The first thing you need to know about this film is that Terry Gilliam is the director.   Most of his films would be what I consider to be an epic.  They start in one place and you feel as if you've gone on a wild ride (for better or worse) while ending up in a completely different place.

If Monty Python, The Fisher King, The Imaginarium of Dr. Pernassus and Brazil had a baby it would be this film.  It quite reminded me of Brazil in that (especially later in the film) it had the feel of a wild and giant production (although I liked this film far better than that film).  There was a dreamy feel to this film that was not unlike that of Pernassus.  There was the question of delusion that was central in Fisher King.  And in Jonathan Pryce's performance I could easily see John Cleese if the film were to have a more comedic slant to it (this is not to say that there wasn't comedy in the film). **EDIT*** It turns out that Cleese was in fact supposed to be in the film when they attempted to make it in 1997.

I think what stands out the most in Gilliam's work is just how unique of a story teller he is.  While not all of his films work for me I can always appreciate the ambition that he has in taking on these project.  It always helps to get the kind of stellar performances that were delivered by Pryce and Adam Driver.

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I am not capable of rating _The Man Who Killed Don Quixote_. After waiting decades to see this film, I was bound to be disappointed.

I saw Peter O'Toole in _The Man of Lamancha_ on video cassette when other kids my age were watching Disney and it marked me in ways only a child be marked before experience and others force you to build up walls for protection. At my vulnerable age I didn't understand everything I was watching, but I knew what I saw and I recognised it in myself.

As I grew up, and as a fan of Monty Python, I developed a penchant for Terry Gilliam films after seeing (also on video cassette) _The Adventures of Baron Munchausen_, and later, _Brazil_ and _Twelve Monkeys_. Parallel to these cinematic adventures, in uni I read an English translation of _Don Quijote de La Mancha_ (all 900+ pages) which served to accentuate my connection to the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance.

When I learned, therefore, that this director whose imagination I coveted wanted to make a film about this hero I worshipped, my expectations rose higher than a hot air balloon...before crashing to earth with the collapse of Gilliam's first excursion into Lamancha (chronicled so well in Lost in Lamancha -- a must-see documentary for anyone interested in filmmaking).

Now, finally, after years of waiting, my imposed patience was rewarded...and I could not help but be disappointed. _The Man Who Killed Don Quixote_ lacks the imagination, humor and poetry contained in every other work about Don Quixote.

But that's just me. Hopefully, those without the demands placed on me by my past will appreciate this film for what it is, and not what I dreamt it would be.

I was never a huge fan of Monty Python (or, indeed "Time Bandits") - I find surreal comedy sometimes too much of a stretch for my usually linear appreciation genes. I've got to say, though, that I rather enjoyed this. At times it is truly bonkers, but Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce do have enough chemistry between them to almost turn this into a (rather eccentric) love story. It is self-indulgent, no point in saying that the audience of (us) cinema goers were ever likely be the prime beneficiaries of this creation, but oddly enough it is exactly what it says on the tin "Quixotic". I am not sure it was worth waiting 29 years for, but it has a few laugh out loud moments and a carefully crafted soundtrack helps keep it lolling along. I'm not sure I will ever watch it again, but I am glad I have seen it.