Plot: What’s it about?
“To dream the impossible dream…” is a quote that can sum up the difficulty of bringing a non-musical adaptation of Don Quixote to the big screen. Some have tinkered with the idea and have gotten as far as an idea and some have taken action over that hump, like Orson Welles, and never completed the film. The latest (as of right now) casualty of this attempt is director Terry Gilliam. His vision would seem fitting but as filming was about to begin on his project, financial struggles and location difficulties escalated the frustrations of the director into making this film. This and many other battles are well documented in Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s documentary “Lost In La Mancha”
Narrated by Jeff Bridges, “Lost” takes a honest look at the background of what “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” goes through in pre-production, casting and locations. It’s after that when the shooting starts and hell takes over. Imagine if we had the technology we had today with video cameras in the past and documentarians had the chance to show all the horror stories of how difficult the shoot of “Jaws” or “Lawrence of Arabia” went through as they were happening at the time only to become quite the opposite showing the rough work paid off with movie audiences as classics of cinema today. Unlike those 2, this documentary shows how a promising film turned into the movie that might have been. The struggles that are funny and disturbing, even frustrating at times, come together for an entertaining documentary.
After viewing this movie I no doubt had more respect for Terry Gilliam both as a responsible visionary director and a guide telling these 2 documentarians that there might not have been a good film that came out of this experience but that they have a better chance making a film about the un-making of Quixote. These 2 filmmakers were responsible for the documentary “The Hamster Factor and other Tales of 12 Monkeys” which I regard as one of the best documentaries ever included on a DVD. With this feature, they did something that I’ve never seen a documentary about filmmaking do before. It never sugar coated the subject for one second and with their talents spun a constantly entertaining piece a shred of hope that one day “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” will see the light of day and I will be first in line to see the results as this has made me forever a fan in Terry Gilliam. Lost in La Mancha is a great documentary and an early frontrunner for Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards this year.
Video: How does it look?
Lost In La Mancha was filmed full framed in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and with the primary source being digital video, the results are sharp and flawless. There is no evidence of any fading and the source’s clarity remains intact throughout. A very good job.
Audio: How does it sound?
The cover indicates a 5.0 Dolby soundtrack but actually, a 2.0 soundtrack is included covering mostly the dialogue and occasional music from the precedings and even though it would’ve been nice to have the former, the latter works well despite the limitations of sound on video as opposed to film. There are no subtitles except the ones in the feature.
Supplements: What are the extras?
On this 2 disc set, Docurama has cooked up an ample amount of additional materials for this title. On Disc 1 we only get trailers of selected Docurama discs. Disc 2 is where the bulk of additional material is, starting off with interviews with cast and crew. Some are short and Johnny Depp’s is quite long but what information is shared by all is very intriging. It’s good to hear Depp is ready whenever Gilliam is ready. More hope for the dream feature to become a reality.
Next are 9 deleted scenes and they’re all good even though I can understand why they were taken out, except one. That one being the selection dealing with the possible film score. The relationship between director and composer has always fascinated me and the example on here is a plus even if it’s for a few minutes.
Both the IFC Focus on Terry Gilliam and the Salman Rushdie and Terry Gilliam: A Conversation from the 29th Telluride Film Festival pieces cover the same territory but are both worthy for displaying Gilliam’s wonderful personality in a one on one interview format and an entertaining look at the career of Gilliam as a filmmaker up to the present day.
The Soundbites category strays far away from what has already been covered and gives more of an intriguing look at the troubled Quixote project from most of the crew people on the side as well as Gilliam.
The Storyboards, Costume Designs and Production Stills all show the vision that could’ve been on screen in multi screened stills and is a welcome imaginitive addition on this disc.
Finally we have the theatrical trailer.
