Carlos Castaneda - Enigma of a Sorcerer

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Starring: Amy Wallace
Rated: R (Restricted)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Ralph Torjan
Studio: Indican
Release Date: 2006-06-01
A best-selling Author for 30 years, Carlos Castaneda inspired millions to break free from social dogma, fueling controversy over his work's authenticity and assertions of perceiving non-ordinary reality, during an apprenticeship with Yaqui sorcerer, don Juan Matus. Genius, guru, cult leader or fraud? No one really knows. Over three years in the making, this shocking expose' explores Castaneda's mythic impact, controversial teachings and cult following. Candid interviews backed with dazzling animation and experimental footage offer an intense visual and intellectual experience.

Must read Castaneda before viewing
I'm writing this review because I don't think this video entirely deserves to be bashed like it is on these pages. Yeah, the production is a little cheesy, but that doesn't mean that the content isn't any good. It's nice to see the people who are skeptical of Castaneda stumble with their weak arguments. It's also nice to see the insights of the people that actually learned from Castaneda personally, and how that relationship reinforces the idea that the meaning is in the message, not the man or the medium. Trippy special effects are supplied by G-Force, not iTunes as one reviewer claimed, and while not the most original graphics, they do provide a nice obscure backdrop to the ideas that Castaneda expresses. I used to sit and listen to techno/trance music on Winamp while watching this program draw images on the computer screen, and found it soothing. I will caution that for those who haven't read Castaneda, this DVD could do a disservice to the message and vision that the books contain as the impression one could get from the DVD is that Castaneda was merely a second-rate cult leader. In fact, I think the true paradox here is that in writing a collection of books that reached so many people, Castaneda found himself at the center of attention of people looking for a 'leader'. This runs contrary to the teachings of don Juan, in which the teacher merely shows one the way, at which point the student must then lead themselves and not expect a 'leader' to emerge or even lead them in any particular direction. Sorry Amazon, but I would recommend a rental for this one, as it's not up to par to add to most collections, even for those devoutly into Castaneda. But, if one wants to know what happened to Cleargreen and why there isn't more commercialization around Castaneda's work, this DVD will offer answers for those questions and even provide a little insight into the small community that gathered around this visionary writer.

Worthless amateur production
Although there are a few minutes of interesting interviews, they are accompanied by pathetic nauseating graphics and weak embarrassing music. Most of the background graphics are actually generated by the iTunes default music visualizer. It is surprising that such a low quality product ever saw any distribution. It is an insult to the memory of a fascinating and compelling author and character. I rented it and will demand my money back. An annoying waste of time.

A headache inducing embarassment
This film seems to come from the mind of one man, who's name I (thankfully for him) forget. This "auteur" was evidently responsible for the relentless barrage of corny home video effects and endless electronica that passes itself off as a soundtrack in this embarassingly amateurish attempt at a documentary on the life and teachings of Carlos Castaneda.

It's too bad, because Castaneda is a superb subject for a documentary treatment. This just isn't it. Comprised of interviews with a number of ex-students, Castaneda, who refused to be photographed (there are only a few known photos of the man,) never appears on screen. We only hear his voice for a moment at the beginning and end of the film.

It's almost tragic that this piece is for all intents and purposes unwatchable , as one can sense there was some good material to work with here. Some of the people who knew Castaneda offer up fascinating insights into the life of this complex self made guru. A couple of ex-disciples are able to appreciate the value of the teachings of Don Juan, while at the same time acknowledging the whole affair was an elaborate hoax. This is the paradox of Castaneda, writer extraordinaire, trickster and charismatic myth maker.

But even the most candid reminisces and the most profound observations are wasted as we are relentlessly assaulted with a constant onslaught of mindless cliches in the form of puerile wipes and fades, not to mention painfully literal composite shots, all saturated with one corny 70's "psychedelic" video effect after another. It's an exhausting experience if you can make it all the way through this turkey. Just getting through the protracted credits is a chore. If there is such a thing as "eye candy", this must be the equivalant of eye diarrhea.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

total waste; hurtful to Castaneda's reputation and legacy
This documentary is a travesty, especially considering this is the only one available on Castaneda, because by being the only one it may be the *definitive* one. Someone needs to make another Castaneda documentary just to set things right in some measure and do the man and his work justice.

