Carlos Castaneda - Enigma of a Sorcerer

Loved seeing all these people interviewed

I was a huge fan of Carlos Casteneda in the 1970s, and I still am. It doesn't matter to me if academics and others debunked him, or whether Don Juan was real or just a metaphor to express a spiritual teaching. What matters is only THE TEACHING, and I learned a lot from Carlos' books back in the day.For this reason I was very interested in watching this movie, but it was so poorly written and directed that I had to turn it off after about 30 minutes. It seemed to be nothing more than a series of talking heads, which would have been bad enough, but to make it worse, each interview subject was backed by psychedelic imagery that was distracting and unnecessary. And the music was mixed way too loud.Perhaps the film got better after the first 30 minutes. I would like to think that it included some historical research on Toltec history, shamanic spirituality and other relevant information, and maybe some nice visuals (other than those lame psychedelic images) but I couldn't watch it long enough to find out.

Journey to Ixtlan was a life changing book for me. But I was only about 1/3 of the way through before I realized that this was a modern myth or perhaps a philosophical dialogue in the style of Plato and Socrates. The events and characters were not factual, but were true nevertheless. I think many of us Castaneda fans made of Don Juan an icon such as Superman - one whom does not manifest in reality, but does exist as a shadow in our subconscious and a dramatic character in the culture. And some of us made Don Juan's creator a savior, one to whom if we surrendered our will and offered our devotion, we would receive salvation from our very human natures and indeed enlightenment. But alas, our little Carlitos was just a human being after all, just like us except for his literary genius. Enlightenment can neither be purchased with money nor soul. It's not commerce. And our drive to be different and somehow better than our brothers and sisters certainly seems to walking in the wrong direction down the path with heart.Anyway, I was delighted to find this movie, but disappointed with it's execution. It was another of the spiritual talking heads documentaries with ambient music being played behind. But this one was worse than most because of the psychedelic and distracting color explosions and distortions of the very scant actual images. This could have been a better audio presentation. If you are new to the controversy surrounding Castaneda's books, there is much to learn here. I was hoping however for a compelling piece of art that touches deep and inspires an opening to expanding consciousness in much the same way that Carlos did it himself . . . but then, that was his genius of which I mentioned; the reason why we even care about all of this. The movie which captures a bit of the richness of Carlos' ideas and the convoluted twist of his personality still remains to be made.

This is a technically crude documentary comprised of very simple interview, but the survivors of Carlos Casteneda's circle are people fans of his book owe themselves a visit with.

Its put together scantily but still with some valid interviews from people who knew Carlos. Glean what you will from their testimony and see deeper into the world of Castaneda. Its worth a 2$ rent.

Enjoyed the History

This is my first review in 12 years. Instead of getting usable info about Castenada's beliefs or instruction, we see (literally) a background of bizarre, colored shapes (remember being on acid, checking out the lava lamps?)with a foreground of cheap, tabloid-style interviews of former Castaneda students. They aren't asked if they benefitted from the work, but how they felt about Castaneda's personal life. Was he a con man? Even this gossipy question, if answered, might deserve one star, but the editors chop up the responses into into 30-second, out of context, sound bites so you never get clear idea of what these folks are saying. Can you spell rip-off?

The Value of Shakespeare's Work Still Stands Whether He Existed Or Not.....so Don Juan was not real and Castenada was a pervert liar and con artist. His canon is still is a good read and this movie is a good start sifting through his ashes.