--- title: "It's All True: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/its-all-true/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/its-all-true" critics_score: 82 critics_reviews: 7 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # It's All True (1993): what the critics said Critics' score 82 from 7 reviews: 7 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. The reviews are uniformly favourable. Most critics treat the documentary as an act of restoration first and a film second, and praise it on those terms: surviving footage from Welles’s abandoned 1942 Brazilian project, set inside interviews and the story of how the trip went wrong. The praise clusters on one sequence, the near-complete “Four Men on a Raft”, which several critics single out as the reason to see it, and on what the material reveals about how Welles’s style was changing. The spread is narrow and no review is negative. The reservations concern the frame rather than the footage. The New Yorker finds the mix of travelogue, fable and documentary an odd one, with Welles himself barely on screen. The Independent, the coolest of the seven, admires the fishermen’s footage but argues the assembled version lacks Welles’s rapid cutting and narration and is tamer than it might have been, saving its anger for the studios that sat on the material so long. ## Slant Magazine Fi1m's normalised score 88/100 (inferred from the text). 5 December 2004. The documentary is an essential piece in the Orson Welles puzzle that clears away conjecture about his Brazil project and presents newly discovered footage of one segment. The 45-minute 'Four Men on a Raft' fragment is singled out as stunning. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/its-all-true-dvd/) ## Los Angeles Times Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 24 October 1993. The documentary investigates the origins of Welles' unfinished project and reconstructs key segments from rediscovered footage. It shows how much valuable material resulted from the ill-fated trip and clarifies its impact on his career. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-24-ca-49143-story.html) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 27 October 1993. The documentary reconstructs surviving footage from Orson Welles' unfinished 1942 Latin American project and adds interviews. Ebert praises the impressive raft sequence and its insight into Welles' style and career setbacks. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/its-all-true-1993) ## Variety — Todd McCarthy Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 18 October 1993. The lovingly assembled documentary presents surviving Welles footage within the story of the 1942 misadventure, highlighted by the virtually intact 'Four Men on a Raft' sequence. It is a film buff's delight offering crucial insight into Welles' evolving style. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1993/film/reviews/it-s-all-true-2-1200433632/) ## The New York Times Fi1m's normalised score 84/100 (inferred from the text). 15 October 1993. Festival review. The film reconstructs the story of Welles' aborted 1942 project using surviving footage and interviews. It is called a long, seductive footnote to a cinema legend and a must-see at the festival. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/15/movies/review-film-festival-reconstructing-the-tale-of-a-wellesian-disaster.html) ## The New Yorker — Anthony Lane Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 25 October 1993. The hybrid of unearthed Welles footage and documentary material creates a peculiar mix of travelogue, treachery, fable and dance. The spirit of Welles hovers over the enterprise despite his limited onscreen presence. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/11/01/going-south-2) ## The Independent — Quentin Curtis Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 23 October 1993. Festival review. The critic discusses the restored footage of Orson Welles' unfinished "It's All True" as a remarkable portrait of Brazilian fishermen's lives, praising the fresh footage while expressing anger at the studios' delay in resurrecting it. He notes that the assembled version lacks Welles' rapid editing and narration, making it less audacious than it could have been. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-a-lifetime-tilting-at-windmills-two-lost-orson-welles-films-had-premieres-last-weekend-quentin-curtis-saw-them-1512907.html) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/its-all-true.md