Review of Lost in La Mancha (2002) by Ryan H — 15 Nov 2012

I really loved parts of Lost in La Mancha. Fulton and Pepe gives us the footage that was taken which could have eventually gone into The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, plus we get to see storyboards and parts of the script.

They interview Gilliam and ask why this story's so important to him, which even the people who have worked with him for years understand. It's about an old man who wants to see the world differently before he dies.

He wants to be like the knights and heros he read about, so he puts on armor from pieces he found around his house, gets on his tired old horse, has a fat companion who rides a donkey, and go on search to save the lovely maidens.

This has Terry Gilliam written all over it. One of the first shots we see from the film is three overweight guys with their shirts off running towards the camera. Gilliam laughs like a little kid. He loves seeing his creation come to life.

But at the same time we hear about the curse of Don Quixote. Orson Welles also tried to make it but little things kept getting in his way and he never got to finish it before he and his star died. It's like the curse of Macbeth.

Before production began they had problems getting funding because of problems Gilliam had with his producer on Munchausen. He doubled the budget and bombed at the box office, but he wouldn't have gone over budget if his producer would have told him where they were at money-wise.

So they got independent financiers, but that still cut the budget in half of what they need. But with Gilliam, if something's difficult then it attracts him more. They had difficulties getting the actors together for rehearsals, which couldn't be forced since the actors were taking big cuts to do this film in the first place.

So when things go wrong on set you just can't help but feel terrible for them. I wish we would have stayed closer to Gilliam. I wanted to really feel what he was feeling throughout production. The jets fly above the scene and screw up their sound, so they take long shots and get dialogue in the close-ups.

The next day they get a flood. And their Don Quixote gets sick and never comes back. Then the day after the flood they realize the Spanish desert looks different than the day before so they've lost all their footage.

This might not be a huge deal if he were working in the studio system. But when they are hanging on to every penny then everything becomes a huge deal. I wish this would have been made a little more clear.

I felt like I understood so well because I've dealt with that before, but I don't know if the common filmgoer would have understood why it was such a big deal. Also I feel like Fulton and Pepe could have made us feel more for Gilliam the moment when he has to let his dream project go.

It should have been much more devastating than the way it came off. But I can understand to an extent. They were filming a documentary about a guy making his dream project and I'm sure when things started to take a dive they were scared to still capture what was going on.

But Gilliam was happy they caught what they did because at least his movie could be seen in some way. It's a shame because with a passion project that he had been working on for over 10 years like this could have easily become the best film he ever made.

I hope he attempts to make it again one day.