User Reviews

Robert Evans's book version of this documentary, The Kid Stays in the Picture, is still un-read by me. But I have read much about him from other movie books from the 70's, and so this film does illuminate certain aspects of him that I already knew- his huge ego, his drug addiction, his proclivity to lots and lots of women, and having some part in the more outstanding films of the 1970's. Sometimes with Evans himself narrating throughout two things become apparent as peculiarities that keep it from being great- 1) the filmmaker's style is rather repetitive and, aside from some flourishes of talent, isn't anything too grand for the material, and 2) the three sides to the story that Evans is quoted with at the beginning become rather blurred as one full-on nostalgia (for bad and good) comes out. What makes it captivating, however, is that Evans is the kind of guy who will be honest about being full of crap and will even call on himself for his past troubles. Rarely has one man's achievements gone neck and neck with his flaws, and let out in a filmic, grandiose style such as this.

Evans is shown to have, basically, a lot of luck as someone getting into Hollywood (as many of these stories go). He starts out as a so-so actor and tries desperately to establish himself as a producer. He becomes more apart of the development side of the pictures, and ushers through Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, and even the Godfather to an extent. As his story includes the personal side (his rise and fall in the relationship to Ali McGraw, the cocaine, the other tabloid stuff), the other side of his professional accomplishments still gears in for room. By the end, one can see that the man has gone through enough to have his rightful reputation as Paramount's longest remaining producer, and will likely hold onto his ego of being the head-cheese kind of 'creative producer' so many directors like or dread till the grave. If anything, the film is actually too short, as at 93 minutes (a brilliant Dustin Hoffman imitation over the credits included) we only get glimpses that are further expounded in the book. Therefore its already subjective viewpoint becomes even more crunched into one all-too-simple story on such an interesting case study.

The Kid Stays in the Picture, despite not being as terrific as the filmmakers might think it is by their sleek camera angles and typical interludes of montage, is as close to being as honest as it could be. Honest, in the sense that Evans doesn't hide much in his story and how his own way of speaking about it, in its deep-sounding and straight-forward Hollywood way, is what film buffs look for. He may have been and done a lot of things, but as he says at the end, "I enjoy what I do, which most people can't say that they do."

Legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans narrates the story of his own life. His movie career started in 1956 at the poolside of the Beverly Hills Hotel. He gets a few movie roles. In 'The Sun Also Rises' (1957), Ernest Hemingway telegrams Darryl F. Zanuck to get rid of Evans with most of the cast's support. Zanuck proclaims "The Kid Stays in the Picture. And anybody who doesn't like it can quit." After an unimpressive acting career, he joins Charlie Bluhdorn whose company Gulf+Western Corporation purchased the failing studio Paramount Pictures. After a string of films such as Rosemary's Baby, Love Story and The Godfather, it had become the biggest studio. He then goes on to produce Chinatown after which his marriage to Ali MacGraw ends. It's also the start of the darker times. He starts doing cocaine. Some film failures such as 'The Cotton Club', and being connected in the murder of Roy Radin would send him out of the studio that he rebuild.

The stories are better than fiction. The name dropping and the movie connections are epic. It starts with Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra. Through it all, there is the gruff voice of Robert Evans. It's hypnotic. As he falls down the rabbit hole, it becomes even personal. The addition of his movies to portray his life gives such a surreal touch. It is movie magic. One also has the sense that this is an old man telling his tales. Like all such instances, one must take these stories with a grain of salt. It is nevertheless epic.

Documentaries are a dime a dozen, and I've seen my share. Being the type of person who would watch a documentary on anything, I was excited to catch this film about a man who has had one hell of a career in Hollywood. I knew I would find the subject matter interesting, but was completely surprised at how much I enjoyed the way the story was presented.

