Lost in La Mancha

Reviewed by:
Paul Ulane

Most movies represent a constant struggle to arrive at the finished product. Movies involving “maverick” (read: mentally unstable) director Terry Gilliam (12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) struggle to make it out of the gates…of preproduction. The documentary Lost in La Mancha follows Gilliam through the excruciating process of attempting a feature-length version of Don Quixote only to be thwarted by F-16’s tearing through shoots, flash floods destroying equipment, and grave illness claiming a cast member. The film itself is a “making-of,” so the DVD material just expands on the agony of shattered budgets and elusive deadlines. Meet the geeks behind the camera (Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe), who catch every moment as Gilliam squeezes blood from his embattled crew and reads over his contract in shock and horror as his demands are flatly ignored. There are also two, hour-long, one-on-one interviews with Gilliam—one conducted by author Salman Rushdie, the other by New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell—in which he discusses the nuances of big-budget Hollywood. And who better to comment on the matter than a man who can’t even complete his own damn projects?