Don Quixote [DVD]

After reading "too many books" about chivalry, Alonso Quijano decides to change his name to Don Quixote and personally rekindle chivalry in the world. This middle-aged man images the world to be much more colourful and romantic than it actually is, giving much amusement to all of those that observe him. For Don Quixote, an inn is a castle; wine jugs are perceived as small ogres and a windmill is a grand monster. Don Quixote doesn't save the world all by himself as he recruits a peasant in his village named Sancho Panza to be his quire by wooing him with eloquent words about bravery and adventure. Don Quixote and his squire are out to be the heroes of their day, however this role isn't an easy one as so many people (including Don Quixote's own family) not only stand in their way, but also actively discourage them from going out to help others.

Despite his best efforts to do well and make the world a better place his actions rarely result in anything improving, and more often than not, backfire. Although Don Quixote has good intentions, the moral of the story that he forever seems to fail to grasp is "no good deed goes unpunished." Don Quixote intends to help people everywhere he travels, but those that meet him find his ways archaic and laughable. Despite being defeated at nearly every turn, the passion that drives Don Quixote does not diminish in the least.

Don Quixote has something magical about it. Just as the novel this movie is based on is considered a masterpiece of literature, I would even go so far as to say this film is a masterpiece of cinema. It creates the feeling of 17th century Spain to the extent that one completely forgets that this is a Russian film.

This is the best version of Don Quixote and made in Russia. Incredible! My parents were born in Barcelona and they told me that this film is the closest to the novel with some short cuts. Beautiful photography, the landscape looks like Spain and the costumes are perfect. If the actors spoke spanish, you'll think that this movie was made in Spain. The DVD is good quality if you consider that the original master was not in good shape. I'm very satisfied that I bought this movie.

Still fueled with Soviet revolutionary zeal even in the 1950's, the film duly signposts the paved way to good intentions having the reverse affect but within its shrouds lifts them up to whisper the call for an overthrow of a decadent elite.

When Don Quixote is brought to the royal court for yet another humiliation the cry of the dispossessed rings around the hollow spaces and empty faces. Whilst his perceived naive world is deemed as amusing, within his jest lies a piercing vision of a life without them.

The film is set in 1950's Crimea, although, when you sit down you soon forget the setting and like a magical Grimm's nursery tale, it pulls you into its fantastical realm, transporting the viewer back to 1605. Set at a time when the days of chivalry were long gone dead, if of course they ever existed, it shows a man who is inspired by his own personal vision. For Don Quixote feels the pangs of nostalgia for a clearer and less tangled usurped vision of the world, wanting to create a return to purity.

Urging himself to transcend time and transport himself and the world to a virtuous age where helping the poor and defenceless were life's raison d'etre, unlike the world he inhabits at present. Donning his ancient armour and persuading a reluctant peasant to share his fantasy, he embarks upon several quests to reclaim the magical vision of the life he holds in his head.

Science however has already colonised the collective thought patterns. Religion seems to have been abandoned, as there are few references to salvation through god, as the land is awash with beatings, slavery, deceit, lust, gluttony, thievery and vice. As such, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are trapped within its walls, trying to turn back the desperate tides. Each attempt to turn back the clock, brings yet more misery and humiliation. The world of doing good has long since eloped and now the world has become a fixed entity of spite.

A lush cinematic colour palette of a largely restored panoramic vision saturated in the film stock hues brings this story back to life. The Russians seem to be able to capture a sense of inherent pathos in life's mystery and misery, then draw on these feelings from a never ending well of tears, to render an existential meaningless to living. A quality that cascades throughout the film and drips through the screen.

Quixote comes over as foolish, revolutionary and mad because he is out of his time, but his vision is one that is an ideal, the same as the New Testament. Broadcasting his version of how the world should be, he is a visionary and revolutionary. The film asks a number of questions around madness and reality.

Who is really mad, those who enslave, beat or act in a false haughty presumption or those who want a clearer more humane, bizarre world to arise and become inhabited with decency?

It would have created some stir when released in Stalin's 1950's shadow.

Quixote is finally rescued from his "madness" by a man of science moving into his belief system to bring him out of it. This harks back to the truth of psychotherapy, entering into a psychosis creates the bridge for an emotional rescue as it unlocks the gate and allows them to return to social reality.

The problem for Quixote is that when he returns to the bland strictures of reality, he quickly falls into ill health, sustained only by his visions of what could be. The film works on so many allegoric levels, infused with a rich sense of the magical and inner belief.

It is well worth saddling up the donkey and then to stop any procrastination as the whole of mankind awaits.