The Kid Stays In The Picture is the story of Robert Evans, told in Evans' words and narrated by Evans himself. His amazing career highs and lows are detailed in fantastic cinematic fashion, utilizing photographs and film clips from Evans' acting, then producing career while accompanied by Evans' enrapturing narration. The stories told by Evans were so effective and interesting that it could have been overlaying a blank screen and would have riveting. He is truthful, arrogant and most importantly, self-deprecating. He isn't afraid to admit the mistakes he made in his career, which is a refreshing turn from so many self-serving documentaries.

If anything, this film is worth watching for two scenes: When Evans tells the story of his near-suicidal moments that are harrowing in itself, but is accompanied by appropriate images from some of the films he produced. The other is during the final credits, when you see Dustin Hoffman do an incredible and hilarious impersonation of Evans on the phone. I certainly hope that Evans was proud of the way this documentary portrayed him, and should be commended in the way he portrayed himself.

--Shelly

`The Kid Stays in the Picture,' a documentary about famed movie producer and studio head Robert Evans, begins like `The Great Gatsby,' a film Evans produced in 1974. To the wistful strains of `What'll I Do?' playing in the background, the camera glides lovingly over the furnishings, pictures and memorabilia that adorn Evans' Bel Air mansion and estate. The comparison is an apt one, for, like Gatsby, Evans was a wunderkind, a handsome young go-getter who knew early on the kind of life he wanted to lead and who willed himself to attain it. With a combination of good looks, charm, ambition and just a bit of plain old-fashioned good luck, he managed to go from being a mediocre movie actor to becoming the head of Paramount Studios in the course of a mere decade. And what a decade it was! Evans had a major hand in not only lifting Paramount from ninth to first place among Hollywood's major studios, but in bringing such films as `Rosemary's Baby,' `True Grit,' `Love Story,' `Chinatown' and, of course, `The Godfather' to movie screens everywhere.

`The Kid Stays in the Picture' is a dream-come-true for hardcore cinephiles, providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into one of the true Golden Ages of Hollywood filmmaking. Evans' story is, in fact, the story of that time, for truly he hobnobbed with virtually every one of the key players responsible for that era. Evans' tale follows a fairly conventional arc for men of his type: the ambitious kid with dreams of larger-than-life glory achieves meteoric success in the entertainment business only to have his ambitions dashed on the shores of rampant egotism, overconfidence and drug addiction. In fact, Evans' life would make perfect fodder for a film of its own, as this documentary and the positive response to it demonstrates. Evans himself narrates the film, and although he tends to be a bit easier on himself than an outsider might have been, he is still willing to chastise himself when he feels it's called for and to render some rather startlingly unflattering assessments of certain major players on the Hollywood scene. He is, also, however, utterly devoted to those he feels have stuck by him through good times and bad, and he is not averse to lavishing praise on others when it is due. One objection to Evans' narration is that he doesn't always speak with the utmost clarity, sometimes making what he says come out garbled and incomprehensible.

As a piece of filmmaking, `The Kid Stays in the Picture' offers a kaleidoscopic array of stills, film clips and reenactments that reflect the temper and mood of the time. Directors Brett Morgan and Nanette Burstein obviously pored through a wealth of material on the subject, culling from it a comprehensive, streamlined and fast-moving narrative that grips the audience with its humor, its sadness and its tribute to the indomitableness of the human spirit. For if Evans' story is about anything, it is about how important it is for each individual to achieve his dreams and how equally vital it is for that same person, once he has fallen down, to pick himself up off the floor so that he can continue pursuing that dream.

`The Kid Stays in the Picture' is a wonderful time capsule for those who love movies. No true film fan should miss it.

This is an interesting documentary about one of Hollywood's legendary producers, Robert Evans. Directed by Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen, it mostly uses film clips from movies he produced at Paramount plus a narration taken from the audio cassette Evans made for his autobiography.

