It doesn’t take a genius to spot the similarities between John Huston’s character in The Other Side Of The Wind and the plight of its director Orson Welles at the time.
“The Other Side Of The Wind,” which actually begun production in 1970 but was never finished as legendary director Welles struggled to get the necessary money all the way up to his death in October, 1985, revolves around a formerly lauded filmmaker, played by Huston, returning to Hollywood to get the budget to finish his movie.
Since Welles’ death, the likes of Peter Bogdanovich and Frank Marshall have made it their mission to buy the negative and piece together “The Other Side Of The Wind,” something that they finally achieved with the help of Netflix.
Now that “The Other Side Of The Wind has finally been seen, moviegoers have noticed the similarities between Huston’s Jake Hannaford and Welles.
Before his death, Welles always told the cast and crew that the character was based on either himself. But during my recent discussion with Frank Marshall he insisted that the similarities were obvious.
“Filmmakers all have their own selves in their own movies. That’s no exception to Orson. He had certain themes and things that ran throughout all of his movies, about friendship and betrayal.”
“This was certainly his take on Hollywood back then. You can see a lot of Orson in John Huston’s character and his take on machoism. And young filmmakers and young hotshots, independent filmmakers that were happening in the 70s and what he thought of them.”
“There’s a lot of themes in there. But it is also a movie. A story. I am certain he took a lot of things from real situations. Like his relationship with Peter, which I see in there. His thoughts on critics. His thoughts on studios, studio-heads, it is a very complicated movie.”
“The Other Side Of The Wind” is now available on Netflix, where it has been accompanied by the documentary “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead,” about the arduous making of the film.
