Man of La Mancha

A musical set in a dungeon. Cervantes has been arrested. The Inquisition will try him and that night he waits in a cellar with the other prisoners. The prisoners set up their own court. They want his belongings and are going to burn the manuscript he is carrying. He asks for the right to defend himself. He says he will present his defence as a play and hands out parts to the prisoners. From there the film moves on two levels. The dungeon on one, the story being told on the other. In the story there is an old man. Alonso Quijano has read himself into believing he is a knight; he takes the name Don Quixote and sets out. He takes a servant along. Sancho does not believe him but loves him. They stop at an inn. The man takes the inn for a castle and Aldonza, who works in the kitchen, for a noblewoman, and calls her Dulcinea. Aldonza is furious. She knows what her life is and has to remind him what she is not. What the narrative is interested in is not madness but deliberate belief: the film leaves it uncertain whether the man is genuinely deceived and offers it as a choice. Aldonza's line is its hardest part. She is violently attacked in the middle of the narrative and the musical's tone breaks entirely there. The songs come from the stage musical. The best known number is about following a dream, and the finale is built on its reprise. Peter O'Toole's singing is not his own voice. He recorded his own tracks but did not find them adequate; in the end a singer was chosen who sounded closest to his speaking voice. Sophia Loren sings her own numbers. Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren, James Coco and Harry Andrews are in the cast. Arthur Hiller directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes stage musicals and theatrical construction. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a cinematic adaptation; the film cannot get off the stage and the sets are caught between reality and theatre.