There's so much material to draw on that it's impossible to really do justice to his life in just 90 minutes. I wanted to hear more details about the films he made and the people he knew, not just a quick synopsis, but then I suppose that's what the book is for. It would also have helped if they'd interviewed people like Jack Nicholson or the people who worked on the film productions, just to get another perspective.

Some people have complained that Robert Evans is pleading for sympathy, having gone from wonder boy to disgraced druggie, but I thought he was simply asking for some understanding and some respect. He seems to feel he was wrongly maligned, more than he deserved, for his drug use and troubles with the law, and I'd have to agree. Abusing yourself is hardly news in Hollywood.

Does Robert Evans have an ego? Sure, but if I'd brought "Chinatown" and "The Godfather" to the screen, I would too. You can tell there's a lot more to the man than just his films, but unfortunately, we only get to scratch the surface here.

Admit it. You're only interested in seeing this film because you think it's an A-list answer to an E! Hollywood True Story episode. Stars. Sleaze. Sex. Who could ask for anything more? The gossip quotient notwithstanding (and there's an awful lot of it), this turns out to be a thoughtful and intelligent profile of a man who is among the most thoughtful and intelligent producers ever to have helmed a major Hollywood studio. His biography reads like the synopsis of a Harold Robbins potboiler - former garment industry executive is cast in a movie when Irving Thalberg's widow spots him at a swimming pool, launching him on a life of success and excess in the film industry. But, as KID makes abundantly clear, Evans' spectacular if unlikely career path owes far more to the well-established link between the manic depressive temperament and creativity than CARPETBAGGERS-type pulp fiction. His seemingly boundless reserves of energy, when constructively channelled, can create works of cinematic art; when employed in less salubrious ways, the self-destructive results usually end up in the National Enquirer. Evans comes across as an admirable albeit eccentric character who, despite devastating illnesses and a slew of professional and personal setbacks, still retains the wit, charm and high-octane enthusiasm that once propelled him to the top of the greased pole that is Hollywood. Evans is probably better known today for his cocaine conviction, blink-and-you-missed-it marriage to Catherine Oxenberg and the tell-all bestselling autobiography this documentary is loosely based on. While he would be the first to admit that his epically scaled lapses have been grist for the tabloid mill, Evans also deserves to be remembered as the man who midwived such classics as ROSEMARY'S BABY and THE GODFATHER and that definitive Chandlerian dissection of Los Angeles, CHINATOWN. Evans is direct and honest about the creative tensions that helped to shape all of these films, acknowledging that he played the grain of sand to Polanski and Coppola's oysters - trying to irritate those directors into producing pearls. His reminiscences about the hot-and-cold wars that were waged behind the scenes on these and other pictures underscore the collaborative nature of filmmaking - and expose as the nonsense that it is the widely accepted fiction of director-as-author. You'll get gossip aplenty but you'll also get insight in this is a warts-and-all portrait of a unique Hollywood personality, a kid who, deservedly, still remains in the picture.

Having just finished "The Offer" and enamoured by Matthew Goode's performance as Robert Evans, whilst it did make me want to watch "The Godfather" again, it also made me want to rewatch "The Kid Stays In The Picture" - the documentary (now twenty years old itself) about the producer and in his own words.

Having been plucked from his life as a successful businessman by Hollywood actress Norma Shearer and presented with an acting career, Robert Evans soon learns that performance in front of the camera is not for him, but producing is something he'd be good at. He quickly learns the ropes, but even he can't believe it when Charlie Bludhorn, the new owner of ailing Paramount Pictures, makes him the head of the studio. Determined to turn around the fortunes of the studio, he embarks on a series of property based pictures, led by strong scripts and utilising the best young actors and directors. It leads to a period of unprecedented success - but several poor decisions will soon have a dramatic effect on Evan's life.

