Man of La Mancha

I was privileged to have seen "Man of La Mancha" twice in the theater. These were riveting and unforgettable moments. As those who have seen it performed already know, the play was presented without intermission. Obviously this is because the drama builds up to such an emotional high as the story unfolds that a break in the narrative would have been both jarring and disorienting. To that extent, the play was crafted almost in the same vein as a film-----without any break from beginning to end. The movie version sticks quite closely to its theatrical origins. Given the creative personnel responsible for the film, this is quite understandable. I thought that Sophia Loren was right for the female leading role notwithstanding her limited vocal range. She gave us an emotionally charged and powerful performance that overcame her lack of strength as a singer. Peter O'Toole is another matter. Not only was his singing dubbed, but O'Toole was a somewhat mannered and affected Cervantes. Admittedly, it may be a valid artistic conception to make the soldier/actor/poet/author/tilter at windmills effete and rather fragile. But the role as developed on the stage projected a man with more power as he adopted his various guises. Why didn't the filmmakers remember Howard Keel when they were casting the movie? He had a wonderful baritone voice, and exhibited in "Kiss Me Kate" and "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" the kind of qualities that could have made Cervantes more appealing and less exhausted. Keel was a vibrant 53 in 1972------the year when the film was released (O'Toole was then 40). Certainly, that would have been an appropriate age for the role. As a footnote, Keel played Cervantes in touring and summer stock productions of "Man of La Mancha" for many years around the time the film was made. We should be grateful that we have a more or less complete contemporaneous film account of a legendary musical play. What a pity that this good musical film wasn't made even more memorable by casting a worthy singing film actor in the male lead. The score certainly did not benefit from being sung from the mouth of such a depleted-appearing performer as O'Toole. He should have stuck with "Lawrence of Arabia!"

source: Man of La Mancha

Trailer—Man of La Mancha

Man of La Mancha

Based on a Broadway musical, Miguel de Cervantes (Peter O'Toole) and his manservant Sancho Panza are imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition for staging a play. The prisoners put him on trial and take his manuscript. He puts on a play as elderly senile Alonso Quijana who takes on the persona of the knight errant Don Quixote de la Mancha. He along with Sancho Panza as his squire go to have adventures dueling with windmills and rescuing lady Dulcinea (Sophia Loren). Hollywood is following a long tradition of adapting Broadway shows and casting movie stars who can't really sing and dance. The production was troubled from the start. The sets are drab. Everything is brown. It looks ugly even with the beautiful Sophia Loren in it. The songs are forgettable. The replacement singers are not necessarily the best. They had to cast somebody who could sound like Peter O'Toole if he could sing. Not much of it really works.

The reason the see this musical is to watch the gorgeous young Sophia Loren sing. The watching is more fun than the listening. When she is on screen, you just have to stare at her, in this otherwise overblown and confusing film that really is not much of a musical at all. Peter O'Toole is a great actor, but he cannot sing (and is not particularly well dubbed). The men in the chorus seem to know what they are doing, but none of the principals does any dancing. One wonders what Miguel de Cervantes would make of this curious reinvention of his 1605 novel, Don Quixote.

I consider myself somewhat of a movie aficionado, having seen several thousand movies over the past forty years; and I can unequivocably say that "Man of La Mancha" is my all-time favorite movie. While some of the familiar criticisms lodged against it are valid, there is still no other movie that can approach its depth or poignancy. I judge a movie by its ability to move me: to make me laugh, to make me cry, to make me think. This movie tackles one of the greatest themes of life: whether to live in a helpful illusion or live in the harshness of reality. Don Quixote's story is the ultimate in human heroism, a tragic man of courage struggling to see and live life, not as it is, but as it should be. His unwavering idealism in the face of all-too-familiar cynicism and skepticism is both foolhardy and inspiring. This movie always leaves me, not with tears trickling, but with great sobbing. I strongly recommend it for both your heart and your head.

I must have a major blind spot because I loved this movie in 1972 when I saw it the first time and the second and the third time. Now I have become an semi-regularly woeful countenanced man myself and I love it even more. My heart started to stir watching O'Toole's speech at the Oscars so I re-rented La Mancha even as it was being removed from the active shelf at my local Hollywood video. I took it home and played it for the youngest of my five daughters, eleven year old Mary. She loves musicals as much as I do. She got into it. I cried again. Sorry. I love this film. Like I said, I must have a tin ear or a blind spot or goddamn it, maybe I'm right. Man of La Mancha is a 10 plus and a must for all O'Toole fans which at this point should be about everybody who loves movies. Let the revisionism begin here. O'Toole and Loren> C'mon