The Don

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018).

IMDb metadata is 2h and 12m, rated 6.3 by 22,000 cinematizens.


DNA: Spain via UK.


Genre: Serio-comedy.


Verdict: Dreamy.  


Tagline: The Life of Brian Quixote.  


In the interest of making a film, a director convinces a shoemaker that he is Don Quixote!  To some degree he also convinces other amateur actors in the village where he shoots the film that they are the characters they portray.  When the film is done he leaves.


By coincidence returning ten years later he finds, during his absence, that the illusion has become reality or is it a fantasy, that he gets caught up in.  Adventures follow.


***


I found it diverting, amusing, entertaining, touching, and puzzling, but many IMDbasers went nuclear on it, evidently because it is not the movie they would have made, if they had made a movie. Uh huh. Ditto some professional reviewers.  It’s a love child of Terry Gilliam, hence the tagline above.  


The village is ‘Los sueños’ and that says it all: The Dreams.  I also found it far too long. Still it offers in addition to the list above a spectacle, with surprises along the way.  


I read an abridgement of the first volume of Don Quixote in a Euro Lit class as an undergraduate and I have never been tempted to return to it. While I enjoyed this outing, I remain content with that situation.