Cleverly made up almost entirely on pre-existing footage, this documentary tells an abridged, perhaps even shallow, version of Evan's life built on the foundation of his reading of his own autobiography. Evan's is a great storyteller and his impressions of some of the other characters in this story are well done. It's really interesting to see it in comparison with "The Offer" which proports to tell Ruddy's version of the production of "The Godfather" - which, differs greatly from what Evan's talks about here. Indeed, Ruddy isn't even name checked in this one.

The style works really well, as it's a much more dynamic way of telling the story than just flicking around talking heads with occasional input would have been. It made for a real interesting story, even if it felt like it was racing through it. It has to be said though, I think I am a big mark for movies, documentaries and podcasts that are about Hollywood, so I was probably in the bag already.

Another really enjoyable time. (It did make me wonder if Matthew Goode might be up for playing Evan's again in a telling of the story of "The Cotton Club" - and the fallout of that. )

I was half way through with the new Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair when I came across the excerpt from Robert Evans new memoir "Kid Nortorius." I had not heard of Robert Evans, but was fascinated enough to get a copy of "The Kid Stays in the Picture" to learn more.

I was glued to the tube watching the story of a man who had the incredible luck to get noticed. You all know the story of how some actress was discovered selling malteds in some drugstore. Evan was put into The Sun Also Rises. Both cast and crew, Ernest Hemingway, Tyrone Power, and Ava Gardner included, attempted to have Robert Evans fired during production. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck refused, saying, "The kid stays in the picture," thus leading to both Evans' long career as a producer and the title of his book, and this film.

He knew he had no future as an actor, but he also knew that the power was in producing. he managed to get named a Vice President of Paramount in another stroke of luck. Then his talent took over and he is the man behind such memorable films as Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, The Godfather, Marathon Man, and his first as an independent producer, Chinatown. It is the story behind these films that is fascinating, especially the fact that he and Paramount were in on Love Story and The Godfather from the beginning - before they were even written! His story with directors Roman Polanski and Francis Coppola are equally fascinating.

His own Love story with Ali McGraw is equally fascinating, though it ended in tragedy. But luck does a strange turn and tragedy really struck in the form of a Hollywood murder case where his name was mentioned. Not a suspect, just on the periphery, but it was enough to send him to the depths of hell - within a hair's breadth of suicide.

It was his friends that brought him back to where he is today. Now, he is telling the rest of the story in a new Memoir, "Kid Nortorious".

If you love films as I do, then you really need to see this one to provide a back story to some of your favorites. hey, you probably should be buying his books as well.

After watching Wes Anderson interview Robert Evans on PBS (Charlie Rose perhaps)I immediately ran out and bought the Evans' memoirs. I finished "The Kid.." in 2 days (~450 pages)a monumental feat for a slow reader like myself. All I can say is that the book was intriguing, and mesmerizing. For two days I swaggered around as if I was in the Hollywood know. The novel is a simply written guilty pleasure. Although Evans' has never graduated high school he writes better than decently (except for his overuse of some random 'word of the day' vocabulary). Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the paperback and couldn't wait to see the film. The film is certainly no Maysles production. Obviously the film is as autobiographical as the book, so who knows what side of the truth were getting (remember Evans' "three-sides" quip). I would recommend the film to anyone who interested in the Hollywood system, film production, or Evans himself. Although tremendously abridged, the film still has the sharp wit and acrid language that made Evans so famous. I was not a terrible fan of the use of stills and headlines, especially the use of in/out focusing--a poor attempt at three dimensionality. The empty scenes around Evans' mansion were terrible. The worst part of the film is when Evans' himself is moving around his bedroom is some mock triple exposure flashback. Cheese. I would have rather a more traditional 'talking heads' and interviews version. The film only really works because of the story and narration. It's great to get faces to the names--but thats all you really get. This aside the film gets ***1/2 of 5 for the exceptionally open tell-all story.

Great documentary on the life of legendary Hollywood producer Robert Evans, who produced such classics as The Godfather (1 and 2), Love Story, Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, as well as The Cotton Club and Marathon Man.

