Written by Terry Gilliam and Tony Grisoni
Directed by Terry Gilliam
Starring Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce, Joana Ribeiro
Running time: 2 hours and 12 minutes

by Fiona Underhill

With one of the most infamous gestation periods of any film in movie history, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote couldn't possibly live up to its almost mythical status, right? Well, director Terry Gilliam has achieved something which is almost worth the wait. Gilliam first got the urge to adapt the novel by Miguel de Cervantes in the 1980s, but it wasn't until 1998 that he secured the funding for the project. The production was plagued by natural disasters and illness, went massively over-budget and was never finished. Instead, Gilliam (with Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe) made a documentary called Lost in La Mancha about his quest to finish what seemed like a cursed project. Gilliam made multiple attempts to get the film going (in the twenty years since) with various different lead actors, but it is only now that he has managed to complete his magnum opus. Even now, it is not so simple or cut-and-dried - there has still been a legal dispute over the film's release and its debut at Cannes in 2018 was almost cancelled. On April 10th 2019, the film received a special one-night only engagement in US theatres and it will receive a patchy limited release later in April. If this movie had been given a proper, wide release in the fall or winter, it could have become an awards contender. At the very least, the costumes and production design are spectacular (and Oscar-worthy) and Adam Driver gives one of the best performances this year. If you are lucky enough to live where you get to see this film in a movie theater, please do so - the stunning locations are meant to be seen on a big screen.