The Man Who Killed Don Quixote- He finally caught the windmill...and fell flat on his face.
"Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong". The quote from the 2002 documentary Lost in La Mancha, really does sum up the journey of unfortunate events surrounding Terry Gilliam and his cursed film project around the classic tale of Don Quixote del La Mancha. So after more than 30 years of deals, casting changes and rewrites, we finally see the finished product of a directors magnum opus. Unfortunately it seems like a story 30 years too late. The man who killed Don Quixote follows the tale of Tony Grisoni (Adam Driver), a Hollywood director portraying the biblical story of the same name with a crew that cannot understand his creative vision, sound familiar? However he is sent on a nostalgic trip to his amateur film days and reconnects with a crazed Spanish shoemaker (Johnathon Pryce) who believes he is the incarnation of Don Quixote. What follows is a mixture of hallucinogenic spectacle and blundering humour but none of the magic and wonder.
Firstly lets look at the cast, which at first glance you would think of it as the perfect combination of the past and future combining together with raising Hollywood star Adam Driver and British theatre legend Johnathon Pryce, who most people will remember in his leading role in Gilliam's sci-fi classic Brazil (1985). I will admit that seeing Pryce's commitment to the role was one of the high points of the film. You could tell he was given everything to the role so that he can live up to Gilliam's expectations. How I wish I could say the same for the rest of the troupe. Drivers performance probably reflected the attitude of the real studio executives of the film, bored, confused and waiting for his cheque to clear so he can get back to the Star Wars set. Not only that but Drivers character Toby was one of the most unlikable protagonists to follow. Rude, childish, vulgar, and yet we are expected to feel sympathy for his vision of filmmaking and need for the girl which is completely unearned. Stellen Skarsguard makes a strange appearance as Toby's boss whose only role in the film is to be used as conflict for when Toby tries to sleep with his wife, speaking of. Probably the most uncomfortable I got during the films run time is how dated these roles are written. There are only two female roles in this film and both are played as objects with little to no personality for Toby to pry over. The love interest Angelica (Joana Ribero) is one of many unknown actors from Spain and while she does try her best, her performance remains flat and timid. This is more than I can say for Jacqui (Olga Kurylenko), her performance as the slutty bosses wife desperate for attention made me pine for the days of Carly Spenser standing like an empty mannequin in Transformers 3 (both of which were played by models).
Nevertheless when we look at Gilliam's work, the one thing we always remember is the brilliant set design and creative costume and set pieces. The dream like imagination of Gilliam is one of the films only true saving graces, but even then its a step down from his previous work. We are treated visually to many weird and wonderful ideas from Gillam's interpretation of the legend. From the iconic baron windmills, to middle aged castles and men on stilts dressed as wizards. And of course the infamous three giants scene from the trailer back when Gilliam was first selling the idea. However the sad thing is that even with these images and ideas, their presentation seems so cheap and empty. It almost became more fan-service to the films failure to launch rather than the magnum opus we were once promised. This was more apparent when the plot decides to merge the biblical tale in with the modern corporate world. This is another aspect that I think was pushed by the very studio executives that Gilliam intends to imitate. While some see this as charming and witty, I see it as needless and plastic. The plot also reminds me a lot of the Errol Flynn movies where it is your standard squash buckling adventure which might of passed in the 1950s, but today seems dated and crass. Its almost as if Gilliam left out all the wacky and insane jokes of his past works and replaced them with Adam cursing for forty minutes straight.
Overall what really sums this film up is ironically enough when the credits started to roll. Not because it was finally over, but because we got to see Gilliam's artwork for the film thirty years ago. The sad thing is, we never got to see anything that creative or inspiring throughout the entire film. Thats really why I don't care for this film, not from disgust or anger but from disappointment of what could of been. When you look back at the story of this films production and the development hell that went on in the desert for all those years, you see that this was a dream too big for the world to handle. And instead that dream has been whittled down to its brittle bones as something poorly written and painfully long, but with the faint glimmers of the spirit that Gilliam put into the story he loved so much. Honestly, it should of stayed buried in La Mancha.
Film Grade: D+
Firstly lets look at the cast, which at first glance you would think of it as the perfect combination of the past and future combining together with raising Hollywood star Adam Driver and British theatre legend Johnathon Pryce, who most people will remember in his leading role in Gilliam's sci-fi classic Brazil (1985). I will admit that seeing Pryce's commitment to the role was one of the high points of the film. You could tell he was given everything to the role so that he can live up to Gilliam's expectations. How I wish I could say the same for the rest of the troupe. Drivers performance probably reflected the attitude of the real studio executives of the film, bored, confused and waiting for his cheque to clear so he can get back to the Star Wars set. Not only that but Drivers character Toby was one of the most unlikable protagonists to follow. Rude, childish, vulgar, and yet we are expected to feel sympathy for his vision of filmmaking and need for the girl which is completely unearned. Stellen Skarsguard makes a strange appearance as Toby's boss whose only role in the film is to be used as conflict for when Toby tries to sleep with his wife, speaking of. Probably the most uncomfortable I got during the films run time is how dated these roles are written. There are only two female roles in this film and both are played as objects with little to no personality for Toby to pry over. The love interest Angelica (Joana Ribero) is one of many unknown actors from Spain and while she does try her best, her performance remains flat and timid. This is more than I can say for Jacqui (Olga Kurylenko), her performance as the slutty bosses wife desperate for attention made me pine for the days of Carly Spenser standing like an empty mannequin in Transformers 3 (both of which were played by models).Nevertheless when we look at Gilliam's work, the one thing we always remember is the brilliant set design and creative costume and set pieces. The dream like imagination of Gilliam is one of the films only true saving graces, but even then its a step down from his previous work. We are treated visually to many weird and wonderful ideas from Gillam's interpretation of the legend. From the iconic baron windmills, to middle aged castles and men on stilts dressed as wizards. And of course the infamous three giants scene from the trailer back when Gilliam was first selling the idea. However the sad thing is that even with these images and ideas, their presentation seems so cheap and empty. It almost became more fan-service to the films failure to launch rather than the magnum opus we were once promised. This was more apparent when the plot decides to merge the biblical tale in with the modern corporate world. This is another aspect that I think was pushed by the very studio executives that Gilliam intends to imitate. While some see this as charming and witty, I see it as needless and plastic. The plot also reminds me a lot of the Errol Flynn movies where it is your standard squash buckling adventure which might of passed in the 1950s, but today seems dated and crass. Its almost as if Gilliam left out all the wacky and insane jokes of his past works and replaced them with Adam cursing for forty minutes straight.Overall what really sums this film up is ironically enough when the credits started to roll. Not because it was finally over, but because we got to see Gilliam's artwork for the film thirty years ago. The sad thing is, we never got to see anything that creative or inspiring throughout the entire film. Thats really why I don't care for this film, not from disgust or anger but from disappointment of what could of been. When you look back at the story of this films production and the development hell that went on in the desert for all those years, you see that this was a dream too big for the world to handle. And instead that dream has been whittled down to its brittle bones as something poorly written and painfully long, but with the faint glimmers of the spirit that Gilliam put into the story he loved so much. Honestly, it should of stayed buried in La Mancha.
Film Grade: D+
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