Narrated by Evans himself and based on his autobiography, the movie gives a great insight into what happens behind the scenes in Hollywood, and how careers rise and fall. Some of the anecdotes and incidents are quite amazing.

A must-see for anyone who is interested in the history of cinema, especially '70s cinema.

"The Kid Stays in the Picture" tells the first-hand account of the life of Robert Evans, with narration from the audio version of his memoir. The title is in reference to the big break Evans received in the mid-1950s by studio head Darryl F. Zanuck when everyone else was against the inexperienced actor playing the lead in a film. From his short-lived on-screen career he quickly moved up the ranks to become a major Hollywood producer. What follows is ninety minutes of deep-voiced narration, a steady flurry of pictures upon pictures, and a consistent stream of namedropping. The first person narration has a vibe that doesn't let up that screams "I love me, so you should too". As wonderful as "Chinatown" and other such films he was quote-responsible for are the flick feels a lot like a love note to him self for all to see. It's got wonderful pacing, but it feels so empty. Sure, it briefly abandons rule numero uno of the usual biopic, which is to leave out the bad parts and the real character flaws, but even those glimpses of humility are under-involving. There's just so little going on besides an old man looking back on those years he clawed his way up into the comfort of his own legacy. It's not as interesting as it should have been, even if it's as truthful as it can get.

Robert Evans is a Hollywood legend. For the good, for the bad and for the somewhere in between. The man is often portrayed as the "guy that got lucky", but isn't that a bit unfair? He was only the oil that made the steel wheels go around - but in Tinseltown oil is king.

He also had good taste and he got what he wanted. He made Francis Ford Copolla what he is today having - as this film makes clear - made three utterly offbeat flops and a b-picture.

He is more than a row of credits - including producing the best film that was ever made in The Godfather. Or so IMDb.com says anyway. Did anyone see a blockbuster in a gangster film before it was actually made? No, but Evans did.

This production uses the (droning) voice of Evans and a load of cuts-and-paste animation's plus old film clips. There are times when the clips are probably nothing to do with the subject in hand. London police holding back the crowds? Which crowds? Or does this not matter?

Evans shows that he can actually act a bit despite being a failed actor. Just a bit. Enough to get the money and to persuade the money guys that they are not hearing the sound of toilets flushing. Even though they sometimes did. Naturally this has nothing to do with Evans. The Cotton Club was expensive because he lost control of his original lead and lost control of his director.

Sometime after this someone ended up dead. Somehow people started to falsely tie Evans in to this death. He was never even a suspect - but there had to be more to it than he is telling here. I know a short change when I hear one!

He had loads of friends. From Bob Hope to Jack Nicolson, stopping off at Paul Newman. He even had them appear at his benefit gig - some sort of trade off to stop him going to prison for dope dealing. I won't spoil the film by giving the full excuse here - but he should have served time.

It is hard to feel sorry for Evans because he had loads of women (he was a good looking guy), loads of dope (you should here the excuses made here!!!) and loads of money. He did work hard as well.

What drags this production down a couple of notches is that Evans never lets anyone else speak. It is my version or no version and is not really a documentary in my book. More a long drone - although the subject makes up for it a little bit.

Evans has gone the way of all flesh. He has got older, he has got fatter and he has got lazier. But he has had his day in the sun and that is what counts. His fifteen minutes are up and the party is over. He lived the American dream and emerged the other side - if only just.

This film demonstrates that hard work and luck are no substitute for talent, but they are the next best thing..

Somewhere in this grating, self-congratulatory exercise in ego-mania is a fascinating documentary about one of the most talented and successful players in the history of Hollywood. By sealing it all up in a stiffing first-person bubble, though, Robert Evans and the film makers turn what could have been a great journey into the equivalent of being stuck on an airplane with someone who can't shut up about himself. All biographies have a point of view. I've never seen one, though, that insists on giving the viewer ONLY one perspective to the point that the main character is the only one allowed to speak, quoting other people in irritating (and in some cases racist) caricatures while continuously employing false modesty, name dropping, and hackneyed "homespun" quips meant to sound like hard-earned wisdom. They should have printed 15 copies of this film and passed them around to friends and family of "The Kid" in the title. Considering the flood of quality documentaries that have been released in the last decade, the general Viewing public deserves something better.

