Honour of the Knights (Quixotic)

You can't get much more minimalist than this. Two characters- Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (remarkably fat, as all they seem have to to eat are a few walnuts)- wander across Spain, filmed in very long takes using natural light, the camera hardly bothering about what is in front of it, with hardly any music (when a guitar plays a short melody after about ninety minutes it is an astonishing shock) and hardly any action. They talk, minimally- the Don giving Sancho orders, go for a swim, sleep. The Don shouts challenges to imaginary enemies who do not answer him. Eventually, in a mysterious dream-like scene, four horsemen silently carry away the Don. Sancho, left with the don's sword, chops down herbs with it and answers questions about his relations with the Don and why he serves him. The two meet up again and wander on. Eventually the don dies. End of film after nearly two hours. That makes it sound more eventful than it actually is. There is a curious pointlessness and banality about everything that happens- for example, the camera watches an almost-dark patch for minutes on end, with the stems of two plants moving in the wind and- with a shock- when he moves we realise that the Don's face was behind them all the time. Once you adjust you realise that there are astonishing and beautiful shots, but you have to adjust to a zen quality in it. i'm certainly glad to have seen the film, but I certainly wouldn't want to see it again.

This movie started off slow and then went even slower and then in reverse and then it really went south. The Don and Sancho are in a field where the Don wants his armor cleaned. After a few minutes of silence, Don asks Sancho "where is my armor?", a few more minutes pass and he again asks "Sancho, where is my armor?" A minute or two later, Sancho, who needs to go on the Biggest Loser despite surviving on nuts and herbs, grovels around and finds some armor laying around and turns it over a few times and then lays it down. A couple of more minutes go by and the Don asks for a third time for his armor and Sancho throws it over to him. I guess it was just spotless as he didn't even put it on and we advance to the next scene in which they are going to find a camp that Sancho is going to choose. They travel for hours and end up about a hundred yards on the other side of the field with the same hill in the background where they were in the first riveting scene. After another long debate, it gets dark and they speak about once very few minutes. I sat and watched a black screen for ten minutes without a spoken word. I finally just broke out laughing which didn't offend anyone as the "crowd" in the theater had thinned from five to two. To top all of it off, this entire movie is filmed in some dead language that not even the people who live in the area this supposedly took place, don't even speak anymore. This film would be great on Mystery Science Theater 3000 or to punish your kids with when they are bad. It might even come in handy for use in prisons. I have been trying to get a copy to show at parties but it is only available on British DVD. If you have the chance, go see it and take all your friends.

How one can translate the best attempt ever made to create a world with language ( I am always surprised at the interest of every sequence, of every word, in Don Quixote)in an empty and pompous movie.

To let the characters, who kind of founded modern castillan, speak catalan is the most stupid idea I have ever seen (or heard). Not to have understood that they exist almost only thanks to their dialogs is another one.

Just as an example, after the long, long, minutes of silent and obscure introduction, you hear Don Quixote calling Sancho, saying good morning, or something to that effect. Sancho doesn't answer. This is totally out of place: generally speaking, both men are set as equals in dignity and intelligence, and very often the master praises the servant's brains, as the reader does secretly. To destroy this balance is simply destroy the essence of the plot.

Don't mention that the original novel is a masterpiece of comic, as this film is one of boredom.

Maybe the filmmakers should try an adaptation of Beckett, or film Bhuto theater, if that is their genius.

Although "only" around 1 hour and 47 minutes in duration, the pace of this film is so slow that, if you survive watching the whole thing, it feels as though you have sat through Gone With The Wind twice over. I enjoy independent films, basic plots etc, but the makers of this (and its "artistic" plaudits) should realise that two men roaming Spanish fields with minimal conversation (I think the word/name "Sancho" makes up about 20% of the entire vocabulary used) does not constitute a film, nor a useful translation of Cervantes. We learn nothing about the characters, their history, motives, loves, lives... nothing. Another practical curiosity is how Sancho remains so well formed, as neither he nor the Knight seem to eat anything for days on end !

Pretentious and slow. Grotesque to say the least. It pretends to be "different". However, it does not accomplish well this task.

The actors are fine, and the cinematography is not bad. However, the final product is not fortunate. It does not impress, does not connect.

Also, Don Quixote speaking catalan is not precisely the best approach. It is very difficult to manage to portray an unlikable Don Quixote, as the Don is in fact one of the most likable charachters of universal literature. But they accomplished precisely that. It breaks the originality of the novel without giving anything superb in exchange ( we could easily forgive departures from convention if these departures were successful, but they were not).

Too long, devoid of charm, unsuccesful attempt.