Tilt

I had the opportunity to see this film at a screening recently. It's a little treasure. It's very sleek for an independent short film. The acting is first rate (Tom Braidwood) shines. The cinematography is stellar. It's a modern telling of Don Quixote with Braidwood in the Sancho Panza role and John R. Taylor as Quixote. A few `cameos' from The New Addams Family (Michael Roberds and Glenn Taranto) add to the picture. If you get the chance try to see this one!

Don Quixote originally conceived as a comic satire against the chivalric romances. By Miguel de Cervantes so to comment on this movie you have to know the back story. This new adaptation did a great job in a book that was originally in Spanish. You really have to take the time and watch the movie from start to finish and give it your full attention, and have read the book or know something about the old man…comment on it with out this is like going to the opera with out having read the back story. This is not your typical TNA movie. Very well done for the budget and first time director Lance Peverley. He may be an extra wrangler but we all have to start somewhere. Great job.

I've seen Tilt at a few different screenings. Each time I find myself amazed at how well done this is. I am intimately familiar with most of the story behind the making of this little film and it is Quixotic in it's own right. True to form, Lance Peverley and Patrick Stark set out determined to bring this story to life and they did. It took them 4 years to get all the bits and pieces assembled into a finished product. The cast and crew getting together whenever their schedules permitted and working from donations of time, equipment and money, they held on to their vision and saw it through. To see this movie and hear the story behind it is truly an experience.

This version of the story brings the ancient tale to modern day but all the old familiar names are there. As in Cervantes's tale, Don Quixote is persistent in his belief in chivalry and honour. He clings to the old ways and is reluctant to give way to modern behaviours. He sees things in a different way, the smoke stack of a factory is a beast to be conquered, his bicycle is his trusty steed and the hapless man stranded by a transit strike who tries to help suddenly finds himself to be the sidekick to the deluded Quixote.

There are many familiar faces among the cast, you'll recognize Tom Braidwood (from The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen), C. Ernst Harth (from episodes of The X-Files, Millennium, First Wave, and countless feature films, most recently Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed), as well as Glenn Taranto and Michael Roberds from The New Addams Family.

Terry Gilliam has not been as lucky or successful in bringing his version of the Don Quixote story to life, in the documentary that tells of his efforts he alludes to a curse upon any movie version of the tales of Don Quixote. Cervantes himself had his own obstacles to overcome before bringing the story to fore. If the curse is true, then Peverley and Stark may have conquered it.

Having seen this film through several stages of its creation, I still find myself intrigued and fascinated by the unique interpretation of the classic story. The setting of modern Vancouver, complete with a wide ranging cast of characters, gives it a realism that cannot be captured in the musical format ("Man of La Mancha"). John Taylor's performance is intense and I found myself equally frightened and embarrassed for him. Tom Braidwood balances this in a sturdy and sometimes sad performance, complete with a hopeful, uplifting (yet subtly so) ending.

Short films are wonderful, and Lance Peverely has a gift for filling the limited time with a complete, well-rounded story. I recommend this film for any intelligent person who can appreciate the complexity of the tale.