"The Kid Stays in the Picture" is a must-see for any person who's interested in movies and their making. This funny and exciting documentary tells the larger than life story of Robert Evans, "discovered" by Norma Shearer swimming in a hotel pool in 1956, who went to become a ham actor and soon afterwards, an extremely successful producer, who took Paramount studios from 9th to first in Hollywood in less than a decade. The man behind legendary films such as "The Godfather", "Chinatown", "Harold and Maude", "Love Story", "Marathon Man" and "Rosemary's Baby", Evans dated beautiful women (he was once married to "Love Story" star Ali MacGraw) and was obsessed with his goals (and he often succeeded, being responsible for some of the biggest hits of his time), what turned him Hollywood royalty and voted the world's most eligible bachelor. With one scandal involving his name, drugs and a murder, though, his career was ruined and he lost almost everything he had. But he came back, and "The Kid Stays in the Picture" explores his fascinating saga with the witty, cynical narration of Evans himself, never being too self-indulgent. Evans himself admits he was no angel. But then again, who is? Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" deserved to win the Best Documentary Oscar back in 2002, but the absence of "The Kid Stays in the Picture" among the nominees is more outrageous than Evans' story itself. 9.5 out of 10.

Surprisingly detailed look at what goes on inside Hollywood. To get the most out of it, however, you need to be familiar with the movies and TV of the 60s, 70s, and early 80s. Should be required viewing for any college film major. The R rating really isn't necessary. PG-13 at most.

A beautifully directed and photographed tribute to an authentic legend, which does not contain a single conventional interview shot originally for the film, only archival footage and a tour de farce closing-credits impersonation by devotee Dustin Hoffman.

The life and (hard) times of producer Robert Evans. It chronicles his start in show business, his rise, his downfall and comeback. He provides the narration for pictures and videos taken throughout his career. Also, they try something different with the stills here...the backgrounds (or foregrounds) are real and moving while the characters stay still. Some people might like it...I found it incredibly annoying...it kept "pushing" me out of the picture.

Also the film doesn't add up to much. There's precious little insight to the movies he produced (except for "Rosemary's Baby") and even less insight to his character. I left the theatre still not knowing much about him.

Still, I enjoyed it. Some of the pics are incredible and there are some very funny observations (he said he never understood what "Chinatown" was about!). So it's worth seeing for bits like that. Otherwise it's nothing much.

The casual viewer of the life of Bob Evans, a man who spent most of his working life as a successful Paramount Pictures executive and creative producer would say that he was the kind of man who could accidentally fall into a cesspool and emerge with two fistfuls of cash.

That casual observer would be correct. Evans was born connected, good looking and charismatic. What the casual observer might not know, however, is that Evans is also visionary, intelligent, hard working and committed. His sharp dress and looks belie his New York City vulgar idiom, something that shaped his overall persona.

This beautifully realized memoir is a must- see for any Hollywood aficionado. Evans narrates it in a natural, unaffected way, one can imagine, the way he would tell you across an intimate dinner table, making you wince and chuckle along the way. His few miscalculations in life, notably marrying a working female actor (something we are warned not to do) and getting into the drug scene, albeit briefly, when it was in vogue and thus falling prey to the voracious media monster, can easily be forgiven. The man, after all, gave us much more than we could possibly have given back to him, many years of top-flight entertainment. We leave this Kid in his picture saluting him and wishing him well, especially those of us who are ebb-tide filmmakers some miles outside of the inner circle. He lived the life we could only have dreamed.

