Man of La Mancha (film)
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| Man of La Mancha | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Arthur Hiller |
| Produced by | Arthur Hiller |
| Written by | Miguel de Cervantes (novel) Dale Wasserman (musical/screenplay) |
| Starring | Peter O'Toole Sophia Loren James Coco Harry Andrews John Castle Ian Richardson |
| Music by | Mitch Leigh (musical) Laurence Rosenthal (incidental music) |
| Cinematography | Giuseppe Rotunno |
| Editing by | Robert C. Jones |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | December 11, 1972 |
| Running time | 130 min. |
| Country | Italy / US |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Man of La Mancha is a 1972 film version of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion. The musical was suggested by the classic novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes, but more directly based on Dale Wasserman's 1959 non-musical television play, I, Don Quixote, which combines a semi-fictional episode from the life of Cervantes with scenes from his novel.
The film was financed by an Italian production company, Produzioni Europee Associates, and shot in Rome. However, it is entirely in English. It was released by United Artists.The film is known in Italy as L'Uomo della Mancha.
The film was produced and directed by Arthur Hiller, and stars Peter O'Toole as both Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote, James Coco as both Cervantes' Manservant and Sancho Panza (Don Quixote's "squire"), and Sophia Loren as scullery maid and prostitute Aldonza, whom the deranged Don Quixote idolises as Dulcinea.
Gino Conforti, as the barber, is the only member of the original Broadway musical cast to repeat his role for the film, though James Coco also played that role, briefly, on Broadway.
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[edit] Synopsis
Cervantes and his manservant have been imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition, and a manuscript by Cervantes is seized by his fellow inmates, who subject him to a mock trial in order to determine whether the manuscript should be returned.
Cervantes' defense is in the form of a play, in which Cervantes takes the role of Alonso Quijano, an old gentleman who has lost his mind and now believes that he should go forth as a knight-errant. Quijano renames himself Don Quixote de La Mancha, and sets out to find adventures with his "squire", Sancho Panza.
Two changes are made to the storyline of the stage musical: one of them is the reason for Cervantes' imprisonment. The play begins with Cervantes and his manservant entering the dungeon, after which we learn that Cervantes incurred the wrath of the Inquisition by issuing a lien on a monastery that would not pay their taxes. In the film's opening scene, we see what seems to be a festival in the town square, during which Cervantes stages a play that openly lampoons the Inquisition, thereby leading to his arrest on the spot. Another change in the film occurs when the Padre and Dr. Carrasco are sent to bring Don Quixote back home. In the play, they arrive at the inn and simply try to reason with him, but he pays no attention. In the film, in a scene directly inspired by Cervantes's original novel, an elaborate ruse is set up by Don Quixote's family. A man is brought in on a bier, apparently "turned to stone" through some enchantment. Don Quixote is told by the man's "relatives" that only he can break the spell, by fighting the dreaded Enchanter, Quixote's mortal enemy. This prepares us for the Enchanter's later appearance as the Knight of the Mirrors.
[edit] Production
According to both associate producer Saul Chaplin (in his memoir The Golden Age of Movie Musicals and Me) and Dale Wasserman (in his memoir The Impossible Musical),[1] the film had a troubled production history. Originally, Wasserman, composer Mitch Leigh, and Albert Marre, who had directed the original show but had never before directed a film, were hired to make the motion picture, and original cast stars Richard Kiley and Joan Diener were screen tested in anticipation of the two actors repeating their stage roles. Because of a dispute with UA, however, Marre was fired, and Wasserman, Leigh, Kiley and Diener also left the project. British director Peter Glenville was then brought in, but was fired when it was learned that he planned to eliminate most of the songs. It was then that Arthur Hiller and Saul Chaplin joined the project. Hiller re-hired Wasserman to adapt his own stage libretto, although, according to Wasserman, the film's new opening sequence, showing the actual arrest of Cervantes before he enters the prison, was not by him. Writer John Hopkins, who most likely wrote the scene Wasserman refers to, had been brought in by Glenville, and had left when Glenville was fired. However, it has never been made clear whether or not it was Glenville or Hiller who cast the usually non-singing actors (O'Toole, Loren, Brian Blessed, Harry Andrews, and Rosalie Crutchley), although it may be assumed that Glenville did, since he had tried to eliminate the songs, and had previously worked with both O'Toole and Laurence Rosenthal, the music adaptor, on the film Becket. The only member of the original cast to reprise his role in the film was Conforti, as the amazed barber, whose shaving basin is mistaken by Don Quixote for the Golden Helmet of Mambrino.
Saul Chaplin also explains in his book that the sets and costumes, designed by Luciano Damiani, had already been made by the time that he and Hiller were brought in to work on the film, which meant that Hiller could not have them altered.
[edit] Music
Mitch Leigh's Tony Award winning score is augmented in the film adaptation with discreet string orchestration by conductor Laurence Rosenthal, whose work was nominated for the Academy Award for Original Song Score and Adaptation. The original stage orchestration had used no strings other than guitar and string bass.
Two songs from the musical, "What Does He Want of Me" and "To Each His Dulcinea", were omitted from the film, as were two verses of "Aldonza" and the second verse of the deathbed reprise of "Dulcinea". The lyric of "It's All The Same" was partially rewritten by Joe Darion. The last few lines of "I Really Like Him" were also rewritten, but, as in the play, Aldonza tosses Sancho a dishrag to take to Quixote as a "token". When Sancho does so, Quixote immediately believes it to be a silken scarf. Peter O'Toole's vocal performance was deemed to be inadequate, and was re-recorded by Simon Gilbert.[2] All the other actors did their own singing.
[edit] Fidelity to Costumes and Locale In Original Novel
The film presents a more faithful depiction of Don Quixote's armor, as written by Cervantes, than does the play. Cervantes describes Quixote's armor as having a brownish quality because of rust, which is the way it appears in the film (it is silver, like most armor, in the play). Also in the movie, before he begins using a shaving basin for a helmet, Quixote obviously wears a morion with a cardboard beaver attached, as Cervantes tells us he did. In the stage production, his first helmet is simply a regular medieval one.
The film was criticized by some for having shabby-looking scenery in the Don Quixote scenes, but the design of both the windmills and the inn is remarkably faithful to that of the actual windmills and inns of that time in La Mancha. (There is a roadside inn still in existence that is, according to legend, one of the two inns that Cervantes describes in the novel.)[3]
[edit] Cast
(First billed only)
- Peter O'Toole - Don Quixote de La Mancha/Miguel de Cervantes/Alonso Quijano
- Sophia Loren - Aldonza/Dulcinea
- James Coco - Sancho Panza/Cervantes' Manservant
- Harry Andrews - The 'Governor'/The Innkeeper
- John Castle - The 'Duke'/Dr. Sanson Carrasco
- Brian Blessed - Pedro, the Head Muleteer
- Ian Richardson - The Padre
- Julie Gregg - Antonia Quijana
- Rosalie Crutchley - The Housekeeper
- Gino Conforti - The Barber
[edit] Awards and nominations
[edit] Nominated
- Academy Award for Original Song Score and Adaptation - Laurence Rosenthal
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy - Peter O'Toole
- Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture - James Coco
[edit] Won
- National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Award for Best Actor - Peter O'Toole (Also for The Ruling Class). The board selected Man of La Mancha as one of the Ten Best Films of 1972.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Man of La Mancha at the Internet Movie Database
- Man of La Mancha at the TCM Movie Database
- Man of La Mancha at Allmovie
- Man of La Mancha at Rotten Tomatoes
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