lastliberal I thoroughly enjoyed Chris Smith's documentary American Movie, but this is Terry Gilliam (Brazil, 12 Monkeys, The Fisher King) trying to make a $30+ million movie, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, starring Brad Pitt, Vanessa Paradis, and Jean Rochefort. You know the law: What can go wrong, will go wrong. This is that story.Orson Welles worked thirty years to bring Quixote to the screen, and failed. Gilliam worked 10 and had to start with about $8 million less than planned. This affected the ability to pay actors, and they agreed to work for less than usual. That meant they had to fit the filming in their schedules. Getting them to Spain for rehearsal was to be a real challenge. A week before production was to begin, they still did not have Depp or Paradis on set.Finally, it is production time and the rains come. Nothing seemed to go right. After five days of production. you could see the frustration in everyone's faces. Then Rochefort leaves to see his doctor and they do not know what will happen next.In the end, the plug was pulled because it could not go on without Rochefort, who was seriously ill.A fascinating tale of the travails of film-making.

Desmond Florence A brilliant documentary about what indeed can go wrong on a film and how fortunate we are too see many great films come to life. Making a film is like re-creating life, and this film show us how difficult it can indeed be. If ever, it's here where Murphy's law applies deeply.After reading the comments here I have little to add - All of them say what I want to say. I would have liked to see this film come out though! Since I am a great fan of Terry and all his films.I think there should be made a documentary on Gilliam, it's definitely something that I would like to see. His imagination and his self-destructiveness are what make him an excellent filmmaker.

Philip Van der Veken If you are like me and you are interested in how movies are made, then this is one of those documentaries that you shouldn't miss. Not only does it give a good idea of what needs to be done, how much organization it all asks, which obvious problems sometimes can occur... It also shows perfectly that sometimes really everything in life can go wrong.When you see Terry Gilliam's attempt to shoot the movie "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" completely fail, you can only feel sorry for the man, but at the same time you can't help smiling. Some situations are so unreal that you really start to wonder if there is some kind of curse that hangs over this project. Take for instance the scenes in the Spanish desert. It doesn't rain there for such a long time, but as soon as they start, their equipment is almost completely washed away by a small flood. Also the scenes that were completely spoiled by the F-16's, even though the government promised that this wasn't very likely to happen, were all so unreal.But even though the makers seem to be cursed from the beginning until the end with an actor who appears to be too sick to work, other actors who don't show up on time, a flood, F-16's,... I must say that the parts of the movie that were finished looked very promising. I really hope that he will be able to finish his project once, because I truly believe that it might become a good movie. Just by seeing how much fun he had while watching some scenes, made me look forward to it.As a conclusion I would like to add that this documentary might be interesting to show in all movie classes. Not only does it show the many hours of work that go before the actual shooting, it also shows into detail every possible aspect that might go wrong. I guess that this must be very interesting for all would-be and future directors. I give it at least a 7.5/10.

MovieAddict2016 Terry Gilliam's had a controversial career. His "Brazil" in 1985 upset Universal because it had a "sad" ending, so they cut it apart and replaced the finale with a "happier" version. Gilliam hated their hack job of his work, and illegally screened his original version for a critics' circle -- they voted it one of the best films of the year. Soon Gilliam got his way and the film was released as he had originally intended, and it's now considered a classic.A few years later he released "The Adventures of Baron Manchusen," a fantasy flop that went some $20 million over budget and collapsed at the box office. He quit directing for a while and, when he returned, started work on "Twelve Monkeys." It wasn't the best of shoots and his perfectionism resulted in eccentric, intolerable shooting schedules.In 1998 "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was released and the MPAA hated it, threatening to give it an X rating for its drug content. Released alongside "Godzilla," it flopped, but to this day remains a cult classic.So it's reasonable to say Gilliam is quite an eccentric personality and has had a tumultuous career."The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" was going to be his new film until it crashed. The production was halted because Gilliam couldn't find an actor to play Quixote, flash floods destroyed equipment and one of his shooting locations was in fact a NATO airfield which created quite a problem for the filmmakers.Gilliam's film probably would have been a great twist on the classic tale and I'm sure his eccentric vision would have suited it well. He also had a cameo by Johnny Depp in the movie and it's quite funny as shown in this documentary detailing the events of the production.Gilliam recently said he's going to start production on this again and finish it up. I hope so, it really does look like a promising film.In terms of this documentary itself, it's very insightful and a must-see for any Gilliam fan or aspiring director -- it's entertaining and important, and a great guide on how NOT to make a movie.