THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE: Simply a Legend!

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is a film that gained legendary status long before its premiere. Mainly because for almost thirty years Gilliam undertook successive attempts to make it, and each time he failed. The situation became so absurd that it was easier to shoot a documentary about not making this film than to finish it.

And how, after all that, can one simply sit down and watch this legendary production that everyone had heard of, but no one had seen? It is worth heeding the advice of the director himself, who recommended – half joking, half serious – to simply enjoy the screening and detach from the entire backstory. And even without it, the film is exceptional. Terry Gilliam takes us on a baroque spectacle powered by imagination. There are spectacular duels, knights, police, a masquerade ball, and also – you did not expect this – the Spanish Inquisition.

Toby (Adam Driver) is a young, talented, and cynical commercial director. He is a star in his field, but he has lost heart for the job and feels that something in his career has gone wrong. Taking advantage of a break during the production of the commercial, he drives to the village where he once searched for extras for his student film. Back then, he met an old shoemaker named Javier (Jonathan Pryce) and ignited his imagination, convincing him that he would be perfect for the role of Don Quixote.

The amateur turned out to be so convincing that the film was a success and opened the young director’s path to a career. Ten years later, it turned out that what helped Toby make a name for himself forever changed the lives of the villagers, not necessarily for the better. The most harmed seems to be Javier, who believed that he truly was a wandering knight. Furthermore, upon meeting Toby again after years, he takes him for his squire, Sancho Panza. A coincidence will lead the two of them on a journey whose consequences cannot be foreseen.

The cinematic Don Quixote is another (after Baron Munchausen and Doctor Parnassus) embodiment of the Gilliam-esque dreamer-hero, a character who does not fit into the modern world. He fights for unattainable ideals, and his weapon is imagination, which is so strong that it can change reality. He does not do this through a magic wand but through the influence he exerts on the other characters. In Toby’s case – a cynical and blasé commercial director – the encounter with Don Quixote is a return to the past, a time full of creative passion and the beginning of a career.

However, ten years later the roles reverse – the Don Quixote created by Toby takes him for his squire and sets off with him on a journey that will awaken in the cynical director a dormant imagination and passion. These are the two pillars on which Gilliam’s entire film rests.

Yet it is the actors who make the words become flesh. Jonathan Pryce is Don Quixote with his entire being – he is a living flame of acting genius! In every gesture of his there is something inspired, not of this world. When he is happy, joy shoots from his eyes and facial muscles. When he is sad, one’s heart breaks at the sight. And when he is angry, his fury explodes off the screen. With his mobility he could even outshine Al Pacino. Pryce in the role of Don Quixote – with his tousled crown of gray hair and rusty armor – looks as if lifted straight from the engravings of Gustave Doré. In the not-far, but still second place, is Adam Driver.

His Toby is very sensitive to art and possesses the delicacy of an artist. However, he had to hide these traits in order to meet the demands of the advertising industry and swim in the same pool as business sharks. By hiding his inner self in a shell of cynicism, he gradually absorbs it. Driver, with not a hint of falseness, navigates between ennui and insolence, and the sorrow for lost ideals and love.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, even before its premiere, was a legend and a unique phenomenon. After years of waiting, a bold, funny, and moving fairy tale about the power of imagination has finally reached the big screen – that is, about what Terry Gilliam has been telling for years, probing the subject with determination worthy of a wandering knight. And with every subsequent film he proves that he still has a lot to say.