The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Last year, I did a show about director Terry Gilliam’s twenty year effort to make his film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. The movie is something of a production-hell legend. Gilliam originally began filming it back in 1989 with a fresh-faced young actor known for his edgy independent film roles, an actor named Johnny Depp. Thanks to a series of bad luck and bad choices – including trying to film next to a Spanish air force base during F-16 training, a storm that swept away sets, an actor with a double herniated disc in his back, the abrupt pulling of funding that was pretty shaky in the first place, and the loss of ownership of his own script – Gilliam filmed for three days and then spent the next twenty years trying to finish what he’d only just barely started. 

 

Last April, Gilliam announced that he had finished principal photography and he released a trailer online. Depp had been replaced by Adam Driver and the now deceased French actor who was originally cast as Don Quixote had been replaced by Richard Pryce. The trailer looked like classic Gilliam – fanciful, fantastic, and slightly unhinged. At the time of the trailer’s release, I wrote, “For film nerds who follow the esoterica of troubled film productions, this is a big deal, and many of my movie buff friends are saying things like, ‘I can’t believe it’s finally happening!’ My response remains the same. I will believe that Gilliam has finished and successfully released this remarkably fraught production when I am sitting in the theater and it plays all the way from the beginning to the end of the closing credits and not until then. Because with Gilliam’s luck on this project, it’s entirely possible every copy of the film will spontaneously burst into flame before anyone actually ends up seeing it.” This proved to be true because the week after the trailer dropped, Gilliam was again sued by an investor for ownership of the film. When I heard the news, I rolled my eyes and assumed it would be another twenty years before the movie ever saw the light of day.

However, my well-earned cynicism is no longer warranted. This coming week, on Wednesday, April 10^th, Fathom, a company that does movie related events like the 30 year anniversary re-releases and broadcasts of operas from the Met, will have a one-night only showing of Gilliam’s now completed  The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. There will be one showing only at 7 p.m. and it’s scheduled to play at theaters in Saginaw, Bay City, and Flint.

The irony of the subject matter and the story of the production is not lost on me. Quixote is a man consumed by his vision of the world, who pursues an impossible quest, and who takes on giant, impervious structures that he can never really defeat. Gilliam too is a man whose idiosyncratic vision consumes his whole world. He’s been tilting at the windmills of Hollywood for most of his career, earning a reputation, deservedly or not, as “out of control.” The fact that The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is one of his most infamous pictures and that it is mostly famous for not being made is appropriate. 

I have no idea if the film will be any good. Gilliam has made some good, borderline great movies in his day and he’s made some that are basically unwatchable, so there’s no telling. But one thing is for sure. On Wednesday, April 10^th at 7 p.m. I am going to be in a theater, popcorn and diet Pepsi in hand, ready to find out for myself. I suspect that The Man Who Killed Don Quixote will get released to streaming and disc pretty quickly, but I’ve been waiting too long to not see it the first chance I get. With a history like this movie has, it’s probably best to see it while I can.