Customer Reviews

Orson Welles' Don Quixote

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I am an Orson Welles fanatic. I love Chimes At Midnight and Othello and Macbeth and Ambersons and Kane and etc etc etc. I bought this not expecting much other than perhaps some beautifully filmed scenes. I was not prepared for it to be so unremittingly awful though. The film is in less than bad shape. The shots are not strong in the slightest and the whole thing is put together terribly. They try to dub it and nothing works. In addition, the actor hired as narrator is doing an absurd imitation of Welles himself. The editing is also semi professional. The whole thing is a shambles. I say avoid it at all costs. Even if you adore Welles and think you need this to complete your knowledge of him and his work, you DON'T. You will be sorely disappointed. It is just awful.

This dreadful 1992 "reconstruction" of Orson Welles' unfinished "Don Quixote" does a tremendous disservice to the legendary filmmaker. Poor dubbing and wildly variable footage make the Spanish project virtually unwatchable, even though Francisco Reiguera and Akim Tamiroff are ideally cast as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. A documentary utilizing the best photographic elements would have been preferable.

The Maestro is dead. This is most assuredly NOT what the Maestro would have given us. But this "assemblage" of Welles' footage and much of his own voice-overs is well worth watching. The lead actors are picture perfect for their legendary parts. The music is extremely good. There are many, many touching scenes and many, many hilarious scenes that do Cervantes proud. The Welles-imitating narrator does a wonderful job tying things together. Yes, the scene of Don attacking a battle scene on a movie theatre screen is locked up in litigation somewheres and Patty McCormack is nowhere to seen in this version and the nuclear blast that Welles intended our heroes to survive is not here as it most likely was never filmed. But...IT'S ALL TRUE was pieced together and proved better than nothing. And even AMBERSONS, mutilated and defiled with scenes shot by hacks and parts scored by a much lesser talent than Bernard Herrmann, is still a crown jewel in film history. Even earlier mangled versions of TOUCH OF EVIL were accepted in spite of the manglings until the "restoration" was made. Some small sketches by Leonardo were recently found on the back of a Da Vinci painting in the Louvre and the art world rejoices. Well, here are several cinematic sketches stitched together - but instead of a Frankenstein Monster of a film we get a glimpse at what might have been. We get some of Welles - and some of Welles goes a long, long way. And to those who complain about the voice-changes from scene to scene....oddly enough, the different voices add to the surrealism of our Knight Errant in Modern Times. And, as I've said, to hear Welles' voice by turns touching, by turns hilarious is a pure joy. Well worth it, despite its flaws.

DON QUIXOTE is the most curious of all Orson Welles films. He began work on this adaptation of the Cervantes novel in the 1950s and continued the project on occasion, and over many years. The film was still unfinished at the time of the director's death and remained so until 1992, when Jesus Franco (his assistant director) shot additional footage and everything was pieced together.

It's been claimed that this version bears little resemblance to the movie Welles had started and worked fitfully on, and that several discarded original scenes are to this day being held in private collections. The movie was filmed and released in Spanish; presented here is an English-dubbed version.

CITIZEN KANE, Orson's first movie (and widely considered his greatest) is the only one that he ever managed to get released without studio tampering or alteration.

Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(6.1) Don Quixote (Spain/Italy/USA-1955-'92) - Francisco Reiguera/Akim Tamiroff/Orson Welles/José Mediavilla (narrator)/Juan Carlos Ordóñez/Fernando Rey (narrator)/Beatrice Welles

This may be the worst movie I've every seen. From a Spanish point of view, it was sort of with the book for about half the movie, but then went off the deep end. The film was also poorly dubbed and just poorly done. It sounded like they were in a tunnel. I doubt that Orson Welles would want his name on this.

I've loved Miguel de Cervante's novel "Don Quixote" for as long as I can remember.

The story, as I'm sure you already know, is about Don Quixote, an idealist, a noble-minded, an enthusiastic admirer of everything good and great, yet having all these fine qualities accidentally blended with a relative kind of madness. His main problem is that the medival institution of knighthood has passed for over a hundred years (the novel was first published 1605 and was set in "of today"). Yet he sets out, in his armour and shaving-hat, believing he's a nobel knight, to save fair maidens and do good in the world. Sancho Panza is Don Quixote's sidekick. He's the complete opposite of his master, with his practicality and grossness.

The film takes place in the 1900-hundreds. The "normal" people are launching their first missle to the moon, as Don Quixote is out fighting windmills. We see cars and other motorvehicles roaring by at many occassions. In one scene Don Quixote halts a moped driven by a "fair lady", to save her from it.

The screen quality is sometimes just plain awful. Some are too dark and some are too bright.
And there's no tact. Some sequences are too long. Or maybe it was just me who got frustrated when Sancho danced and cheered with his family for 15 minutes?

The dubbing really annoyed me. The dubbing-voices are cheaply done, you can clearly see how the characters mouths on the screen are moving, though the voice-over is giving you nothing. I would've much prefered to watch a movie in spanish, with english subtitles.

One of the few things I like about this movie, that worked for me, is how Sancho and Don Quixote is potrayed. Don Quixote, tall, bearded and thin as a thread upon his trusted Rocinante. And Sancho, fat and short, on his mule right beside him.

The music is pretty good. It sets a medival mood.

Ultimately, most things about the movie just feels cheap and underworked. For me, it seems like a movie with a lot of flaws. But at the same time, some parts are quite enjoyable.

All in all, I wouldn't really advice people to buy it, though.