Product Details

• Actors: Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren, James Coco, Harry Andrews, John Castle (II)
• Directors: Arthur Hiller
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: April 4, 2000
• Run Time: 130 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (93 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792844920
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,309 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It's hard to imagine a finer Don Quixote than Peter O'Toole, who's spent most of his career with a slightly mad, dreaming look in his marvelous eyes. O'Toole's suitability for the role is tested by the Broadway treatment of Man of La Mancha, the film version of the hit stage musical. Everybody knows "The Impossible Dream," that indomitable hymn to, well, quixotic questing, and it is indeed the best of the Spanish-inflected songs. Despite the location shooting in Italy, Love Story director Arthur Hiller can't elude the stagey concept (in which Cervantes, imprisoned by the Inquisition, acts out the tale of Don Quixote for his fellow prisoners). James Coco, as Sancho Panza, is overshadowed by the film's irresistible Dulcinea: Sophia Loren, at her mature peak. (Her singing, alas, is not as ripe as her beautiful self.) If you love Cervantes for his earthy ironies, this movie will seem a curious slice of inspirational shtick. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Many are Missing the Point!, October 5, 2003

By A Customer

I first saw the play Man of La Mancha at a small college in central Texas. It was nicely done, considering it was performed by rank amateur students on a shoestring budget. In spite of the obvious lack of polish, I was hooked. The story spoke to my very soul. Later that evening, I learned that there had been a movie version of the Broadway play, and sought to rent it at the local video stores. It took several days to find a copy, and I was not disappointed at all when I finally watched it - as a first time viewer 26 years after it was released in theaters. The movie spoke to my soul just as powerfully as the play had.

Sure, I could rip apart the college play for its' lack of refinement compared to the Broadway version, as could I pick away at the movies' shortcomings compared to the classic cinematic musicals. I could even lament about the lack of historical accuracy of the theatrical and cinematic renditions of Cervantes and his life. But why??? To watch Man of La Mancha as a movie critic is to miss what makes this film so beautiful. It is the story... the MESSAGE that is so moving and vitally important. It more than makes up for the flaws made in delivering it! The play and movie were never meant to be faithful renditions of the real Cervantes and the fictional madman in his book Don Quixote. It is a new story, with a fictional Cervantes giving hope to his retched fellow inmates, imprisoned during one of the most brutal periods of human history, by telling his story of a daft knight who's chivalry and moral convictions are truths that transcend time.

My advice: Watch the movie with your heart, not your mind. You'll get a lot more out of it.

Hopefully, this wonderful tale will be immortalized on DVD soon. It is certainly more worthy than the majority of titles being released these days.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest madness of all is to see the world as it is, March 3, 2000

By	"conflans" (Charlottenlund 2920 Denmark) - See all my reviews

While I understand the spanish gentleman who wrote the first reviews comment about the film not being accurate I must say I find this musical one of the best I have ever watched. The essence of the film is best expressed in the words "The greatest madness of all is to see the world as it is and not as it should be". Thus the film illustrates that Don Quixote is the only sane man in a mad world. He alone sees the beautiful, noble, and serene qualities in everything. He is the last chivalrous and truly good man in a world that no longer has any place for nobility and chivalrous ideals. In this sense it is not important if the film is entirely accurate as Peter O'Toole is brilliant in portraying the haunted blue eyes of a man who will always be a knight in his soul. One has to be a romantic to appreciate this perhaps, but it is a great film. The reason for the story about Don Cervantes being arrested by the inqusition is in my opinion that the Author of the musical who must himself have felt kinship with Don Quixote would like to illustrate that Don Cervantes must have felt that kinship himself and probably possesed many of the same qualities. Regardless if one still wants to fight for what is true, good, and beautiful, this is a superb film about a man, whom if he had existed, I would have been hounoured to call my friend.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Musical, December 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Man of La Mancha / Movie [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"Man of la Mancha" contains as much of the Don Quixote legend as could be expected in a reasonable-length movie. And it is wonderfully acted. Having taught Theatre Arts for twenty years, I do not understand why people complain that every non-operatic voice isn't looped by Carreras or Brightman. "Man of la Mancha"s actors are just that -- actors. Actors who happen to sing with the appropriate emotion. I'd much rather listen to Peter O'Toole sing "Impossible Dream" with all his passion, than to hear an unemotional operatic version. "Man of la Mancha" is the best possible musical that could have been made from Cervantes' classic.