Summaries

The life and career of the renowned stage magician turned scientific skeptic of the paranormal, James Randi.

AN HONEST LIAR is a feature documentary about the world-famous magician, escape artist, and world-renowned enemy of deception, James 'The Amazing' Randi. The film brings to life Randi's intricate investigations that publicly exposed psychics, faith healers, and con-artists with quasi-religious fervor. A master deceiver who came out of the closet at the age of 81, Randi created fictional characters, fake psychics, and even turned his partner of 25 years, the artist Jose Alvarez, into a sham guru named Carlos. But when a shocking revelation in Randi's personal life is discovered, it isn't clear whether Randi is still the deceiver - or the deceived.—Anonymous

A profile of James Randi is presented. Largely mirroring the life of his predecessor Harry Houdini, he spent the better part of his adult life as a magician, specializing in the escape arts, he claiming there was nothing ever made which he could not break out of. In his mid-fifties, a close call from an injury sustained in a failed escape led to him changing his focus to exposing charlatans who were using "magic" or some other form of deception to dupe people for their own gain. In his true affection for magic as a source of entertainment in being up front that magicians are the most honest people in telling their audiences ahead of time that they will be doing something of a deceptive nature, he believes psychics and anyone claiming to have paranormal powers are ultimately using "magic" as a source of fraud. In using fraudulent means himself ultimately to come clean in the end goal, he, with the assistance of others, including some magicians themselves, went about trying to expose those fraudsters in as public a means as possible to shut down the fraud. Two of his higher profile targets were evangelist Peter Popoff, who claimed to be a faith healer, and purported psychic Uri Geller who used simple magical tricks in the guise of being paranormal powers. In the process, Randi learned that people generally hear and see what they want to hear and see. A twenty-five year deception in his own life is also presented.—Huggo

Details

Keywords
  • magician
  • false identity
  • ends with biographical notes
  • straitjacket escape
  • debunking
Genres
  • Comedy
  • History
  • Biography
  • Documentary
Release date Nov 1, 2014
Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Not Rated
Countries of origin United States United Kingdom
Language English
Filming locations Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Production companies BBC Storyville Left Turn Films Pure Mutt Productions

Box office

Gross US & Canada $180590
Opening weekend US & Canada $13821
Gross worldwide $180590

Tech specs

Runtime 1h 30m
Color Color
Sound mix Stereo
Aspect ratio 16:9 HD

Synopsis

An Honest Liar tells the incredible story of the world-famous magician, escape artist, and world-renowned enemy of deception, James 'The Amazing' Randi. The film brings to life Randi's intricate investigations that publicly exposed psychics, faith healers, and con-artists with quasi-religious fervor. A master deceiver who came out of the closet at the age of 81, Randi created fictional characters, fake psychics, and even turned his partner of 25 years, Jose Alvarez, into a sham guru names Carlos. But when Jose is discovered to be living under a false identity himself, it's not clear whether Randi is still the deceiver - or the deceived.

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