MAN OF LA MANCHA.

US, 1972, 130 minutes, Colour.
Peter O'Toole, Sophia Loren, James Coco, Harry Andrews, John Castle, Ian Richardson, Rosalie Crutchley.
Directed by Arthur Hiller.

Man of La Mancha was a great stage hit. The film version was received with much less enthusiasm. While a more creative director than Arthur Hiller (Love Story; The Hospital) might have enlivened it more, this version is a satisfying piece of musical drama. Dale Wasserman, author of the play, wrote the screenplay and the songs (well enunciated but not very melodiously sung) are well incorporated into the plot.

The structure of the film is intriguing: Cervantes defends himself to his fellow-prisoners by inviting them to participate in a morality play about the mad Don Quixote and his quest for good and against evil. The screenplay veers between prison and the exteriors of the story and allows the audience to make continual comparison between the prisoners and the roles they are playing. It is here that Peter O'Toole's performance stands out as he moves from Cervantes to Don Quixote, a demanding range for any actor. Sophia Loren fits into the part of Aldonza-Dulcinea? well. James Coco is a poor Sancho Panza. The British supporting cast gives strength to the film. Eternal themes of appearance versus reality, idealism versus realism, are fascinatingly explored and make this film entertaining as well as thought-provoking.

1. First impressions of the film? Was it an enjoyable film?

2. What impression did the dusty Spanish setting and the sombre Inquisition make? How did this set the mood for the film?

3. What impression did the theatricals make? Were they too puzzling or did they arrest attention? How significant was this for the film?

4. Why was Cervantes arrested? Did you like him and feel sorry for him?

5. What impression did the prison and prisoners make? Was the theme of the world as a prison made evident and Cervantes' defence a metaphor of the judgment?

6. How successful was the structure of the film: the defence in prison and moving out of prison? Peter O'Toole playing Cervantes and Don Quixote, the roles of the other prisoners, the use of music and song?

7. What did Don Quixote stand for - in terms of madness and sanity, truth, appearances, illusions and realities, courtesy and suffering for others? (A Christ-figure?).

8. Were the songs superfluous or did they add to the mood and significance of the film? Songs about Dulcinea, "The Impossible Dream", theme song?

9. How were Don Quixote and Dulcinea transformed by the impossible dream? Was this more realistic than "facing facts" proposed by Carrasco? How did Cervantes refute this?

10. What was the significance of Aldonza-Duicinea? in the allegory?

11. What was the significance of Sancho Panza? Did he help the Don by agreeing with him?

12. What was the significance of the Judge-Innkeeper?, of the traitor-prosecutor-fiancee? Was the latter a worthy adversary of Cervantes-Don? Quixote?

13. How inconclusive was Cervantes in his defence? Why did he add the ending with the Don's death, Aldonza's transformation into Dulcinea, and the madness triumphing?

14. Was this significant drama - enjoyable musical entertainment? The principal episodes: fighting of the giant windmill; meeting with Dulcinea; molesting of Dulcinea; vigil and knighting; relatives plots; entering the Don's madness; fight with mirrors; death