......oddly enough I had never heard of him before this came out--Robert who?? Turns out of course I should have--the guy produced Chinatown, Godfather and Marathon Man, along w/ sooo many others. Interesting indeed. I was fascinated to see him climb the rungs of Hollywood success, a lot of it having to do w/ attitude and not taking no for an answer. You hadda like those two Russki types who were his bosses as well.

Startling also the way his career cratered in the 80's due to drugs and bad career choices(Cotton Club??)--such a contrast to his 70s peak. Only real problem I had w/ the movie--they should label some of the starlets on his arms in all those stills, ya know? I sorta picked out Joan Collins at 28 in one, but a series of blondes of the months can be confusing to remember. Who is gonna recognize Hilary Duff in 30 years who wasn't there, after all? Karen Black who?

Overall worth a watch.

*** outta ****

Extraordinarily entertaining and somewhat of a spectacle. Robert Evans was at one point considered the King of Hollywood and if ever there was someone that so completely fit the image of what we've come to think of as the Hollywood Mogul, then this was and is the man. A absolute one of a kind character - this doc. takes you a great little ride while giving one a glimpse back to the second Golden Age of Hollywood. Engrossing and enigmatic.

Robert Evan's criticisms of Coppola's first cut of The Godfather applies to this documentary. "A long, bad trailer for a really good film."

Robert Evans who went from women's clothing to being a bit part bad actor to the legendary head of Paramount Pictures.

In his watch they went from being bottom of the big studios to number one. Paramount came out with classics such as The Love Story, Godfather 1 & 2, Chinatown, The Conversation, Serpico.

He dated beautiful women, he was married to Ali McGraw and he had a wonderful mansion. He still kept the mansion at the end courtesy of Jack Nicholson's generosity.

Yet I wanted to know more about those 5 glory years with Paramount and it all became skimpy. Some of the films were not even discussed.

It was like ok Robert, we have done with the good times, now let's move on to the cocaine addiction and the flop movies. Popeye barely got a mention concentrating instead on The Cotton Club.

A sketchy look back at a fascinating man, it was Evan's version of the truth. You had to concentrate hard as his narration was hard to decipher. Maybe a consequence of hard living.

This documentary is based on the autobiography of Robert Evans, the head of Paramount during its rise in the late 1960's and early 1970's, with films like "Rosemary's Baby," "Love Story," "The Godfather," and "Chinatown."

The film begins with a quote: "There are three sides to every story: my side, your side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each one differently." This film, being based on his autobiography and narrated by Evans himself, is clearly his side. This makes it less objective than one normally expects documentaries to be, but also way more entertaining.

When the film starts in the mid-1950's, Evans was already doing very well as an executive in the Evan-Picone women's clothing company. He was poolside in Beverly Hills when he was discovered by Norma Shearer, who decided he was the right person to play her late husband, Irving Thalberg, in the film "Man of a Thousand Faces." Suddenly he became an actor on the west coast in addition to being a businessman on the east coast.

Next up was a key role in "The Sun Also Rises," but Ernest Hemingway and a number of the other important people involved in making the film demanded that Evans be fired. The producer, Darryl Zanuck, arrived on location, where Evans had been practicing bullfighting for several months, and announced that "the kid stays in the picture." Suddenly Evans realized that he really wanted to be a producer, so he could be the person who has that kind of power.

Evans' rise to the top is quite amazing. Only about 10 years after this pivotal event, he was running Paramount and was involved (instrumental, to hear him tell it) in some of the biggest films of the time.

The way Evans narrates the film is highly entertaining, both because of the actual content but also because you're always wondering just how much of what you're hearing is really true. But somehow he manages to weave enough self-deprecating words in amongst the self-congratulating ones to make you like him, in spite of his faults.

The film contains very little if any newly filmed material. It consists mostly of news footage, clips from films, and still pictures, with narration by Evans throughout. The handling of the still pictures was particularly interesting, because the foreground parts of the pictures were made to seem to float in a three-dimensional way above the backgrounds, making them far more alive and interesting than they could have been.

