Horst_In_Translation Review of David Blaine: Magic Man

David Blaine: Magic Man (1998 TV Movie)

Not the approach to magic I like

[4/10 · 15 April 2019]

"David Blaine: Magic Man" is an American award-winning documentary from 1998, so this one is over 20 years old already now and was directed by fairly famous filmmaker Harmony Korine. But the star is of course the man in the title, magician David Blaine. At under 40 minutes, this is one of his shorter works and basically a collection of magic tricks involving cards and mindreading for the most part. I must say I am not a big fan of Blaine and his approach and that I can say for sure having seen some of his stuff now. For me it is too much about himself than about magic and as a consequence I couldn't care less about how he does what he does. What is offered in here in terms of street magic, is still a bit more on the subtle side compared to some of the big projects he had soming up in the years afterwards. Here he is still in his 20s. Another thing I don't really like is the touchy, almost pick-up artist like idea behind his efforts here, the hand on the "victim's" head, the hand on her breasts almost really. Anyway, the tricks he shows aren't bad at all, especially the one with the shoes and police officers, so it is a bit sad for me personally this is not entirely about his craft, but he is also selling himself very much to audiences here. Just like Uri Geller did and fittingly he is credited as a cast member here too. Anyway, it's okay for Blaine that he does what he does as it perhaps turned him into the world's most famous magician with this approach and I can see others really like it. So from my subjective approach, I give this film a thumbs-down and don't recommend checking it out. But yeah chances are high this is not the first Blaine film you've come across, so if you like him go see this slightly underseen movie. It is not a failure by any means, but it has a bit of a Jackass approach to it and I don't like it. Also not defining whatsoever for Korine, if you like him not a reason to watch at all, not a trademark movie for him by any definition.