Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Just talking about Terry Gilliam and the way he’s treated by Hollywood and financers and fate in general just makes me ache, so I’m going to keep it brief and just hand you over to
I was reminded, while watching Lost In La Mancha - the feature length documentary about Gilliam's doomed movie, of Apoclaypse Now a number of times. That statement can be looked upon, by Apocalypse Now scholars, in two different ways: both apply.
Every Gilliam fan feels a little - well, a lot - sorry for Terry. Despite his cult fanbase, auteur status and success with Monty Python, he never seems to get an even break. He has yet to direct a movie wherein he has not had trouble either before, during or prior to production (in many cases, he has had problems with all three). Of all the projects he has had ambitions for that fell through over the last few years (since Fear And Loathing) - Good Omens, The Defective Detective, etc - I think his fans have become more and more pessimistic when they hear of a new project he wishes to helm, including myself. But when it was finally announced that production had began on Don Quixote, I was ecstatic. Finally, I thought, I can see another Terry Gilliam film. Perhaps too many of us presumed that when production began, that meant that within a year or so, we would be sitting in our local cinemas watching the words "Directed by Terry Gilliam" appear in massive letters before our eyes. But not so.
I need not list all of the problems Quixote encountered. Firstly, many of you will know of most of them (check the AICN archives if you do not) and secondly, because this documentary manages to capture them. Those pleased with the team's other Gilliam effort - The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys - will love this.
Perhaps "love" is not the best term. At many during watching this I felt depressed. The depression was worst when they showed you the few clips of the movie that existed. During these scenes I noticed that the audience, who had previously been laughing at some points and mumbling at others, suddenly shut up. I realised that there are probably a lot of people that would love to see this movie, and I hope someone will have the guts to fund it (ala George Harrison on Life Of Brian). One of the clips shows Johnny Depp pulling a horse by its reins, yet the horse refused to move, much to Depp's character's frustration. That scene is like Gilliam; trying his best to drag a project along that refuses to reach final cut.
I laughed a lot during the movie, but I never laughed at the situations or at the people. I laughed out of disbelief sometimes; disbelief that a film could suffer such terrible luck; but most often I laughed out of sympathy. Every time we saw another fatal blow to the project, I wanted to give Gilliam a big hug. He doesn't deserve this. The documentary manages to successfully capture everything that went wrong without ever being biased, without ever saying we should or should not feel sorry for Gilliam and his cast and crew. But we sure as Hell do.
Whether you love or loathe Gilliam and his work, I recommend seeing this documentary. The directors and editors Keith Fulton and Louise Pepe manage to take 125 hours of footage that, when they were filming, was supposed to record The Man Who Killed Don Quixote's journey from page to screen (ie. like The Hamster Factor) that ended up being a record of a film's descent into Hell, and cut it down to an hour and a half without making it feel likes there is a lot left to be said of the production.
I saw this at a special preview at the Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh, Scotland (*the* finest cinema I frequent). The two directors and the producer attended. After the screening I asked the directors if, after seeing the movie-making business from the inside, they had ambitions to make their own feature films. Their answer was a surprisingly enthusiastic "yes". I had guessed that maybe, after seeing Terry Gilliam's vision disintegrate in front of him, they would be put off, but perhaps such failures fuel other directors, and give them even more determination in their own projects. The guys who made this documentary certainly did not want to see this happen to the movie, and I imagine their frustration regarding this film's plight has made them want to make their own films even more - to try and meet the challenge that - this time - Gilliam failed to. Most of Gilliam's films deal with reality and fantasy: sadly, reality won this time.
I am writing this as more of a plea than a review. I urge anyway who can to see this film. If it means that it may help Don Quixote to be finished, please do see it. Gilliam is one of the finest director's around today - he does not deserve this.
As a footnote: do stay until the end of the closing credits. There is a warmly optimistic snippet after them.
Nice review by today’s spy, Chartered Streets. If you wanna check out more of his work, you can find it RIGHT HERE!! Thanks for writing, man.
"Moriarty" out.
