Making Montgomery Clift (2018) User Reviews

Patrica Bosworth's rebuttal, on reel to reel.

[gslind · 8/10 · 11 January 2019]

I just saw this doc at the Palm Springs Film Festival last night. While it valiantly attempts to dispel supposed "myths" about Monty's life, it fails to recognize some obvious truths, as well. such as his decline into alcohol and drugs, which undoubtedly led to heart failure at 45 years old.

It was only mentioned during the Q&A's afterward that Clift's even had a twin sister and her entire side of the large family refused to participate. Much of the doc was composed of secret recording by he filmmaker's father, Monty's brother Brooks Clift.

While the doc's obvious mission was to focus on his talent and unconventional bucking of a studio contract to maintain his sexual freedom, I feel it was rather to have more control in the films he chose and the dialog contained within. They filmmakers heavily downplayed the impact of his automobile accident, which forever altered his incredible good looks and descent into addiction. I applaud them for attempting to show a different side of Clift than the one portrayed by both biographers Bosworth and LaGuardia, but in doing so, they also failed to address several elephants in the room.

The doc loses its way on occasion and becomes bogged down in its own minutia, but still offers an alternative to previous insights by a proud nephew..

Some surprises

[DavidsGuy · 7/10 · 11 December 2023]

This doc (or whatever it is) starts out interesting and insightful, but then it becomes too much about Clift's brother, his brother's family, and the two biographies written about Clift. It does show never-before-seen clips of Monty at play (I never realized he was so hairy and I'm lovin' it!) and presents more of his lighthearted and playful side. Evidently, his life wasn't all tragedy and self-destructive behavior. It was also interesting to learn that, unlike most American men, Clift was uncircumcised and had a small weenie. (In my experience, most good looking men have a small one. It's true. Show me a toad and he'll have a big one.) No matter. The rest of him was most appealing and as an actor he was light years better than Brando, James Dean, and all the rest.

If you're a Clift fan try to see this doc!

[montymonvieux · 9/10 · 31 October 2018]

So glad I had the opportunity to see Making Montgomery Clift at the SVA Theatre in New York. Rather than being a biography, the film allows the viewer to consider Monty in a fresh light through the efforts of filmmakers, Robert Clift (a nephew) and Hillary Demmon (Robert 's wife). It dispells the tired myth of "tragic, closeted drug-addicted alcoholic" that was reported and repeated in previous biographies.

Not sure how wide a release this will get as seems to be playing only in specialized, small film festivals, currently. So refreshing to see this upbeat, loving perspective and learn about exaggerations and "untruths" told even in the best biographical attempts.

Debunking the myth, reaffirming the artistry of the actor

[steven-222 · 9/10 · 21 September 2019]

This is a remarkable work of historical reconstruction, using the remarkable Clift family archives. It makes you realize just how hollow so many (if not all) Hollywood biographies and especially Hollywood biopics are. Here we see interviews with filmmakers who wanted to make a biopic about the "real" Monty (shown to be just a fantasy). Makes you wonder just how "real" the Freddy Mercury biopic was (which also traded on the audience-pleasing trope of the "tragic homosexual"), yet the Academy showered it with Oscars.

Illuminating!

[tforbes-2 · 10/10 · 27 October 2022]

"Making Montgomery Clift" is a really illuminating documentary from one of the famous actor's nephews. And it indicates that there was something less tragic about this performer, given how so many of his great roles came AFTER his sad 1956 auto accident.

While it's clear that Monty's sister and her family weren't involved, they didn't have the recordings that his brother Brooks had. For better or worse, these recordings shed a lot of light on the life that he had, providing us with what made him tick.

The drug and alcohol addiction isn't really touched on, but it is clear that Montgomery Clift's battle with John Huston when making "Freud" was apparently what sent the gifted actor on his downward spiral. Not being able to work for four years would indeed take its toll.

Highly recommended!!!

Must see for Monty fans

[alycarlotti · 10/10 · 21 July 2022]

Once I learned Montgomery Clift was buried in a Prospect Park Quaker cemetery, I became very interested in learning more about him. This documentary is important in dispelling the notion that Clift was driven to ruin because of his sexuality. If anything it seems to me he was ahead of his time being so open about his bisexuality, rather then being tormented by it - his mother knew he liked men as early as his young teens and she was very accepting. Also the famous car accident wasn't the beginning of the end for him - his favorite roles took place after the accident and he did more films after it then before it. What was the beginning of the end was his experience with John Huston wrongfully suing him over allegedly not memorizing his lines in the Freud movie (Huston lost but Monty's reputation never recovered and he couldn't find work in the last years of his life).

Interesting

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 29 January 2020]

Classic film star and queer icon Montgomery Clift's legacy has long been a story of tragedy and self-destruction - the slowest suicide in show business and a "tragic beauty" or "beautiful loser." He was a gorgeous man whose twenty-some movies place him in the same rarified air of sex symbols like James Dean and Marlon Brando, actors who played a new type of man for Hollywood. One that was sensitive and also troubled. But a car crash and a need to hide his homosexuality has always pointed to Clift as a figure of great sadness. But when his nephew dives into the family archives, a much more complicated picture emerges.

Director Robert Anderson Clift is the son of Brooks Clift, Monty's brother. He may have never met his famous uncle, but he was able to learn more about him by meeting the people who actually knew him.

This film attempts to portray a different side to the actor than the books Montgomery Clift: A Biography by Patricia Bosworth and Monty: A Biography of Montgomery Clift by Robert Laguardia. However, the movie does neglect that Clift had a twin sister and her entire side of the family refused to be part of this film. Most of the documentary comes from recordings that Brooks had made of extensive conversations with his family.

The director told The Guardian, "For us, it seemed there was this big difference between what people thought about Monty in the public sphere and what people that knew him would say," said Clift. "I wanted to figure out why there was such a difference."

I'd recommend checking out this film, which posits that the books written on Clift came from a place more homophobic than even the Hollywood system that Clift existed within.

What a great actor he could have been

[cekadah · 10/10 · 7 August 2021]

This docu about Montgomery Clift will leave you saddened. He's the perfect example of a talented emotional man torn in half by what his natural self is and a corrupt society poisoned by religion that demands he be something else.

This is a must see to experience on how Hollywood can oppress and glorify at the same time.

Disappointing

[[e-mail] · 4/10 · 2 September 2020]

The film's title is truly misleading and instead focuses almost entirely on His brother's attempt to dispute two biographies. Monty's brother Brooks is featured almost as much as Monty himself. Monty's twin sister is only mentioned once and is nerve interviewed. The archival footage and some of the recorded phone calls were fascinating but cannot make up for a very unfinished product