyed for their pure weirdness.  (Things like Myra Breckinridge, 1970, and Joseph Losey’s Boom!, 1968, also fall into this category.)  At worst, though, the film is often cited in the books-versus-movies argument as a particularly vile example of what can happen to a great work of literature in the hands of crass movie makers.  In this case, that book was John Fowles’ second novel The Magus, which had been heralded as a masterpiece almost immediately; (and whose The Collector, incidentally, had been turned into a very fine film by William Wyler in 1965).  Michael Caine plays a teacher who comes to Greece to teach English in a children’s school.  Troubled by memories of a failed romance back home, he is drawn into a battle of wills with a mysterious rich man played by Anthony Quinn.  As director Green ham-handedly tries to visualize Fowles’ intricate existential debates, the film deteriorates into a mish-mash of surreal scenes that seem to suggest that Caine may or may not be the victim of an elaborate hoax.  Rather than dwell on how massively the film fails to measure up to anything in Fowles’ novel, we can take a little well-earned pleasure in the good things the film has to offer; the first and foremost of which are the gorgeous locations in the Greek islands.  I also particularly enjoyed the duel of opposing but equally eccentric acting styles of stars Caine and Quinn.  A misunderstood gem?  Not even close.  But the worst movie ever?  Sadly, of course there are thousands of worse and unwatchable movies that would make The Magus seem a masterpiece in comparison.