Man of La Mancha DVD

Man of La Mancha
Dale Wasserman's long-running Broadway smash comes to the screen in this musical based on Miguel de Cervantes' classic satire Don Quixote de la Mancha. Cervantes (Peter O'Toole) is arrested and put in prison by the soldiers of the Spanish Inquisition after staging a comic performance which mocked the Spanish government. Cervantes' fellow inmates are eager to divvy up his belongings, but the author is desperate to save a manuscript of his latest work; in order to win the prisoners over, he stages, with their assistance, his latest comedy about the delusional knight Don Quixote (O'Toole). Don Quixote, with the help of his loyal manservant Sancho Panza (James Coco), is determined to battle evil, though he most often finds himself combating windmills. Don Quixote encounters the beautiful virgin Dulcinea -- personified by a jailed prostitute, Aldonza (Sophia Loren) -- and is certain he has found the love of his life. However, tragedy befalls Don Quixote when a band of savages rape Dulcinea as he sleeps, and he must decide where his greatest loyalty lies when his niece Antonia (Julie Gregg) arrives, asking Quixote to please return home to his family. In a move which was widely criticized at the time of the film's release, Peter O'Toole's singing voice was dubbed for most of his musical numbers, while Sophia Loren did all of her own vocal tracks. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Cast Peter O'Toole as Cervantes-Don Quixote-Quijana Sophia Loren as Dulcinea/Aldoseza James Coco as Sancho Panza Harry Andrews as Governor-Innkeeper John Castle as Duke-Dr. Carrasco-Black Knight Brian Blessed as Pedro

Crew Luciano Damiani - Art Director Gillian Lynne - Choreography Luciano Damiani - Costume Designer Mauro Sacripanti - First Assistant Director Arthur Hiller - Director Folmar Blangsted - Editor Robert Jones - Editor Mitch Leigh - Composer (Music Score) Laurence Rosenthal - Composer (Music Score) Laurence Rosenthal - Musical Direction/Supervision Joe Darion - Songwriter Giuseppe Annunziata - Makeup Charles Parker - Makeup Euclide Santoli - Makeup Giuseppe Rotunno - Cinematographer Saul Chaplin - Producer Alberto Grimaldi - Producer Arthur Hiller - Producer Arrigo Breschi - Set Designer Adriano Pischiutta - Special Effects Richard Portman - Sound/Sound Designer David Hildyard - Sound/Sound Designer Dale Wasserman - Screenwriter Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra - Book Author Dale Wasserman - Play Author

Man of La Mancha
Adapting a literary masterpiece for film is a formidable challenge for directors and producers. But what if the classic work is a 17th century Spanish novel, Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote de la Mancha, being adapted for a modern English-speaking audience? And what if the filmmakers are adapting their script from a Broadway musical, Dale Wasserman's Man of La Mancha, loosely based on the original Cervantes work? The result, in the case of director Arthur Hiller's film about demented idealist Quixote, is an adventure into the bizarre. Here is a motion picture in which the great dramatic actor Peter O'Toole (Quixote) is reduced to lip-synching the Mitch Leigh-Joe Darian song "The Impossible Dream." Even worse, here is a film in which Sophia Loren (Dulcinea) sings in her own voice. Though the story is set in Spain, the motion picture unfolds in Italy with English and American actors in the main roles of Quixote and his feather-brained sidekick Sancho Panza (James Coco). What's more, though the film is in widescreen format with color by Deluxe, a combination that invites spectacular imagery, the costumes resemble garage-sale leftovers, and the setting for half the film looks like a dark and dingy dungeon. (In fact, it is a dungeon.) As for the main purpose of the Cervantes book -- to lampoon other writers who dwell nostalgically on the age of knight-errantry -- one may find traces of it when O'Toole falls off a horse or jousts with a windmill. Surprisingly, it is possible to sit through this film. O'Toole is good when he's doing what he was cut out to do: recite lines, not sing them. And Coco is sometimes endearingly cuckoo. Then there is the music score, which was nominated for an Academy Award. So what we have in Hiller's Man of La Mancha is a bad film with good moments -- or, in the opinion of a few brave critics, a good film with bad moments. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
 

James Coco: Golden Globe, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Pic (nominated) Laurence Rosenthal: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Adaptation and Original Song Score (nominated) Peter O'Toole: Golden Globe, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Com (nominated) Peter O'Toole: National Board of Review, Best Actor (winner)

National Board of Review, Best Picture (nominated)

General Specifications: Language Options: English, Spanish Subtitle Options: English, French, Spanish Sound Processing: DD5.1: Dolby Digital w/ sub-woofer channel DDS2.0: Dolby Digital w/ 4 channels of sound from a 2-channel stereo mix. Additional Features: cc Photo montage with overture music Original theatrical trailer DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1: Theatre Wide-Screen MPAA Rating: PG DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 129 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 1. Main Title/Overture [7:02] 2. The Trial's the Thing [7:07] 3. Man of la Mancha (I, Don Quixote) [3:46] 4. The Idealist [3:13] 5. Back to the Castle [2:11] 6. It's All the Same [3:44] 7. Dulcinea [1:22] 8. I'm Only Thinking of Him [:49] 9. The Show Must Go On [3:23] 10. I Really Like Him [4:28] 11. The Barber's Song/Golden Helmet of Mambrino [3:59] 12. The Knight's Truth [4:01] 13. Little Bird, Little Bird [3:25] 14. The Impossible Dream [5:24] 15. The Valiant Ones [6:31] 16. The Dubbing [:59] 17. Destroying Dulcinea [6:19] 18. Life as it Really Is/Man of la Mancha (Reprise) [:33] 19. Aldonza [3:52] 20. Circling Cervantes [6:39] 21. The Inquisition Draws Near [2:21] 22. A Little Gossip [1:52] 23. Dulcinea (Reprise)/The Impossible Dream (Reprise)/The Psalm [4:22] 24. Finale/End Credits [2:37]