Lost in La Mancha (2002)

IMDb plot summary: Terry Gilliam's doomed attempt to get his film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018), off the ground.

Directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe.

Lost in La Mancha is a documentary tracking Terry Gilliam's attempt to make a Man of La Mancha movie. There is however a perfect storm of catastrophes that continuously leave him behind budget with not enough film and questioning whether he's going to be able to complete this task. As a fan of Gilliam's who vaguely knew the story of how difficult this film had been to make, I really enjoyed seeing this behind the scenes of things going wrong -- and typically not because people in charge had made any decisions incorrectly. It truly is just problem after problem, from the weather to injuries to the sound stage not being what they were promised, all of which keeps pushing them further and further behind. Through it all you see Gilliam's passion and surprisingly calm responses, even though you know he must be exasperated. More than anything this documentary really highlights the nearly impossible task of putting a film together and coordinating everything to be where it needs to be when you need it to be. Even though this particular project had to be abandoned at this point in time, it is really interesting to see the process, and especially when the process goes poorly.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 Lost in La Mancha (2002)

📊 Ranked #1777/4296 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 59

beat Ron's Gone Wrong (#2156 → #2255)

lost to Crocodile Dundee (#1080 → #1122)

lost to Swing Kids (#1618 → #1527)

beat Blood Diamond (#1883 → #1950)

lost to Suddenly, Last Summer (#1752 → #1773)

beat Footlight Parade (#1818 → #1931)

lost to Ben-Hur (#1786 → #1776)

beat Spanglish (#1802 → #1790)

beat Eddington (#1794 → #2209)

lost to Raising Cain (#1790 → #1747)

beat Anna and the King (#1792 → #1868)

beat How to Marry a Millionaire (#1791 → #1778)