The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018) Review

 

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote follows Toby, who 10 years earlier directed a student film on Don Quixote. In the present though, he stumbles upon the village and people where he filmed it, sending him and a crazy old man on a modern, fantasized journey that mirrors the original Don Quixote story.

This film, which took Terry Gilliam the better part of 25 years to finally get made, is so damn odd that I’m still trying decipher whether it was ridiculously misguided, or a meticulous passion project. Either way, it’s got Gilliam’s signature style and comedy written all over it, being a confusing, convoluted, but nonetheless, occasionally entertaining picture that is similar in a way to Fear and Loathing.

I was impressed with the way it modernizes such a classic story, yet still keeps so many of the original elements alive. In his quest to create a story of Don Quixote, Toby inadvertently creates him, turning an old man mad and thus sets the stage for the outlandish story they set upon. A story that coincidentally mirrors that of the original story, while obviously taking some ridiculous liberties that left me beyond confused because I found it downright impossible to distinguish the real from the fantasy, much like Toby, whose on screen descent into madness is rightfully capped-off in becoming the new Don Quixote, the man who cannot die.

We also get a surprisingly solid cast, featuring Jordi Mollà, Stellen Skarsgård, Joana Ribeiro, Jonathan Pryce, and Adam Driver. Driver really shows how good of a comedic actor he can be here, with his foul mouthed confusion, acting so well against Pryce extreme dedication to being the part of Don Quixote.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, directed by Terry Gilliam, is a long, dragged out, and messy film that somehow magnificently reinvents the story of Don Quixote for a modern age, seeming like a brilliantly deliberate disaster that nails it’s mark.

6.7/10