First, when you put the DVD in, it forces you to watch a really old, bad looking documentary on corn (the sneak previews look even worse). In the first few minutes of the doc you get assailed by shifting, swirling, distorting images of the interviewees. It must be stressed how utterly cheap and amateurish the visual production of this movie is. It seems the guy did dig deep into his Windows 95 bag of screensaver/desktop theme tricks along with his early 80s commodore 64 sprite programs to come up with such a crappy look to the film. The film would have looked better with none of these visuals at all and probably would have cost the same to do so. It's not that I focus on the quality of visuals in movies, but you just can't help but notice how cheap this DVD's visuals are and how often they distract you from the interviews.

My main critique of this documentary is it deals almost exclusively with the man's life outside his writings and not with the all-important writings themselves. To achieve the documentary's aim would apparently be an enourmous feat to begin with since he led an ultra secretive life for many if not most of his years since his initial meeting with Don Juan. You'd have to have direct access to his inner circle of followers, women, friends etc, none of which this documentary has except with Amy Wallace. But she is only given equal time with everyone else, and what she has to say is (unfortunately) on par with everyone else. That is, an almost worthless musing about Castaneda. The most interesting thing I've heard Wallace say (not in this documentary) is the Don Juan character is actually a composite figure of several sorts of similar men Castaneda met throughout his life. While this is a fascinating theory, she never offers a shred of evidence for it here. Surely an anecdote of a Casteneda ecounter with another shaman would have been not only sound evidence but a great story in itself?

I was in a doctor's office recently with a copy of Taisha Abelar's "The Sorcerer's Crossing". A nurse struck up a conversation with me about it and I mentioned Castaneda. She said, "I heard that his writings actually weren't true". I think what gives rise to such vacant rumours are chatty documentaries like this. There are a couple of wormy, smug academics in the video who give explanations about why the Casteneda books aren't true. For instance, one critic says Don Juan is moody and aloof in the first book, yet gets happier and more open into the second and third books. To him, this clearly demonstrates a totally inconsistent personality and therefore indicates a fictitious character. You just want to reach into the TV and slap this petty little monkey. His arguments are so hollow, it's amazing they are even admitted into this documentary, especially without counterpoint.

When I first sat down to read Castaneda's first book "The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way Of Knowledge", I was so riveted that I read on continuously for 6 hours to about page 162 before sleep compelled me to stop. That's about the best way I could describe how fascinating and awe inspiring the Castaneda books are. Within a year I had read his first 7 books. I've always felt that for me to try and describe Castaneda's books to someone asking would be an injustice because the books cover so much ground about the fascinating and nearly unbelievable latent powers all humans have that to try that to try encapsulate this would be futile.

At the end of the day, you realize that it's the Don Juan character and his teachings that's truly important about Castaneda's work - not Castaneda's sorcery abilities or that of any of his followers because they all seem to be light years behind Don Juan. So focus on the Castaneda books and forget this piece of [...] `documentary'.

Riding on the coat tails of Castenada... weeeeee
I bought this movie because I was interested in hearing a real interview with Castaneda and was lead to believe this DVD was a study of his work, perhaps from an anthropological perspective. Of course I expected some editorial on the relevance of his series, but what I got disgusted me.

First of all, the production value was TERRIBLE (read: flying panes of interviewees in psychedelic moving colors and cheesy windows 95 screensaver backgrounds - I could do a better job in my sleep and I don't even do video editing).

More importantly, this is an obvious grab for money and attention from those that have built their careers or lives on criticizing Castaneda's work. They throw around allegations of his making it up and "doing it for the money" / "doing it for the women". Who knew walking around in the desert, doing peyote with a Yaki Indian, and dedicating your life to writing accounts of your experiences got you women? Seems like a sort of lofty and difficult means to achieve the same end as maybe, oh I dunno, buying a Porsche.

People take the bible word for word as truth and that is perfectly acceptable to society despite ALL of the inconsistencies in the bible. After finishing the Castaneda collection, go back to the earlier work and be amazed at the consistency that is kept throughout. That alone speaks volumes of truth in the experience he had.

The only actual attempt at throwing out a factual reason why this experience was impossible, (as an biased majority allege) was made by an interviewee whose name I couldn't read due to all the patronizing "trip" effects, that Castaneda never received any mosquito bites while wondering the desert and therefore must have fabricated the whole anthropological study that had a strong forward by UCLA. OOKKKAAAYYYY.... Maybe he didn't write about it, maybe he was wearing deet, what the heck does that matter?

I could go on forever, but the bottom line is that no one, weather they value Castaneda's work or detest it, would consider this anything but a ploy for dollars and attention by people with little scholarly credit - at least in their presentation - if any. But if you look at it just the right way... it just proves Don Juan all the more correct. However only he could find a way to glen anything to learn from these petty tyrants and panderers to "specialness".