I highly recommend that you make an effort to see this film. And if you don't normally like documentaries, this one will change your mind.

Seen on 8/29/2002.

This documentary, in which movie mogul Robert Evans narrates the story of his own life, begins with a quote from his book in which he declares that everyone has their own truth. The assertion is pertinent; for while his is an entertaining story, the film is limited by the fact that it lacks external perspective. Evans was a movie star who became an acclaimed producer; his reputation suffered after a cocaine bust; and then, bizarrely, crumbled after someone was murdered after an attempt to sell access to him ended disastrously. Evans was not personally involved in any of the dealings that led to this death; but his name was associated with the crime for the seven years it took to resolve, in which time his name crumbled to mud. He suffered mental health problems but returned to the business. This dramatic life story is certainly entertaining; but the absence of any take on events other than Evans's own is limiting, especially given his preference to narrate events as if he was Philip Marlowe. The "kid" knows how to tell a story; but whether it's the whole story is anyone's guess.

I am not a scholar of filmmaking or a Robert Evans superfan. I didn't know who he was. I do enjoy watching good movies the way some people read good books - critically, thoughtfully, and with appreciation for the work that went into them. When I stumbled upon this movie, I thought I would gain some new fascinating insights into movie-making.

Instead, the experience for me was analogous to the following: Imagine you are attending a fancy fundraising dinner full of rich strangers, or a fancy recruiting dinner for a big firm or company where you are interviewing. You are seated at the end of a table next to a man you have never met. Before you can tell him your name or learn his name, and without any further introduction of any sort, he simply begins talking, about himself, at length, without pause. You realize quickly that 1) he assumes you already know exactly who he is; 2) he assumes that you will find his stories absolutely fascinating and that he is bestowing a benevolent gift upon you by sharing these insider anecdotes with you; and 3) he is completely uninterested in the perspective or experiences of anyone else at the table, and has never entertained the thought that they have anything more meaningful to offer than what he is talking about right now. You are cornered. There is no one else near you at the table to talk to. You're not sure how much longer the event will last. You wonder how long you should let him go on before you just get up and leave. Eventually, the event simply ends, and you exit thinking, "Well it's unfortunate that the evening didn't turn out to be more pleasant." And that's how this movie proceeds, for over 90 merciless minutes. Robert Evans just keeps talking about himself, while grainy black and white photos flash on the screen.

At first, I found it interesting, because this pompous blowhard was at least sharing little-known tidbits about some movies I had seen and enjoyed, and therefore I was learning something. But about a half hour in, that feeling went away, and I began to suspect I was not really learning much of anything.

This is because I developed the sinking feeling that my narrator was unreliable. Every story is told solely from Evan's own perspective, and he features prominently as the most important and intelligent and visionary person in every one of them. It's not just that every movie he worked on was, dubiously, the Most Important Movie of Its Time. (Really? "Love Story"? Really??) It's also that, in every story, he is the key person who made a critical decision at some point that forever changed the course of the film's outcome. He is the one who made a critical casting decision, or convinced the director to make a critical editing decision, that shaped the entire film. He is the one who, in a single conversation, persuaded the star actress to finish the film instead of quitting. He is the one who plucked up a particular script and recognized it as exactly the story that America needed to hear at that time. And on and on it goes.

So once I realized I couldn't trust anything he was saying, I was just waiting to see where it went. But there is nothing to help with the pacing. There is no plot or narrative arc to help you know where in the film you are. It just keeps going until it stops.

I thought that a postscript at the end might contain quotes from others in the industry that would either corroborate or undermine Evans's own account of things, and help it all gel together as a documentary with a point of view or message. But it didn't.

The only thing I learned here is that a guy named Robert Evans produced several movies I've seen, some of which I liked, and that man happens to have very, very high self-esteem.